I've always kind of liked the Trans Am, and the LS1 is a sweet engine. It's real easy to up the horsepower on those guys too, since the Chevy small-block has been around for so long. You get very nice gains from just freeing up the intake and exhaust tracts. It'll never handle like the CRX, but it will be much easier (and much more driveable) to make it real fast in a straight line. Plus you get A/C.

Make sure to do some decent suspension upgrades to it as well though, as I always laugh when I see them bobbing up and down on the highway after hitting a bump.