You guys are going to love this....at my work there's this kid who bought a red 97 SS with the SLP package. This other kid at work must be GODs gift to the 97 camaro (or camaro in general) because he knows every single little thing. And it's hard to explain to him why he is wrong about this car. So far he has told him that he has a hurst short shifter in there (which looks like the exact same one as I did in my factory Z, it doesn't say hurst on the metal shifter anywhere), he has headers from the factory (funny, looks like the same darn things I got!), he has even told him that the heads are ported larger than 96s...is any of this true? He told that poor poor kid that he had coil packs and not a distributor...so I had to bring in and explain to them what the hell an opti was....I'm starting to get frustrator because I think that the 96s and 97s are the same with the expection of the SS package...which is what???

 

SS was both available in 96 and 97. The hurst shifter was an option, it didn't come standard on SS cars. If the shifter/**** looks like yours, then he got the stock one, but on the SS Hurst shifter, it doesn't say HURST anywhere.
Heads/cam/exhaust manifolds are the same as on your car and he also has an opti. No coilpacks until 98 on F-bodies. (LS1)

 

Now print that up and give it to him. Then point, laugh and be happy.

 

Yea I knew you couldn't trust a plumber when he talks about cars. But another thing thats weird about that shifter is that it feels like a knife in a mustard jar!!! How come my B&M Ripper is alot harder???

 

Well, he could have either the stock shifter which is pretty much what you're describing or he could have the Hurst which isn't a whole lot of an improvement over stock, in my opinion. Your Ripper is definetely more solid than any of those two.

 

Well, whats funny is that his has an "H" on the top of the shifter....but I seriously doubt its an adjustable throw like my ripper....is this true? Yea I agree...I absolutly love the B&M shifter!

 

Yes, then he does have the optional SS Hurst shifter.
If by adjustable you mean the two bolts that adjust the throw to protect the tranny, then no, the SS Hurst doesn't have those.

 

So then whats the big deal about the optional hurst shifter?? The throw isn't shorter....well, doesn't seem like its shorter.

 

The optional Hurst shifter was a somewhat unimpressive upgrade over the oem Z28 shifter. Yes, from my observation it is an improvement but no where worth the rip-off price of $350. I believe the Pro 5.0 and the Ripper are a far better choice.

 

The closest thing to headers on the early SS's were the extrude honed exhaust manifolds that came on the LT4's in 97 or the early 96's. Otherwise, he got the same LT1 as everyone else.

 

Is the Pro 5.0 better than the ripper??? Or is it a matter of opinion? I was thinking about going with the 5.0....also, I can now tell the moron that he doesn't have the LT4 so they arent extrude honed. Thanks everyone!!