The 96-99's were nothing special, just V8 3.4L DOHC. And they did have cam problems, the fix was to weld each cam to the sprocket... lol. I had a 99 and the best thing about them was the handling and sound system. Blew the GTP out of the water in those 2 categories. They do have secondaries and they open around 3400rpm's, with an intake you should be able to tell when they open. The downfall to the car is the aftermarket availability. It was like $500 for a tune, $600-1000 to fix the cams by someone on the forums. The best times I saw were like 13's out of a fully tuned and nitrous setup.
The best years were the 90-95. Some of those cars would beat up on a GTP stock vs. stock. The change in 96 came with the intake setup on the V8 motor, if they did the same setup as they did for the v6's, they would have made 60-100hp more. The downfall was the transmission so the motor was "detuned" so that the transmission reliability was not as big of an issue with a few hp less. When these cars first came out, they were ahead of their time, really paving the way for FWD sports sedans. It's probably safe to say the GTP would not even be around if it wasn't for the SHO.
I think the 2010 SHO's are running mid-12's now with intake, low 12's with a tune.
