Well I got a customer in my shop with a '99 Camaro LS1 that says (and I quote) "I want it faster". He doesn't want nitrous, and he says he is going to road race it a bit. I was thinking a Vortec kit or other centrifugal blower, but another guy keeps telling me theres no other way to go other then a twin turbo kit and everything else sucks (I'm not buying that story). So whats the forums opinion?

Also, it's an auto box. Is it gona hold up, or do I need to talk him into a 6spd conversion?

 

Depends how deep his pockets are. A SC or tubo setup that will stand up to road racing is going to be VERY expensive. The tranny will have to go, as you suspect. Unless he is prepared to spend a ton of $$$, a good set of heads and a valvetrain package along with a six-speed will make a really nice combo, along with the necessary brake and suspension upgrades. 450rwhp should not be a problem with good heads, valvetrain, and an exhaust system.

Rich Krause

 

I don't know enough yet about forced induction to answer the main question, and I suspect that the best thing to do with the tranny is to go to a stick, but if he wants to stay auto, you should definitely talk him into a ratcheting shifter of some type, or he's going to make a major boo-boo while going around the course and rowing the gears.

 

BTW, I forgot to give any intro here. My shop is a German place, usually Porsche, and I have built a bunch of pretty fast turbo Porsche's (raced a few 935s and 956/962s for those that know what they are), so I'm very experianced with turbocharging. I have never done anything supercharged, but with all the rescources out there and my shops 25 years of experiance I doubt it would be anything too difficult. Recently I've been doing a few LT1 swaps in Porsche 944s, which is how this customer came to me. I was origianally thinking about sending him to a friends American shop, but I figured it would be fun to do something different.

The guy is talking like he can spend whatever we tell him to spend, but I know from experiance that they only talk like that until they see the bill. I'm told there's a twin turbo kit for these cars, and I'm aware of the Vortech kit. Anybody know of who has the TT kit, or maybe any other various supercharger kits? I was thinking of going all motor (building a 383 stroker LT1 with some nice heads/rods/pistons setup for roughly 500hp), so maybe I'l ask him and see what he wants to do, and I'll arm myself with as much info about motor vs vortech vs twin turbo and etc.

 

For a LS1-engined 4th gen Camaro, my recommandation to you would be a nice heads/cam combo. Like Rich said, it is very common for LS1 engines to make RELIABLE 450rwhp with just those plus all the bolt-ons like long-tube headers, cat-back exhaust etc... Also, Camaro's are front-heavy to begin with, and last thing I would want to is add 100-more pounds to the front end of the car with a TT or a supercharger setup if he plans to race this car.

 

Ok then, who would you all suggest I have do the ECU work? For now I need a few things done to it to go along with the shift kit, and the customer wants the smog pump and EGR to be deleted, plus tweaks for power would be great of course.

 

There's no "best" option. It all depends on your customer's needs and desires, and where he/she is headed with the car.

 

For road racing, I think you'll be better off w/ a heads/cam setup. If he's die hard on going forced induction, then I'd go with turbos for sure. Blown LS1s are still having trouble tossing belts and few have run to their potential yet.

 

If you (and your customer) are decided on the fact that you want to do a heads/cam swap, I recommend that you create another post in the "LS1 tech" section of this board (That is where all the LS1 gurus reside ) They should be able to point you in the right direction as far as what parts to choose, and who to go to for ECU reprogramming. Good luck.