I'd like the higher mileage one - I wouldn't feel guilty driving it as much.  I'd then relegate my 'beater' TTA as full-daily driven status, and keep the nicer one as a weekend/carshow vehicle.  I remember seeing a TGP on Ebay some time ago, only 1500 bucks!

You can run 20+ PSI on these cars - but there's a lot of stuff that needs to be changed out in order to do so reliably.  Countless owners have done turbo swaps, as the stock turnbo isn't bad, but there's better ones in the aftermarket.  Some move their intercooler to be in front of the radiator for more cool airflow, and some upgraded theirs to a better design - when the aftermarket carried one, which they don't right now, I think.  If you love changing headgaskets, you can run as much boost as you want.  Alky-injection kits are also highly reccomended if you run more then just a few pounds over stock.  There are some GN's running nines, but they're pretty much track-only cars.  You can get a TTA into the twelves for not a lot of money - not that I've tried with mine, yet.

The 3-BAR MAP sensor is strictly used for running the boost gauge and that information isn't fed to the ECM, unless you wnated to run a totally different EFI computer set-up - the car uses MAF to determine how much air it's feeding, and the MAF is mounted (in stock form) before the turbo, so air is sucked through it, not blown through it.  Besides that, the stock boost gauge is inaccurate, so many owners change that out for an A-pillar one if they're really serious about monitoring how much boost they're running.  That and a knock light.  Detonation totally kills these cars.  I assume it's the same thing for a TGP?

No, I'm pretty sure an LS1 car is faster, especially the newer ones, but not by much.  In good tune, they still run 13's stock, which is stock LS1 territory, give or take a little.  I still hae a healthy respect for a late-model LS1 car, especially if it's a stick - better rear gearing.

I'd have to check on if they were the only Trans Am for Indy, I don't know for certain, they might have had one back in the seventies or something.  I could be thinking of Daytona, though.

Considering I use my TTA as a daily driver (Sacrilege!  Blasphemer!  Heretic!  Heathen!) I wouldn't really mind if I had an STE for daily use, rare or not.  I guess I have expensive tastes in cars.  Winters?  In Hawaii?  More like 'the rainy season'...  Snow is unheard of here on Oahu.

Wallet Master...?   :?:  I'm afraid I'm nto familiar with the Powermaster...  If you mean the speed limiter that all G-bodies came with, then no, the TTA does not have a speed limiter at 117 MPH or whatever rediculous low number they set the G-body ECM's at.  Not that I've seen a hundred in my TTA yet, my alignment is a bit off and I'd really hate to wreck it in a fit of stupidity.

The newer GTP's, they're not using the L67, are they?  I heard they're using something else, but basically it's still a 3800 with a blower.

My old daily beater was an '89 SE, with the n/a 3.1, man I loved that car...  I sure wouldn't mind a TGP or an STE (most likely an STE, I'm sick of two-door cars now) for a daily ride, to avoid racking up the mileage on the TTA.

Yup, love the V8 argument.  It doens't matter how much torque you can make, if your engine can't breathe freely.

My '88 GTA has the L98 350 in it, and it only ran 15's.  Why?  It was heavy and TPI is a restrictive intake design, once you try to rev past 4800 rpms.  It had plenty of torque, making it a great street cruiser, but it fell flat on it's face after 4800 rpm, so it didn't fare well after the first 1/8th mile.  In the first half, it would whoop up on LT1's.  The LT1 doesn't have the low-end grunt the L98 had, but it has a much simpler intake design, and flows a lot more high-end.  LS1?  Even better, and that engine design is just about ten years old already.  The mid and late seventies are known for making smogger V8's, as the EPA was cracking down on pretty much everything.  Lower compression heads that flowed terribly, mounted with non-OD transmissions in cars that were gaining weight.  Not that it's unfixable, it's just that the golden age of Muscle and Pony cars was over.

Yep, technology is a wonderful thing, and can substitute for cubic inches.  Big cubes AND technology, though, is hard to beat.  Look what it did for the LS-series of V8's...

The previous owners of mine ran a 13.8 bone stock.  Added a chip, went 13.2.  I haven't gone myself, and I probably wouldn't be able to launch the car properly - power-braking is still a mystery to me.  Some quick specs, not complete...

231 cid, or 3.8 for the metric folk
8:1 compression, with modified heads from the 3800 FWD engine
16.5 PSI boost with Garret T3 intercooled turbo
rated at 250 hp at 4400 rpm, 340 ft/lbs at 2800 rpm
200R4 four-speed automatic transmission
3.27:1 Borg-Warner limited-slip diff.
weighs 3346 lbs, but depends if it's a hardtop or t-top model.  Most were t-tops with leather seats.  Mine is t-tops and cloth, whhich were more rare.

EDIT:  Oh, I don't doubt that a modded L67 GTP could beat a stock TTA.  I see a GTP with a bunch of stuff on it, and I give it some healthy respect - he could be pushing more boost then me, and some weight loss and sticky tires and I would see some tail lights.

Oh, sorry, I should've been more specific.  The '89 LC2 one.  I'm not a huge fan of the later second-gen cars, unless it's a '77 or '78.

Hypothetical.  I've always wanted a TGP, but unfortunately, they're not a common sight here in Hawaii.  Neither is the '89 TTA, but I own one of those.  How would the TGP fare against the TTA?  My guess is not very well - unless the TGP was modded and the TTA was stock (like mine).