I'm sorry, you've probably had a million questions similar to this one.

I have been looking for a while at buying a 1986 Trans Am off of an out-of-state friend. The car is supposed to be in very good condition, 130k miles, black, new paint last year, well maintained, all that good stuff. He's only asking $1200 which I think is a high selling point.

Here's the thing. I currently have a 91 Firebird which I am selling because it needs work and I don't have time to work on it ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1846826332 if anyone's interested, $799 starting bid ) and it has the 305 TPI. Well, I had thought that the 86 was also a TPI... but it is the 305 4bbl. Which makes it either 155 or 165 HP I do believe (auto tranny). That seems to be a big step-down to me. I still am considering buying the car simply because of the nice condition and reliability (this is going to be my 5th car. I'm only 18. Never been in a wreck. Eek.) But I am concerned about the lack of power... but then again, from what I've read on the carb board, a carbed application is easier to tune (don't have to worry about PROMs and such), better reliability (don't have to worry about one little sensor ruining your day), and easier to get, bang for buck, raw primitive power. But I'm also no mechanic, I learn whatever I need to learn to do what I need to do at the time, but I'm no expert. So I need opinions. I'm also concerned about weather affecting performance and such.

By the way, this is going to be a daily driver, and I want it to have enough power for weekend fun .

Those who think I should go carb, could you reccomend (inexpensive) ways to quickly gain performance so that I can turn this car into a beast?

I also posted this in the carb forum for balanced opinions.

 

well if the 86 is an H.O. its putting out upwards of 190 hp... if you get it, stick on a vacuum advance distributor and a holley 4bbl and that takes care of any computer stuff on there ...