My first post on the board so please excuse my third gen ignorance. I have been a fan of the third gen Trans AM since the first time I saw Knight Rider as a 8 year old back on the USA channel. Now I'm all grown up and looking to buy a GTA. I know from reading the FAQ that a manual NEVER came with the 5.7TPI. My question is would I be better off financially and performance wise looking for the 305TPI with the stick or simply finding the 5.7GTA and having somebody convert it to the T56. Keep in mind I'm not a mechanic and I'm like Cole Trickle from Days of Thunder. I race real well, not so much mechanically inclined. I just like my V8 cars powered with a stick. Keep in mind I'm thinking I have a 8-9k budget and this will be my daily driver to keep my miles off my other "toy"

Keep your eye out for a TA with a 5.7 conversion. They are out there. Mine came with a 350 in place of the 305 TBI. I just converted it to carb, then put bigger engine in it when i had the new one together. Then upgrade to a T56 ASAP. My T5 is holding, but i am going to swap before anything bad happens to it so i can sell the T5 before it is too late.

I don't know man, I'm slightly hesitant to invest money into somebody else's project ya know. I'm not sure what kind of craftmanship was used, or parts or anything like that. I'm almost rather have a mechanic I trust do the swap if that was the way I was gonna go. I could be completely off base though. I'm very open to different opinions

bump

The cheapest/best/easiest way might be to buy a cheeeep 305/5-speed car, or even a 6-cyl/5-speed one; doesn't have to be TPI; and put a LS1/T-56 drive train in it.