https://www.motorious.com/articles/news/80s-monte-carlo-zl1/amp/

 

That's a really cool swap! Looks like it fits like a glove in there. I bet its a blast to drive too.

Personally though, I'm kinda burnt out on the "sleeper" trend as the vast majority lately just come off as lazy instead of truly trying to hide the performance. In this case, it's literally got a giant ZL1 sticker on the front bumper - and big fender flares (unfinished to draw extra attention) that I'm sure are covering wider / stickier tires to put that power down. So nobody into cars is going to be surprised that it makes good power. Certainly it would take non-car people by surprise, but so would a healthy shot of spray on a SBC.


If it were mine, I'd ditch the flares (and just narrow the rear if more tire was truly needed), lose the stickers/ repaint it, and ditch the c6 style exhaust (I think this body looks better with just 2 pipes coming out back - either straight or with a turndown).

 

I'm tired of the sleeper look too. Wonder why no one besides Brandon Furches really tried to put power behind the FWD MC....

The fender flares would look even cooler with the car painted and that exhaust needs to go, but to each it's own I suppose.

 

I probably should clarify, I do like it when someone goes through a lot of work to intentionally hide everything to make it look stock /slow - especially hidden features like buried turbos, hidden nitrous bottles, etc. I definitely respect all of the work it takes to make something heavily modified look stock.

I just hate using "because sleeper" as an excuse for half doing bodywork (those fender flares...) and cutting corners on a build. But I get vintage patina thing is all the rage these days in the show scene, so I imagine that's what they're trying to appeal to.

#1 by far is the 4t65. There are simple road maps to 600+ wheel horsepower on a turbo 3800 and turbo 5.3s (like the LS4) have proven to make 1k+ for years on the rwd side of things.

The problem is that there is no transmission to hold that long term in a full weight street car. It was feasible to some extent when the GMR parts were available still, but they've been discontinued for a decade + at this point, so even the used ones command $1k++ per individual piece. Its not uncommon to get $5k wrapped up in the input shaft + diff + chain set - and thats not talking about any parts for the actual rebuild itself.


There have been some peppy FWD montes through the years though. ZZP had one in the high 10s for awhile. There have been several 3800 builds in the 12s and 11s, a few of which still pop up time to time on the various 3800 forums. Heck, even my monte is north of 500 wheel based on the airlfow #s. And frankly any of these numerous 500-600+ 3800 setups in grand prixs could be easily transplanted to a monte, as its virtually the same car. The GPs are just a more common version to mod due to the prevelance of the L67.


But given how far performance has come on other platforms, its hard to get someone to sink the time and money into 500-600 wheel here knowing they're always going to be sitting on a time bomb transmisison. No offense to him, but look at all of the time and money Monte SSV has into his turbo LS FWD with a 4t65 and even it blew up recently (and I don't even think he races it regularly).

Or you can add simple boost (ie virtually no other mods) to practically any 6.0/6.2 LS RWD setup, make that same power number (with far easier street traction) and have it live on a totally stock transmission. Someone has to be a die hard W body fan to skip that for a big W build these days knowing you'll be slower and will continue to sink dollar after dollar into transmissions to keep it running indefinitely.

 

I think a close #2 is car values. The 3800 and LS4 are both pretty responsive to mods, but for big power numbers like that on a realistic budget, you need turbo boost. A new turbo kit either way is $3-5k, add a $5k top of the line transmisison with the best off the shelf parts still available today. Then add a few supporting mods and some nice drive tires (preferably DRs) and you're into it at least $10k. For a max effort setup, you can easily wrap $10 in the engine alone.

That's a really hard pill to swallow when the vast majority of these cars are now worth $5k or less. Someone walking around with a spare $15-20k burning a hole in their pocket doesnt have 'drag racing w body build' anywhere on their radar.

 

Bumping this again as I realized I was WAY off base.

Re-reading the article again, I see they kinda say it, but just aren't overly obvious about it. When they said they used a wrecked zl1 donor, I really thought they meant for the engine + transmission. I figured it was just another G body with a LS swap.

I didn't understand the scale of the swap until I came across an image on a Facebook group - its literally a full on body swap onto a zl1 undercarriage (which I should've realized from the strut towers). I'll admit it makes me a bit less disgusted about the flares as they probably had no choice due to the width discrepancy (although I'd have still finished them in paint).

I'll certainly give them a huge amount more credit as thats an enormous amount of work!