26th Jun 2006, 11:00

I just purchased my first ever z28 (96). I have had many chances in the past, but always "chickened" out. This is the car I always dreamed of owning since the fourth gen came out when I graduated HS. My "new" Z is Black on Black (Leather). Mechanically sound, but needs some cosmetic touches. I spent 8 hours yesterday conditioning the paint, and she is starting to look AWESOME!! My wife, son, and I did a little cruise around the neighborhood and turned a lot of heads. GREAT CAR!! I now see what I was missing all those years. Just think, I bought a 95 Monte Z34, 02 Monte SS, and many trucks in between those years when I could have purchased a Camaro new. Oh well. I have her now and am loving it.

11th Jul 2006, 20:48

I just purchased a 96 convertible. Teal on brown leather with every option GM put out that year. It has 75,000 Canadian miles on the clock and purrs like a cat. The GM sticker sheet said $37,800.00 Canadian in 1996. Not bad for a "Summer car". It runs and sounds great. Not a squeak or rattle in the body. I love the car, can't wait to get out and drive it again.

27th Apr 2008, 23:13

I just bought a super clean 96 Camaro Z28. I took it up the canyon and I can't believe what a great performance car it is. It's so nice looking, too. It has 86,000 miles and is bone stock. What should I think about doing to it? It sounds cool, but I like more of a flow masters sound.

7th Dec 2008, 11:42

I have a 1996 Z28 and have owned it for 2 years. I came across it purely by accident. My Brother-n-law co-signed for his son, who never made a payment on it. The nephew, as far as I can tell used it as a 300HP bumper car...

The B.I.L. asked that I go pick it up and sell it... and naturally, I said fine; drove over there and fell in love with poor abused orphan the instant I saw her and that was certified the moment she fired up and I felt that LT1 ignite.

Since then I've become a fixture at our local 1/8th mile track; completely rebuilt the engine; upgraded the cam and valve-train a fair bit; rebuilt and upgraded the 4l60auto-tranny, deleted A/C, A.I.R. and E.G.R. system, completely opened the Exhaust with a set of Hooker 1 3/4 headers, Off-Road Y pipe and dumps... amongst other things. But she remains normally aspirated and I drive her around town a few times a week, doing to light fishing...

She turns 8 seconds in the 1/8th mile and routinely brutalizes the normally aspirated... STREET CARS. All of them... If it's not blown, turbo'd or on the happy gas the odds are we'll own 'em... From the Z06 Vette's through all the Mustangs, short of the Roush Stage-3, and even THAT monster if he's not running slicks... (although that one is CLOSE!)

For the money there is no better car on earth for blasting off and staying-with-it fun... She's hard and fast out of the whole, revs quickly and upgrades are fairly cheap and easy for someone with just reasonable skills and a fair dose of common sense.

I bought my car for $2500, and since have added another $6000 in upgrades and it routinely hurts the feelings those driving cars for which they paid ten times and MORE that amount. Oh sure, they're sitting in air conditioned comfort, within a finely appointed leather-clad cabin; but they're getting beat and I don't care what they say, that's got to hurt!

14th Dec 2008, 22:34

I own a 1996 Z28 Camaro. I valeted cars all through college while owning my Z. I got to drive Ferrari Enzo's, Vipers, Lambo's, and nearly every other car on the planet... I wanted to make my Camaro look and perform as well as I could on a college budget and maintain its streetability. I put a forged 355 custom heads/cam full intake and exhaust combo on it. Full suspension upgrade along with 17 inch rims with Ultra high performance tires. LS1 brake conversion as well.

This car is a fighter jet of cars... It not only puts over 400hp to the ground and is streetable... it turns on a dime and holds a corner like no tomorrow. It rivals the C5 corvettes that I drove and would probably turn mid .9g skid pad numbers with similar slalom times. The LS1 brakes are superior to the LT1 brakes. Stock LT1 brakes are not good... Next mod will be C5 Corvette brakes.

The stock Camaro has lots of potential. The LT1 is a great engine overall but does not have the potential of the LSX blocks. The interior of the 1996 looks great but the materials are cheap as you'd expect with a muscle car. Overall maintenance is required to keep it working well... More care is involved. But for the price that's what you can expect. I give kudos to the price, the gas mileage, power, and handling. I rank the brakes and the interior build quality as poor though. Mechanically speaking the car is average.. it's no Honda Accord when it comes to build quality, but then again, that's not what it's designed to do..