On most newer GM, torque management exists on the manual cars as well. Also, unfortunately with the manuals, since GM has moved to electronic throttles, everytime the driver shifts the throttle plate closes, despite whether he has his foot on the gas or not.

 

Get a tune from pcmforless.com or madz28.com.

 

go to madz28 I hear he's the man at mail orders

 

Torque management, IRS and the extra weight are all working together to hold the new GTO's back a little at the track. But then again, they were not meant to be straight line muscle. They are meant to be a comfortable sedan with a lot of attitude. Mission accomplished IMO.

Torque Management definately prolongs the life of the transmission. But TM also holds back the performance at the track. You have to decide what's most important to you, easier on the tranny or faster at the track. Anyone who drag races regularly will make this choice easily. My TM has been deleted for almost a year now

LT headers (even with HF cats) will cause the exhaust fumes to smell more. That's completely normal and by itself not a symtom of anything. But it's also very common for a LS1 to run a little lean or a little rich after LT headers. A good tuner can take care of this however and open up some power.

I do. Because no matter what it'll be worth the time and money spent. Even a bone stock car can pick up a few ponies from a dyno tune. I put in my converter, LT headers and ORY. My car was running badly lean and I was way down on power (trapping 103). The dyno tune I had done corrected my AFR, allowed for some other minor tweaking and I ended up finding 29 missing rwhp. After the tune I was trapping 107-110 and I went from 13.3 to 12.5 in ET.

But even if you only find 10 rwhp your that much faster, have current dyno numbers for your sig and will probably have a much better idea of what might be holding you back (if anything).

Good luck.