I have been shopping for a car for a while - there are several I like. I'm wondering, what year LS1 would I buy and what mods would it take to get to 12's? I'm not poor, but I'm not rich either, I'm thinking 1998, haha! What do you guys think?

 

01,02 would be best. Technically they are capable of 12's stock
probably Lid, exhaust, tires, gears

TONY

 

any year ls1

lid, headers, catback, suspension mods and slicks and you should be there

may be a bit tougher if you have and auto with 2.73 gears...but a torque converter and 373 gears will cure that

 

Definitely looking for a manual tranny. I am looking for street performance, can this be done on street tires?

 

People seem to be prejudice against the ‘98s on here and on www.ls1tech.com, so you may want to go with a '99. The only real difference that I know of between the '98-'00s and the '01-'02s is an LS6 intake (and an LS6 clutch in the M6s) on the ladder. It ain't worth an extra $10,000.

Base, the Formula Firebird is the cheapest LS1 F-Body, I think.

Bone stock, with a good driver and a good LS1 car of any year, people have reported making it into the 12s. My suggestion would be to first replace the exhaust; long tube headers, Y-pipe, and cat-back. As far as brand names for headers, for LS1s, it seems that people like Kook and QTP the best, Jet Hot for the price, but the *new* Pacesetter design seems to be well received too. I’m not sure about cat-back.

 

Thanks for the opinions, sounds like there may be a small advantage to an 01/02, but yeah, I don't know if it would be worth that much more than a 99. I've been poking around posts about mods, and I see a lot of talk about lids, but ... what the heck is a lid anyway?

 

people hate '98s simply because they're the first ls-1 fbody. Each year has its highs and lows. Save $$ on the overall car purchase, buy a 98-00, put an ls-6 intake on it for $300.

People acting like 01-02 fbodies consistently break into the 12's on any given day is ridiculous and laughable. It's maybe .1% of cars that have broken into 12's 100% BONE STOCK (by that i mean paper filter, factory exhaust, factory tires, etc. absolutely NO MODIFICATIONS IN ANY WAY), and its usually either 1) a professional driver, 2) a great driver in great conditions. Yes, hitting the 12's should be relatively easy, but not as easy as buying the car, and going to the track to hit your 12's. You'll need a handful of mods first. Sure, the '01-02 have an ls-6 intake, but a smaller cam. 98-00 doesn't have the ls-6 intake, but they do have more aggressive cams. The power is about the same. In fact, the infamous 12.88 second factory bone stock camaro was a 1998 by Evan Smith.

 

"It's maybe .1% of cars that have broken into 12's 100% BONE STOCK (by that i mean paper filter, factory exhaust, factory tires, etc. absolutely NO MODIFICATIONS IN ANY WAY)"

with those criteria you are probably correct. HOWEVER...most of the guys i heard hitting 12s were doing it bone stock with the exception of slicks or at least DR. trying it on street tires i can't even imagine! but sticky tires isn't something i would say changes the "bone stock" status.


as for a lid:

this is stock GM induction on the Fbody

this is a LID

the iinside of the factory "lid" has alot of small plastic fins molded into it, these restrict flow quite a bit. not to mention the outlet of the "lid" is a thin oval shape..again restrictive. not to mention those air silencer baffle BS things on the sides, serve no real purpose, possibly rob hp and look like ****.

the inside of the aftermarket lid is smooth, more contured for better flow and the outlet is a full 3" round. all this and it looks better and fits under the hood!

 

I'd say a set of slicks definitely changes it. If this were the case, the struggle for 12s on bone stock cars would be much easier. I personally ran a best of 13.08 @ 106 on a bone stock car. With slicks I would have easily managed 12's and better.

 

you say poootatoe, i say potaaaaatoe

all in how you consider tires...i guess i don't consider tires much of a mod. more of a means to get the hp to the ground. but that is a whole nother arguement.

kindda like "what is the definition of bolt on"? cause you can bolt on a set of heads and rocker arms.
know what i mean?

 

ok guys, i have decided to put SSRA on my car and a high flow lid... what do you think i would run in the quarter with all of the mods I have done? What would you all do next?

 

SSRA, Lid, Filter, Longtube Headers, True duals or catback, and nitto 555r's or bfg comp ta's should get you into 12's easy with either A4 or M6, i ran 13.454 with stock tires, lid, filter, and ssra, with 95 degree heat n' humid, 6 spd, i know i coulda gotten 13.2xx if it was 65 degrees n' normal conditions and i'm sure you could cut more than enough off with full exhaust and radials.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'm going to end up doing heads and cam at some point, so I'm not sure it really matters to me what year has what cams.

Thanks again for the feedback.