SPF GT40 New Owner Observations/Problems

[ijvpet]

I must be the wierd one of the bunch. I purposely put straight pipes on the car just to make it louder!! AC is good in the CAV. Butu fill in all the nooks and crannies and rain or shine she's good to go.

BTW, when in the rain, find an empty parking lot - "oh the fun when there's no sun" - by god!!

[chuck smith]

the owners manual is online now. I downloaded it last week, complete with all wiring diagrams

[chuck smith]

try this web site, look under manuals ,tech I think. chuck

Second Strike - the Superformance Owners Group

[Jack]

Thanks Chuck, I will download one. But it would have been nice to have a hard copy with the car, just like any other car you purchase.

[Lynn Miner]

Just for future reference, I posted the GT40 manual to the "How To" section of this forum a few months back. A couple months before it showed up on Second Strike. You guys should look at the How To area periodically. There's a lot of good stuff there.

[chuck smith]

Lynn is correct, he has covered just about every nuance of issues with the car, and found solutions for most as well as other interesting upgrades.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by kepetersen

First, the car sucks up water into the passenger compartment like a vacuum cleaner. There was so much water entering the floorboards that I had an inch of standing water under each of the seats. Unfortunately, SPF uses an open-cell foam rubber in the construction of the seats and believe me they work extremely well as sponges. What with all the water collecting under the seats, and soaking into the foam rubber, my ass was soaked for hours. (Ultimately, I had to dry the seats in the sun and manually soak-up the collected water under the seats.) I may either have new seats made with a closed-cell rubber (and replacing the funky gray 'mouse fur' upholstery with something more original), or have someone sew on some waterproof material (along with flexible insulation) on the seat bottoms. Also, water somehow made its way onto the steering column such that when I made a sharp turn right or left, it was as if a faucet was opened and water would pour down on my legs. I have to wonder about the possibility of some future electrical failure given the amount of moisture under the dash.

Personally, I would suggest this is pretty damn poor show for a $130,000 car. Not being the builder of the car, I think Kim should be able to expect better than this.
ALL GT40s leak, that seems to be a fact of life I can accept, but this level of leakage just seems to be ridiculous and possibly dangerous!
I've never owned a GTD that leaked this badly (more to do with the way they were built rather than being inherently less leaky!)

Simon

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Originally Posted by simonjrwinter

Personally, I would suggest this is pretty damn poor show for a $130,000 car. Not being the builder of the car, I think Kim should be able to expect better than this.
ALL GT40s leak, that seems to be a fact of life I can accept, but this level of leakage just seems to be ridiculous and possibly dangerous!
I've never owned a GTD that leaked this badly (more to do with the way they were built rather than being inherently less leaky!)

Simon

Again,

Keep in mind this is a race car, not a luxury street car. Yes, they can be made reasonably watertight, but the inherent design makes it a project to do so. That GT40s became street cars was secondary to the original mission-win Le Mans and damp drivers be damned!!

There is a LOT of fiddling and tweaking to do on a car such as this. That this car might cost xxxxxxx amount is not the point. Yes, the dealer/installer/assembler should resolve many of the issues, but that is up to the buyer to require. And it will not be free. I spent a lot of hours working on P1116 to solve some issues that existed when the car came from a very highly respected performance shop that had done the engine install and completion.

Plan on having fun and spending some quaility "car bonding time" doing the "prove-out" and you will be happier. If you want real "turn-key" plan on spending more........lots more.

[Kim Petersen]

Originally Posted by Mark IV

Keep in mind this is a race car, not a luxury street car. Yes, they can be made reasonably watertight, but the inherent design makes it a project to do so. That GT40s became street cars was secondary to the original mission-win Le Mans and damp drivers be damned!!

What Rick says is correct. My point was not to disparage the SPF's 'water resistance'; the fact is that the SPF is a highly accurate reproduction of the original race car. And implicit in that must be the understanding by prospective buyers that they are going to receive something that is more race car than street car.

For me that wasn't a surprise, and indeed, I wanted a car more original than not. I'm prepared to find and plug holes myself – but I'd rather do that than have SPF begin to interpret for us what other changes might be appropriate to make their car more streetable. Where would that end? Sprayed on sound insulation? Bumpers? Cup holders? The fact is, the SPF is probably the most accurate rendition of the original GT40 available and that's what many of us want. We don't want an interpretation of the original; we want the original – leaks and all. One of my points was: Don't be surprised by the car's rather primitive and unrefined nature. Instead, embrace it, modify it if you like, and then go out and enjoy it!

By the way, my other point was that SPF could do a much better job of supporting their customers. As an example, while Lynn has been kind enough to post the owner's manual online, shouldn't the new owner receive a hard copy with his purchase? And how about some details on the car's warranty and service details? As it is, when you buy a car from Superformance, that's all you get. Period. For what we're paying, that's pretty shabby.

Kim

[John]

Kim,

Well said.

John

[Simon]

HHMMMM.....NOT a criticism of the SPF, more a thought that the builder maybe should have found these holes that need plugging!

[chuck smith]

well, not really. Olthoff will do that for you if you request it, but it is not inherit for him to do so if not requested, in fact , many do not want to detract from the original experience. I have spent about 2 hours making mine more watertight, about the same amount of time I spent with my CAV, and it was quite easy; some neoprene here, some RTV there, no biggie. the cars are truely a thrilling experience and their originality is a large part of that. No other replica can really duplicate it.

[SpyderMike]

I can't tell if my car leaks or if I just keep wetting myself - it is that fun.

[Mike Drew]

Originally Posted by Mike Drew

A
It might be wise to consider regular V-rated road tires as opposed to barely-legal racing tires. I recently found V-rated 225/50-15 front tires here:

V-rated GT40 Front Tires

And almost-matching 295/50-15 rear tires here:

V-rated GT40 Rear Tires

The latter are listed as H-rated on the website; I've eyeballed them myself and they are in fact clearly marked as being V-rated. I'd check the markings to be sure however.

The price is right too!

They are carried by Les Schwab tire stores in the USA.

Somebody just pointed out to me that the links above no longer work. Maxxis just revamped their entire website.

Here is the link to the rear tires (295/50-15)

MA-S1 Marauder

and the front tires (225/50-15)

MA-Z4S Victra

It's odd that the rear tires are listed as being H-rated, yet the pair that I recently eyeballed in France (pictured below on a 10x15 Campagnolo Pantera wheel):



are very clearly marked as being V-rated, as you can plainly see from this close-up:



Why would the same tire be marked/marketed as an H-rated tire for the US market???

[Tony R]

Hello All,

I read Kim's rendition of his opinion of the SPF GT40 and it is his opinion. I own and have P2181 in the garage with 1000+ miles on it and have a different opinion.

The GT40 is more comfortable and easier to drive than the Cobra. The A/C works great and I have not had the teething problems that were in Kim's article. I have bought and installed some bits and pieces from Olthoff that I feel should have been provided by SPF (rear clip struts & window kit) that make it easier to live with. The fit of the rear clip from SPF was horrible and required cutting of the exhaust pipes to not have the fiberglass resting on one of the pipes, installing metal supports on both sides of the rear clip to allow for some stiffening for clearances when raising and lowering but, it is a component vehicle.

No luggage room.....it is a race car modified for the street and I can see how the Jackies --- Ickx,Olliver, Dan Guerney and the others were able to drive these cars at LeMans and win. Except for Guerney they were small people, I am not .......5'9" 250+ and take a bit of twisting and turning to get in and out but, once in I am very comfortable.

I am careful when parking to make sure that I can open the drivers door all the way or I can not get out easily or at all.

I love the car, driving it seeing it beside the cobra in the garage side by side with my Shelby always brings a smile to my face. I have an old school engine with Webers and the sound from directly behind my head when I wind it up to 6K is pure pleasure. I have an RBT ZF but, it is the model used in the BMW M1 with a 3:77 Ring Gear.



Best Regards,

Tony R

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Originally Posted by Mike Drew

Somebody just pointed out to me that the links above no longer work. Maxxis just revamped their entire website.

Here is the link to the rear tires (295/50-15)

MA-S1 Marauder

and the front tires (225/50-15)

MA-Z4S Victra







Why would the same tire be marked/marketed as an H-rated tire for the US market???

The Maxxis USA site lists the tire as being "H" rated and for light trucks/SUVs!! Maybe a different tire in Europe.......

[Mike Drew]

Originally Posted by Mark IV

The Maxxis USA site lists the tire as being "H" rated and for light trucks/SUVs!! Maybe a different tire in Europe.......

It's a "truck" tire only by virtue that no cars in the USA (or anywhere really) use tires anywhere near that big in 15-inch. It's nominally a truck tire in Europe too.

Because it's been engineered to handle vehicles of a fairly heavy weight, the sidewalls will be nice and stiff.

I still don't know why the speed rating is different in the US market though, for what is very obviously the same tire?