Ok Im thinking about getting one of these this summer. The first gen AWD can go high 14s stock. Thats pretty good. what kind of HP do these cars have?

to keep it 3rd gen related. what would it take to get a DSM to outrun a l98 and a5.0 mustang?

BTW dont worry im keeping my car to.

 

fast cars, but I heard they can get $$$ to work on....and they break down alot (of course people will say that about any domestic car...)
biker

 

I believe they have 200hp stock and around the same in torque. Only thing they'd really need to keep up with an L98 is a boost controller...

 

http://www.tmo.com/today/faqs/xferleak.htm

http://www.geocities.com/turbotalon2001/

http://formen.ign.com/news/31769.html

 

Everything breaks down a lot if you beat on it and don't drive it properly and don't do maintainance on it. Perhaps you'll note the less than stellar repair record for camaros in general
Anyway you can get appreciable gains with a 90-94 DSM for basically $10 for a ball check valve to make a home made ghetto boost controller. Gut the airbox, remove the MAF silencer, block off the EGR with a coke can, drop the exhaust. That'll probably net you low 13s. After that it gets a bit more expensive with fuel controllers and porting and whatnot but there is a guy with a stock 14b with mild port work on all exhaust components and turbo housing with supporting fuel mods, no fuel controller even I believe, and all the free mods running 12.2 easy and not just one pass either. You gotta love 1.7 60's out of the box with no suspension work on street tires launched correctly.
If you want the "pretty" eclipse from the fast and the furious you'll be spending more money than you'll want to spend on a daily driver because of the t-25 turbo that's the smallest production turbo ever made if I remember correctly so to get out of the 14s you'll need one of those fancy turbo upgrades, but once that happens all bets are off and things start getting spendy as with any car when you try to get Really good times out of it without resorting to nawws or something silly (and dangerous comparatively) like that :-P
So to answer your original question it doesn't take much to get a 1g DSM to outrun a mustank or iroc

 

Those AWD 5-speeds will eat up a regular thirdgen from a stop and it will be hard to catch up. From a roll they are quick too but won't have that AWD advantage. Nice little cars too.

 

I almost bought one instead of my camaro way back when, but decided to go with the camaro because it would be less pricey to maintain and was in better shape. But the 1st gen DSMs are really cool cars, I still want to own one someday.

Provided its in really good shape and needs no repairs, I figured about $2500 PARTS (no labor included) can put on in the 12s (AWD 5 speed only). Hopefully that dosen't start a flamewar, that was just theoretical stuff, and going down a list of parts that would supposedly (though from a reputable racing source) put the car at that power level. I'd be willing to verify this number if anyone is willing to supply me with the funding