Damnit...now I've got that damn KHUMBYA song going through my head.

Someone's driving corvettes... KHUMBYA
Someone's waxing Corvettes... KHUMBYA
Someone's washing Corvettes... KHUMBYA

Oh lord, Khumbya.

For the love of god, please lock this thread and put it out of its misery....

 

While that picture is funny most morons won't realize those 2 intakes are only related 5th cousins twice removed.

 

My opinion...

They both have crappy optisparks...and they both will run like hell with the right mods. The LT4 is simply rarer with a nice little "Grand Sport" plate on the top of the throttle body. That's why they cost more.

You think this post got heated...I double dog dare you to go in the ZR1 and post LT4 vs. LT5

 

That's the impression I got from mine too, I've had both versions of 1996... I drove both cars back to back when I was buying the LT4 and it is a very noticable difference from right where you mentioned, 3K on up... My LT1 had the performance 3.07 axle...

I also had a 97 LT1 in a Trans Am with a 6spd and a big differnce that I noticed was the LT1 starting to fall off in power at the top of the RPM band where the LT4 wants to pull through it, easy to hit the rev limiter on the LT4 if you're not paying attention, in the LT1s, I always felt the top approaching...

My biggest motivator when trading in my automatic was getting a 6spd car after retiring the Vette from daily driver duties, I thought about jumping on a clean 95 LT1 car but was glad in the end I waited for a clean LT4 car, it was worth it...

I'll never understand why there is such animosity between the LT1, LT4, and LT5 guys... I gotta wonder if it's the same in the LS1, LS6, and LS2, LS7 crowd...

 

Very interesting comments. I specifically bought the A4 because this would be my dd. Perhaps if I can afford to retire it from that duty some day I can go back to a clutch and get myself an LT4.

 

That's probably the biggest reason I went with an A4 the first time around... My 97 Trans Am had problems with the clutch (another factor), but I also spent over an hour on the 405 freeway daily visiting a gal I was dating in Santa Anna, about 15-17 miles away... Driving the Trans Am got very old, very quickly in L.A. commuter traffic...

I now live outside of Washington D.C. and the commute although not as bad as L.A. (at least to me), I would be driving an automatic Vette again if I could only have a single vehicle...

 

The LT4 itself is not worth alot of extra money over a LT1 six speed car everything else being equal. The slightly less pussified cam and stamped steel 1.6 rockers aren't all that, buy the cleanest LT1/4 you can find and build that.

 

Well i've actually seen a couple of clean LT4's for $12k recently. So i guess the one's i saw earlier were owned by some crack heads.
But in all honesty i'd like to stay around $10k just in case i have to throw some money into it, besides the obvious mods that i'll be doing...

 

I guess it depends on how clean of a car you want. The only LT4s Ive seen sell for 12k were pretty rough. I got mine for $14k and I felt it was a steal....it had 75k miles on it when I bought it. The owner had been asking 16.5 but needed to move it. VERY VERY clean tho.

 

You mean 1.6 aluminum roller rockers?

 

That's a good deal... Spend the extra $2K to get the LT4 if you can swing it... It's a good base to mod on because of the many internal upgrades over the LT1... It already has a stronger crank, timing set, different rings, free-er flowing heads and intake, and a lightweight valvetrain with roller rockers from the factory... Look at the differences in the GS Registry link below...

http://www.grandsportregistry.com/lt1vslt4.htm

Price depends on where you live as well... I bought mine in So. Cal almost 3 years ago and paid $17.5K for an extremely clean 65K miles example... I got very lucky as most of the ones in that price range were either 100K+ mile cars or beat to death or neglected judging by appearances... If you can find a clean example for $12K, I say jump on it...

 

My old pic!!

LOL

 

You LT 4 GUYS ARE ALL THE SAME 30hp AND YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT A ZR 1.Next time you are in town I'll take you out and blow your BLACK and TAN doors off!!!!
DAD

 

I'd love to know where you folks are finding good clean 1996 LT4 Vettes for $10-12k. I think that's a bit ambitious. Go to this site,..enter 1996 Vette and LT4 as a "keyword".

http://ww2.collectorcartrader.com/search.php

Of the 22 cars searched out, only one is less than $13,500 and it has 168,000 miles. The average is well north of $10-12k,..closer to $20,000.

FWIW...

 

As with all these comparison threads, it's obvious whatever car you drive is the best (at least in your mind).

Whether LT-1 or LT-4, they're both yesterday's technology and pale next to the motors that replaced them.

 

Sh*t mate you get that too eh? Ive had the same issue for years, being a quarter cast Italian Australian, i couldnt care less whats under the bonnet, ill see you all at the finish line, where ill expect an ice cold beer and some good cigars.....

 

Well if you compare them from a "book" point of view there is no difference in price olny a optional engine. That shocked me. Also i dought any of these engines would ever be rebuilt properly if necessary given all the factory upgrades done the the grand sport motor.
I drove 1 that was changed to a automatic wasn't all the impressed and bought a lt-1 6 speed and am pleased with it but would like about another 150 hp...

 

A while back I ran across an article by one of the (sponsor) tuners which showed his dyno data for over 100 stock LT4s. As I recall, the LT4s - nearly 1/2 of them - make more like 345-355 vs. the 330 hp factory rating. The rest were split between 330 and one that made 375 hp (stock??), skewed toward the 330 end of the scale. That being the case, stock to stock, the LT4 eclipses the LT1 - AFTER 5800 rpm. Where more is better, the LT4 is better.

That said, it is possible to eclipse the stock LT4 with far less than $5k, if an LT1 is the starting place.

http://www.eportworks.com/

So, the "worth" of the LT4 depends on what you want and how much you want to spend. Personally, I think you can get a better deal than $5k adder for an LT4 car, but mileage, care, condition, etc, etc plays a big role in the cost difference (you're not buying just the LT4 is my point.)

I'll put it this way...

When I was buying my first Vette, price was the factor and I settled for the '95 LT1/M6, but for about $2k more I could have landed a '96 CE. I sometimes wished I had gone for the '96, but most of my second guessing had to do with the uniqueness of the '96 CE itself, and not so much the stock LT4s performance advantage. But, if it meant not having a Vette or waiting to get the LT4 CE, I chose the '95 LT1/M6. Quite frankly, I enjoyed it very, very much!