[flaudia402]

I have an '18 SS 1LE that just hit 5500 miles and I'm getting things together for the build. While it's not my only vehicle, as long as the weather is good, I typically drive it 3-4 times a week to work. I haven't participated in any HPDE's or autocrossed, but do enjoy back country driving. The car also doubles as an an enjoyable highway cruiser for weekend trips. The car will likely never see a drag strip.

My plan is to get a blower, either a Whipple or Magnuson. Will add headers, an intake and a tune. No plans to go to E85/Flexfuel (isn't readily available where I live). Will likely change over to the LT4 fuel pump and injectors since it appears this is pretty standard.

My question is: Should I start going down the rabbit hole of a custom cam (leaning towards Jannety's smooth idle cam since I don't want an excessive lope/idle), changing out the pistons/rods (GPI), heads, and adding any additional power adders. Something like this package: https://race-proven-motorsports.mysh...2016-camaro-ss

or this: https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=556917

At what point do I reach a car that is just too unreliable or worse, too loud and annoying to drive on a daily basis? Any of you with something like this and the car is now delegated to a weekend warrior?

[G2K]

Nowadays these cars are nothing like the old days where 700+rw was an undrivable car. Drivability and reliability is all about the right parts and a proper tune. Im 630whp daily drive it 80miles just for work on e60 NO problems about 1 month 1/2 in.... (3500+ miles, yes in 1 1/2 MONTH)

I have a close buddy that daily drived his 1000whp camaro (procharged) also... he was a bit closer commute from work-home (about 20 miles)... reason he stopped was simple because he spent so much money on the car that he wasn't willing to take the risks of having it as a DD (not engine failures, but more of things like accidents, get broken into, etc) stuff that he cant control so he just opted for a cheap 6-7K very good condition DD car.

you're on the right path, talking to the right people it looks like... my opinion is decide what you want to do with the car and THEN plan... because for LA country roads... maybe a blower will be too fast and wont be able to enjoy it... and a fbo N/A setup would be more than sufficient (while spending 1/3 of money).

You're talking about cam, pistons and blower.. that's simplY another league and honestly (in my case) my 630 is TOO much for my type of driving... I hoon alot and at 630rw im just not as confident as I was with 470 (FBO e85) Now the car simple wont stick on a street tire (CUP 2's) and i would NEVER take a curve 70mph on a drag tire... and with this power the car gets into 3 digit speeds in a snap of fingers. However, when drag racing the 630rw do come in play as now. I'm in another league locally.

[oldman]

IMO, it all goes to what rear tire. Hennessy with their 750 / 850 HP package (engine) and 295/35 ContiSportsContact tires say 3.1 0-60 for an auto. Callaway with their 750 HP package says 3.3 seconds 0-60 with stock ZL-1 tires. Stock Zl1 is 3.5 0-60. So you can see lots of engine HP does not reach the road. I don't have an auto but from my perspective the M6 on street tires 220 wear... is about the same speed 0-70 MPH, FBO, FBO + heads +cam, stage 1 supercharger, stage II full built supercharger and engine. NO QUICKER. After 70 MPH, I get the ability to use WOT.. so say 70-100 MPH there is a few tenths of a second there.

I would assume the auto has 50 to 100 HP of headroom for "too much" HP for daily driver. So 850 ish engine.

For 80 to 100 wear tires I would add another 100 HP to either trans setup. But these are not really daily drivers Nitto 555R are close to being able to drive everyday. I did so on my last Camaro. Still 555R are NOT 00 dragradials. So guys are trying 888 Toyos which feature the same compound as the NT01 with good results say 305 section on 18" wheels. I would put this 850 HP on an M6 and 950 on an A8. I will be shopping for my 4th set of tires soon, I'll be looking at 888R. IMO at these HP levels WOT would still be unavailable below 75 MPH....


I don't know what the limit of a LT4 setup is for fuel, but it is NOT enough to generate the above issues..

Nutshell from FBO to wild, the best 0-60 I can do is 3.6 seconds 220 street tires. I would assume an equally skilled driver in an auto would do 3.4 seconds on 275 section 220 wear tires. FBO, or for sure with heads and cam, on a 888 Toyo would put this say 2.9 to 3.1 on the street (non-prep). That is going to be very hard for FI to beat with same tire and wear. So is 600 NA HP about equal to 800+ FI HP... well sub 80 MPH probably so, to 100 MPH very close, to 120 MPH dunno… unsafe on the street. Clearly the FI would be able at some point to put the extra HP to the ground. There are some fast NA cars out there, they are lighter, and the money saved is put into traction, which is an issue on a non-prep street.

[ScatPack]

Stock, the 1LE was too much for me to DD. I was living in Chicago and running it 30 miles one way every day. So almost 60 miles total. Being a manual and with those recaros, it was a pain. Im a bigger guy, and they never really fit me well. I had no choice though, I needed to DD my nice car for a while. And Im not going to pay hundreds a month on a car to let it rot in a garage, while Im suffering in some shite box in traffic two hours a day. So I buckled and sold it for a scat pack. Talk about the perfect car-guy DD car. There is no comparison.

As for mods, anything is going to make the car less reliable and therefore worse of a DD. Only mod the car that you dont need to drive to work on Monday after a weekend trackday.

[oldman]

Originally Posted by ScatPack

Stock, the 1LE was too much for me to DD. I was living in Chicago and running it 30 miles one way every day. So almost 60 miles total. Being a manual and with those recaros, it was a pain. Im a bigger guy, and they never really fit me well. I had no choice though, I needed to DD my nice car for a while. And Im not going to pay hundreds a month on a car to let it rot in a garage, while Im suffering in some shite box in traffic two hours a day. So I buckled and sold it for a scat pack. Talk about the perfect car-guy DD car. There is no comparison.

As for mods, anything is going to make the car less reliable and therefore worse of a DD. Only mod the car that you dont need to drive to work on Monday after a weekend trackday.

FBO is basically stock on the dependability factor. The chassis can easily take the extra HP...

[RWB2SS]

Im running a 2017 convertible with all forged internals.Texas Speed/IMC Custom Cam. Forged Rods,Supercharger pistons. .020 cylinders. ZL1 fuel system big injectors.Snow methanol kit. Running pump gas 93.octane. Procharger P1X w i believe.... 12 psi boost.ARH long tube headers, w ARH X pipe. Pretty mild til you put your foot in it .It dynoed 750 to wheels. More power that the rubber will handle yet Normal driving is good. I try not to sit and idle long periods but im pretty happy w this engine build. Just looking for a tire that has some grip before LSFest.These stock run flats suck.Itll Be the first time on the strip. So well go just have some fun.

[parish8]

1000+hp here and my car drives nice but I do have it set to more like 750hp most of the time. It is smooth, quiet and no tricks, just jump in and drive it. It did take some money and effort to get it to this point. What I am saying is if done right that too much number is very high.

[oldman]

Originally Posted by RWB2SS

. Just looking for a tire that has some grip before LSFest.These stock run flats suck.Itll Be the first time on the strip. So well go just have some fun.

I've tried a bunch and still looking maybe 888R

[Vtor_ZL1]

I'm sure more than one person on this forum has modified a car to point it's not longer pleasant to daily. Mistakes were made, cars was then too expensive to daily for fear of breaking or no longer reliable enough.


Trying to make a street car into race car and drive it on street RARELY ever works well.

[oldman]

My car has too much HP to hook to the ground, yet it is a pleasant enough DD. Completely tame in-fact. Just has no ability to hook at any legal speed. Hench it has too much HP. I does not affect drivability.

[Corbu]

Originally Posted by oldman

My car has too much HP to hook to the ground, yet it is a pleasant enough DD. Completely tame in-fact. Just has no ability to hook at any legal speed. Hench it has too much HP. I does not affect drivability.

OK, so imagine you are driving behind a truck at 50 mph / 80 kph and you want pass it. Cars are coming on the opposite way and you want to make your pass quick. A window opens up, put the signal light on and go. If the car swirls and loses traction as you pull out of your lane at 50mph/80kph and prevents you from getting the pass done quickly and safely, then it has too much power for daily driving. You don't have to floor it, but at least being able to modulate the throttle in a predictable manner so you don't lose precious time with the pass.

Now, considering the situation above, that is the maximum HP this can be done safely? I have no problem getting a pass done on dry pavement on a stock SS with roughly 400whp (455hp crank) even with rather old tires. Considering I am using high end lots of grip street tires (example Michelin PS 4s), can this be done at 550whp? 600whp? 650 whp maybe? In the end, I guess this is what it comes down to.

[KingLT1]

A lot of it is the tire. If you are willing to run a stickier tire then you can hook some good power. 305/35/20 works well. I run the 555r and can pull bottom 3's 0-60 on the street. Power is North of 600whp. 555r actually drives really nice...big improvement over run flats.

[oldman]

Originally Posted by Corbu

OK, so imagine you are driving behind a truck at 50 mph / 80 kph and you want pass it. Cars are coming on the opposite way and you want to make your pass quick. A window opens up, put the signal light on and go. If the car swirls and loses traction as you pull out of your lane at 50mph/80kph and prevents you from getting the pass done quickly and safely, then it has too much power for daily driving. You don't have to floor it, but at least being able to modulate the throttle in a predictable manner so you don't lose precious time with the pass.

Now, considering the situation above, that is the maximum HP this can be done safely? I have no problem getting a pass done on dry pavement on a stock SS with roughly 400whp (455hp crank) even with rather old tires. Considering I am using high end lots of grip street tires (example Michelin PS 4s), can this be done at 550whp? 600whp? 650 whp maybe? In the end, I guess this is what it comes down to.

With traction control on I would down shift to 4th and pass with ease, I already tried PS4 BTW... So still no issue with too much HP in your scenario. The problem is with traction control off and a Hellcat hunting for you...

[oldman]

Originally Posted by KingLT1

A lot of it is the tire. If you are willing to run a stickier tire then you can hook some good power. 305/35/20 works well. I run the 555r and can pull bottom 3's 0-60 on the street. Power is North of 600whp. 555r actually drives really nice...big improvement over run flats.

3.6 with PS4s FBO to wild... I will go minimally to 555R or 888R. Dunno. Probably on 19s... low 3s I’d be happy, M6 is much harder to 0 to 60...

This is at a track, but it is on 26 PSI street tires, 3.13 is definitely hooking... Note "I did not go WOT to after 2nd gear shift" that is with a 2.62 diff, 2nd gear is 3.14 = 8.23 to 1.
https://www.cars.com/articles/going-...1420703398783/