1997 TA at Kzoo MI

[xDetroitMetalx]

I've known about this site for awhile and have picked the knowledge on many threads. I've decided to stop trolling around. Some of you may know me from LS1LT1.com which is the thread I visit the most.

I'm 25 years old and I'm at the last year of University years at WMU in the Graphic Design program. I live with my beautiful fiancee, Emily, whom I asked her hand in marriage on our 3rd anniversary on September 7th in the TA, of course. We love animals and have quite the petting zoo in our small apartment. Our dog Drake, cat Isis, ferret Roscoe and two nano salt water tanks keep us busy on top of school and work. I enjoy seXBOX360, metal music and beer. Other hobbies include photography, printing, painting, illustrating, playing drums, aquariums etc etc etc

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/DSC_0022_2.jpg

I've had this car since 2004 and it's been my DD since then. It's my only car, so yes, it goes through Michigan winters. I never really messed with the car performance wise until last year when it needed a tune up with plugs and wires. Since I was down there I also replaced the WP and put in a new Opti. Since I was tearing apart that and the manifolds were going to be in my way I installed some LT Headers.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/DSC_0318.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/DSC_0322.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/DSC_0313.jpg

After that I just had to go to the track so I picked up a pair of Nitto 555Rs. I was thinking the car would be in the 13's at least and could only mustard up a 14.2. Damn. So The next step was a dyno tune by Aggressive Automotive Performance. I went back to the track and pumped the car to 13.7, wahoo! After I got used to the speed it was time for some 3.73s. I did the work myself which was by far the most tedious things I've done to the car. Along with this I installed some UMI components to the rear suspension. I took it to the track and the car ran a 13.2 with some bad wheel hop. I decided to nip that in the butt and purchased an adj torque arm, torque arm re-locator and sub frame connectors for safety. The wheel hop was solved but with the added weight the car lost a tenth and one mile per hour. However, the car is now consistent. Then winter hit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/DSC_0055.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/DSC_0073.jpg

Right now I'm waiting for spring break to instal some more goodies. I picked up a drag racing sway bar kit, shocks and front springs from Strange and also picked up a pair of WS6 wheels with MT ET Streets mounted on them as I dislike the Nittos and needed to match the current WS6 pair I have.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/Struts.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/Sway.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/WS6.jpg

The GTP we have I bought for Emily as she was driving a Jaguar death trap. The Jag was on it's last limbs, the trunk literally fell out. If you opened it you would just see ground. The GTP is a great car and one that we hope to have for many miles as the 3800 are known to run.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/Cars/IMG_2084.jpg

Thanks for reading, hope to enjoy many thread topics with you all!

Mark K

Edit:

Special thanks to Shon Herron.

[popo8]

Wow, great into... Welcome and ty for starting with pics....

[xDetroitMetalx]

Hello, been a long time but I would love to ask some questions on this forum but it won't let me post without going through an administrative filter. Anyway that this can be fixed or am I just plain missing something here?

PS

The car has gone a lot further motor wise but sadly I've ran into trouble along the way. On a positive note I am planning a 383 build and the block is actually at the builders being started on as we speak. Right now I threw in an XFI260 from Comp Cam, triple valve grind and cleaned up the heads, and 30# injectors. Sadly, after the install the springs that the builder installed on the heads couldn't take the ramp rates of the XFI loves and broke the inner dampers. I was told those springs were the recommended springs from comp cam, but obviously, they didn't work. After removing them and replacing them with Beehives I drained the oil multiple times but I'm still finding dust in the oil so a rebuild was called for. I bought an extra block and gave it to the builder and we are underway. I took the car to the track on a baseline tune and at the time it ran a 13 flat at around 110mph (Sorry don't have the time slip on me) and it 60ft at 1.9, the day was muggy with high humidity that you could feel, dew was literally forming on the cars and the track. After thee runs it actually started raining and the test n tune was called off. The new suspension worked out really great, the three runs I took posted nearly exactly the same, if it was a bracket race it would have worked out extremely well!

Welp, thats about all on my updates. Here are some recent pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/DSC_0169-Version2.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/DSC_0180-Version2.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/DSC_0209-Version2.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1103/Karlious/DSC_0224-Version2.png

[97lt1ta]

Welcome..
Car looks amazing, and the paint is immaculate and well taken care of.
Like the punisher on the rear bumper.

[xDetroitMetalx]

Thank you, very much appreciated. Sadly, the Punisher sticker has been removed. I moved back to the Detroit area recently and it doesn't "punish" too much around here. Woodward Ave has some really awesome and crazy street builds, I'm definitely out of the running now.

[CamaroZGuy]

welcome, and that is one clean TA you got there!