[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by 78w72

yeah but its a legit question. the recent comments had me a little worried but i know better. ive always considered a 200r for its easy swap into 2nd gens & have heard of many doing it with great results, even in higher HP cars. i would have pursued it on my recent TH400 car build but i had a brand new TCI th400 from a previous project that didnt happen so i used that to keep costs down.

i agree the 4l80 is the best choice for OD nowadays but the 200r has been the go to for at least 20 some years & for the most part they work great when set up right. & ive personally seen a GN run in the 9's with the turbo V6 & 200r & there are all kinds of them out there doing 10's with ease. im sure the 200 has its limits like all things do but they are far from junk as some claim.

I'm just pokin fun

I think what has really driven the 200's to be popular among the BOP crowd is because that trans is offered with multi bells (BOP bolt patterns) making them a pretty easy bolt in. The other reason is their relatively small size fitting within the confines of the stock cross member. Pontiac guys have been swapping them going back into the late 1980's as far as I can remember. So it's been going on for a long time.

I lived down the street from Lonnie (Extreme Automatics) and there were some 8 second GN's running around with his transmissions. I've seen what those guys put them through with trans brakes and wheels up launches so I'm a believer that in the right hands they can be built to last. I also like the gear ratios they offer.

For me, since I was running a 400 turbo already, and being a Chevrolet anyway, the 4L80E was where I wanted to go. Electronic control was a big motivation for it as I wanted to leave the car in drive, program what I want and concentrate on driving the car at the track more consistently. The overdrive of course was the other motivation, allowing me to cruise now with the 4.10's like they aren't even back there.