I find Camaros very reliable. Practical, not so much, reliable, yes.

 

Now back to the original question
Your 1K will not get you far. You did not mention what mods it had beside the exhaust. What tranny? How many miles? 200RWH is not that far away from you original request of 250HP if you are talking automatic tranny.

As a general rule you can get 10-15% with a intake, headers and duals. But you are only going to feel that at the high end of the RPMs. The exaust manifold on the 98's are not that bad. To break into the 20-25% increase you are going to have to go into the motor. You will need to do a cam and clean up the heads a bit maybe some light porting. Then you will need to get it tuned on a Dyno. If you do all the work except the tune you should be under $1500. Be ready for some back breaking work. Working on these cars is nothing like when we where young. I used to hate working on vans cause they where so tuff to work on. I could do three vans in the time it took me to do one 3.8.

The reason I give percentages is because over the life of a car it drops power. I have seen guys build high miles cars up only to find out that they still could not outrun a stock low miles cars. Money is always better spent making sure the motor is in A1 shape. These cars are known for intake gasket and to a lesser extent head gaskets. If I was doing a cam I would do the head gaskets also.

If you go the build route know that the V-6 drive line will become a lot less dependable at about 280HP. At that point a V-8 rear and some tranny mods will be in order.

 

if u cant do one yourself take it in to a good shop and have them do a dignostic on it to make sure everything is in order. pick up some ss wheels and some z rated tires that will match his taste. most kids like the low profile tires. that should set u back for most of your budget. u will have the piece of mind that its as safe and reliable as u can make it. if the grades stay up then at every summers start u two pick out a project for the car and do it together.

 

Yea he is right. Its a V-6 in a 3200+ lb car, you can make it faster but not fast. Heck many import V-6s are pushing 260 now. A set of rims, some nice tunes, throw on some nice shinny rotors. Unless he is an all out motor head he'll be happy and the girls won't know the differents.

 

Thanks, guys. You have talked some sense into me. I tend to get obsessive over cars. And guns, snakes, teaching, science, rockets and the list goes on and on.

 

my dad got me a 2000 camaro for my first car and its been a blast, just keep it mostly how it is when you buy it then you and your son can work on it whenever, he'll learn about engines and how to do certain things and you'll get some quality time with him. 200ish HP is good enough for kids my age (16) anymore HP, and we'll push it and crash.

 

You can find a LOT of 3800 build ideas here:
http://www.camarohomepage.com/project/index.htm

 

Your son should be rather happy with the 3.8 .... for now

 

I know I'm late but here is my 2cents I am just about 21 now and my first car is the 3000gt I have listed in my sig. It has a v6 and its the non-turbo variety. unfortunately my dad never really let me drive anything bigger or better nor did he inform me my car wasnt fast so i dumped too much money into it. After buying my z28 a few months prior I wish I wouldnt have done so much to that car and saved my $$. keep that car mostly stock let him drive yours once in awhile but let him know at the sametime there is no need for more power at his age (or heck my age but i bought my z28 myself at the same time tell him to take care of it and keep in good shape as he will be able to sell it for a car with more power or keep it as a daily driver like im stuck with mine.

 

same here except mine is '97. Plenty of horsepower for me. I haven't crashed yet, but then again i get my license in 2 months so i havent had a chance to.

200hp is enough for a kid.