Hey guys. I'm going to be buying a fast car soon. The decision is down to either a Supra or an LS1 Formula/ Trans Am.

The goal is to run mid to low 11s at least. That's actually the short-term goal. I'll be looking for 10's eventually.

The transmission will be an M6 with either car. I know the A4 in the f-bod would net me better ETs on the drag strip..but I like to shift gears myself and I don't do most of my racing on the drag strip.

If I go with the LS1 (which is where my heart is), I would install a turbo setup and go for around 500 rwhp. With my old Formula, I had problems with gears grinding and popping out. The syncros wore down pretty quickly and easily, and that car wasn't making that much power. I was told that the syncros were down-graded from the LT1 tranny style to a paper-type version for the LS1.

If I buy an LS1, can I have 500 rwhp and an M6 tranny that works? If the stock parts won't work, is there a specific place that people have gone to build these trannys? When I had my Formula, I looked around but could not find anyone who would strengthen the tranny. This is an important criterion of my decision.

 

I doubt you'll have problems with it, I've seen people push a lot more power threw a t-56 than that. You might want to upgrade the shift forks though, other than that it's a really solid trans.

 

You've seen people push that power through a T-56 in an LS1 with no problems? Or, are you talking about Vipers and LT1s? The tranny really let go on me last time.

It's a Tremec in the LS1, not Borg-Warner, right?

 

I don't believe they switched the tranny until 01-02 so if you have a 98 you should be fine. To ansewer your other question yes I've seen quite a few ls1 push threw that much power with out probs. The 01-02s are the ones you have to worry about though they are still pretty strong.

 

in 98 they changed the syncros to a cheaper version..
and 99 they went to mexico and became tremecs