I had a 4th gen SLP Camaro. It was 436 hp at the wheels with a 135 dry shot and although far from the fastest in my BIG car club, there would be people coming for other car crews to my area to race me. Of course i would challenge C5Registry (Corvette), F.A.S.T. Blue Oval Corral or whoever. I was high 11s on the hit, but didn't spray much. I had a 15 lb. bottle. Our heavy hitters were in the 600 + h.p. range, but they were down a lot. Back then if you could run 11s without being down that was great ! 2NASSTY was one of our more prolific cars with his Impala SS.
My Camaro's next owner made it faster but it was down now and then. I think he got high 10s with a bigger cam, drag suspension, ET streets and 250 wet shot.
I turned key every day and enjoyed it as a more medium level threat. It was really more of an autocross car because those had 1LE suspensions on crack. It was fun to really work for performance and try to find power. Our turbo 3.8 guys worked on their stuff too. The r&d SLP car was another Camaro called Devil505. We'd test mods in his and then put them on Ghost 1. The one from Orlando, Speed Racer; he ran h.p. levels like we have now because he went with a s/c. It was insane power for then. Probably 60% of the people reading this post are over 650 at the wheels.
Last night I won a trophy at a car show with over 60 entries and basically the only cars I even acknowledged in my head were mine and a Stage III Roush Mustang that was sick ! Nothing else...
There was a modded 87 Grand National there that the owner said he got pulled HARD by a convertible ZL1 in Bradenton... sounds like 97Chameleon T/A got him
Marty has gotten a lot of people over the years.
Now 700,800,900 hp is out there, but still not prevalent. We are fortunate to be able to afford these wonderful cars that are the epitome of performance for their time. These are DREAM cars that we have. Many people can't even afford an SS
Grand Nationals came out when I was in high school, so by the time I got real money Lumina Z34 was my first adult car in 1991.