TRACK HISTORY
I didn't ever go to the track until I had done quite a bit to my car. That means I have no exact basis to know how fast my car was in stock form. On average, a good 1/4 mile run for a stock Z26 with little to no track prep is a 16.5 from what I have seen. With good track prep and ice I would say you could get a 16.1, give or take a tenth, on a good day. Some people have had a hard time just getting that 16.5 with a stock Z26. I have seen runs as slow as 17.1 and as fast as 15.7 without modifying anything major on the engine.
My personal history consists of about 5 trips to the track. The first was in June of 2001 at Milan dragway and I ran a 15.947. This was on a hot day, so hot that my friend who consistantly pulled 15.8s in his gran prix was running a best of 16.1. I had done all my little mods and still had the 3100 then. I had wires, coils, fastchip computer, half my exhaust stuff, less weight, and I think I had the real cold air setup then too. The car had no cool down time ever.
Next time I ran was a month later in KY. I ran 15.60 with milder weather and about an hour of cool down time between runs, but no modifications to the car since the 15.947 run.
Then I went to Lapeer dragway (very ghetto). I put down a 15.427 there with no mods, but I did give the car 30 minutes of cool down time with a bag of ice on the intake, it was cold to the touch.
Next time was when I had just installed the 3400. I went back to Lapeer and ran a 15.41. It still had the 3100 intake but several things had been done. I was pretty disappointed at this. The car was sitting in line running for 22 minutes before this run, but even so it should have done much better with a 3400, you would think.
Lastly, I went back to Milan and ran a 15.312 @ 90.53 mph, as seen below. The only thing that had been changed was the upper intake had been polished and changed to the new 3400 style. I also raised the fule pressure a few psi over stock via the vortech super FMU. That was also a big let down. This was when I realized nitrous and/or boost is the only answer. $700 later I have a supercharger kit :)