New GTA Project

Mate I know you will have spent a lot of money but I can almost guarantee once you start driving it will put a bigger smile on your face than if you had spent geek money on a modern wireing crap car which you will destroy in a straight line. The thing with big cubes is the insane grunt from 800 rpm, I realise now I go on about it but have realised that a lot of people have never driven a high HP big cube V8, if you haven’t put it on your bucket list you will not be disappointed.

Yup, XK-R and TR are both circa 400 bhp and are animals in a straight line, however the GTA is my drivers car.

Progress at last. The guy who has been doing the work on the car has been on the missing list for nearly 4 months and with the car still in bits I was struggling for options to get it moved somewhere else. So a massive thankyou to John Law , his mechanic Fabio and Steve Dell for organising and pitching in for the last 2 days to get the car assembled. The adaptor plate kit turned out to need a lot more adapting for the starter motor to work properly! But after being in and out many times hopefully the engine can stay put now, clutch all engages fine too. So jobs to finish are, ECU and electronic throttle pedal fitted - all factory Chevy stuff so should be pretty much plug and play, sump pickup, alternator, exhaust and induction which looks a pain as the plenum comes out further than the engine into the area behind the rear grill so limited room to get a bend on - the plenum is 100mm !

Car has had all the new suspension , wishbones, steering rack etc fitted up now and looks fantastic, every part is new now, every bush replaced, bolts all cad plated - it is better than when it left the factory. Except driveshafts which I'm going to get refurbed shortly. Only issue was fitting the big brake kit as the retaining screws turned out to be in a different place on my 5 stud hubs to an A610 (mine are 21 Turbo) and were to close to the original hole to redrill so Steve is sorting that for me. I think brakes might be important :0).

Car should be going down to John at JL Engineering in a few weeks to finish of the mechanicals and get the car road legal then back to me to sort out wrapping and interior. A lot still to do but feels like light at the end of the tunnel now.

Disk retaining screws do feck all but keep disc flat till the wheel goes on ....
Fit some studs and open ended nuts instead of the std bolts ...job's a good-un

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I'd also get the paint off the hub faces. Might look Southern bling but you really want metal to metal contact on stuff like this. Caliper mounting bolts/faces especially.

Looking good so the summer is going to be filled with the sound of music, have you spoken to the rapping people as I was going to get mine done but the surface has to be perfect, as any imperfections will show the same as if it was painted it will not cover up imperfections. That’s why I ended up doing a proper paint job on mine.

No such thing as a free lunch....

I have a friend who has a good contact in that business so will have a chat in the next few weeks. I'm hoping a deep machine compounding will be good enough but I'll see what he says. I have a painter I now have some faith in - although he has never painted a GTA before I will see how much he'll charge to paint it. Looks quite mean in matt tungsten :0)

How is the car coming on all gone quiet are we going to see it this year, modifying stuff takes for ever fix one thing and then there something else.

Stuck at the moment waiting for parts to finish the brakes and John is trying to locate new premises and wants to move to take the car in. May get car home for the time being and get some of the cosmetic stuff done and the interior sorted.

Waiting for brakes !? Really ? Who'd have thought it ? quelle suprise !!
Must be waiting for artwork approval or patent

A610 bells didn't fit - who'd have thought? New ones and brackets being made. Upsizing disks for good measure also.

Brakes all sorted now and fitted. Final spec is 330 mm discs and 4 pots all round. Wheels on. Car will be coming home for a while and bodywork and interior sorted before having the engine ancillaries and exhaust done.

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[stephendell]

Major mechanicals all completed and GT8 heading home today

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Not much has been happening of late due to lack of funds but have sourced some different exhaust manifolds, come up with a plan for the induction where the intercooler used to sit. Prepped some of the body, roof is terrible, lacquer peel on about 3 coats of paint! removed anything that needs replacement . Have pretty much everything to finish now except rear cage and seats and the money to pay John to do it .


Also been talking to a guy in the USA who has done the conversion on a DeLorean. His overall weight gain was only 100kg and that included bigger brakes and other modifications . As the DeLorean hasn't got a turbo and associated parts it should make the rear transaxle pretty much the same weight as the original - I did think this but it's nice to have it confirmed .