First driving impressions for me. Going from a 1LE to a Z/28

[joelster]

Finally we got a decent break in the weather with it being sunny all day, and the salt washed off of the roads. I was able to put 40+miles on her. Coming from an SS 1LE the adjustment is minimal. The Z/28 is louder, but I believe it's more from the lack of sound deadening than the actual exhaust note. The initial cold startup is throatier, but when it settles into a warm idle it sounds about the same. Both cars on the street behave like a stiffer car should. You feel most every bump in the road, but the cars don't wander all over the road like old school IROC's and whatnot. The Recaro's feel excellent, but they do make me sit higher in the car, and I have to recline the seat a bit more so my head doesn't hit. If I had to daily drive this car it wouldn't bother me one bit. Not sure why every magazine says the Z/28 is too harsh for daily use. I was expecting it to be bone-jarring on the street after reading all of the reviews, but it's far from that. Trust me when I say, we have some of the worst roads in America here. Pothole central. The handling on both cars seems similar, but I'm not able to push either car to its limits on the street. The biggest difference that I can "feel" inside the car are the brakes. Holy shit these carbon brakes stop on a dime! No effort, just massive deceleration. You can tell the Z has more power but it doesn't feel much faster than my 1LE. It feels like a 1LE with a few bolt-ons.

I haven't had a chance to play around with the different suspension settings. Do you guys leave them in any particular mode when street driving?

My friend has tuned a few LS7 equipped cars including a Z/28. He says full bolt-ons, ie: headers, intake, ported TB and a tune can yield 510-515 rwhp. That is probably the route I will end up going with this car. So far I'm leaning towards the newer MSD Atomic intake. Anybody have feedback on it?

[MrRaZ28]

Once you go to the track it will be an eye-opener. You can't really do much on the street that really pushes it. But, yeah.. I love daily-driving mine. I have ZERO issue with the "harshness" and neither does my wife. We're planning roadtrips with it now.

Side note: Those aren't suspension settings. Those are steering settings. The suspension is not adjustable via electronics. Touring, Sport, and Race steering are the only things that change. I drive almost exclusively in Track mode (Setting 5) now after finally trying it on the track. SO. RESPONSIVE! Steering gets way tighter, I actually feel like the brakes are more responsive, and you get full engine power. Even in the rain here, I run it. I've actually tested whether I would lock up the wheels and hydroplane last week and the verdict is... nope. Standing water, water coming down, 45 mph.. slam on the brakes (and I mean SLAM) and all the damn thing did was stop. Craziness.

As for the intake, if you are going to go full bolt-on route, nothing wrong with the MSD. Seems shops either use that or a Fast. If you aren't going full bolt-on right away, leave it as is. The LS7 intake flows plenty enough.

[frenchsquared]

Track Mode 5 it becomes a different car. Tour and Track Mode 2 is limiting on the throttle response and the car feels slower then it is.

[Dixon Racing]

My first impression of my car was just meh... It was rough on the street, and didn't feel as fast as I thought it should. Needless to say I wasn't too impressed, that is until I took it to the track. These cars shine on road courses, it made me realize what all the hype was about!

Also, I drive mine on the street in 4 or 5. Anything lower it has too much torque management crap.

As for upgrades I'm stock right now, but I'm going to stick to a Magnaflow straight pipe cat back exhaust and a dyno tune. I'd like to keep the factory warranty if the worst were to ever happen to the engine. I don't have experience with what you listed, but if the warranty is important then I'd stay away from headers and intake manifold.

[joelster]

I will have to put it into mode 5 and try it out. Too bad the next 5 days here are going to be crappy.

[69L48Z27]

Does your car still have Trofoes? Based on your review it sounds like they've been replaced. This is what made the car drive 'bad' on the street.

[joelster]

It has Bridgestone Potenzas on it. I took my friend Matt for a ride yesterday. We both grew up with IROC's back in the day. He said the new Z rides like a Cadillac compared to his '89.

[MrRaZ28]

That's what I had on mine. Pole Position S-04's. If you plan on mixing street and track driving, and if you can swing it, get rid of them and go Conti Extreme Contact Sport's. You will thank me later.

[STALKER]

You're in the ballpark with those numbers from the mods you mentioned. Look into a Tony Mamo Ported MSD Intake. He works wonders with it. I wish I had dished out the extra coin for one over the FAST 102 actually. I would also go with a 2" header (American Racing or Kooks) if you ever think you might throw in an aftermarket cam. Keep in mind power is addictive (As I'm sure you know) and you will grow tired of 500 rwhp quick, so even though you may think right now that you won't go into the motor, its best to plan your other mods around the possibility that you might. A 2" header isn't going to hurt anything with just bolt-on's but will help if you ever do a cam.

[joelster]

Originally Posted by STALKER

You're in the ballpark with those numbers from the mods you mentioned. Look into a Tony Mamo Ported MSD Intake. He works wonders with it. I wish I had dished out the extra coin for one over the FAST 102 actually. I would also go with a 2" header (American Racing or Kooks) if you ever think you might throw in an aftermarket cam. Keep in mind power is addictive (As I'm sure you know) and you will grow tired of 500 rwhp quick, so even though you may think right now that you won't go into the motor, its best to plan your other mods around the possibility that you might. A 2" header isn't going to hurt anything with just bolt-on's but will help if you ever do a cam.

From doing a lot of digging, the LS7 is a fantastic engine but it only has 1 fault. The factory intake is rather good, the Z/28 CAI is good, and the exhaust manifolds and NPP are good. So it doesn't respond as well to bolt-ons like a typical engine would. There's no magical part you can swap over in a few hours and pick up a ton of power. Most comparisons that I've seen, will yield 10hp on an MSD intake, another 10-15hp for headers, and a few for a ported TB. Those mods add a LOT of coin as you guys already know. Put a $400 cam into it and it comes alive. Having heads that flow 350+cfm from the get-go is a great thing.