What would you rather have? Pretty simple! We can make it fun by having you choose which and posting pictures of your car or the engine bay.
*Edit: I understand most people have a balance, however its not the case here. You could have appearence with maybe a stock v6 or even the iron duke! Or whatever your dream engine is along with a not so pleasing looking car.
I know most of us can afford both but if you couldnt i think it would interesting to see what youd choose.
Ill start by saying id rather have performance

 

Appearance at this moment. Just finished my swap and if my 305 hadn't gone kablooie I would still be working on upgrading my interior and outside. Now that it runs solid with a very, very mild built 350, I'm content to return to appearance and then go back to boosting my power.

 

Going back on it, I think I would start on Appearance... You are never going to have the fastest car. I think I would rather look good while I slowly spend the money on mods.

Or at least I would start with a car with excellent paint. I literally just dropped 5k to get my car painted

 

Appearance for me seeing I don't race and you don't use power everyday. The 305 in my 92 Z28 is fine for me.

 

power first then handling then looks . thats my plan anyway

 

5k? Dang, any pics? I spend about 1k on paint alone then me and my dad painted it all...
under a carport. LOL looks good though i think. I need to detail it soon

 

True true... for me id even rock the "primer" look with a nice engine.
Kinda a sleeper thing for me i guess. Some nice c6z would roll up to me looking at my ghetto car and start laughing... until he sees my taillights
Gotta love that feeling.

 

I choose appearance

 

It's just going to be a stock repaint. It's going in July to be started. 5k includes paint, body panel alignment, weather stripping, shaved antenna, decals, and some minor body repair.

All in all, I got a pretty smoking deal I feel. Paint and bodywork alone is around $3500 from the one of the best painters in town.

I was going to paint it myself, but this deal came out and after I calculated how much everything was going to cost me, this started looking a lot better.

 

i definitely just go appearance...power doesnt win anything at the carshows...my 79 trans am is a 6 time winner and my z28 is in the shop as we speak being painted and will hopefully be a winner as well

 

I use all the power my little 305 can make on a daily basis...it's still not enough to beat a dodge durango...I'm focusing on suspension at the moment, then power, then appearance.

 

I have always lived by appearance stuff last. It all depends on your plans I guess. I really only plan on bolt-ons, rear end and suspension upgrades and then paint and its done.

 

And appearance doesnt win anything at the track
Any pics of the 79? Car looks nasty btw!

 

Right now it's appearance!

 

for me.. it was appearance first. saved up some money, and now am building a 355. Once that is in I plan on upgrading trans and rear then it'll be back to a new paint job to finalize the car. I already get a lot of looks at local car shows etc

 

If my car wasn't completely stock then I would go performance but since it is I am going with appearance. One day I wanna get a somewhat rusty 82 sc and drop in a 383 and blah blah blah and then some subframe connectors and blah blah blah.

I am still smoothing over the details lol

 

a balance of both is the best IMO

 

You have to have both. First mods on my cars were always exhaust/intake based for some performance then did alittle appearance then did more performance.

 

well touche on the track comment lol...i still wanna take it and see what she runs... theres a pic of the 79...ws6 suspension with a blown 301..i got new wheels to put on it but they are still in the box since im still deployed for another few months..dont want them to get ****ed up while im gone

 

That's one of the cleanest engine bays!!!!

 

I bought my car 10 years ago next week and was a poor sophmore in college at the time. Through the years I was only able to do little things for appearance. New top, wheels, interior. Now that the appearance part is completed, I moved on to the performance side.

 

Gotta have both. No compromising!

 

Maybe, but more than likely a guy in a C6 isn't going to care if some lowly Camaro that's ragged out beat him. End of the day, he goes home in a nice shiny C6, not a beater.

As for me, it goes without saying I'd prefer appearance. I prefer to drive a nice car, so appearance it is.

Fast junk is still just junk IMO.

 

Gotta say appearance then power.

 

Performance! Because my car looks decent but doesn't run!

 

Having both would be ideal but with my car i gotta say they go hand n hand. I wasn't a huge fan of my stock gold spokes on my gta would rather have the black ones. One of my rims had a bend in it and all my tires were shot. I got a nice deal on some black C6 ZO6 rims but with the open spoke style of that rim my stock rusty brakes had to go. While i was at it i upgraded the front calipers with ssbc units and installed some nice drilled/slotted rotors. Now my rims look 10x better plus with the upgraded brakes my car stops the way it should and handles better with 17x9.5 Vette rims & the 275 40 17 Hankook tires. With all that said i would kill for a nice LS2 motor in my car, wish i had the space, know how, time & cash for a swap like that.

 

Appearance for sure! I'd rather ride in comfort and be slow than have no comfort and be fast. At least for a daily driver. For a little cruiser, I would take either

 

my car is like me...a DOer.



but it doesn't mean i can't get cleaned up and go to a show too

 

You gotta have a balance of opposites, I always alternate between performance and aesthetics when I have the money to make purchases for my car.

 

other than paint and some interior aspects, form really follows function in the automotive world. Big tires, light weight rims, suspension, gauges, big brakes, gauges, harnesses, headers, emissions deletes, aluminum heads, aftermarket shifters, etc. all are components that improve both performance and appearance IMO

 

I dont think there's anything wrong with focussing on either one, but to me a good looking car, and a functional FAST car have a very different look. Sometimes they can look the same, but not often. My biggest issue is people who build cars that have that over the top drag racing look, and are still mostly stock. I have no patience for a car pretending to be fast when it is mechanically stock.

 

Appearance. Performance is good to have, but I don't need anymore horsepower than needed to have fun when you open it up. A mildly tuned 305 TPI would be good enough for me, because you can have fun with it, but don't need to dole out all your dollars on engine parts to do so. A 305 is a respectable engine, and a tuned one would look good enough on a pretty car to have to best of both worlds.

My

 

I somewhat disagree. I like to finish one aspect before i start on another. Id rather paint the entire car, decals, ect. ect. ect. first. Or modify the engine. Or even interior.
For the small stuff though, i do as i get a break from whatever else i was working on

Agreed. Its very... disappointing.
Personally i like it the other way around. Stock looking with big power

That is imo a performance engine. I should of been a bit more clear i guess. What i ment for it to be was a all or none sort of thing. Given its not how 99% of people do it, but its interesting to see some opinions
How about performance vs stock v6 thirdgen. Or even a iron duke

 

Haha good defense
You asked me a while ago about some md laws about emissions and crap. Ever end up coming here to good 'ol mary-land?

 

We're headed that way in approximately one year.

 

A 305 tpi? I have a 350 tpi that is far from fast enough for me. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

good looking while being reliable

 

i think it all boils down to WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD to do and then WHAT YOU WANT to do. there are cars on here that are beautiful and fast. BUT!!!!! they are EXPENSIVE!!!!! then there are the best looking and the fastest here! i want mine to look good. appearance first. and i am in the frame of mind to make it run perfect as i will be driving it long distances and have it make it. i love the fact i can drive mine over 500 miles and run perfect, get 22mpg, and look bad ***. this is all based on a budget as well. if i want to be fast i will go get my buddies car. 1991 camaro with a 780 hp big block. mine is appearance and function. i put it in 3 catagories.
1. budgeted-appearance and function
2. budgeted-performance and function
3. unlimited-both
mine-1

 

Mine was all dented up, but I made sure everything worked on it, and put about the cost of the car into a vortec 350. The only thing I did to it for appearance was the headliner, and that was mostly because it was unglued and would flap around and block the back window.

 

I say paint .I did all the bolt on's including the exhaust/intake and wear items ,that's just about everything under the hood,power steering,water pump,break booster,master cylinder, etc,etc. Then I did the paint, then the rear end upgrade.(3.42, 28 spline Eaton Posi., 28 spline axles, LPW Ultimate support cover). I must tell you though I could not stand to look at anything less than the paint that is on there now.The 5.0 with that set up is plenty for my DD. But it is the paint that set it apart from the rest of the Third Gens around here.(It took me 2 years to save enough for a 3,000.00 paint job.)

 

Your car looks amazing!! I hope mine grows up to look that good

 

Which does it look like? (Engine bay is slightly dirty in these pics)







Click for video



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-kCy...G85M0UKaE97qg=



Working on getting it painted, but I'd rather have a reliable, fast car beforehand. I did undercoat it for rust prevention. Another appearance mod is Sequential Turn signals made my a fellow member.

Just needs it's race trans that's on the way and I can drive it again.

 

Gotta have both! But if I had to choose one, performance first by a long shot. In my area, you need a low 12 second car to be semi respectable and competitive. With that said, I couldn't drive a real fast car that looked like a total pile of crap on the outside. I just wouldn't get any pleasure out of it IMO if it looked like a POS. And to everyone saying "do what you can afford"...I've always lived by "work for what you WANT to afford." I've gotten 2 jobs before just for the sole purpose of making more money to mod my car. I guess I may be more of a car nut than some others, but I never bought the "can't afford it" excuse, because you can always work more!

 

very nice ...whitedevil.......love the color .....haha

 

LOL...yours isn't too bad either!

Plymouth prowler orange??

 

I like my cars like I like my women!
Appearance 1st.
Performance is a close 2nd

 

Honestly both. But power should come first(to a degree). I would hate to scratch brand new paint by removing/installing an engine to work on it. Plus at car shows, it's always disappointing, for me, when I see a car that looks awesome yet when the driver starts up, it sounds 100% stock. It may be a car "show" but I also like to hear some good sounding cars while I'm there :P

Also as I'm working on the performance end of things I prefer to do some appearance things such as painting suspension, underbody, and engine bay. As well as having the engine itself clean. It looks better, not to mention it's cheaper and easier to do it now, rather than later.

With that said, I don't believe in driving around with your doors, fenders and quarter panels all different colors. Prime them black or something temporarily at least. Looks better and you'll gain more respect too.

 

I started with building the car's suspension and drivetrain to handle the power, and then got the car looking how I wanted. I have been focusing on power and how to plant it lately. An example is choosing the right wheel/tire combo. I want to look good while doing my thing! Also a lot of the time, appearance is performance. Junk tie wrapped to junk in the engine bay causes more problems than doing it clean and correct the first time.

I'd rather spend 10 extra minutes to solder and put shrink wrap on my electrical connections, rather than using crimp connectors. It all adds up!

A lot of us have so many ideas to try on our cars we quickly forget how many little things we do over time. Take the extra few minutes, and you will be rewarded with reliability, and help the third gen stereotypes continue to fade into obscurity.

 

You mean on a track, right? If you need more than a 350 to feel/drive fast on a normal road, you have a speed addiction. Maybe even a speed ticket addiction. (jk)

My house is a turn right after a straightaway and my dad wanted to have some fun in the Suburban on said straightaway while drying off the starter (wires are bad and solenoid grinds when starting, when wet) he did not even floor it, about maybe one-third, maybe half of the way down and it WENT. A Camaro Z28 weighs, from the factory, 3200 pounds. The Suburban weighs roughly 8300 pounds and has a 350 Vortec. I can't imagine that a 350 in car less than half that weight is too slow for someone.

But hey, different strokes for different folks.

 

I've seen some pretty freaky fast 305's. Hell, I've been told I own one.
To each their own.