Hi all, I'm new here and I have a few questions.
1. What do your insurance bills look like? I'm 19 with 1 point on my license. I have a 99 BMW M3 right now, so I'm pretty used to high premiums.
2. Do you miss not having a back seat? A lot of times I find myself driving other people around, though the trade-off is worth it for a Z06.
3. How bad are maintenance costs? Again, I'm coming from a BMW so nothing will surprise me.
4. Me andmybuddy arelookingto start a friendly competition. We will buy matching corvettes, set a budget and see who can build thefastest car. My question is, we thought about making onesupercharged and the other turbocharged. Does anyone even make a turbo kit for these?
I appreciate all your help guys. Thanks.

 

There are turbo kits, there are supercharger kits. It all depends on how much money you have to spend.

 

I hear you can get high whp numbers without forced induction.

 

You can get to about 475 RWHP without seriously screwing up the durability of the engine (you can also ruin it while getting less, if you screw up what you are doing). That is about 35% more than stock (stock C5 ZO6 ==about 355 RWHP). Regardless, keep a modded engine below 475 RWHP and focus on treating it right and it will last a long time.

Getting that much power without forced induction requires increasing torque by about 10-15% (all that is really practical without forced induction) and moving the torque peak (and the engine's RPM limit) up the RPM band by about 15% to 10% respectively. That increased torque at higher RPM will get you the 35% additional power. Long tube headers and a good cold air induction, a larger intake manifold (FAST) and throttle body (90 mm) and better heads with bigger ports and slightly more compression will increase the engine's potential for torque. The right cam will increase lift and duration and move the torque peak up to about 5500 from the stock range and the result in 460 - 490 RWHP. To make it work well you'll need larger cats and catback exhaust, and much attention (and money) paid to the valve train: the heads valves will be larger (thus heavier) and you will be turning the engine faster, so you need tougher springs, pushrods, and definately shaft-mounted roller rockers (and you'll need high-rise rocker covers to clear them). Valve train is where most on-the-cheap NA mods go wrong: rockers break or valves float and either way valves meet pistons and its all over. Cost to do it right is about might be up to $7500 complete. With luck you could cut $1500-$2000 out of this but doing too much of this on a budget is a sure fire way to regret it all later.

These engines do well at the track but are not necessarily pleasant to drive on the street (see the recent thread in this Forum somewhere on Torque vs. HP). that much money would buy a good stroker engine putting out maybe 7-10% less HP but with gobs more torque and actually be much "faster' on the street, or a good supercharger kit which would do both.

 

good info Mr. Willis