Dyno day February 16, 2009

An all-day rolling road meeting for GTO/3000GT owners was held at Eurospec yesterday. They’ve had the latest Dyno Dynamics all wheel drive setup installed (£70k worth) so a load of us pre-booked and turned up. It was a very cold day, with a lot of hanging around, since each car took 30-60 minutes to prepare, tie-down, check and test. A couple weren’t given a full throttle run because of timing or fuel problems. Several cars, including mine, were very tricky to get on the rolling road because they had so little ground clearance. In the end thirteen of us (9 turbo, 4 non-turbo) had successful test runs and nobody came away crying because something had broken during the hard test – something we all feared.

The main cooling fan threw part of its casing about mid-day. Luckily they had some smaller backups.

Considering GTO imports were supposed to exit the factory at 280 bhp (flywheel), I reckon my result of 263.5 bhp (202 bhp at the wheels) and some others near it are pretty remarkable for such old, bog standard cars.

You can tell the N/A ones and the turbo versions  which have had money spent on them from the figures. I left my car there for some electrical work I had pre-booked and “permenant grin” gave me a lift home; awesome sound and acceleration.

They’re based in Surrey, in case any readers fancy a go with their car.

Many thanks to Ben and Mark for their expert advice and skills and to Karen for keeping up the supply of biscuits and hot water for drinks.

Oh, the shame. Home on a transporter. February 2, 2008

That’s me and my GTO. Last night.

It had been playing up a bit during the day; hesitating when I accelerated at lowish revs.

When I came to start the engine in Farnborough after our swim it seemed like the battery was nearly flat. So I sat in there, keeping the revs up, to charge the battery. Big mistake. It was in fact the alternator that was faulty and the longer the engine ran, the flatter the battery became. I managed to drive about 300m before the dashboard looked like a christmas tree and the car was driving as if I had diesel in the tank instead of petrol. I steered it into a side road off a roundabout, then it died. An hour and a half waiting for a breakdown lorry doesn’t sound a lot but it was very cold.

The battery has been on charge all night. Hopefully, that will see me through my short commute to work each day until Ben, my trusted GTO fixer and friend, sources a reconditioned alternator.

Hampshire Hoon January 27, 2008

Definitely not a tunnel run this time but an early morning cruise around Hampshire; through sunshine and hill fog to a full English breakfast at Blackbushe airport’s cafe. Nearly 30 of us kept the staff there busy – though we had booked in advance.

Traffic lights and such broke the convoy up a couple of times. He we are in a lay-by regrouping before setting off again.

And here we are, snapped on Mark’s camera by one of the other drivers:

A good time was had by all, even if I did have to clean the car when I got home.