Replacing the Superbeater: '01 Grand Prix

Well Driver's school is over and I thought it handled great.

https://youtu.be/Om3C1EpHLGs?t=1m44s

Seriously though, the instructors could not believe a car this big could handle the slaloms like it did, and with some left foot braking to try and reel in the understeer I'm actually getting through the course much quicker than I was a week ago.

I still have a few issues to work out. I've got some rubbing in the rear that a few spring rubbers should take care of. Might have to roll the fenders... and an ABS/traction control issue that kindve ticking me off. it started immediately after the suspension install. when braking into a corner with a high amount of turning angle the abs and trac lights come on and stay on. The ABS system is disabled. shutting the car of resets this. I thought I might have left a sensor unplugged or loose but they're all tight. More annoying than anything. Other than that she's in fine form.

I got home and tripped over a small box on my doorstep.

My low quality Ebay parts! whooo...

Before: After:

Because only racecars and junk cars have black hoods.

A Grand Prix with Sway bars and a suspension like yours will surprise many people, Mine had old 175K mile struts and springs and made the autocross coach look at the badge to make sure he was in the right car.

AClockworkGarage wrote: 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.

Dude! That looks stinking awesome!!!

Well, been a while since I last updated this thread. I just finished race 6 of 8. On the new suspension the car is a solid mid-pack contender after 6 events I am in 8th overall for the season championship.

As a quick aside, our local club has a rule where the scores of the lowest two are dropped and what remains is your final score. This is rather irritating. I am the only driver in my class that had actually attended every event. I'm currently running 8th with a 48 point deficit. If they did not drop the lowest scores I would be leading the points race by 20. Kind of a pisser.

I've not yet sorted out the ABS issue but the car has developed a rather large exhaust leak on the rear manifold. Probably the donut gasket for the downpipe. an $8 fix. but also an excuse. I placed an order to solve the issue once and for all.

The clamps that come with the headers are quite E36 M3e, but I found these wonderful pre-formed band clamps from jegs.

They should be mounted up within the next week of so in time for the next event on the 21st.

You know, sometimes you look back at your life and realize you've left some things unfinished. The reasons vary sometimes you lose interest, sometimes your situation changes. Sometimes you just forget. But it's never too late to go back and write those wrongs.

It's been 5 years. I never did install those headers. They're up for sale if you want them.

it was a rainy morning in... late 2018. I was following my neighbor on the highway. we were on our way to work. A car in the left lane decided they needed to get off at this exit.

That is exactly what they did. Just a sharp right turn and a dive across 4 lanes to the exit. This caused a stack. Two cars ahead of me hit each other. My neighbor ahead of me managed to come to a stop before adding to the stack.

I locked up and slid towards their Acura thinking "Great, I'm about to total their car, then have to see them every day."

I stopped with about 10 feet to spare.

"whew, that was clos-"

A chevy trailblazer struck me from behind.

I was mostly mostly Ok. It aggravated an existing neck injury but I recovered.

I drove her home and took the rest of the week off to recover and deal with the fallout.

It didn't look too bad but if you really look at it there are ripples on the quarter panel going all the way to the doors. The wheelbase is different on both sides.

Body shop estimated $4100 and the car was written off. I bought it back for $250 and spent the rest on this 2003 regal.

Shortly after this I quit my job and became a full time student. We went into austerity mode. The camaro was removed from the insurance, and the regal was Liability only. We were single income for two years, spending had to be cut somehow.

So of course the regal was immediately hit by an uninsured driver. Yay, but that is a story for another time.

In reply to AClockworkGarage :

This was one hell of an update.

I bought the car back mainly so I could De-mod it. The regal was also a 3800 W-body so almost everything would swap across.

The GP would become a parts car.

Then the Regal rapidly left my life. But the GP didn't. In fact it's still with me. Today. in 2024. Killing a square of grass in my yard.

Right now.

The car runs and drives but I didn't have a title for it, so it was kind of useless. I figured I'd find a figure-8 or Enduro race and give her a warrior's death, but I guess there's one thing that the south does better than the PNW.

Then I got the idea to chop down the back and add a tray, one tonner style.

It would have been a fun little parts runner, but I have neither the skill or the space to do it.

Around last fall SWIMBO mentioned that I either need to do something with it, or get rid of it.

I spent a few months trying to sell it but without a title I couldn't give it away. The local salvage yard wouldn't even take it.

Then last summer I spotted a post on the local Lucky Dog Racing League Facebonk group. The company that does Track safety and recovery was looking for wrecked racecars to use for training. I asked if they could use it and they told me they could. She was destined to be a burn trainer.

But they couldn't do anything with it until the race season was over. No problem. I took down the ads and told SWIMBO it was handled.

Winter came and went, and I heard nothing. I contacted them and was told "oh yeah, we don't have room for that"

Great... glad I held it for 6 months for you.

That brings us up to now.

So this is where we're at. I jumped through all the hoops to get a title in my name and for some reason it is not a salvage title. I don't know why. I don't care.

So I'm starting the process to attempt to sell her as a parts car. If that doesn't work she'll head off to a junkyard.

One thing that always bothered me is when sellers clearly don't care. They don't wash the car, they post pictures of the car with piles of trash in the seats,their filthy mutt chewing on the armrest. The photo is taken through a screen door, at night...

Make an effort.

So the plan is to clean the car up a touch, recharge the battery, throw some fresh gas in it, check the fluids and make sure it still runs and drives. Take a video of it running for the ad.

Over the weekend I started the process, scraping the moss off, pulling all the leaves of the cowl and giving her a bath.

Looking pretty OK. I won't lie, I teared up a bit. I loved this car. Part of the reason it's still here is because I couldn't stand to see her go.

Are you full time in WA now? I was thinking you were in Atlanta, time to time. Out here in SE, I'd be REAL interested!

3800 series II is one of my favorite engines... and I'm a Ferd guy at heart!

Washington state, probably until I die. I've never been in atlanta. I was in Orlando but that was like 9 years ago. I'd never go back.

 

OK... I just going to ignore all that bigotry there...

I finished getting the car cleaned up, added a gallon of fresh gasoline and a quart of fresh oil.

Pulled the corolla over for a jump start and held the key for a moment. This car had sat neglected for almost 4 years. Would it start? Would it even crank?

It's a 3800, of course it would. It fired up on the first try.

I took some video of it running and driving and posted it for sale.

It was sold within four minutes.

In reply to AClockworkGarage :

I'm tuned in hoping you buy another one...

You need to duplicate Granny National.  Look up auto tech Tyler or Tyler Pittman. Thank me later. 😉

Sad to see how other peoples negligence wrecked this car but very glad you were okay. Do you have any plans for future builds?

Maybe if you still have all the parts for it you could lowball this guy: https://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/cto/d/kent-2000-pontiac-grand-prix/7773963935.html

The car was sold to a friend and fellow W-body enthusiast. His plan is to rebuild it and give it to his daughter as her first car. If it were anybody else I would have told him to hang it in his arse, but I've seen the work he does and think he can pull it off.

We had a long discussion about the extent of the damages, and the actual condition of the car, agreed on a price and he towed it away.

As of last week the buttlift donor had been found.

I will encourage him to continue the thread here, but I doubt he will. He's never really been active on forums.

Loweguy5 said:

In reply to AClockworkGarage :

I'm tuned in hoping you buy another one...

Not likely. I did replace it with the regal, which was also immediately totaled. Then covid hit and the you-can-scoop-these-up-for-a-grand W-bodies became $4-5k overnight. That's a lot for a 20 year old car.

I still think the 3800 is one of the best engines out there, but the stable is pretty full right now.

The Regal eventually got replaced with a personal unicorn of mine, a 2012 Volvo C30.

Turbo Whitebocks are pretty sweet.

I've also got the money sponge:

She needs about a grand in fuel system work before I get to even think about a new project.

Then there's Shelly and the Zonda, who technically aren't mine but do take up a considerable amount of my time.

So I'm probably out of the 3800 game for a while. If I do get another it would have to be something special. A 2 door 40th GP, or an L67 swapped U-van.

Who knows, the future is a mystery.

Got a few update pics from the new owner.