Grand National questions

[Joe 1320]

I've never been impressed with GN's.... They never seem to run right, and are wayyyyy to finicky. My friend has an 87 GN and all I heard about was how it was going to destroy my old Mustang.... Needless to say we went to the track and his car was embarassed by my well-tuned, but basically all bolt-on 91 GT. I was running 13.70's and he was in the 14.50's. He brought the car to Turbo People in Upstate NY. They said his Tanny was toast and he had the wrong chip. Bring them back to the track. Mustang 13.70's again... all day long. GN $3,000.00 later.... 14.0 even.... Not impressed. He's talking about racing my SS now. He couldn't beat the Stang, why try the SS???

Be careful about a blanket statement like that. What you mean to say is that you aren't impressed with your friends GN. His is most likely the result of problems that are beyond his means or capabilities. Real die hard GN enthusiasts are fanatics about tuning and squeezing every last ounce of power out of them. There are numerous examples of stock block GNs in the 10s. When tuned right, a stocker will blast past 13.7 with proper traction. Throwing money at these cars isn't the answer, it is attention to detail with the correct combination of parts combined with proper tuning. Without that, all cars can run like a pig. Forced induction simply makes it worse. For example, before I went mod crazy, I clocked a best 0-60 time of 4.3 seconds, best quarter mile speed of 112, best ET of 12.87 not all on the same runs...... with an old school Kenne Bell chip, boxed intercooler fuel and sticky treads. And yes, that meant turning up the boost.

[Rob]

Tuning is the key to great power with these engines. With $30 in mods, Thrasher92 and 160 thermostat, I ran 13.0x@104 all day long. If I would have brought a paper clip, I could have run 12.8x with those same $30 in mods. Spent another $500, including Nittos, and was running 12.1x@111. But the stock injectors and stock exhaust were a bottleneck. Trans was also starting to flare on the 2-3 shifts.

It doesn't take much to make these run, it takes attention.

[Z Ya Later]

Exactly what Joe and Rob said. We haven't done much to the GN, but she has smoked a Z06 and surprised an unsuspecting Viper owner out of the hole. All we've done is a cat-back, GNX chip (factory replacement), new oil breathers and a B&M shift-kit. Other than that, she's fairly stock...for now. Some money to ATR for the right parts and some manual labor, a stock GN can see 12's quite easily and cheaper than most think, as Rob was saying. They are quite finicky, but in the right hands they'll make sure you walk away with a heavier set of pants lol