graywolf624
03-05-2007, 07:34 PM
Well, this week for various reasons I didn't make it to the dealerships. Next weekend I will pick up where I left off. In the mean time I thought I would give everyone a review of something in my own driveway. Why the Trans Am and not the Mazda this week you ask? Well the reason I didn't get to the dealerships is I spent Saturday at the dragstrip testing out the car. What better time to tell you about a muscle car then immediately preceeding a shake down.
First we can start with some specs. My car is a completely stock 1999 Trans Am. I even have the original rubber, with 2900 miles on it. After Saturdays shake down, much of that rubber is gone. The car put on some impressive burnouts, which is what you would expect from this type of power. How much power you ask? Well, the car has an ls1 engine that is rated at 305 bhp and 335 ftlbs from the factory. Actual bhp is rumoured to be much higher (stock cars have pulled 290 rwhp on dynos). So right, no one is going to accuse me of having an under powered car.
The stock rubber severely limited my capability to put the power down. I even spun into second. That being said I managed to run a 13.4 sec 1/4 mile at 105 mph. I did no prep to the car, stock air pressure and the spare in the back. As boring as I find drag to watch, and quite honestly as simple as the action is of launching in a street car, it is still quite entertaining to see what your own car can do. Besides the point was to get a baseline before you start improving the car/ spend time with some buddies enjoying a sunny day. Anyway enough about straight line, what else can this car do?
Well, I guess we can get the interior out of the way early. The dash is about as crude as can be. So is the shifter. No one will accuse it of style, class, or just about anything. There are only 2 saving graces in the entire car. The first is the seats. Electric with built in pump up lumbar and sides, these buckets do hold you well around turns.. Which you desperately need as we will discuss later.
The second positive in the interior is the sound system. An ACDelco unit that as far as I can tell is hands above parent company Bose's system in my Mazda. Not that I'm saying much as Bose are usually poor, but Id at least say the system is one of the highest quality I've seen outside a luxury car and maybe that rare Mustang system (the mustang dealer didn't even know they made it for the car) I discovered last week. High praise indeed for a car costing 27000 new and costing me half that.
Then theres the t-tops. A variation of the open roof that has all but died off in recent years. Still I much prefer to glass removeable panels to a fabric top. Why? Well I could go into a multitude of reasons, but the main ones would be added security (cant knife through my top), lighter, and at least in this car better looking. Meanwhile you still get the fun of open top cruising, and in this case at high rates of speed.
So what about the handling you ask? Well... that depends on what you have done to the car. Take the car on a pot marked roadway and it is positively horrible. The wheels and solid axle follow every bump. It's quite bad and takes away from confidence quite a bit. It may be even worse in the higher speced versions. My car only has 16' 245 rubber, this car also came with 275. So not looking good in the handling department.
The problems continue in the suspension. The car is high off the ground and does do a decent amount of roll. Yet another thing my base car lacks, the uprated suspension. The car clearly handles better then that mustang gt from a few weeks ago, but if your looking to go fast around corners a stock fbody is usually not your car. Even the uprated WS6 is not an exceptional handling car. (In both cases I am comparing to other sports cars, this car will still out handle and economy car) But.. And I must speak from personal experience here, this car does have a large potential to handle well with the proper modifications or with the proper tuner model..
Which brings me to the number one reason this is imho a good budget car. Sure the sheer adrenaline of a car capable of 5 sec 0-60 and 155 mph for this price is fantastic. Sure when you fire it up and light the tires up at will it always feels like an event... But the true benefit of this car is not what it does off the showroom floor, but in what you can make it do. This car and the mustangs have an aftermarket ten times that of any other car on the US market.
A short search shows for about 3000 you can up your bhp to 405 bhp. The same type of results are seen when you look at the handling side. In the third gen camaro I had, I designed a suspension that would easily hold its own with most modern uplevel sports cars (unmodified of course, this does have limits unless your Bill Gates) on a track. It's no wonder FBodies are one of the widest used Ameteur track cars for both road racing and Autocross in America. The 4th gen TA, if I had to be honest, isn't as cheap or as light as the 3rd gen. If I were doing a balls to the wall track car, Id rather have an old Iroc, but the car is still perfectly capable of causing a stir.
Which leads me to the reasons I bought the car. Is it the handling potential? Well no. I don't have the cash to be galavanting to the track at this stage in my life. This car is just as likely to be sold in another 6 months as modded.
Is it the speed? Well no. Yet again the modification potential didn't play into my purchase plan and while 13.4 is faster then almost any other car you'll get in this price range, it certainly isn't lightening as compared to say a new vette.
So what was it that drew me to this car? The styling. This car has to have the most unique styling of anything in the last 15 years. It is just completely over the top, especially with the ws6 hood. If I had to describe another car as looking similer, Id use the 80s batmobile. Its just that out there. You have to be an extravert to drive this car because it grabs attention. I fell in love with this look back when I graduated high school and swore Id have one before my death. Well here we are, a scant 8 years later and I've fullfilled ownership of one of the vehicles I always wanted. Am I satisified? Well I'm a car nut so I'm never satisfied... But I do have to tell you I am enjoying every minute of ownership, and I guess thats what counts. Sometimes nostalgia and passion don't have to be reasonable.
First we can start with some specs. My car is a completely stock 1999 Trans Am. I even have the original rubber, with 2900 miles on it. After Saturdays shake down, much of that rubber is gone. The car put on some impressive burnouts, which is what you would expect from this type of power. How much power you ask? Well, the car has an ls1 engine that is rated at 305 bhp and 335 ftlbs from the factory. Actual bhp is rumoured to be much higher (stock cars have pulled 290 rwhp on dynos). So right, no one is going to accuse me of having an under powered car.
The stock rubber severely limited my capability to put the power down. I even spun into second. That being said I managed to run a 13.4 sec 1/4 mile at 105 mph. I did no prep to the car, stock air pressure and the spare in the back. As boring as I find drag to watch, and quite honestly as simple as the action is of launching in a street car, it is still quite entertaining to see what your own car can do. Besides the point was to get a baseline before you start improving the car/ spend time with some buddies enjoying a sunny day. Anyway enough about straight line, what else can this car do?
Well, I guess we can get the interior out of the way early. The dash is about as crude as can be. So is the shifter. No one will accuse it of style, class, or just about anything. There are only 2 saving graces in the entire car. The first is the seats. Electric with built in pump up lumbar and sides, these buckets do hold you well around turns.. Which you desperately need as we will discuss later.
The second positive in the interior is the sound system. An ACDelco unit that as far as I can tell is hands above parent company Bose's system in my Mazda. Not that I'm saying much as Bose are usually poor, but Id at least say the system is one of the highest quality I've seen outside a luxury car and maybe that rare Mustang system (the mustang dealer didn't even know they made it for the car) I discovered last week. High praise indeed for a car costing 27000 new and costing me half that.
Then theres the t-tops. A variation of the open roof that has all but died off in recent years. Still I much prefer to glass removeable panels to a fabric top. Why? Well I could go into a multitude of reasons, but the main ones would be added security (cant knife through my top), lighter, and at least in this car better looking. Meanwhile you still get the fun of open top cruising, and in this case at high rates of speed.
So what about the handling you ask? Well... that depends on what you have done to the car. Take the car on a pot marked roadway and it is positively horrible. The wheels and solid axle follow every bump. It's quite bad and takes away from confidence quite a bit. It may be even worse in the higher speced versions. My car only has 16' 245 rubber, this car also came with 275. So not looking good in the handling department.
The problems continue in the suspension. The car is high off the ground and does do a decent amount of roll. Yet another thing my base car lacks, the uprated suspension. The car clearly handles better then that mustang gt from a few weeks ago, but if your looking to go fast around corners a stock fbody is usually not your car. Even the uprated WS6 is not an exceptional handling car. (In both cases I am comparing to other sports cars, this car will still out handle and economy car) But.. And I must speak from personal experience here, this car does have a large potential to handle well with the proper modifications or with the proper tuner model..
Which brings me to the number one reason this is imho a good budget car. Sure the sheer adrenaline of a car capable of 5 sec 0-60 and 155 mph for this price is fantastic. Sure when you fire it up and light the tires up at will it always feels like an event... But the true benefit of this car is not what it does off the showroom floor, but in what you can make it do. This car and the mustangs have an aftermarket ten times that of any other car on the US market.
A short search shows for about 3000 you can up your bhp to 405 bhp. The same type of results are seen when you look at the handling side. In the third gen camaro I had, I designed a suspension that would easily hold its own with most modern uplevel sports cars (unmodified of course, this does have limits unless your Bill Gates) on a track. It's no wonder FBodies are one of the widest used Ameteur track cars for both road racing and Autocross in America. The 4th gen TA, if I had to be honest, isn't as cheap or as light as the 3rd gen. If I were doing a balls to the wall track car, Id rather have an old Iroc, but the car is still perfectly capable of causing a stir.
Which leads me to the reasons I bought the car. Is it the handling potential? Well no. I don't have the cash to be galavanting to the track at this stage in my life. This car is just as likely to be sold in another 6 months as modded.
Is it the speed? Well no. Yet again the modification potential didn't play into my purchase plan and while 13.4 is faster then almost any other car you'll get in this price range, it certainly isn't lightening as compared to say a new vette.
So what was it that drew me to this car? The styling. This car has to have the most unique styling of anything in the last 15 years. It is just completely over the top, especially with the ws6 hood. If I had to describe another car as looking similer, Id use the 80s batmobile. Its just that out there. You have to be an extravert to drive this car because it grabs attention. I fell in love with this look back when I graduated high school and swore Id have one before my death. Well here we are, a scant 8 years later and I've fullfilled ownership of one of the vehicles I always wanted. Am I satisified? Well I'm a car nut so I'm never satisfied... But I do have to tell you I am enjoying every minute of ownership, and I guess thats what counts. Sometimes nostalgia and passion don't have to be reasonable.