I owned this GTO for 8 years and can confirm it’s rock solid, in fact I’m absolutely gutted I couldn’t afford to sort the fuelling out because otherwise she’s built to reliably handle 500bhp or more, right down to the forged internals, hybrid tubs, clutch and output shaft (kormex) and better brakes/suspension. The dash at night time looks stunning.
At 6psi she pulls far better then the original wheezy-after-5.5k 9b’s could at 1bar and I reckon at 1.5bar she’ll show up very, very expensive metal.
She’s spent the last 5-6 years (except for one of them) sitting in my mum’s warm garage so rust really isn’t an issue, she’s solid underneath, sills, arches, everywhere. The damage to the back left was brushing up against a dwarf wall, I was reversing in heavy rain at what must have been 0.1mph and just touched it, so the bumper is fine it just needs painted.
If interested I think I still have all the original pictures Sumiyaka took when they rebored it, fitted the forged internals, the hybrid turbos and so on.
I didn’t need to service it, the engine was stripped and rebuilt twice in the 8 years I had it, during which time I only covered 20k miles in two big 1-year chunks. They’ve probably only done maybe 10k miles. The servicing I did do was after the last rebuild where the gen2 crank went in, mineral oil for 500 then Silkolene ProS for 1000, then changed again for more ProS. I used the oils Sumiyaka recommended and the filters that Mark gave me at the time I picked it up.
I don’t know where the pistons receipt is, but they came from James (Amber) about 7 years ago, I remember them being £80 each at the time. I opted for 35-thou over instead of 55 to retain more strength in the block, I’d heard that 55 was pushing it a bit and planned on her having over 600bhp (hence the number plate).
Am happy to answer any questions, I have nothing to gain by lying, but then there is also nothing to hide, I really did invest every spare penny I earnt for 8 years in this car, she’s a genuinely good motor and will give the next owner years of happy motoring. I just hope you don’t mind a bit of snarling, hissing and growling, she’s a bit of a beast!
I’ll be gutted if a chav buys this, an enthusiast should buy her, sort the fuelling and cosmetics and have themself a properly awesome GTO with an easy, reliable 500 horses. If/when you od please let me know, I’d love to see this car finally finished, it’s painfully close to being a show car.
