Notchbck93 is sooo right. Long tubes are the only way to go. As far as I'm concerned, the car just about comes with shorty's. Don't be cheap on exhaust. If your funds are limited? Wait till you can get great exhaust. It's so important. Even if you dont care about speed, the car has to breathe. Shorty's are a total scam....
When I first threw my notch together back in 2000, I took it out with the Edelbrock 300hp HCI combo, 3.08 gear w/bbk eq shorties with pro-chamber and 2.5 flows dumped. 24lb injecters, 75 pro-m 5-speed and had the drag lites for a little weight savings. Car went 13.57 @ 105.9 mph with a lousy 2.2 something 60ft.
Over the winter I threw in a 3.55 gear, bbk long tubes and upper and lower bars to tighten up the sloppy rear end.
Came back out, ran two passes. First was a 12.501@ 109 and some change with a 1.771 60ft. Second pass I noticed some smoke and realized that you had to run the steel/rubber valve cover gaskets with the EFI covers and so packed it up for the day with oil all over the place.
Back then I also had to pass IL emissions test and she fast passed twice before I applied for the show car exemption. Not too shabby for a mild 300hp Edelbrock kit. I really believed that as the night was getting colder, I could have got a 12.2-3 out of her. The A/C still works in her as well, no strippers for me. She tips the scales at 3280 without driver...fat coupe LOL.
Moving forward, I decided to go back to school, finished up my bach degree while working 40 and as a grad present, I bought a S-trim.
So, some years later, I took it down to Rick Anderson's and threw it on the dyno for fun during one of his customer appreciation weekends. Car made 427 rwhp and Rick had to shut her down early as she ran out of fuel and went lean.
So, along comes a PMS, 42lb injectors 80MM Anderson set up for a Maf, another 255 liter external pump and never took it back to tune it; started saving for a house instead. Currently, I cruise around on his base tune for 100 octane.
Got married, bought a house, drive the car about 500 miles a year now just to move it around, but I still have it and get it out to a few cruise nights here and there. I sold the drag lites off of it and reinstalled the pony rims for a nice stock appearance. Sway bars went back on it as well.