How Far Will You Travel for the Right Deal? – Hagerty Media

In my garage, as in yours, there is no shortage of things on which to spend money. To haphazardly throw money at broken things is a fool’s errand, though. So before I allow cash to slip from my wallet’s tight grip I spend at least one night internally debating whether a planned purchase is the right one. On some occasions, of course, I don’t have the time to wait, like when I bought the transmission for my LS-swap Corvette project.

Picking an engine was easy. An iron-block 6.0 LQ4 had been in my orbit for some time, and I had verbally committed to purchase one before I bought the 1985 Corvette that will soon hold it. The big question mark became: What transmission would I bolt behind the engine? I had dreams, preferences, and a budget. It’s a personal version of the age-old problem that you can have “good, fast, or cheap—pick two.” I’m not about to go through all the work of a swap to have an automatic transmission. I don’t have any problems with automatics, and multiple budget-friendly options exist, but that type of gearbox is just not what I want for this car.

To me, the Corvette is a grand touring sports car—sharp to drive, but comfortable enough to not be abusive on a road trip. I’d like to be able to drive the car in traffic, on the track, and on the open road without too much annoyance. A six-speed manual with the right ratios, paired with a well-selected ring and pinion in the differential, would be a rewarding way to check all the boxes. Talk LS swaps and six-speeds and one transmission rises to the top: the Tremec T56.

Built by BorgWarner, the T56 was first used in the Dodge Viper in 1992. A merger of businesses later, and any T56 built after 1998 wears the Tremec name. The T56 is a natural choice for this project, because it was also the factory-fit piece behind the LS in the fourth-generation Chevrolet F-body. Enough Camaros and Firebirds ended up in scrapyards that at one point the T56 was a downright steal considering most versions are rated for at least 400 pound feet of torque. The scrapyard and part-out market was once full of cars waiting to donate to projects like mine—another model that was heavily foraged was the 2004–06 Pontiac GTO. The T56 got popular enough that Tremec started producing a model similar to the OEM-supplied transmission and sold it direct to the public.

Even after deciding on a T56, I had to pick a version of the T56. I used the Grassroots Motorsports guide, which I will not try and duplicate. Instead, I’ll point you toward it as a great resource. The Tremec transmission is double-overdrive in most configurations and has good shifter feel. It’s also fairly lightweight. Clearly, it was the transmission I wanted.

The only problem is that this transmission is not some well-kept secret. I’m the thousandth dude in line to find a cheap T56. I bet the person who monitors my Marketplace algorithm laughed when I added it to my search alerts. With about $2300 to spend, I kept extending the search radius, until I realized it was going to take a lot of luck or a decent road trip to bring a T56 into my shop. A new T56 Magnum would be great, but the price blew my budget away.

To be clear, this search started months ago, only shortly after I bought the Corvette. I consistently scrolled listings and looked for more sources—especially ones that weren’t scams—that might be able to provide me with the mythical three-prong deal of deals: good, fast, and cheap. When I was already a thousand miles from home, lightning struck.

While camping in my big red Chevrolet Express van at the Barber Vintage Festival in Alabama, I unlocked my phone to perform my daily “doom and dream” scroll of Marketplace, and the perfect T56 popped into my feed. Was it legit? Even if it was, it was far away: I would be adding a sizable detour to my already long road trip home from Alabama to northern Michigan. How far was I willing to go for the right deal on the right parts?

Well, let’s first define the right parts. The T56 I desired most was the model found in the fourth-generation Camaro SS. This unit would give me a massive .50 overdrive gear which all but guaranteed easy highway cruising, unless I went even crazier than the 4.11:1 rear-gear swap. With my tire size, this combination puts the engine at 2000 rpm at 76 mph. My 6.0 would love that, and my right foot would love the acceleration boost that comes with a numerically high rear gear. It was a formula for a fun car. How much of my time was I willing to spend to make it reality?

Normally, the drive home from Birmingham to Traverse City is 14 hours—just on the edge of comfortable, but still doable. To pick up the transmission, the trip would extend to nearly 17 hours, with plenty of delays along the way. It was worth it, I decided. I tapped out a message and the kind seller, Rich, was fairly quick to respond. Much like the process of buying the Corvette, being honest and clear seemed to help negotiations. After some back and forth I sent a small deposit and we agreed on when I would pick up the transmission. The flurry of activity ensued: I had less than a day to acquire a sizable amount of cash and travel across four states.

All that trouble—for what? For the transmission I preferred, yes, but also for what turned out to be a good deal. Not only did I get a T56 in the ratios I wanted, which spun and shifted well, but because Rich was also upgrading the LS he had swapped into his second-generation Camaro, and parting ways with multiple other parts and pieces, I scored even more parts. When I finished loading the big red van, it contained not only the transmission but also a clutch, pressure plate, bellhousing, B&M shifter, and driveshaft yoke. The gearbox is even already equipped with the skip-shift delete and reverse lockout delete, a combination of mods that makes this transmission a no-electronics affair to install. In the end, one Facebook Marketplace ad led me to a nearly complete one-stop shop for my transmission needs. Everything needed a little clean-up, but it all appears usable and will easily hold my power goals.

My mother used to tell me that, “When your ship comes in, you have to be prepared to unload it.” It’s a quote attributed to the late organizational theorist Robert Anthony, but it always reminds me that, even though I can dream of finding the right part or deal for a project, it is only the right part or deal if I am willing to go through the effort of following up. Giving up that amount of time just to get a particular transmission may seem absurd, but anyone who has built custom stuff knows that, after laying out your best-case scenario, there is no prospect more disappointing than having to settle for less.

The hunting, waiting, and scrambling to make my vision come to fruition is a big part of the fun of restoring and modifying cars and motorcycles. Is anything I’m doing the “best” way? Probably not—other setups would potentially be quicker, or more reliable, or cheaper, but I don’t have to compromise, so I won’t. I got my six-speed, and it only cost me a day of driving and an extra tank of gas. Not bad.