Life is Great with a 6.0-liter V8
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  • Five Years… Still Running Strong!

    Posted on February 15th, 2014 tcorzett No comments

    Today marks the fifth year that I’ve owned my G8 and the odometer is approaching 63,300 miles. So much has happened in my life over that time, and while it all hasn’t revolved around the G8… the vast majority has. It is impossible to pick-out a favorite moment, but I know I’ll never be able to forget all of the friends I’ve made… and those we’ve lost.

  • RIP Charlie… it’s been GRRRR8

    Posted on November 14th, 2013 tcorzett No comments

    CHARLES E. VAN WORMER, JR., 46, passed away at home on November 14, 2013, following a year-long battle with cancer. Throughout his adult life, he purchased and modified several Chevys, Ford Mustangs, and most recently, a Pontiac G8. His enthusiasm for this vehicle, and his desire to help other G8 owners, led to his involvement with the GRRRR8 website, to which he provided technical expertise and support. Through this site, Charlie made many friends throughout the United States.

    While I didn’t have the chance to met Charlie face-to-face, through many hours of chatting and reading of forum posts he had a significant influence on me and my G8. One of the other GRRRR8 Board members is producing a commemorative coin to help remember all that Charlie has given us.

    My coin will be finding a home in the glovebox of my G8, and hopefully a little piece of him can come along with me on my adventures. Thank you for giving us G8 folks a home… RIP Charlie.

  • G8Board.com Owner Spotlight

    Posted on October 3rd, 2013 tcorzett No comments

    Today I was honored as the first to be covered on the G8Board.com‘s new “Owner Spotlight”.

  • Three Years Old

    Posted on February 15th, 2012 tcorzett No comments

    It’s hard to believe, but the G8 just turned 3 years old! Mileage climbed to 33,302 miles, a difference of 12,802 miles, mostly due to my Cross Country Road Trip.

    I’ve not yet been able to get the G8 out on the track, but I’ve been getting ready. It’s starting to look like in the next few weeks I’ll be returning home for a while… hopefully it will allow me to spend some more time with the G8 (and my car club friends). I’m also planning another road trip through the Pacific North West… on route to the ’12 G8 Nationals.

  • RIP Marco Simoncelli

    Posted on October 23rd, 2011 tcorzett No comments

    Marco Simoncelli, a rising star in the world of MotoGP, died Sunday at the age of just 24 at the Sepang International Circuit.

    Ciao…

  • RIP Dan Wheldon

    Posted on October 16th, 2011 tcorzett No comments

    Dan Wheldon was killed in an accident today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

    “INDYCAR is sad to announce that Dan Wheldon passed away from unsurvivable injuries. Our thoughts and prayers are with Dan and his family. INDYCAR, its drivers and teams have decided to end the race. We will run a five-lap salute in honor of Dan.”

    You will always be remembered…

  • Goodguys All American Get-Together

    Posted on March 27th, 2011 tcorzett No comments

    It has been two years since I last had the G8 out in a car show. Living near Pleasanton, Ca gives me several chances to put my car on display, but lately I just have not been available to attend. As has become a tradition, the NorCal GOATs showed-up with good numbers and received a fair bit of attention.

    Last time the G8 was lightly-modified (mostly electronics), but this year was a different story. With a highly modified car I knew I was going to get some attention… and rather than explaining all of the mods to everyone over-and-over again, I decided to make a “Fact Sheet” for the car.

    In the future I plan on having a display stand for the fact sheet, but for now I just had it in a window.

    Watching the number of people who spent quite some time looking at the fact sheet, many of whom might have just walked past “a four door sedan”, I was really glad that I made it. Also, having the photos of the underside saved people from having to crawl under the car.

    I have been joking with people about how I don’t want to “show” my car, as I care more about making it fast, but for some reason when you have a supercharger people just want to look under the hood. I have NEVER even cleaned under my hood, but I guess I’ll have to start now!

    I took the opportunity of being around show cars to wonder around and see what people were doing to dress-up their engine compartments. I think I was able to pick-up a couple good ideas to dress things up without going overboard.

    One of my favorite parts of the show was visiting the Adam’s Polishes booth. I have quite a few of their products, but have been really curious about their machine polishing systems. I was treated to a great demonstration, including some hands-on testing, and have to decided to dive-into the world of “finish correction”.

    It was really nice to get out and “show-off” the G8 a little. I know have the car for my own enjoyment, but is really nice to get compliments on it as well. I can’t wait until the next event where I’ll be better prepared to properly exhibit the G8!

  • Two Years… Where did the time go?

    Posted on February 15th, 2011 tcorzett No comments

    It is hard to believe that another year has passed. The G8 is doing great, despite not being driven much this year. The odometer is at 20,500 miles (yeah… I only put 4k miles on it this year) so there is lots of life left!

    This year, being away from the G8 and all of my NorCal GOAT friends, has been quite rough. Having worked so much has allowed me to transform the G8 into the car of my dreams, but it didn’t come without suffering. I spend my nights dreaming of when I’ll be back home with the gang and all the time I’ll have to spend with the G8.

    This year I plan on taking a little time to myself and going on some “explorations”. There are all sorts of roads around the US that I have a desire to drive… and I think I’m going to try to take some time to explore them. I will also be getting the G8 out onto the track (Road Course and Auto-X) to test out all the new upgrades.

  • Living Without a G8 GT

    Posted on November 23rd, 2010 tcorzett 3 comments

    I dropped the G8 off at the shop today to begin the transformation. I had to pack an SUV to the gills to get all of the parts to the shop. When I dropped everything off, even the mechanics were shocked at how much was going to go onto the car. It’s going to take a while to wrap-up (especially since I’m still waiting on some suspension parts to be delivered), but hopefully by Christmas I will have a whole new beast of a machine.

  • GoatRun 2010

    Posted on September 20th, 2010 tcorzett No comments

    GoatRun has turned into a staple event on my calendar. This year I have spent much of my time traveling for work, but even before I started the job I put in my time for this weekend off.

    My trip to GoatRun started with a flight home from Utah, followed by the early morning meet-up for the 500 mile drive to Vegas. This year my father wasn’t sitting in the passenger’s seat, which made the trip seem a little longer, but the talk on the two-way radios made the trip enjoyable.

    It was great to have another G8 in the pack this year, even if we had to wait a few minutes for him to show-up for the start (something about a car being towed). His passenger was even nice enough to snap the above photo of my car on the road.

    We took the same route as last year, minus a few of the unscheduled gas stops, and made good time. This year I had my GoPro Cameras, so took a few videos of the drive down to Vegas… even had a Dodge Charger that wanted to play:

    The group arrived in Barstow and met-up with the folks from SoCal and headed towards Vegas. Again, like last year, the group wasn’t very organized and broke-up quickly (a couple CHP officers didn’t help the situation). Fortunately this year a few of the NorCal GOATs stuck together and made the drive much more enjoyable. I stayed in the same hotel as last year (can’t knock free hotels!), so went and checked-in before heading to the Palace Station for the Meet n’ Greet.

    At the Meet n’ Greet there was a bit of a surprise… the organizer of the event planned a really great proposal to his (now) fiance. We arranged GTOs on the top of the parking structure to spell-out “Marry Me”. I was fortunate to be involved as the photographer and videographer. It was really fun to setup my GoPro cameras in hidden locations around the room (no reason to spoil the surprise) and capture the moment.

    The Meet n’ Greet was dominated, for me, by the proposal… but I did get to spend a little time talking-shop with a few of the other people.

    Last year Saturday was spent at the drag strip, but this year there was no drag racing. Instead, the Car Show filled the afternoon. I was able to get a proper chance to check-out the other cars and pick-up a few ideas for my own. For some reason I didn’t apply and sun screen and found myself hiding in the shade looking like a boiled lobster. Speaking of lobster… I made a trip back to Joe’s Crab Shack for a ‘traditional’ GoatRun dinner (minus the companion).

    My favorite part of GoatRun ’09 was the cruise to Red Rock Canyon. This year the cruise was not nearly as exciting. After a 15min drive on the freeway we drove out a road (not a bad one) and then back. I kept asking myself “when are we going to get to the cruise”… eventually, I realized it was the cruise. Fortunately I had setup my cameras on cars before leaving the hotel so captured some good footage.

    One of the nice things about not having a passenger along for the cruise was that I could push the G8 a little harder than I would have with someone else in the car. The G8 really handled the sweeping corners well, and I even passed a few GTOs along the way! I had wanted to have the modifications to my G8 finished by GoatRun, but it didn’t come together (and I wasn’t going to rush it).

    Sunday night a few of the NorCal GOATs headed back to the Hofbrauhaus. This year was a little more reserved than last, but there were still quite a few shots (and the required paddling). This year several of the wives/girlfriends came along, so rather than the crazy walk of the strip from last year… the guys took the ladies out to the theater. I didn’t want to participate in that activity, so decided to head back to the hotel after dinner.

    Monday was the brunch at the Bellagio, which was incredible again… before the long drive back home. Before the brunch a few of us were going to drive out to Red Rock Canyon for some photos/videos, but it didn’t work-out. After brunch the group had an uneventful trip back up to the Bay Area.

    In the end, I was a little disappointed with GoatRun this year. I’m sure much of that was because last year was so incredible! I think the biggest let-down was the cruise… I really would have liked something more interesting/involved… I figure when people are getting together from many states (as from as far away as Missouri) that the cruise would be more involved than an hour long drive out/back on a single road. There has been some talk that this might be the last GoatRun for a while, but hopefully it returns again next year… If it does, I know I’ll be there!