Well, I'm officially part of the madness

[dhanisch]

So I just purchased #31 yesterday from Laurence Chapman and drove the GTM back to Phoenix. Heading to the DMV today to get all the legal paperwork taken care of.

First off, I have to say that Laurence was an absolute pleasure to deal with and I'm very impressed by his build of the car. He was very generous and even let me take the wheels off at his house so I could get new tires put on. The man even bought us (my family) breakfast.

Obviously my first drive was a 400 mile trip back home. That's a hell of a way to get familiar with the car. I thought I'd share a few points and post a few questions if any of you would be able to help.

First, I was concerned about fitting in the car. I'm 6'4" with a long torso, 34" inseam, 240lbs.. Laurence had the seat bolted to the floor put as far back as the seat would allow without removing the fiberglass for clearance. So there is actually a couple inches still behind the seat, but I actually fit just fine and even have over an inch of headroom. So for those wondering if they are too tall for the car, at least there is another account of whether or not someone my height will fit. I think I will try the Tillett B5 seat in the future as far back as possible to give me just that little bit of extra room.

Next comfort. I wasn't any more uncomfortable driving home in the GTM as I was driving out there in an Escalade. The stock seats are pretty comfy and I wasn't sore at all.

The other side of the comfort is how I sum up the bad points of the car. It's hot, loud and smelly, lol.

Hot:

Laurence had informed me that he did not insulate the center tunnel too much, and did not insulate the pipes at all. I think that, coupled with a louvered bottom plate, that should help with the heat. It was essentially too hot to rest my arm on. Thankfully I used to work at a company specializing in insulation, heat protection, and cable management. I am going to speak with the engineer of the company and see what I can come up with. Leading to my next point, I think the blockoff from the cabin to the rear firewall/engine bay needs a bit of attention, which can help also with the heat.

Loud:

This also has to do with the rear seal I believe. Laurence put a considerable amount of dynamat, and the sound is great everywhere except the rear firewall. Not just the engine/exhaust but the road/tire noise. Don't get me wrong...I love it, I didn't even listen to the radio for the 400 miles. It's just that I know air gaps = sound leakage. Plus the rear window. I know another local owner put in an actual glass rear window. Are there any other tricks for the firewall seal?

Smelly:

I basically smelled like exhaust after I got home, even tasted exhaust. So I know this has to do with the rear seal, but again, it's worth it. I know it can't be healthy, so I hope to address it reasonably well. I was wondering if this is common?

The last main issue is the clutch. I had the same issue when I owned my Fiero. If it's not bled well enough, the clutch doesn't disengage completely. I can tell this because the car still rolls forward with the clutch completely depressed. I am going to try the bleeding route first before adjusting throw/travel. I have read a lot about the broken ears on the bellhousing. Don't want to break anything quite so soon. It's VERY difficult to get into gear though, especially after running a while. This tells me that there could be a bit of air in the line. Air expands with the heat, creating more of an effort/throw needed. I had some tricks that I used to bleed the clutch before on my Fiero, and I'll see if they work with the GTM.

I think these are the things I need to address, then I can start moving towards the "nice to haves".

Anyhow, I hope to learn a lot now that I own one. I've read through the build manual (electronic version) a few times. I'm at a bit of a disadvantage not having built the car, but hopefully I can familiarize myself with things in time.

Again, want to thank Laurence for the help and the build.

Snapped a quick picture when we stopped at the coast on the way home:



Dan

[Kalstar]

So I just purchased #31 yesterday from Laurence Chapman and drove the GTM back to Phoenix. Heading to the DMV today to get all the legal paperwork taken care of.

First off, I have to say that Laurence was an absolute pleasure to deal with and I'm very impressed by his build of the car. He was very generous and even let me take the wheels off at his house so I could get new tires put on. The man even bought us (my family) breakfast.

Obviously my first drive was a 400 mile trip back home. That's a hell of a way to get familiar with the car. I thought I'd share a few points and post a few questions if any of you would be able to help.

First, I was concerned about fitting in the car. I'm 6'4" with a long torso, 34" inseam, 240lbs.. Laurence had the seat bolted to the floor put as far back as the seat would allow without removing the fiberglass for clearance. So there is actually a couple inches still behind the seat, but I actually fit just fine and even have over an inch of headroom. So for those wondering if they are too tall for the car, at least there is another account of whether or not someone my height will fit. I think I will try the Tillett B5 seat in the future as far back as possible to give me just that little bit of extra room.

Next comfort. I wasn't any more uncomfortable driving home in the GTM as I was driving out there in an Escalade. The stock seats are pretty comfy and I wasn't sore at all.

The other side of the comfort is how I sum up the bad points of the car. It's hot, loud and smelly, lol.

Hot:

Laurence had informed me that he did not insulate the center tunnel too much, and did not insulate the pipes at all. I think that, coupled with a louvered bottom plate, that should help with the heat. It was essentially too hot to rest my arm on. Thankfully I used to work at a company specializing in insulation, heat protection, and cable management. I am going to speak with the engineer of the company and see what I can come up with. Leading to my next point, I think the blockoff from the cabin to the rear firewall/engine bay needs a bit of attention, which can help also with the heat.

Loud:

This also has to do with the rear seal I believe. Laurence put a considerable amount of dynamat, and the sound is great everywhere except the rear firewall. Not just the engine/exhaust but the road/tire noise. Don't get me wrong...I love it, I didn't even listen to the radio for the 400 miles. It's just that I know air gaps = sound leakage. Plus the rear window. I know another local owner put in an actual glass rear window. Are there any other tricks for the firewall seal?

Smelly:

I basically smelled like exhaust after I got home, even tasted exhaust. So I know this has to do with the rear seal, but again, it's worth it. I know it can't be healthy, so I hope to address it reasonably well. I was wondering if this is common?

The last main issue is the clutch. I had the same issue when I owned my Fiero. If it's not bled well enough, the clutch doesn't disengage completely. I can tell this because the car still rolls forward with the clutch completely depressed. I am going to try the bleeding route first before adjusting throw/travel. I have read a lot about the broken ears on the bellhousing. Don't want to break anything quite so soon. It's VERY difficult to get into gear though, especially after running a while. This tells me that there could be a bit of air in the line. Air expands with the heat, creating more of an effort/throw needed. I had some tricks that I used to bleed the clutch before on my Fiero, and I'll see if they work with the GTM.

I think these are the things I need to address, then I can start moving towards the "nice to haves".

Anyhow, I hope to learn a lot now that I own one. I've read through the build manual (electronic version) a few times. I'm at a bit of a disadvantage not having built the car, but hopefully I can familiarize myself with things in time.

Again, want to thank Laurence for the help and the build.

Snapped a quick picture when we stopped at the coast on the way home:



Dan

How did I miss your post? Welcome to the brotherhood, what modifications are you planning to do to the car "to make it your own"? Congrats on your new car, it's a beauty.

[Joe Mush]

Awesome looking car congrats

[68GT500MAN]

Congratulations of the purchase, that is a beautiful car.

[crash]

Congrats on the purchase.

Air in the line will not make it harder to shift when hot. As you said, air expands with temp and as such it would actually apply more force when the temperature is higher. That said, your plan is correct. Try the easy stuff first and bleed it out to make sure there is no air in the system. If it's a Porsche box then it is imperative that it have a clutch pedal stop and my guess is that it is in need of a slight adjustment. I know I mentioned how I adjust a clutch in some of the other threads, but once you do the rolling thing in the shop, you may need to increase the throw just slightly for hot conditions. An extra half turn on the stop is not going to damage the gearbox ears, so I would suggest you bleed and then adjust in half turn increments until it will go into gear easily when you push the clutch pedal to the stop and the engine is hot and running.

[dhanisch]

Thanks everyone.

Crash, thank you for the insight on the clutch issue. For good measure, I replaced the slave cylinder upon inspecting it. I read through the documentation that Laurence provided (pretty substantial) and found that he used the BMW slave cylinder. I was able to get it replaced and tried vacuum bleeding, but air was being introduced through the threads, which made it useless. So I read both forums and found the gravity feeding trick to work. I would bleed it, get in the car, run it for a bit (vibration), then take it off, bleed it again. I was able to solve the issue 90%. I still think there is an adjustment that needs to be made. The clutch stop is really far out and I adjusted it ever so slightly each time, and it keeps getting better. I think I need to get in there and modify the clutch switch location because that seems to be what is stopping the clutch now rather than the bolt. I have read a bit though where the car being hot causes shifting issues. I know with the cables, it could be related to that, which is why I want to get the clutch taken care of first, less variables.

Once the clutch issue is squared away, I really need to swap out to the Brandwood shift cable setup. The linkage is a bit weird, but it certainly works for now. I need to work on the tunnel heat issue, so I will be doing the shift cables at that same time. How hard is it to get the dash out with the body on? Do many have experiences with that?

As far as my future plans......I need to address the issues first, but I'd like to get the carbon splitters installed, carbon wing, windows tinted a bit. Eventually I would like to move up in regards to the engine, probably an LS3-480, Kooks exhaust, and ultimately get into forced injection, which I have always enjoyed. I want to address heat issues in the engine bay first without something like turbos to add to the mix. I'd like to get quite a few of Shane's louvered products to help pull the heat off. Thankfully Phoenix isn't too hot right now, but summers, as the car sits, would be just downright torture with the heat.

Anyhow, I took my son to school in the car today for the first time. He got quite a kick out of it. It's definitely a conversation piece. I wasn't aware that it would get quite that much attention. I enjoy talking about the car though. I believe it is the pinnacle of my "toy" purchases so far. My wife asked if it will fill that need for a sports car. She has no idea how much it does!

Thanks again for the help, and I look forward to refining the car over the years to come.

Dan

[LCD Gauges]

Hey, this isn't fair! You're much further ahead than me when I bought the kit!

It looks nice in the picture; the carbon accents will really set off the look!

[dhanisch]

Well, I give you all a lot of credit for building these cars. I thought long and hard about buying vs building. I came to the realization that I'm a bit of a 95%'er when it comes to some projects. I get really close, and I let something discourage me, dissuade me or something that causes me to lose motivation on the project. Plus having a wife, two kids, two businesses....it just wasn't an option for me to build. However, buying one completed and just refining it......that I am completely comfortable with. I've already contacted Shane for a bunch of his products, worked on the clutch, ordered the Brandwood cable shifter, and begun talks with my previous company about some heat shielding products for the center tunnel and shift cables. Perhaps after I write my check to Uncle Sam next year, I might be doing some larger upgrades such as the engine, turbos, etc.. For now, it's just minor upgrades/fixes.

[riptide motorsport]

Great car...............enjoy it!