David picked up his car, all seems well so far. Hopefully it will stay that way on the drive to California. We replaced everything that's likely to be an issue, alternator, water pump, cam seals, all hydraulics, etc. The car runs and drives very well.
Kevin I will watch for your pictures. If the mounting system is different, it may be that our buckets will bolt into other GTV6s. I am sure headlight buckets would be cheap.
Regarding the supercharging vs 24 valve comparison, I really try not to compare those two options. A 24 valve V6 is an engine, I don't sell engines, I sell something that bolts to an engine. These two things are not mutually exclusive, meaning that if I really wanted to I could probably adapt the kit to a 24 valve engine. I suppose in terms of competition for the performance dollar my kit competes with 24 valve conversions, but that's in the same way it competes with large torsion bars and Koni shocks. It's all good for me ,big bore conversions, 24valvers, turbos, superchargers, etc.
Greg
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SlewofDamascus
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SlewofDamascus
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A few journey pics:
The Alfa and I arrived just in time for the last moments of the Ice Age Exhibit.
The Alfa and I arrived just in time for the last moments of the Ice Age Exhibit.
- Attachments
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- Confusing angles - welcome to Texas!
- Texas.JPG (227.56 KiB) Viewed 6542 times
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- MPwelcome.JPG (133.57 KiB) Viewed 6541 times
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- MPtruck.JPG (149.32 KiB) Viewed 6541 times
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- mipcafe.JPG (249.46 KiB) Viewed 6541 times
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- Icestorm.JPG (160.31 KiB) Viewed 6541 times
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SlewofDamascus
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SlewofDamascus
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Sorry for the delay, I've been terribly busy with personal stuff.
I am taking some updated pics, at which time I will give my un-cut, uncensored review of my GTV-6.
Let me just say, as a teaser, it's a very special Alfa, not to be confused with "perfect" (it's an Alfa, after all) but very well meant, well sorted.
More soon (sorry for the delay).
David
I am taking some updated pics, at which time I will give my un-cut, uncensored review of my GTV-6.
Let me just say, as a teaser, it's a very special Alfa, not to be confused with "perfect" (it's an Alfa, after all) but very well meant, well sorted.
More soon (sorry for the delay).
David
Just Stunning!
Okay, I'll say it again ... Wow! This car looked good before but the shots out on the road - the wheels (color and look) and the ride height really make it! You guys did a great job! 
GV
GV
20-Years-3-Motors-Later
David your GTV6 looks simply stunning. 
I really hope it gives you as much pleasure as I have derived out of my own.Looking forward to your un cut road trip review.I just love long road trips in Alfa's.
Greg fantastic work there my friend.
I really hope it gives you as much pleasure as I have derived out of my own.Looking forward to your un cut road trip review.I just love long road trips in Alfa's.Greg fantastic work there my friend.
"Racing is life,everything before and after is just waiting."- Steve Mqueen
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SlewofDamascus
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double post
double post
Last edited by SlewofDamascus on Fri May 16, 2008 3:11 am, edited 2 times in total.
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SlewofDamascus
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- Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2007 9:46 pm
For those of you who don't care to read this, I understand, I will have pictures soon.
I'm not sure that came out right
I'd like to give my impressions of the vehicle, my professional impressions of Greg Gordon and Hiperformancestrore.com in this final segment (along with fresh picures). I will post my review of hiperformancestore.com under the "vendor" section, also.
Let me say, from prior experience with car shops (an experience hardcore DIYs might have trouble identifying with ), there are those who talk a good game, who look you in the eye with their best false-sincerity, and rob you blind (or worse) when the time is right.
There are a select few, however, for whom things like ethics and honesty mean more than some slogan on a kitchen magnet. Greg Gordon (and the whole hiperformancestore.com family - his dad, bob, and his wife, Misty, etc.) will always have my highest respect.
Before I start (officially
), I've made the decision to share a letter/e-mail that I wrote GG during the 7-month process. I feel it denotes something vital about both my initial impressions of hiperformancestore.com (which turned out prescient) and also, of course, a snap-shot of Greg's creation.
Greg, I'd like to commend you on the attention to detail, which is so obviously a vital tenet of the business practice (or philosophy) of Hi Performance.
Having run small businesses successfuly, I know how important that tenet is in separating one's business - for the better - from his (or her) competition.
Hi Performance continually demonstrates their attention to detail, whether it's something as simple as wiping down an excess buildup of grime of one kind or another, or whether it's changing the style of nuts on a specific component to increase the likliehood of trouble-free miles. I have seen both you and Bob take these seemingly small actions time and again in the short time the Alfa has been in your care.
I cannot express fully how important that is to me, as a customer, and it's a quality of yours that I had previously noted in the tech articles that you have written, Greg, prior to my decision to use Hi Performance. I have to say that this attention to detail made my choice to use Hi Performance a rather easy one, and from the moment the Alfa has been in your care, attention to detail has been on constant display.
I can't help but think that the 200k GTV-6, which you sold to the gentlemen from Reno, is a working tribute to the aforementioned philosophy to which both you and your dad adhere.
Anyone, any business can offer the big, sweeping, component upgrades, and all that they entail, but what separates the good from the bad and also the great from the good, is the level to which the small details matter, the real-world difference being 20k miles of bliss versus 200k+ miles of bliss.
And people - customers - do take notice.
I felt this was worth saying now in the context of what we have seen recently on the bb (cchan), and what we have both commented on. I am also certain, from my small-business experience, that the greater majority of your clients (now and in the future) are drawn to your business for that very reason - your commitment to excellence - whether the concept is tangible in their thoughts or whether it's manifested as something "special" about your business, which they can't quite express in words.
Thanks.
David
I'm not sure that came out right
I'd like to give my impressions of the vehicle, my professional impressions of Greg Gordon and Hiperformancestrore.com in this final segment (along with fresh picures). I will post my review of hiperformancestore.com under the "vendor" section, also.
Let me say, from prior experience with car shops (an experience hardcore DIYs might have trouble identifying with
), there are those who talk a good game, who look you in the eye with their best false-sincerity, and rob you blind (or worse) when the time is right.There are a select few, however, for whom things like ethics and honesty mean more than some slogan on a kitchen magnet. Greg Gordon (and the whole hiperformancestore.com family - his dad, bob, and his wife, Misty, etc.) will always have my highest respect.
Before I start (officially
), I've made the decision to share a letter/e-mail that I wrote GG during the 7-month process. I feel it denotes something vital about both my initial impressions of hiperformancestore.com (which turned out prescient) and also, of course, a snap-shot of Greg's creation.Greg, I'd like to commend you on the attention to detail, which is so obviously a vital tenet of the business practice (or philosophy) of Hi Performance.
Having run small businesses successfuly, I know how important that tenet is in separating one's business - for the better - from his (or her) competition.
Hi Performance continually demonstrates their attention to detail, whether it's something as simple as wiping down an excess buildup of grime of one kind or another, or whether it's changing the style of nuts on a specific component to increase the likliehood of trouble-free miles. I have seen both you and Bob take these seemingly small actions time and again in the short time the Alfa has been in your care.
I cannot express fully how important that is to me, as a customer, and it's a quality of yours that I had previously noted in the tech articles that you have written, Greg, prior to my decision to use Hi Performance. I have to say that this attention to detail made my choice to use Hi Performance a rather easy one, and from the moment the Alfa has been in your care, attention to detail has been on constant display.
I can't help but think that the 200k GTV-6, which you sold to the gentlemen from Reno, is a working tribute to the aforementioned philosophy to which both you and your dad adhere.
Anyone, any business can offer the big, sweeping, component upgrades, and all that they entail, but what separates the good from the bad and also the great from the good, is the level to which the small details matter, the real-world difference being 20k miles of bliss versus 200k+ miles of bliss.
And people - customers - do take notice.
I felt this was worth saying now in the context of what we have seen recently on the bb (cchan), and what we have both commented on. I am also certain, from my small-business experience, that the greater majority of your clients (now and in the future) are drawn to your business for that very reason - your commitment to excellence - whether the concept is tangible in their thoughts or whether it's manifested as something "special" about your business, which they can't quite express in words.
Thanks.
David
Last edited by SlewofDamascus on Fri May 16, 2008 4:10 am, edited 2 times in total.
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SlewofDamascus
- Gold
- Posts: 101
- Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2007 9:46 pm
To recap.
When the infamous Oakland Firestorm of October, 1991 decimated parts of the Oakland hills in an epic inferno (almost 4,000 homes destroyed), my father’s 1983 GTV-6 was one of many vehicles that were not only destroyed by fire, but incinerated to nothing, to ash.
My parents had been traveling in the wine country, where there was also a fire on that unseasonably hot and crazy-windy October day. They drove home in the dark to nothingness, listening on in disbelief to the news, to the disaster, but never quite realizing how they would so soon be touched.
4 years after the disaster, to the day, my father of 79 went into the hospital with lung discomfort after a cold and was dead within hours (from complications of pneumonia), only a few short weeks after moving into his rebuilt home (whose construction he oversaw in those few years preceding his death).
Things can change so very quickly.
My mother (83) recently told me that my father often lamented the fact that he had driven the Mercedes that fateful day in ‘91 (a Mercedes that cost him 55k, hard-earned dollars in 1985) and not “the Alfa.” (bought for maybe $11k in 1984). The plan, she said, was to buy another sports car; he had used a “track” car and taken a professional driving course in the waning summer before his death, but after managing the disaster (they lost every, single thing in the firestorm) and after supervising the rebuild, time ran out for my father.
I’m not sure what vehicle my father would have purchased, he had eclectic taste in cars, German, Italian, British mostly, and handling meant more to him than power, so who knows. I will never forget the green Triumph Stag he almost came home with one day, probably 1978, it was a coupe, beautiful inside and out. I forget why he passed, but I do remember he lamented that, also.
Time and lament.
I don’t know if this is the lesson – to act on our dreams, but I am very happy to finally have the GTV-6 that Greg Gordon’s Hiperformancestore.com brought into the 21st century.
It’s a keeper. It’s got some issues, but mostly it’s rock solid – we should all be so lucky.
I would like to comment first on the RSR kit and its streetability and so on. This is a tough one. Truly. Or maybe it’s simple. I am using this vehicle as a touring machine, not an Interstate touring machine, but a backroad machine (as much as possible).
I was on such a backroad this past Wednesday, Highway 128 in California starting at the 101 junction, going all the way to the coast (near Mendocino), 70 or so miles of pure driving through an other worldly redwood forest, through meandering, California foothills, all the way to the magical northern coast of upper California. Great Wineries break up the trip, including my favorite, Navarro Vineyards (a boutique winery), which is a locale my family has been coming to for more than 30 years.
On the way to Mendocino I did not get a chance to push the car -this was not because I had my 83 year-old mother in the passenger seat, rather because my GTV-6 reached it’s radiator-cooling tipping point. The trip occurred on Northern California’s first really hot day of the year and prior to the event, I had the a/c blowing (which blows cold) for about an hour -that, the weather (90 degrees), and the low gear, high-revving nature of the terrain apparently created an issue a few miles into the narrow, two-lane Highway 128. I pulled over, let the motor cool, and then drove at low rpms, sans a/c, which brought the situation under control. I did get to know the road and terrain a bit, which came in handy later while taming a Mitsubishi GTS.
It was on the way back from Mendocino, after reaching 128 for the second and final time, that I felt the over-heating issue was under control and that I started to really push the GTV-6. Aside from one glaring mistake (when I mismanaged a blind turn, going in too fast, wrong gear, and had to downshift post-apex), I felt like the GTV-6 had about 20% more cornering ability than I was demanding, after critiquing the race. On such a public road, where who knows what’s behind the next blind turn, anything over three-quarters is very likely foolish and unnecessarily dangerous (here endeth the warning).
This highway is like a great, open road course, I imagine, with 70+ miles of multiple hairpins and endless curvature through remarkable landscape. The roadway was properly banked, a testament to California roadway construction of its period (60s and 70s), an ethos that has died, which is very unfortunate for drivers of all consciousness. I can’t emphasize to the degree it should be, just how good these “backroads” (like Highway 128) are engineered, and how badly – by comparison - roadways are currently being engineered and built (with cheap asphalt), at least in California (but possibly nation-wide, if my Oklahoma to California trip is evidence).
Just as my brake pads came into proper heating parameters, we came upon a white GTS with blackened glass, maybe ‘05, a six of some kind, large diameter, oval exhaust tip, not a horrible-looking coupe, truth be told. I’d never seen one (that I noticed), and I have no idea of its performance rating, but as I said, it looks nice and sporty enough. Rather than give way, my colleague in the tight-looking GTS decided my white-haired, 83 year-old mother and I could eat his dust – seeyawouldntwanttobeya!
It’s not difficult for most of us to see where he’s coming from – it turned out he had his girlfriend in the car (maybe his sister, I don’t know, but a young woman, in any case). The Geritol Crew behind him was putting him in an awkward situation, to put it nicely., and so he was going to use his “assets” (whatever those are) and that was that. I feel ya, bro. But look at my situation, bud. I’ve got my mother in the car! I’m not expected to lose, let’s put it like that. Those of you who grew up in “competitive” families will undoubtedly understand (smile).
Note:
In all seriousness, after a couple thousand miles plus (mostly coming back from Oklahoma when I was single-mindedly trying to get home), I was finally in a place where I could test some limits related to handling, braking, driving skill. The GTS driver tried mightily, but failed to shake me. The truth is, I/GTV6 felt completely under control and certain I could have overtaken at will. On Highway 128, the tests - like the turns - come fast and furious, blind depressions require faith (in the veracity of signage, if nothing else) and an uncompromising margin of error with large redwoods and sheered earth do their part in keeping the senses alert – therefore, I would like to recommend Highway 128 to all the good folks in California or for those who might one day visit. Find this amazing place at 101 jut North of Cloverdale, Ca (also available from Highway 1, 20 miles South of Mendocino)! I would recommend a weekday, to avoid winery hoppers and bicyclists (I might note that any bicyclist who travels this road is on a suicide mission or just dumb – but dead is dead either way - 2c.).
Next or final installment tomorrow (pictures to follow).
I know this is long, but I guess I would like to impart or finish this as I started (“long post”)
When the infamous Oakland Firestorm of October, 1991 decimated parts of the Oakland hills in an epic inferno (almost 4,000 homes destroyed), my father’s 1983 GTV-6 was one of many vehicles that were not only destroyed by fire, but incinerated to nothing, to ash.
My parents had been traveling in the wine country, where there was also a fire on that unseasonably hot and crazy-windy October day. They drove home in the dark to nothingness, listening on in disbelief to the news, to the disaster, but never quite realizing how they would so soon be touched.
4 years after the disaster, to the day, my father of 79 went into the hospital with lung discomfort after a cold and was dead within hours (from complications of pneumonia), only a few short weeks after moving into his rebuilt home (whose construction he oversaw in those few years preceding his death).
Things can change so very quickly.
My mother (83) recently told me that my father often lamented the fact that he had driven the Mercedes that fateful day in ‘91 (a Mercedes that cost him 55k, hard-earned dollars in 1985) and not “the Alfa.” (bought for maybe $11k in 1984). The plan, she said, was to buy another sports car; he had used a “track” car and taken a professional driving course in the waning summer before his death, but after managing the disaster (they lost every, single thing in the firestorm) and after supervising the rebuild, time ran out for my father.
I’m not sure what vehicle my father would have purchased, he had eclectic taste in cars, German, Italian, British mostly, and handling meant more to him than power, so who knows. I will never forget the green Triumph Stag he almost came home with one day, probably 1978, it was a coupe, beautiful inside and out. I forget why he passed, but I do remember he lamented that, also.
Time and lament.
I don’t know if this is the lesson – to act on our dreams, but I am very happy to finally have the GTV-6 that Greg Gordon’s Hiperformancestore.com brought into the 21st century.
It’s a keeper. It’s got some issues, but mostly it’s rock solid – we should all be so lucky.
I would like to comment first on the RSR kit and its streetability and so on. This is a tough one. Truly. Or maybe it’s simple. I am using this vehicle as a touring machine, not an Interstate touring machine, but a backroad machine (as much as possible).
I was on such a backroad this past Wednesday, Highway 128 in California starting at the 101 junction, going all the way to the coast (near Mendocino), 70 or so miles of pure driving through an other worldly redwood forest, through meandering, California foothills, all the way to the magical northern coast of upper California. Great Wineries break up the trip, including my favorite, Navarro Vineyards (a boutique winery), which is a locale my family has been coming to for more than 30 years.
On the way to Mendocino I did not get a chance to push the car -this was not because I had my 83 year-old mother in the passenger seat, rather because my GTV-6 reached it’s radiator-cooling tipping point. The trip occurred on Northern California’s first really hot day of the year and prior to the event, I had the a/c blowing (which blows cold) for about an hour -that, the weather (90 degrees), and the low gear, high-revving nature of the terrain apparently created an issue a few miles into the narrow, two-lane Highway 128. I pulled over, let the motor cool, and then drove at low rpms, sans a/c, which brought the situation under control. I did get to know the road and terrain a bit, which came in handy later while taming a Mitsubishi GTS.
It was on the way back from Mendocino, after reaching 128 for the second and final time, that I felt the over-heating issue was under control and that I started to really push the GTV-6. Aside from one glaring mistake (when I mismanaged a blind turn, going in too fast, wrong gear, and had to downshift post-apex), I felt like the GTV-6 had about 20% more cornering ability than I was demanding, after critiquing the race. On such a public road, where who knows what’s behind the next blind turn, anything over three-quarters is very likely foolish and unnecessarily dangerous (here endeth the warning).
This highway is like a great, open road course, I imagine, with 70+ miles of multiple hairpins and endless curvature through remarkable landscape. The roadway was properly banked, a testament to California roadway construction of its period (60s and 70s), an ethos that has died, which is very unfortunate for drivers of all consciousness. I can’t emphasize to the degree it should be, just how good these “backroads” (like Highway 128) are engineered, and how badly – by comparison - roadways are currently being engineered and built (with cheap asphalt), at least in California (but possibly nation-wide, if my Oklahoma to California trip is evidence).
Just as my brake pads came into proper heating parameters, we came upon a white GTS with blackened glass, maybe ‘05, a six of some kind, large diameter, oval exhaust tip, not a horrible-looking coupe, truth be told. I’d never seen one (that I noticed), and I have no idea of its performance rating, but as I said, it looks nice and sporty enough. Rather than give way, my colleague in the tight-looking GTS decided my white-haired, 83 year-old mother and I could eat his dust – seeyawouldntwanttobeya!
It’s not difficult for most of us to see where he’s coming from – it turned out he had his girlfriend in the car (maybe his sister, I don’t know, but a young woman, in any case). The Geritol Crew behind him was putting him in an awkward situation, to put it nicely., and so he was going to use his “assets” (whatever those are) and that was that. I feel ya, bro. But look at my situation, bud. I’ve got my mother in the car! I’m not expected to lose, let’s put it like that. Those of you who grew up in “competitive” families will undoubtedly understand (smile).
Note:
In all seriousness, after a couple thousand miles plus (mostly coming back from Oklahoma when I was single-mindedly trying to get home), I was finally in a place where I could test some limits related to handling, braking, driving skill. The GTS driver tried mightily, but failed to shake me. The truth is, I/GTV6 felt completely under control and certain I could have overtaken at will. On Highway 128, the tests - like the turns - come fast and furious, blind depressions require faith (in the veracity of signage, if nothing else) and an uncompromising margin of error with large redwoods and sheered earth do their part in keeping the senses alert – therefore, I would like to recommend Highway 128 to all the good folks in California or for those who might one day visit. Find this amazing place at 101 jut North of Cloverdale, Ca (also available from Highway 1, 20 miles South of Mendocino)! I would recommend a weekday, to avoid winery hoppers and bicyclists (I might note that any bicyclist who travels this road is on a suicide mission or just dumb – but dead is dead either way - 2c.).
Next or final installment tomorrow (pictures to follow).
I know this is long, but I guess I would like to impart or finish this as I started (“long post”)
