94Z for my son

Just picked up a nice 94Z that has been very well taken care of for my 17 yr old son. I've seen some of these "teenager" monitoring systems that I can install that will act as a tattle tale to keep him honest. Are there other ways to use the existing computer on the car to set limits and/or record speeding, etc?

Get in touch with Bryan at pcmforless.com, he can set you up a program to help limit the power output and top speed for your sons Z28. I have a 94 Trans AM for my son when he is old enough to drive it and that is what I am going to do. Bryan already sends me programs for my 95 Z28 and I had contacted him about this before I bought the Firebird for my son, he said no problem it can be done. I was Thinking of a rpm limit of say 5000 and a top speed of 75 for interstate driving. I can repogram it with my laptop if he wants to take it to the track to race it. I told him thats the only place I would allow him to race. Good Luck!

Thanks Killer. I appreciate the info. I'm new to the PCM game so I've got a ton to learn. My rods have always been muscle cars. My '69 Camaro will never see him behind it's wheel. Is it possible to log anything with the PCM itself?

Not as it comes from the factory I don't know if anyone has an aftermarket system for it or not, but just as it is from the factory it does'nt store any data like what you are looking for, just shift adapts and Idle postion and trouble codes is all I am aware of it can keep up with. I am coming to the realization that I will have to trust my son when he is alone in that car and hope he does the right things. all I can do is try and limit the amount of power he has so he knows he would not have a chance to win any races he may want to get into unless he takes it to the track.

Why buy a z-28 when you are just going to limit the power and speed of the car. You should have just got a v6 camaro or a honda if you don't trust your son. But a z-28 would be a bad@$$ car for a 17 yr old.

Well, I already have the car for one thing. Yes, maybe I bought the car because I always wanted a 79 TA when I was his age, but my parents couldn't afford to help me out. I can afford to help out my kid, although I'm not the kind of parent that will blindly give a $35000 hot rod to a smart kid with male hormones (read that last part as having the propensity for being stupid when HP comes into play).

And although it probably isn't popular, I don't trust anyone (regardless of age) with a hi performance car. However, my goal here is to limit the testosterone factor to the drag strip. I have no problem with performing all sorts of mods to the car to increase the performance, but until my son is capable of handling that car, I'd like to help him through those testosterone moments that we all have.

Best way I know of is to give him enough rope to hang himself. I'd much rather have a monitoring capability than a restriction that he'd have to consciously make a choice as to whether he was going to f*up or play it cool. I'm new to the computerized hotrod world, so that's the reason for the question.

I'm looking for options - help me learn what the possibilities are...

There are a couple things you could do, actually. The first one has already been said, limiting the power by putting a program into the PCM that limits the speed, RPMs, and power. Another would be to have a laptop in the car and run a program such as Datamaster or Freescan that logs the information from the PCM and records it into a file for viewing. It'd need some custom programming, however, so that the program automatically engages and reads when the car's engine is running. Not too difficult to do, if you know what you are doing. Just a simple C program, I bet using Freescan would be perfect because it was written with C and you could just input what you need so the program logs and runs once the OS comes up. If you don't trust you son, that would probably be the best way to go, then you could just pull up the log file once he gets home and see how fast he was going the entire time he was driving it. Of course, this assumes your son knows nothing about computers himself. If my parents had tried something like this with me, I'd have reprogrammed everything myself to read what I wanted them to see, but it would never actually record what I had been doing. Again, not difficult if you know what you are doing. If you son isn't very programming literate, I'd say it would work fine.

C'mon Dad,F***ing Up is the best part of growing up!
I sure laugh when i read this post,my son.s 18 and my wife gives me a hard time about giving my son my 87 T/A(which shortly lost all the teeth off 3rd gear) and letting him loose in my Z,but I don't mind.I had a ball growing up in a 67 GTO,then a 70 340 Duster,and a 69 GTO.
He's a good kid and fixing the stuff and paying the insurance is worth it.
Anyhow,anything you program in there I'll bet your son can program it out!
He's not going to get in any more trouble in a Z28 than he can in a honda.
Your son must be a good kid too or you wouldn't have bought him the car right?
Let him smoke them tires Pop!

I would have to say that a MPH limiter on a car does not really affect racing or messing around. A 75mph max lets you still race 1/8 mile, or just mess around from stopsign to stopsign, or from a light, If I didnt already have 2 years experience driving like I do now, I would nail the gas and race all the way to 75 everytime. But since I have been driving for 2 years, and took out a loan to pay for my car that I drive now, If I do race, its going to be at the track. If you did want to limit his racing, or messing around, I would say a rev limiter of 4000, or just mess with the timing so he has no power above 4000, so he can still rev it higher but it wount do much. Just make sure he knows what hes doing before it gets cold. A friend of mine drove a honda for 2 years, got a 5speed twin turbo RX-7 with 14k miles on it from some old lady, IMMACULATE. He flipped it in 2 weeks. Went to fast on a sidestreet, swerved to get out of the way of a car, hit a patch of ice, started spinning out, never drove a rwd car before, and before he knew it he went rear first up the guidewire of a telephone pole and flipped over :/ Now he drives a 00' SS

I plan on giving my Z to my son when he gets his drivers license. Of course he is only 3 right now, so i have some time. My wife is totally against it. I kinda wonder about giving it to him to a little, because if i had this car when i was 16 or 17, i would have probably killed myself. Like i said have a few years to think it over.

Congrads to you dad!!! Wanting your son to have a cool car while also having concern on his safety. Awesome. It's important for him to feel cool for the chicks and friends driving what I think is the cool car for his age. Back when I was in high school the IROC and GTA were "it". Cars like the vette were considered "daddy" cars and didn't get the respect that is so important in his eyes. More importantly, you two can work on it and mod it together over time. Great for bonding when teens sort-of think doing things with the folks aren't that cool.

Jeff D.

Come on guys, when I think of my "childs" saftey I don't think 275 hp z28. Your pulling your own finger if you do. If you got enough intelligence to fart around with rev limiters, you got enough intelligence to purchase a "true" first time car for a 17 year old child. My car was a 4 cylinder Toyota, rusted, and barely reach 60 miles per hour. Yes, this is a perfect first time car.

He maybe the most responsible kid on the planet, but if he was...... then why the crap is dad worried about a rev limiter:confused:


I love the answers here..... they are typing one thing..... but thinking another;)

Dad, go buy this kid a real first time car, if he is responsible, tell him to keep his foot off the accelator, or like my dad would have said....." I will kick my foot up your a$$ if you don't" :eek:

Trust me....I listened:D

im 17 and i was lucky enough to get a 86 iroc that my pops had in the garage for a while and even more lucky to get it when the time came i had to keep grade up in school and pay for gas and stuff and mod if i want to do them, i learned a lil the hard way i though ahh a lil 305 isnt nothing to fast so i was driving around with friends before i even had the plastic license still had the paper and i got it around a turn (open diff that one wheel sure did like to spin alot) swurved side to side spun out nailed a curb bent a axle, smashed a bearing, seal, and cracked a rim, but i ended up paying for all the parts and doing the repairs my self, but thats how i learned my lesson no i baby it... most of the time.. and not to mention with gas prices like they are i cant afford to **** around burn all my gas out lol, and since i drove the car like it was 305 auto for a while now i know it pretty well and im building up a 350 vortec tpi motor

I think itsa bit of an Oxymoron to buy a teenager a fast car, then try and limit its speed so your son doesnt kill himself or someone else.

I really don't think I want to put my son in a P O S toyota that will barely get to 60 and have some guy in an SUV plow over him. That just goes against everything we are talking about here, The object is to give Our kids a sporty car that we did'nt get a chance to have and allow them to grow into it as they mature and after they become more advanced at driving give them more car without buying another car. You can't tell me that you would'nt have rather had a z28 that has the power of a toyota with at least the saftey of dual air bags now can you? We realize it may not be the perfect first car but it can be made to be the perfect first car and second car all at the same time. A Camaro can get fair fuel economy as well so I believe it may be a great first car with the limits set to be mildly aggressive. I am a GM Tech by trade and will keep a very close eye on the limits on the Firebird my son will be driving and I have already been teaching him that racing is for the track not the highway, he goes to the track with me and we race togeather he ran well last night in the very firebird he will be driving on the street.

Dual airbags are in many cars today. Insurance companies are expensive on premiums for children and for good reason. They know how crashes and high speed go hand in hand with children. Its hard to believe you monitor your child speed when your not in the car with them. We cannot control our children safey at all times. But we can do our best in trying.

Why the crap ( save very cursing) are you going to purchase a 275 hp sport car for your child then try to "limit" there speed ???? :confused: There are v6 availble and they have air bags! :confused:

When you talk about safety, airbags, rev limiters etc. then the word "high performance sport car" and for a "child" comes up....... I feel a persons intelligence just dropped about 80% :eek:


By the way, I purchased that p.o.s. Toyota and paid the insurance on it myself. Whats next, a gun? You said that this sport car "prepares them for the future". I see mommies and daddies purchasing cigarettes, beer, tatoo, for their children. What kind of future are they preparing their children for ...... rehab? :D

I knew this might be a controversial post, but my goal was not to do a poll on whethere teenagers should own sports cars. I was looking for information on the degree of programming that can be done on these cars. Or information on tattle tails that were available on the market.

I certainly wasn't looking to start a pissing contest with other members of the board. However, now that my intelligence has been questioned by "thebadone", I feel the need to respond...

Thebadone, I'd put my intelligence up against yours any day, but I'll let an excerpt from one of your posts sum it up -

"Lets face it, we buy these camaro for what they are....sport cars.... Run the crap out of all of them and have fun. I have yet seen one that was more than a three years old that was "dependable "For all of you hp and torque junkies buy a jet. You can get so wrapped up in numbers you forget how fun these cars really are. I have a cbr600f4i, you want power....... try 1/4 mile in 11 seconds with 3.55 seconds in 0-60."

The 94 that I bought my son has 106k miles on it and it's a cherry. Yes it has a few dings on it, but it's clean, mechanically in great shape, and hasn't had the "crap run out of it". In other words, the previous owner didn't abuse it, respected the power it has and took good care of it.

You also ask the question "what's next, a gun?" The answer is, no, all my children already have guns - hunting guns. Did I just give them to them and walk away? Hell no. They have been through firearm safety schools, they have watched dad, grand dad and their uncles hunt for years before they were given an opportunity to even touch a gun. They also watched the same men gut, clean and cook everything they killed. When they finally did get their gun, they handled it very carefully, as safety is always first in our family. When they finallly killed their first animal, they had to gut, quarter and clean that animal themselves. They are safety conscious, enjoy hunting, and understand the responsibility that comes with a gun.

This car comes with the same expectations from me and my wife - along with a ton of rules that are unbending. My son pays his own insurance, maintenace/upgrade costs, and does the work on it himself. If his grades aren't there, I catch him hot dogging the car, if he stays out past curfew, I catch him drinking, etc. then the car is mine.

He's also been there to help me work on my '69 Camaro (another testiment to not "running the crap out of it") and has been with me to the drag strip. I've tried to show him by example that racing is for the strip, not the street.

So at the end of the day, I'm not one of the parents that you refer to. I take an active role in my kids lives. They aren't typical of the kids out there today and in fact, most of their friends love being at our house because we are a real family (their words, not mine).

Do I trust them 100% to do the right thing all the time? No, becasue they are kids and are subject influences, brief losses of good judgement, etc. But I would put them up against most any other kid - because they are respectful, intelligent,, understand consequencies and in general have good heads on their shoulders.

It's my goal to make sure that I do all that I can to make sure that they continue in this direction, but it's also my responsibility to stay involved in what they are up to and help them in any way I can to become responsible adults. And as long as they live under my roof, they will live by my rules and accept the fact that I'll do everything within my ability to keep tabs on them at the same time.

Ditto BigKid :bow:

I could'nt have said it better myself, sounds as if thebadone needed to drive a pos toyota to get to the level we think our kids may already be. I don't want to get this out of control either but the way I bring up my children is my business and no one elses, has nothing to do with this thread. I want my kids to have some of the things I would like to have had when I was growing up if I am correct to say there are alot of imports out there that are putting a hurt on some of the big HP cars without as much saftey, a 100 shot in a pos toyota can be a dangerous thing as well thebadone I don't buy drugs or beer or anything like that for my child and would advise you to do the same, by the way what does that have to do with this thread:confused: I did not say this was preparing them for the future :confused: did you even read my post? I said when they Mature there is a difference, also the insurance and the upkeep will be my sons responsibility as well as paying for the car. :eek:

You can get tuning software like Tunercat and LT1edit and a ALDL cable and set the rev limiter and top speed......I did just that with my daughters 95 Z28 which she got when she was 16. Ive told her I can pull up info on driving habits which is a lie but hey its worked so far....no problems. I trust her....but I know how temptation can be when your out with your friends.

She also knows if she want to race the car she can go to the track with me and we will take the limits off and make some passes with me in the car too. Heck her friends have even come out to watch.

Originally posted by gb95zconv
You can get tuning software like Tunercat and LT1edit and a ALDL cable and set the rev limiter and top speed......I did just that with my daughters 95 Z28 which she got when she was 16. Ive told her I can pull up info on driving habits which is a lie but hey its worked so far....no problems. I trust her....but I know how temptation can be when your out with your friends.

She also knows if she want to race the car she can go to the track with me and we will take the limits off and make some passes with me in the car too. Heck her friends have even come out to watch.

What hillbilly track lets a driver take a passenger down the track at the same time ??:confused: You wouldnt get away with that here. So if she crashes hte car into the wall you both die instead of one ? hmmmmmm wonderful logic

My son got in all kinds of trouble with a Mazda 626 (4 banger to boot!) :D
Warn him ahead of time (something I didn't do) and tell him that the car is history if he breaks your rules. He's probably more computer savy than all the PCM programmers you can think of. I don't think it'll work.

Originally posted by TriPinTaZ
What hillbilly track lets a driver take a passenger down the track at the same time ??:confused: You wouldnt get away with that here. So if she crashes hte car into the wall you both die instead of one ? hmmmmmm wonderful logic

Every track I know as long as the et is above 14 sec........and I suppose your logic follows for any situation where an instructor is in the car with you....keep on talkn and we'll see who's the fool here. Anyway if you have more to say lets take it private...PM me.

I answered your question but from another end. So, why purchase a camaro with 275hp , that gets 0-60 in 5.7 that gets crappy gas mileage....(as a daily driver for a teenage son) and then try to limit the rev limiter? That is an oxyMORON question that was fun to answer! :D

Why not trade the car in for a v6, with airbags, and tell your "responsible" son to keep his foot out of it? You sound like you got the money...oh with the help from your working son;)

There is no way you can justify your question, that is why I answered it the way I did. I race these cars ( legal) and ride sport bikes. They are for fun and I (and others) run the crap out of them, that is what the are for....end of story..... :cool: When I want to save on gas, dependablity, etc. I drive my Nissan.




"if thebadone needed to drive a pos toyota to get to the level we think our kids may already be"

My pos toyota had almost 200,000 with just oil changes and tires and plugs, wires. I have had my camaro for two months and she is already needing maintence. Get the point? And you ask where my intelligence is......jezz :cool:

Who cares what you think:confused: The Question was " Are there other ways to use the existing computer on the car to set limits and/or record speeding, etc?" That is what this thread is all about, Why trade for a v6 when you can actually make the lt1 run like a v6? Talk about an oxyMORON, I am glad you get good service from your Toyota I am sure it has served you well, I personally know that alot of camaros and firebirds get 200000 miles as well so you are not by yourself with your toyota. I have seen many F body cars get mid 20's in gas milage even with 275hp lets see your toyota beat that! My son will be paying for his car so he will appreciate it instead of it just being given to him I see nothing wrong with that. I am glad you have nothing better to do than to see if you can stir something up. You must have a boring life but there again you sound like the nerdy type Next time try answering the QUESTION instead of voicing your opinion when it was 'nt ask for. GET A LIFE Your Wasting this one.

http://www.apexvalue.com/DriveRight_Vehicle_Safety_and_Monitoring_Systems.h tm

Scroll down to "The APEXS V-COUNT II (Vehicle Speed Monitoring)"

I don't know if this is necessary with your kids, but THIS (http://www.kidscontracts.com/drive.html?source=google) might be good so they can see what the consequences of their actions will be BEFORE they do it.

http://www.smart-track.net/GPSsolutions/

This is a GPS based system, but I'm not sure if the program is up and running yet.

Hope this helps.:)