[WiggyB]

I'll be honest when I first went down the road of modding my car I was very stubborn. I was in denial about how I was going to go about reaching my goal. At first I was hell bent on not changing anything but as time went on I have caved in to a point. Let me be the first to apologize to all those that told me to do the fueling from the start. I fought back on that tooth and nail and was able to reach my goal but there were limitations on how I could drive. At that point I wanted more so topside fueling and a flex fuel kit. At this point I'm well above my goal and to be honest I found myself on here reading and thinking of how to get more (there's the addictive bug).

A few of the guys I ride with have been telling me to just leave the damn thing alone and enjoy it. They informed me if I'm not going to build the engine then I'm just chasing numbers. So I began to think and that's just one thing I have stuck by and that's not going into the engine.

So with that said I'm ending the chase here. I honestly have a very very fun car to drive. Shoot most of the time when I decide to have fun and that green light comes on after a few seconds I punk out and let up off of it so what would I do if I had more?

I'll still browse the site and catch up on everyone elses builds and new information but for me I'm calling it on mines. Just a weekend roller and that's all I'll ever be. To everyone else Happy Chasing..........

[cjperformance]

Oh, it aint over. There's no stopping the addiction.

[Joshinator99]

At the end of the day, you have to live with yourself. If you’re not going to dig into the engine, you’re better off staying put power-wise. The SBE won’t take much more than what you’re already at…. That 650 WHP range is a great place to be on the street and was a ton of fun at that level.

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by cjperformance

Oh, it aint over. There's no stopping the addiction.

Also this.

[Shawnqa800720]

Originally Posted by WiggyB

I'll be honest when I first went down the road of modding my car I was very stubborn.

I had a very similar take early on, though my obsession was more about cornering than power. I didn't want to go nuts - the A8 SS was a monster of a car and very good on track as it is. I also wanted to retain the warranty as long as possible. Just prior to taking possession of the car, I decided I wanted to have them install the GM lowering kit and SS1LE sway bar performance kit, and the GM CAI. I checked in with the dealer and they said as long as it was installed before taking possession it would all qualify for the full new-car warranty - SOLD. That was all I was going to do.....and it was for about the first year.

....then the forums....and the learning....and the addiction started to creep. I was able to do a few small things here and there and feel OK with the decisions - got a track specific wheel and tire set. Track-day brake pads, and Castrol SRF....A strut tower brace (groan...but when you're trying to not do major stuff, this felt like I was able to do something). That wrapped up year two.

Year three started with finding the SS1LE brake kit through this forum at a good-enough price...Then came all the threads and raving about the Zl1 1LE solid rear cradle. Desire reared its ugly head again, but I held out...until there were rumors that GM was going to stop production on those except for the actual ZLE car - would no longer be a performance part...Ordered one almost the day after reading that and luckily found one and it happened to be among the last available at that time.

That held me over for a bit. Anything more and I'd be replacing parts that were still under warranty. Well, that warranty ship flew this past January on the suspension components. I didn't plan on doing anything, but after driving a Zl1 1LE on track a few weeks back, I knew coil overs were going to happen. And if I was taking that apart, might as well go all in, so I am also doing a full SPL swap out while installing a set of DSSVs (DSSVs also bought right here through the forums).

So, a little over 3 years and I've build a SS1LE / ZLE hybrid track brat. I am still not touching the engine...much (just the things you can hide from warranty - Pray ported manifold and Mamo TB - no tune, so just a bit better throttle response). Having blown the motor on track due to oil starvation and having GM warranty it, I do not plan on doing anything to jeopardize that (my GM dealer said the Accusump I am now also installing will be overlooked as it is trying to help preserve the engine). At least I think I won't be doing anything to the engine before the warranty runs out in 3 more years....but, we all know how things work here.

[L78toLT1]

There are a couple more mods you could do to actually improve the reliability: swap in one of the recently released stock spec cams with a 32+ hpfp lobe and some high quality lifters and add a JMS low side booster. Also, those high flow cats are very marginal at your current power level. The cam job can get pricey unless you do it yourself. It's fairly involved, but not very difficult

[laynlo15]

I'm at 707 with a Maggie 2300 and TooHighPsi Port Injection. I'm not going any further because I'm not building another motor or 2 as I did with my 16 SS. I learned a lot of valuable lessons back then. My check book showed how much it hurts to continue to get in the 9s in 2018 on a stock SBE. We pushed to far on the boost (18 psi plus sometimes), I did run 10.00@138 without a trans tune. We were running a lot of time with VP Ms109 and basically way to much Meth Injection. The motor did make a 180 or so passes before it decided it had enough. If I'd been happy with 10.30s on 13 to 14 psi of boost that motor probably would have made another 100 runs or more. I chased it too far. Sometimes you just have to pay the fiddler more than you should have. That was me.

[Twizzty]

Time to start on the best mod...driver mod!

[radz28]

I agree with everyone's comments. It never ends...

I went into getting my dream/forever-car thinking it was as perfect as I needed it to be. Not that it wasn't, for my purposes, but I can't not mod', for better or worse, lol. And once I started, it was just stepping onto the slippery slope. I'm not near the level of a lot of the people here, but it's been a lot of work for me, and the most I've ever mod'd a car.

It's been fun though. I'm at a power level I can't even use (OEM was already near there), but it's fun to have made the car special to me. There's not another one out there like it, and he's perfect

[cjperformance]

My next "mod" needs to be a trailer so when i inevitability blow it up at the track some day, i have a way to get it home. Oh and also a "mod" for a place to keep the trailer. My HOA isnt going to let me put it in the back yard

[arpad_m]

Never ends, never ends... but you can channel that modding energy into less expensive stuff, sort of. All you need to do is look at the whole, the big picture of balance with your car, and recognize there are many local optima that aren't worth messing with. You might well be sitting on top of one of these points.

My car has the perfect amount of power (see sig), even a little too much for the street, any more power will simply make it less useful in every metric that matters to me. It's extremely consistent now, the power can be put down on a roll (not from a dig anymore, though), cornering capability is right at my pucker factor, braking is excellent, the trans is near perfect, too. What would I do with 850, 950, 1000+ rwhp? I'm not chasing meaningless numbers, the Rimac Nevera has a 1.7 second 0-60 and the Bugatti Chiron SS did 300+ mph anyway, and more power would just detract from usability.

Exterior and interior are as good as it gets in a Camaro (sans a carbon fiber steering wheel and maybe, just maybe the rear camera mirror and a front camera, but even these are just expensive tchotchkes I may or may not do in the future).


All in all, if you focus on the big picture, it is possible not to crave further mods irresistibly.

[adamjwilson]

Originally Posted by cjperformance

My next "mod" needs to be a trailer so when i inevitability blow it up at the track some day, i have a way to get it home. Oh and also a "mod" for a place to keep the trailer. My HOA isnt going to let me put it in the back yard

[KingLT1]

Good call. The more you mod it the less you will drive it anyway.

[rcoe]

For me I love wrenching on my vehicles, that is a large part of the fun. Doing the research to find out what will work best and then figuring out how to make it work, long nights in the shop. It seems once it is perfect to me I kinda loose interest.

Luckily there are plenty of other things to modify on these cars outside of power adders.