Following my nitrous explosion and rebuild in the July issue I've had a couple aggravated emails from the LT1 faithful to which I would like to respond. Having owned an LT1 for the past five or so years, I have nothing but respect for anyone who has chosen this often-frustrating and discouraging path to automotive excellence. All your friends with LS1s are going 10s with a cam, exhaust, and nitrous while you are replacing your Optispark for the 20th time and looking for someone to tune your new motor.
As you will see next month, I chose to alleviate these two problems with one important modification: EFI Connection's LS1 PCM swap. These PCMs are easier to tune and therefore it is easy to find someone to tune it if this isn't within your skill-set, and the driveability increases substantially with the much greater processing speed. However, this is not to say that you can't go fast with an OBD I PCM or that it is to blame for my motor blowing up, but I can safely say that it wouldn't have happened had I done the swap ahead of time.
Traditionally an LT1 enthusiast could utilize the stock PCM well into the single digits with a power-adder combo, and only full-on race cars or high-rpm combos really required aftermarket EFI. Thankfully, though, EFI Connection developed this kit, which acts as the perfect middle ground and will modernize everything about the LT1 that otherwise makes it difficult to deal with. For those of you who embrace new cutting-edge technology, and the high-tech aspect of GM High-Tech, this story should give you some amount of satisfaction. For everyone else, I would invite you to check out some of our past LT1 builds via www.simbackissues.com, or await our upcoming "Dirty Bird" project car.
We do our best to appeal to a variety of interests and tastes, from the low-buck to the high dollar, road racing to drag racing, big wheels and slammed to the ground to 15s with airbags or Pete Z bars, and weekend warriors to track-only. If there is a concept, idea, or dream we might be able to make happen-let us know.
In addition to Dirty Bird, we have several new project cars on the way as others are phased out or retired entirely. Our goals for the year include more budget build stories, further in-depth and conceptual (educational) tech, more standing mile racing, and more "outside the box" projects. Of course, we also hope to cover everything in-between and everything you've come to know and love about GMHTP (or tolerate enough to pay $5.99). It has always been in the spirit of the magazine to bring you the latest and greatest technology in the late-model GM EFI market, and we will do our best to carry on that tradition.
For those looking for just a straight-shot of 2010 Camaro info, I am pleased to announce the fifth-gen-only Camaro Now magazine, which will be launched a month after this one. The same great tech, features, and contemporary style GMHTP is known for as well as contributions from our talented sister magazines Super Chevy, Camaro Performers, Popular Hot Rodding, and Chevy High Performance. This is the coffee-table-of-all-coffee-table books for fifth-gen enthusiasts.