Money required to make Turbo Buick quicker than Z06

[CarNutNat]

First off I'd like to say hello to everyone here! Great forum you all have here! I am a HUGE fan of the Turbo Buicks. I owned an '87 GN back in the early '90's and knew the time would come when I would own another. That time is now! Now, on to my question. A friend of mine ('86 T-Type owner and ZR1 owner) and I were discussing how much it would take for me to make a stock Turbo Buick quicker and possibly trap higher than my '04 Z06. I'm looking at beating roughly 12.3 at 118 MPH. He figured I could do it for around $3000. Is that realistic? Would anyone care to throw out a list of go fast parts that will get me there? I'd really appreciate that. Thanks everyone!

Nat

 

[BLACK6PACK]

If the car is in good shape, you could probably do it for a lot less than $3000.

Fuel Pump, injectors, te-44 turbo, chip, slicks and race gas and you could be in the high 11s at around 115. You'll need minor things like a scan tool, hotwire kit for the fuel pump, hog out the elbo on the downpipe, unbolt the stock exhaust behind the cat while at the track, etc.

Now, to run 118 with that setup would be hard. To get a turbo buick to trap 118 consistantly and without beating on it hard would take that $3000.

 

[strikeeagle]

Take the lowest number you get here and double it...

 

[Marc87GN]

Originally posted by CarNutNat
First off I'd like to say hello to everyone here! Great forum you all have here! I am a HUGE fan of the Turbo Buicks. I owned an '87 GN back in the early '90's and knew the time would come when I would own another. That time is now! Now, on to my question. A friend of mine ('86 T-Type owner and ZR1 owner) and I were discussing how much it would take for me to make a stock Turbo Buick quicker and possibly trap higher than my '04 Z06. I'm looking at beating roughly 12.3 at 118 MPH. He figured I could do it for around $3000. Is that realistic? Would anyone care to throw out a list of go fast parts that will get me there? I'd really appreciate that. Thanks everyone!

Nat

I think $3K is very optimistic. Quicker with slicks, slightly larger turbo, race gas & a few other mods, but that's not trapping anywhere near 120 mph which is where you will need to be. Also that's not a real world ZO6 beater IMO. There is a tremendous difference between a once at the track car and an everyday pump gas daily driver ZO6 beater. I had one and started out with a quicker car and it still took me over 12K to make a reliable everyday ZO6 beater. You will need alot of power to get such a heavy & poor aerodynamic car to trap 120 mph consistently on street tires.

Have you tried your car on ET streets or slicks? 11.60s will be quite easy. 11.50s after you have been behind the seat a while.

Since I haven't done it with a GN, but I'm working on it, I'm only guessing.

60 series+ turbo
P&P heads with larger valves ( I would add)
torque converter
50 lb+ fuel inj.
255 lph pump hot wired
Drag radials
Probably a rebuilt trans to handle the power or it will be a grenade.
performance chip
exhaust from downpipe back
& a host of other small mods(i.e. Powerplate, T-body, MAF, etc)

Unless you are turning the wrenches yourself, the labor alone will get up there. The rebuilt trans will be more than 1/2 of the 3K.

Basically it will be cheaper to build just a quick race gas setup on slicks, but it won't be as reliable and get you killed by a ZO6 on the street.
I built my GT to be a 11.50-11.60 @ 120-122 mph on street tires and pump gas so no matter where I was, I could hand out a beating and still have leather seats and A/c.

 

[nero]

no one said a thing about alki!?

I'm a newb, but wouldn't alky make "streetable" life MUCH easier?

 

[Marc87GN]

Absolutely, but it will take a good supporting cast to beat them consistently. They are incredible cars for the money running with the exotics that cost over 3 times as much. Forget about a heads/cam ZO6. I had the misfortune of being at the track with 3 ZO6s on the same day. One had a heads/cam package and was running low 11s @ 126+ on ET streets all day long still N/A and looking bone stock. You can't see those mods.

There was actually a GN that was there that I raced and barely edged out with a 11.65 to his 11.69. Then that SOB turned up the boost and went 10.80 on the next pass. I guess he didn't like what happened. He must have had a serious setup under the hood.

 

[nero]

Good point, those Z06s run with those 100K high dollar machines?!?!?! That's pretty damn respectable in itself! But, alas, our TRs...being 17+ years old can run with them!

I like 'em both! :-D But at 21, my wallet likes the TR.

 

[Dan Thompson]

Try this step by step recipe and stop when this speed is right.

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/recipes/recipe.html

HTH

 

[CarNutNat]

Thanks for the replies guys! Very interesting reading! I figured beating the ET would be realistic but the trap speed would be another story. Not that I'm that concerned with trap speed. As we all know it's who gets to the finish line first that matters. I thought seriously about supercharging my Z06 to have that low 11 second car I want. But figured it would cost me a whole lot less with a Turbo Regal.

 

[CarNutNat]

Originally posted by Dan Thompson
Try this step by step recipe and stop when this speed is right.

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/recipes/recipe.html

HTH

Awesome! Thank for posting that! That's exactly what I was looking for!

 

[Dan Thompson]

Remember the "Spring Cleaning Guide"

 

[badboy86gn2]

I would say do the things that were listed and then get ALKY and YES you will have a daily driver on DRAG RADIALS eating your vette

run 19degress timing with 20-25 pounds on the street and hold on

try it and let me know what you think

Johnny

OH tune tune tune

 

[NJVetteGuy]

Originally posted by CarNutNat
I thought seriously about supercharging my Z06 to have that low 11 second car I want. But figured it would cost me a whole lot less with a Turbo Regal.

That Z06 can run low 11s easily w/o a supercharger. Shoot me a PM, I'll tell you how to do it. No nitrous, I went 11.63@115.1 in my C5 A4 coupe before I even put headers on. Stock internals motor, stock heads/cam. I bought my T to get it quicker than the C5 and it's more difficult than I originally thought but I love the challenge. Boost is addictive, lack of race gas is the only thing keeping me from cranking the little knob in my car.

 

[GNX Guy]

Keep in mind there are quite a few moded Z06's running high 10's - low 11's on the street with pump gas.

Joe

 

[Marc87GN]

Originally posted by GNX Guy
Keep in mind there are quite a few moded Z06's running high 10's - low 11's on the street with pump gas.

Joe

This is the truth. I have also seen a few C5s with 383s and 400+ cubes running low/mid 10s and high 9s on pump gas.

I was just looking at the fastest street cars in Hot Rod magazine and they were only allowed to use 93 octane, no trailers and NO race gas. I believe the winner ran an averaged 9.40 @ 141 in the 1/4. Can't beat the cubes on pump gas. There was a supercharged Viper they said was a true street car trapping in the 140s on pump gas making 913 rwhp & 882 rwtq.

When it's time to replace the engine in the GN, I'm going for more cubes.

 

[CHARGED]

Just remember you can get most of these parts USED, here on the board for around half the price of new parts. TE-60's, 50lbs's, converter, IC, exaust, Alchy, ect.ect. can all be had here for around 40-50% less then new parts since everybody is always upgrading.
I would think getting into the mid 11's with $3g worth of used parts should be easy as long as you have a sound car to begin with.

Buick day at E-town a few weeks ago there was a Corvette challenge with alot of C5's there running mid 12's to mid 13's with just a few in the 11's. Wasn't too impressed with their times but it could have been the drivers also
Felt good that I could have beaten up on most of the $50k+ C5's there with my 18yr old $15k sedan

 

[77tech9]

I raced a Z06 at the track a few nights ago and he only beat me by about 4 tenths. And this was at the end of the track also.


Not for long my chevy friends....

 

[Marc87GN]

Originally posted by 77tech9
I raced a Z06 at the track a few nights ago and he only beat me by about 4 tenths. And this was at the end of the track also.


Not for long my chevy friends....

That's because my wife was driving. I have seen them stock on ET streets running 11.60s while I was running 11.60s with a turbo. Your experience is far from the norm, but a car is only as fast as the driver. Those only come with 6 speeds providing more room for error. Wait into you run into one with spray or heads/cam combo.

 

[77tech9]

A car is only as fast as how much money you put into it.

I was talking about a stock z06, and yes, with a non agressive driver.

 

[CHARGED]

Your experience is far from the norm, but a car is only as fast as the driver.

At that Corvette Challenge there was a new Z06 that everybody gathered round to watch take its first runs, first run was 13.6, second 13.5, third 13.7. Everbody left shaking there heads

The guy obviously didn't know how to launch it because it did run in the low 120's mph. but that means nothing when your 10 cars behind.
The only reason I dislike Corvettes is because most of their owners have no idea how to drive them or just don't, 60mph in the slow lane Go buy a Hyundai!!