I got a tip on a clean higher mileage 00 WS6 Trans Am 6spd Thursday...
I got off work Friday morning and hit the bank. I packed 2 friends into my wife's Cruze and we took off to Orlando, Fla yesterday morning. It was 50 degrees when we left, 90 when we made it to Orlando around 3PM.
The car was represented as clean for the mileage with minor imperfections. A college kid owned it, he was in school out of state, and his dad would be handling the selling. They bought it already modded 3 years ago. All the kid knew is it had exhaust, it was loud, and it was lowered.
I get down there and see a REAL silver T/A WS6 6 speed with ebony leather interior. It's LOW. Probably Eibach sportlines, haven't confirmed yet. It has stock shocks, poly sway bar end links, black/machined lip C5 Z06 wheels w/ new Nitto 555's. I could tell in the pictures that it had an air lid, long tubes, an SLP smooth bellow, and at least a short stick for the shifter. I pop the hood and immediately see that it has Ford Racing 42lb/hr injectors and #706 head castings. Those are 5.3L truck heads. The father and son had no idea what was really done to this car. They just knew it was loud. Before we test drove it I already knew what was going to happen. I started it up and it was cammed. My guess is something like a TSP 228R or Torquer V2. It's hard to tell because the tune is SHIT. 950rpm idle, rpm hangs for 5 seconds before it settles down, and it is pig rich. All of that can be fixed though... Just putting it in first gear I could tell it had a Pro 5.0 shifter with a Lou's short stick. The clutch sucked eggs. This is the only thing I can tell they fucked up. It was popping out of reverse so they had a clutch and slave cylinder put in by recommendation of their mechanic. This is a common problem and it is due to the factory hydraulics not pushing enough fluid to fully engage the clutch. When the mechanic pulled it out it was aftermarket. The father said no, put a stock clutch back in it. It is only 500 miles old and it is toast. The hanging RPM and city traffic scorched it before it broke in I'm sure. They probably threw away a perfectly good $800 aftermarket clutch.
The dash pad is cracked, both door panels have small cracks, the dash itself is separating from the FLA sun, the front bumper was repainted due to rock chips and spider webbed, the driver side tail light is cracked, and the passenger sun visor flops around. It's pretty typical stuff for a 13 year old car with 140k miles. Looking at the mods that were done and the exact parts used it looks like whoever owned it in 2006-2008 wrote Texas Speed a $3,000-$4,000 check for ported 5.3L truck heads, a shelf cam, LS6 intake, shifter, clutch, ported and shimmed oil pump, short stick, shift knob, air lid, smooth bellow, budget headers, TSP Y-pipe, polyurethane end links, motor and trans mounts, 42lb/hr injectors, probably a fuel pump, lowering springs, and a Chokemaster catback. I don't know what jack leg tuned it but it blows.
It needs about $600 worth of cosmetic stuff, a clutch, and a good tune. After that it really needs nice shocks and probably better springs.
They had it listed for $6500. I got it for $5850. I giggled like a school girl when he went to fetch the title. I could sell this car as it sits for $9k. With $1500 worth of parts and tuning it will be a solid driver. I was looking for a bolt on car to drive back and forth to work. Fate must want me in a cammed car. Needless to say my buds were jealous. We drove it back 400 miles with no issues. Even with the rich tune it got 22mpg at 85mph. It will probably be in the 26-27mpg range with a good tune at 60mph. Oh, and 425-440whp depending on what cam is in it and how much the heads were milled.
Pictures to come after a good washing.
This post was edited by FMX_89 on Nov 24 2013 09:17am