'97 Sunfire...Raceable?

[sunfire_starter]

I've got a 97 Sunfire Gt Automatic. I've beaten some cars in some races. IE Ricer Civics with no performance mods and they think there fast. But the only thing that I have performance wise on my car is this really wierd exhast, It is like 1.5 inch wide and 4 inchs in length(like a rectangle) ( 2 of them). I don't really know about it because it came with it when I bought it. Anyway, Could a sunfire be a good racing if I put some money into it for performace mods. I've heard people say don't bother and I've heard some people say it might work out. Iam looking at putting about $4,000 worth of performance mods in it. Is it worth it, and do you think it could turn out to be a good racing car?

[curtis73]

In a word, no. You could, but if you traded that car plus $4000 on a camaro, the stock camaro would perform far better than the sunfire ever could dream of.

Your problems are front wheel drive, floppy body, small and not too reliable engine, and a transaxle that wouldn't hold the power if you made it anyway.

Don't get me wrong, anything can be done with enough money, and I respect the power that sport compacts can make, but its like building a house in sand. It just isn't a good foundation.

[public]

^^^^^^^^Ditto^^^^^^^^^

[drdisque]

there's a guy on the forum with a Cavalier Z24 automatic (basically the same car) who has a GMPP Supercharger and runs high 14's. If thats fast enough for you and you definitely want to keep your car then go ahead and get one of those. Just make sure you install a big honkin transmission cooler first.

[curtis73]

Or buy a camaro and get in the high 12s with exhaust and computer.

Sincerely,
the devil's advocate

[Rod&Custom]

Usually if you buy a manual Camaro Z28 or SS it has had the piss run out of it. I also don't think that your car and 4 thousand will put you up to the level of "nice" used. But I also don't agree with dropping 4 g's in a sunfire either. I would probably suggest saving the money and buying something worthwhile.

[sunfire_starter]

I think I've made the decision to keep the $4000 and buy another that could be easier to mod. domestic cars have hard to find parts. maybe an older Nissan 240 SX might be way to go (a suggestion a friend made to me since we both can't stand Ricer Honda Followers and their "I'm cool because I saw Fast and the Furious and I think I can race with a Ricer Honda and win all the time" attitude we see all around here. I think iam gonna just gonna put a short ram intake in the sunfire and just leave as is unless i can find a cheaper way to gain horsepower.

I hope no one is going to take what I said about Honda too seriously because I like Honda's in genreal just not the people around my town that race them and they think their the shit.