1st Steps

[eac]

So I am starting to plan my GTM build and curious if anyone has an opinion on where to start. Meaning what do you purchase first? Also what decisions do I need to make in order to order my kit. Any assistance or thoughts on best practices I would love to hear them.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I'd say start at the FFR website, go to the section to order your GTM kit and start looking thru the options on the order form. Decide which options you want for your car.

Another decision is going to be whether you decide to buy a donor Corvette and tear it down for the parts you need or buy a "donor pallet" from a salvage yard. I think there are still a few salvage yards that will do this for you.....who are already familiar with this and have the list of all of the 'Vette parts you need for your build. They assemble all of those parts onto a pallet and ship them to you.

The engine would be included in the decision above......are you going to use a donor engine or a new crate engine? You could use the one out of the donor car you tear down, get one as part of the "donor pallet" from a salvage yard, buy one off of ebay or a local salvage yard.....or you could buy your choice of brand new LS crate engine.

Transaxle......There aren't a ton of options here. Either you use a Porsche G50 (used or rebuilt) or a Mendeola (new) or there are a couple of other Porsche options that can be used with some minor mods/fabrication of mounts.

I would make all of the decisions above BEFORE actually ordering the kit from FFR.....especially which transaxle you plan to use.

[Ajzride]

If your motor build is going to be mild, an Audi 01E is a plentiful option for transaxle. I wouldn't use it above 400HP though.

[Shoeless]

Hey eac,

First welcome to the madness. I spent likely 2 years completely planning a 33 Ford build and then one rainy weekend I stumbled across the GTM on FFR website and immediately fell in love. I put my 33 Ford plans on the shelf for a later build and jumped into GTM planning. I spent the next 6 months planning as much of the build as I could (new LS3 / 427, Mendy Stage 2, Donor Pallet of part, Infinity Box, Aftermarket ECU, ....) all the big stuff that Shane mentioned above. I put this all into a spread sheet in order to document all my choices and more importantly where my budget would end up.

I'd say one of the first things you REALLY need to be honest with yourself with is what do you want to invest in this build. Are you looking at $60K, $80K, or $100k+? I gave myself a $100K budget and so far I'm sticking to it pretty well. Now I haven't gotten to body work yet, but I do plan on tackling that myself, we'll see. Choosing this number up front will dictate a lot of your choices. As an example my motor and transaxle cost just as much as the damn kit from FFR. Oh and yea that Mendy Stage 2 transaxle took 2.5 years to come in. Things can add up VERY quickly so be as detailed as possible. For some things you may not know like do you want to use AN fittings everywhere, go ahead and add $1K, Infinity Box full system - $5k ish, aluminum fuel tanks - $800, powder coating everything - just add $2k, donor pallet - mine was $4,800 (I deleted some items).

As you can see it adds up quick, but hopefully the sticker shock of your searching so far hasn't scared you off. There are budget builds out there done in the $50K range, but be prepared to do all the work yourself.

Most of all, have fun with it and ask a lot questions. There are guys like Shane (Vraptor) who has built 30+ of these things and his fit and finish is second to none. I've seen and ridden in one of his builds and it was amazing. There is a ton on knowledge on the forums here and we are here to help.

[Presto51]

So I am starting to plan my GTM build and curious if anyone has an opinion on where to start. Meaning what do you purchase first? Also what decisions do I need to make in order to order my kit. Any assistance or thoughts on best practices I would love to hear them.

I would suggest the following for starters:

Put a budget together

Realistically what do you intend your GTM to do? (street, track, highway touring, etc,) This should drive the direction of what components to price out and get, as well as to look for items that come up for sale.

Lock in your plan, and as hard as it is, don't deviate from it, (This forum is really good at spending your money ) It easier to modify the plan on paper, than in mid-build

Allow yourself "real life" time frame for completion. (some folks think it should only take this amount of time, then life events come into play, the build takes longer)

Make sure your other half is on board with your build as well, it will take up a lot of your time, so they have to comfortable with it as well.

Okay off the soap box. Welcome to the maddness and have a successful time

Ron

[Ajzride]

I would also suggest (if you haven't yet) researching similar vehicles to make sure you are building the one you want. It would suck to get into the build and then run across an Ultima or SLC and realize you would rather be building one of those.