Question: possible upgrade paths...what do you think?

[catbert]

Your car will already get you in trouble with law enforcement even if you drive it the way the designers made it. After all, what's the US speed limit, 65 MPH? What does it matter if you can do 0-60 in 5 seconds or less, the rice burner and most American cars ahead of you can't do it as fast as you.

Take the money, spoil your generous lady with it and she'll always remember how much you love her rather than upgrading your car. Cars come and go, your lady is a one in a million keeper!

Cheers!

...Really?:L

 

[Clive]

That's True

View attachment 3583

It's already her money. She offered it to me to get me something. Plus, she enjoys the car too!

Why do something like "Vacation!"??? That's a couple days/week of enjoyment with memories that will fade over time.
Upgrading the car allows us to have enjoyment every day we take it out and make fresh memories at the same time!

What you say is partly true as memories will last until we can't remember them in our advanced old age, but hopefully she will always remember that you spoiled her. Either way, both of you will be happy with your decision as you said she enjoys the car as well.

Cheers.

 

[6880 Mike]

...It's already her money. She offered it to me to get me something...

Spend wisely.

 

[Bob Heine]

This sounds like that slippery slope where you put six grand into the engine, which then breaks the transmission. Couple of grand for a beefier transmission and the rear gives up the ghost. Couple of grand for a new rear end and you have just invested enough money to buy an automatic C4 for yourself that you can beat the snot out of. Something your girlfriend can drive and you can use for a parts chaser. If you break the C4, you've still got a C3 to drive. I read somewhere that you can never have too many Corvettes.

 

[KANE]

It's already her money. She offered it to me to get me something. Plus, she enjoys the car too!

So... where did y'all land in terms of mods? Any decisions yet?

 

[Evolution1980]

This sounds like that slippery slope where you put six grand into the engine, which then breaks the transmission. Couple of grand for a beefier transmission and the rear gives up the ghost. Couple of grand for a new rear end and you have just invested enough money to buy an automatic C4 for yourself that you can beat the snot out of. Something your girlfriend can drive and you can use for a parts chaser. If you break the C4, you've still got a C3 to drive. I read somewhere that you can never have too many Corvettes.

1) I definitely understand "the next weakest link in the chain" when it comes to power adding.
2) Most C4's are slower than what I already have "as is". With the upgrades, I'm putting myself squarely in C5-C6 territory (in terms of "straight line" fun).
3) The wife-to-be thinks the C4's are the worst looking of all vettes and would never have one. I'm not a huge fan of C4's either for a multitude of reasons. I don't hate them, but there are plenty of other vettes that I'd rather plant myself in before a C4.

So... where did y'all land in terms of mods? Any decisions yet?

The business hasn't sold yet for multiple reasons not worth mentioning. Eventually it will. When that happens, it's a possibility of three different 'packages' depending on the profit.

Package 1: I'll just rebuild the top of the engine, which should somewhat easily attain me numbers in 450/450 range
Package 2: Package 1 + a very minor boost setup (Procharger @ 4psi)
Package 3: Both 1 & 2, more boost, and probably send the rear end out to Gary for a rebuild.

Or something along those lines.

 

[catbert]

Rebuilding the top end will net 450/450? How? 450 is 427/LS7 with intake, exhaust and tune territory.

 

[Evolution1980]

Rebuilding the top end will net 450/450? How? 450 is 427/LS7 with intake, exhaust and tune territory.

At the crank. And I overstepped that one a bit due to memory fade. Based on the article I mentioned at the beginning of this thread (and again here), with somewhat 'simple' mods on the ZZ4, they got 403hp/431tq with just changing out the top parts of the engine (heads, cam, intake, carb).
And that was 2+ years ago. There have probably been minor, incremental performance increases since the article was written.

 

[catbert]

....................there are lots of LS6s around for not a lot of money. Add the electronic control unit and you have C3 Z06!

 

[try2pas]

LT1 vs LT4

Is the difference between a LT1 & a LT4 just the cam? Are there other goodies that could be added to that set up? Can you find the LT1s and 4s used with the FI and everything? I put a LS3 in my '80 and it still isn't running right. I have this '72 and was thinking of a cheap 454 but that LT4 does put out the power and great mileage . That's what I'd do. An LT4.

 

[Evolution1980]

THREAD RESURRECTION?

My (now) wife's sale of the business is in the home stretch! The bank approved the loan to the buyers...
This is really a bigger relief to my wife more than me, but I'm still way excited because it's a big burden relief for both of us. I half-joking made mention of this ("vette upgrade") topic last night and she said, "Yeah, I said I would," meaning that she'd give me money to upgrade the car.

To be continued!...

 

[AGVI]

Ramjet 502/6 speed/diff by Gary...go for it man!

 

[KANE]

THREAD RESURRECTION?

My (now) wife's sale of the business is in the home stretch! The bank approved the loan to the buyers...
This is really a bigger relief to my wife more than me, but I'm still way excited because it's a big burden relief for both of us. I half-joking made mention of this ("vette upgrade") topic last night and she said, "Yeah, I said I would," meaning that she'd give me money to upgrade the car.

To be continued!...

So... anything come of this?

 

[Evolution1980]

So... anything come of this?

My wife's business partner, who was a mental-case and real C-U-Next-Tuesday, was basically trying to kill the sale of the business by stealing from it, bad-mouthing my wife, and generally doing whatever else she could to kill the value of it pre-sale.
The business did eventually get sold, but only for a fraction of what it should've. So, all the 'fun money' never materialized.
The wife says a big upgrade for the vette isn't out the picture, but we're expecting our first child sometime around the new year, so I don't foresee us doing any luxury spending anytime soon. And I'm OK with that. I'm much more excited about a baby than I am about dropping $7K-$10K into the vette. If anything, probably just some new AFR heads and a better intake manifold would be "good enough" if I have a couple extra bucks laying around.

 

[82ColEd]

snip...
, but we're expecting our first child sometime around the new year, so I don't foresee us doing any luxury spending anytime soon. And I'm OK with that. I'm much more excited about a baby than I am about dropping $7K-$10K into the vette.
..snip

Dre.
Awesome news hidden in a 2 year old thread..
Welcome to the Fatherhood side of life..


Congrats to you and the wife from across the pond..

-Stefan

 

[KANE]

...we're expecting our first child sometime around the new year, so I don't foresee us doing any luxury spending anytime soon. And I'm OK with that. I'm much more excited about a baby than I am about dropping $7K-$10K into the vette.

Yeah- he won't care how much horsepower the '80 has or whether it had good heads or not. Heck- he wouldn't care if it was a Vette or not. What he'll remember is the time you spent with him. And that's priceless.

I know because some of my best memories spending time with my dad was around cars.