GS387LPE

Hey guys, I know this may seem out of place, but let me explain my situation. I want input from some of the collector type guys and quite honestly this seems like the best place to talk to you fine folks. My problem is this. I've got a 96 Grand Sport red interior coupe and quite possibly the only Lingenfelter Grand Sport in the country. It has had another 20K spent on it after Lingenfelter on other "go fast" goodies as well including supercharging and intercooling. Now to most vettes with this much work done it wouldn't matter about a transmission swap, but my question is would it matter on this Grand Sport? The car is one of only 86 with sport suspension and red interior. The car is one of two Grand Sports sent to Long Island and the original owner paid 15K over list price and the car has a very interesting history with it. Original owner got cancer and decided he wanted to "enjoy" the car before he passed on so he sent it to Lingenfelter where he reportedly dropped 20K on upgrades... then he got the car back and still wanted more punch so he supercharged and intercooled the car care of a pro charger expert and also installed front and rear built in radar detector. The car is quite amazing, as is the story along with it. I've spent another 10K on the car here locally at More Performance on additional upgrades and a few changes. All said the car should be pushing upper 500's to low 600 hp at the rear wheels, but the car has yet to be dyno tuned due to the transmission locking up last week while over at More Performance. Somewhere along the way someone let the transmission fluid dissapear (never once leaked when I owned the car), and now the tranny locked up. Price to rebuild is 2,827 and some change... replace with a new one for 1,500... or of course new GM is around 5,800. My question is would swapping another ZF 6-speed into the car hurt the value considering so much work has been done to the car already? The car has the original block and tranny in it right now. My concern is that in the long run this might hurt the value of the car and frighten off potential buyers if one day I do sell the car. I am trying to hold onto it myself, but it may become necessary to sell. Any input either way would be very helpful! I wanted to ask some of you guys that are into the older more collectable vettes because the grand sports are sure to be very collectable down the road. Thanks in advance for your help! I need responses asap because I'll need to get something in the works probabbly by tomorrow. I'm a vette nut through and through (on my third now), but at my young age (22) I haven't had alot of collectable vette experiance so I'm looking to you guys who know these things alot better than I do. Thanks again!
Aaron

had 78' silver aniversary car... sold
also had 92' Hard top convertable Bright Aqua Met. a/t car... sold

mogulmike

Congrats on the Grandsport!! I made a decent offer to Cookie's in Philly on a 96 GS Vert with red but they refused so now I have a 66. Of all the post 84 the GS is they only one I'd buy ... after I sold my 89. I regress.

It sounds like you have quite a few mods so I'm not sure why your considering originality. I gather from your story that money is not the object here. You could always get a diffrent tranny, put the old one in the garage and put it in a later date. A lot of the classics that sell have a NOM in them and the orig motor is on a shelf and go with the car. I say your in a win win situation with 6 in one and half a dozen in the other. :thumbs:

IMO - 20 years from now, the only C4/C5 cars worth anything other than the zero mile cars will be the 96 GS & the ZR1's and you can tell that by today's prices.

JohnZ

All the non-factory aftermarket modifications (Lingenfelter, blower, intercooling, etc.) are more likely to reduce the car's originality value than increase it, but if you have the ZF rebuilt, you'll retain the correct VIN identification that matches the car and the engine. From a collector's perspective, "originality" and "rare" usually only counts (in $$ terms) for factory-installed original components, not aftermarket or "hot-rod" parts. :thumbs:

Denney

I would say it obviously does not matter to you whether it is the original trans or not, BUT it will likely matter to someone who will own the car in the future (say, 40 years from now when we all have our own heliports). :cheers: For that reason, even if you don't decide to rebuild the original at this time you should definitely keep it and plan to pass it along to the next owner when the time comes. In my experience, once a separation occurs, the two will likely go their separate ways. If money is not an issue, I would recommend having your trans rebuilt with the best stuff available. That way, numbers wise, it will be correct on the outside but built to take the hp on the inside. :thumbs:

Mecom Racer

Rebuild the original trans and do the necessary upgrades to it to help it handle the extra power. Put simply, the car is already modified. Value is determined by the buyer so the buyer willing to pay top dollar for the car as it is will likely appreciate the "upgraded" transmission along with the "upgraded" engine and suspension. Fix it and enjoy the car. :yesnod: