You guys are gonna kill me for being the 1,000th person to ask this question. Lemme tell you what I have and what my goals are:
My goal is to get mid 12's (at least) in the most cost effective manner (translated the cheapest). I have a stock tpi unit sitting on top of my ZZ4, I run a 700R4 w/1850 stall and 2.73 gears. Other mods include 24# fuel injectors, chip, k&n, flowmaster, edelbrock headers.

I have heard that it will cost me a small fortune to invest in allowing the tpi unit to make enough power for my goal, so I figured I would ask what the quickest and cheapest way would be for me to hit mid 12's. Would I need a chip, injectors etc. anymore?

If I keep the tpi unit the way it is, what if I just get an lt4 hotcam? Would that help? I suck at matching things.

I have a buddy w/a cobra who is going to be able to kill me with little to no effort after his new motor is in, and I would like to give him a little surprise..so HELP!!!!

 

The least expensive way would be carb, no question about it.

Now if you need to stay emissions legal and pass a visual, you have no choice but stay EFI.

 

Thinking about it, you may still be able to stay EFI (although not sure if it's emissions compliant) and use the newer carb'ed style intakes that sport injector bosses, you'll still need to either fab an intake adapter for the TB, or spring for another 300.00 or so for the adapter (Accel I think??) to mount the TB. Then you'd also need to check on hood clearances with the different intake style as well.