What Can I Do To Make My 1997 Gt Faster?

All these years later, and the best bang-for-buck mod is still the PI head swap. You can find everything you need for the kit in the $300 range these days (heads, cams, intake, gaskets, bolts). The full headswap is worth over 50 horsepower. Those mods plus an offroad mid-pipe and tuner/timing adjuster will put you north of 260 rwhp, which will be a very good running car and a HUGE difference over stock. If you had the extra money to spend and were only planning on a mild naturally aspirated build, I'd throw a set of cams in at the same time, which should bump the power up close to 300 rwhp.

If you were wanting to do a big, forced induction build later down the road, I'd look into a complete PI motor swap. A little more money than just a head swap ($700ish local to me), but keeps the compression lower for a blower.

There's always the tried-and-true gear swap, too. It will feel and drive like a completely different animal. But, in my experience, by the time you add the cost of the gears, diff rebuild, bearings, seals, fluid, and labor, the actual performance increase (as in how much faster it is at the track) of a gear swap is not worth it for a cheap, mild build. I'd spend the money elsewhere first.

Is your car an auto or manual?

PI heads
PI intake
Stg. 2 cams

Save $, and buy a used vortech kit off craigslist or ebay

usaf_branham said:

Save $, and buy a used vortech kit off craigslist or ebay

Click to expand...

It it were a PI motor, I'd agree. But being NPI, I'd say not to waste the time or money on a blower. Been there, done that, and it's not worth it to throw much money at a car with stock NPI heads.

If money is super tight and you just want to do something you'd notice, I'd put an offroad mid-pipe on it. If you have a little money to spend, I'd absolutely do what Nightfire suggested. Full PI headswap, with the optional cams also. The cams will double the cost of the headswap, though, and only pick up another 25ish horsepower (vs. the 50 from the headswap), so you'd have to weight if it'd be worth doing those also. It's really not that hard to come back and do cams later if that's what you decide you want to do. Full PI headswap + offroad mid-pipe + tune would equal a car that'll easily run mid 13s (vs. high 14s as it sits). So the bang for the buck is very hard to beat.

Practice practice practice. Good driving goes a long way too. I am also a bog believer in good suspension.