Totally new to this forum and I have pretty much zero knowledge about this car…
Anyway - I currently own a BMW 323i and a Mazda RX8, and I am in love with quick RWD things
I have the chance to buy a H reg GTO (Non Turbo unfortunately). Body work is in a good state but it needs a lick of paint. I plan to have this car as a “toy” rather than a daily drive and it is likely to be put around its paces on a track quite often (The RX8 is starting to struggle with the strain with a blown seal!!)
This car has a slight rattle on the top end and its idle bounces when it is warm - Are these issues anything to worry about?
I plan to build this car from the bottom up, a project so to speak. My aim is 500bhp without spending too much cash on it - Is this realist (if so how much money am I looking to to chuck at the thing in parts).
I plan to get the car for around the £1000 mark - With the details I have given is this a fair price?
Without wanting to sound too brutal, your wasting your time trying to Tune a naturally aspirated GTO…
Buy your self a Twin Turbo as a starting point and go from there…
It wont be cheap and will not be cheap and into many thousands !! and also these are big cars and not that agile on a twisty race track as they were designed as a grand tourer and not a agile cheap Ferrari beater
I hate to sound like such a n00b here (not knowing anything about these cars)
How different is the twin turbo from the none turbo (I am not talking about power here, more setup)
As in with the BMW M3 looks identical to the other 3 Series but almost everything underneath the car is completely different, from suspension setup to bushes. It is pretty much a totally different car that just looks the same. Is the Turbo and Non-Turbo like this?
I am just thinking that the non turbo project GTO would be built up over time and it would be nice to have the the option to install a turbo / supercharger at a later date. I must stress that this is more of a project than me wanting to jump into a fast car and drive it hard.
I can’t see this car being any less agile than my BMW (I could be wrong, I will have a chance to give it a drive around an airfield before I buy it)
Please let me know that if I am barking up the wrong tree here and I am wasting my time - I just thought that I can get this car, from a friend, for pretty cheap and it would be a nice learning experience.
Rob will give you a far more detailed response than I can but the NA GTOs are FWD, rather than 4WD like the Twin Turbos. I’m sure there are loads of other differences but that alone is a pretty major one!
Hello and welcome dude, don’t worry about asking noob questions we are all here to help!
As far as N/A and twin turbo go… It’s nothing to do with looks… They don’t differ apart from V subtle changes like active aero spoiler. However I do believe the NAs come I at about 200bhp and the twin turbos cone in at 320 bhp… These cars are seriously seriously heavy. So weight to power ratio they are bad at the NA level If you want speed out of a NA you’ll be spending a crap load of money to put twin turbos I it. A different clutch and gearbox as the NA ones don’t cope with the speeds and other bits.
Please take some time to read these buyers guides they save a lot of trouble In The future after buying a duff car.
The American market got a front wheel drive N/A , most if not all of the import N/A’s over here are AWD there are a few FWD models but they have come in from America
So the gear box and clutch is different between the NA and TT’s? I am assuming that the engine is also completely different then too? Rather than them both being the same and the TT just having turbos attached too it then?
Drawing up some conclusions - You wouldn’t say that this is worth the buy (Clean H reg NA) for sub £1000 and working up from that? Please bear in mind that I would be doing all the work myself (bar the spraying) so time and labor isn’t a factor here; just parts.
Has anyone attempted on doing this too a NA before - Or am I the first idiot to ask questions about it!!
On the side note… The RX8 was meant to be a “toy” but £1000 just for the engine seals (without worrying about what else it destroyed) seemed just a little bit too expensive!!
The differences between the NA and TT cars are massive, they may look very similar but they are worlds apart in spec and parts
Putting a turbos on an TT is not as easy as people think and just not worth the hassle when for another £1000 you can buy a twin turbo and havea 300BHP car to start with
My 450+ BHP kit is around £3600 for a Twin Turbo, but also give you twice the torque than standard
I’ve seen a lot of guys try and fail to develop super-NAs because they fancied a challenge. As Rob says a lot of the time items connected to the engine aren’t as tough, and as the engine can be higher compression to begin with, super/turbo-charging could drastically shorten the life of some NA engines.
Its a LOT of fun to take the turbos off, refurb them, add bigger injectors, improve the timing and induction, and add power to the exhaust and via chips and there is lots of support on here for how to do these types of things.
I’d bypass the N/A and look for a twin turbo, you’ll have just as much of a challenge ahead with much more potential reward at the end.
