Replacing the Superbeater: '01 Grand Prix

I'll join the autoxing GP support group

My 05 CompG

I never took the 99 out but I did put the stock Comp G wheels on it. Polished aluminum so not chrome, I didn't think it looked bad.

AClockworkGarage wrote: In reply to mbruneaux: I like it. Proving once again that miata isn't the answer. Please tell me about the breaks you have. I'm still shopping for upgrades myself. I want to keep the 16 inch wheels so that limits me somewhat. Since it is my daily driver I want to keep it cheap and somewhat stock looking. I've heard of an upgrade that uses the stock caliper with a different bracket and a larger rotor, but I cant seem to find any concrete info. for the rear I will be upgrading to the GXP calipers and rotors.

My fronts are from an '05 Monte Carlo (H-Body, same caliper but bigger bracket - go to a bone yard), the biggest brakes without going to 17" rims I believe. If you go 17" rims you have a F-Body brakes to upgrade and of course the GXP. Stainless Steel brake lines and powerstop pads and rotors work well for a daily driver. I ran EBC Reds on Brembo blanks and they were awesome but very aggressive. GrandPrixForums has a "Big brake" thread that can really help you out.

No matter what you do it will always push (understeer) a little

In reply to Nick (LUCAS) Comstock:

Looks good

I've been reading that thread. there is too much information about every brake upgrade mashed into one. It's difficult to figure out what is what.

I like my setup, it's much better than stock and it fits my 16" Pregen wheels.

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In reply to mbruneaux:

I've done some searching and have sourced a set of $25 caliper brackets from Andrew at Bonnevilles Unlimited. Now it's just a matter of finding rotors and pads.

Also, I love those wheels.

AClockworkGarage wrote: In reply to mbruneaux: I've done some searching and have sourced a set of $25 caliper brackets from Andrew at Bonnevilles Unlimited. Now it's just a matter of finding rotors and pads. Also, I love those wheels.

Thanks, they are the same generation as yours just a different style. I bought the Powerstop rotor and pad combo for the '05 Monte, probably the same as Bonneville, and am very happy, the pads are a little soft but they have good feel. The SS brake hoses are well worth the upgrade for about $100.

I got my hands on some SSEi rotors and some ceramic pads.

I sure hope they'll clear my wheels. We'll find out when my calipers arrive.

On our 2000 9C1, we had Summit Racing cross drilled rotors with Hawk street pads. They lasted a long time and we were very pleased. We next went lower cost with Advance rotors and ceremic pads, and regret not replacing with the Summit/Hawk combo (we got what we paid for).

Still waiting on brake parts, but we've got a surprise 60 degree day today and I'm not letting it go to waste. I decided to mount up the front strut tower bar.

Unlike normal STB's that just bolt down over the strut mounting bolts, the 9c1 bars actually bolt directly to the towers.

The first task was removing this mounting stud.

Normally not a big deal, but I don't have a garage and my assigned parking space is nowhere near my apartment. So no power tools. I guess I'll hacksaw it off and hand file it down... bleh.

With that done I marked out the holes and made the first holes.

Check out those fun bolts... Now it's just a matter of slipping the bolts up from underneath. It can be done with the wheels on the ground, but I jacked the car up just enough to give me easy access.

The bolts are slipped in from underneath and held in place with a pair of retaining clips.

Brilliant. Now it's just a matter of dropping the bar over top and tightening it down. Less than an hour start to finish. And very stealthy, looks like it belongs there.

Ahhh, this thread is making me miss my old purple '99 Grand Prix GT coupe. I'd like another 3800 W-body.

Do you know if the intake gaskets have been replaced yet? They are a common failing point and give the symptoms of a head gasket failure, it's a good idea to get rid of the Dex-Cool if it's also being used. Those little coolant elbows under the alternator should also be replaced. Dorman makes aluminum elbows for cheap and they will last forever.

I do you like the ZZP exhaust header? (PLOG)

The top end has already been done. This is my fifth 3800 car, so that's the first thing I look at.

The plog is nice and seemed to give me measurable gains on the butt dyno, but who is to say if those are real or imagined. I only went with the plog because I got such a fantastic deal on it. ($50 craigslist find) new they are almost $200, and Speed Daddy headers aren't much more than that.

I got my brake brackets in the mail today but it is raining so no movement on that front. I've got to pull an 8 hour shift tomorrow but if the weather is clear we'll take a stab at the "big brake" upgrade.

Kind of wish I still had this motor...

Those are the Speed Daddy headers on there.

Well, my caliper brackets have arrived

but the weather is rainy, and the race will be starting soon. Looks like this project gets to sit for another week. boo.

The weather is cooperating and I was under the car as soon as I was home from work. Here's what we started with:

It's enough for a daily driver, but we all know that enough is never enough. more is even more better.

So let's slap on a bigger Rotor and some ceramic pads.

Yeah... That'll do. now it's just a matter of moving the factory calipers out enough to clear them.

Yup, that'll do the job.

now it's just a matter of unbolting the factory stuff and bolting on the new goodies.

And just like that, we're done. Now the moment of truth. There had been some concerns among the GP guys that these brakes won't fit inside my wheels.

They completely fill the wheel, but everything clears.

So in the end we have a bolt on brake upgrade That costs $25 more than a basic brake service, Is no more difficult to install than a basic pad and rotor change and doesn't even require bleeding the system.

It might just be the perfect mod.

Well, here's the april update. The past couple of weeks have been spent accumulating parts to revamp the entire suspension system.

Still to come, lower control arms, ball joints and tie rod ends. If i'm going to do everything, I might as well do everything

But what's this? A giant wrench in my plans? Yup.

For whatever reason I thought the SCCA solo opener was in mid-june. That is... not the case.

The Season opener is this Sunday. Like four days from now. Carp. Well change of plans. This Friday's payday will bring a fresh set of tires for the stock chrome uglies and maybe a helmet if there is enough leftover, I'd really rather not use a loaner...

Then Sunday will be my first Auto-x ever. Wish me luck.

Saturday had arrived and it brought with it it's share of stress and problems. The tires that were on the car were in no way good enough to race on, so a new set was ordered. Falken Ziex 235/60R16's. Four of them for... way too much. They'll be here saturday at 11:30 he tells me. 11:29 I walk through the door.

"uh, we only got three" "Seriously? fine, gimme two and put em on the front." The khumos on the back are pretty good, they'll have to do. At least the shop managed to overcharge me $50 from friday's quote, so that's something. I'll be heading back monday afternoon with a board with a nail in it...

On the bright side Craigslist came through again and I found a never been used still has the tags open faced Snell SA2010 helmet for $60. No loaners for me!

So I took my brain bucket, my two new tires and my two rolls of masking tape home and set to work. I may not be the best driver, I may not have the best car but dammit, my tape numbers are going to be the best.

And they were:

Sunday. Race day. A nice morning drive out to the track. Walk the course which I'm told it "very tight and technical" but I felt was rather flowing and straightforward. then settles in for my work assignment as a cone jockey.

I got hit in the head with a cone. That really happened.

Then it was race time. I buckled in, strapped on my helmet and lowered my seat as far as it would go. A very nice driver offered to ride with me the first time and delivered pace note for my first run. I followed them diligently and managed an abysmal 94 seconds.

"do you know how much space you had between you and the cones?" he asked after the run.

"Not sure, I guess I left a little room."

"four feet... you need to tighten that up a bit."

I run the next run solo. No longer afraid of the course I turn the wick up to 6 or 7 and shave 9 seconds off my time. I also incur a 10 second missed gate penalty.

Run three, just has hard but I encounter massive understeer at the turn-around. still a half second faster than last run and it's surprisingly clean.

Run four. Take everything you've learned and put it all in on this one. Little bit of left-foot braking to combat the understeer in the turn-around, hit your marks. Hells yeah, and almost 2 second improvement from the last run. I also hit a cone so 2 second penalty... meh.

In the end I finished 13th out of 14. so not last.

I'm not an idiot, I know that the car is never going to compete with the miatas and BRZs but I'm not sure at this point if the deficiency is in the car or the driver. I had a hell of a time and improved my track time by about 12 seconds in just four runs (ignoring penalties) so in my book that is a victory.

Where did you run at? Thought about running my jetta for fun as I'm not all that ready to run any track days just yet.

It doesnt matter what you can and cant beat, what matters is that you had fun and improved your driving! And don't completely discount the old fwd gm's, theres a local who drives a 2nd gen cavelier z24 who would drag my miatas ass every event and i was usually mid pack. But seriously all autox is about is fun and beating yourself

Two tires, $50 overcharge, cone to the dome...

Some people have all the luck

Here's the May update:

The month started with Solo Event #2 in Packwood. I still hadn't received all of the suspension upgrades yet so one more event on the stock suspension. I did go ahead and mount up the rear Strut tower bar.

we went out to packwood and threw down four runs. Three of them were good and all of them were clean. I finished in the top 10 and managed to wind up 5th in the overall points race. I'm pretty happy with the results.

After 2 event it's abundantly clear. I can outrun a mustang.

That said we had two weeks and a payday before the next event. The new control arms arrived and we were ready to go. I unfortunatly did not take any pictures of the install but here's a before:

In a four hour span we installed KYB AGX adjustable struts wrapped in Eibach 1.7 inch drop springs. 34mm/19mm solid GMPP Sway bars, Tubular Trailing arms, Moog Tie rod ends, Moog spherical control arms and bushings. We eyeballed the alignment and got it... very wrong.

I decided to spring for a real alignment from a race shop. It was roughly twice the price but the guy put ballast in the driver's seat and then spent almost three hours getting the suspension spot on to a custom spec, the whole time chatting with me about the fun GM cars he's owned over the years. well worth it.

Here she is on the new suspension.

Looking good... This coming weekend is a busy one with an SCCA Novice Drier's school on Saturday and Event #3 on Sunday we'll battle test the new suspension.

With that sorted I decided to throw a little money at something less important. Looks. The hood is a bit crinkled on the corner and the headlamps are, pretty much useless I ordered some Ebay replacement parts. They should be arriving in a few hours.

My goal is to have the exterior "finished " by july 4th for groit's American car show. here is an amazing high tech 3D render I made to show my goals for the exterior.

Yeah... I'd drive that.

High five - great to see the Pontiac coming along. I like the paint scheme.

Keep up the good work! After you blow the doors of a Mustang grab their wheels, they fit nice and are 17".