Living with a G8 GT

Road Trip!

I’ve spent the past two months working in the deserts of Utah without much time away from work. I was lucky to get this weekend off… so decided to take a road trip!

For the last month I have had a paycheck sitting on my desk, but with no bank branches in Utah that can accept deposits… the closest place is in Pocatello, ID (Yes, I will say it again… Bank of America doesn’t have an ATM/branch that can accept deposits in Utah!?!). I’m always down for a fun drive, so decided to plan-out a route that would take me through the back roads of Northern Utah into Idaho.

First off… a little warning for the G8 and GTO folks… my vehicle while I’ve been on travel has been a rental 2011 Mustang (v6) and that is what I went on the road trip in.

With 305HP the v6 is no slouch, but it’s definitely not a v8… and has only 280 lb-ft of torque. The inside of the Mustang is a little small for me (the parking brake is always cramping my leg), but it is much better than the alternative… a Kia!

Day 1: 388 miles (8hr 1min)

I headed out from Tooele, UT after filling-up with gas and checking the tire pressures (40psi in the 225 tires… yes, 225 tires!?!). I wanted to wash the Mustang so it would be ready for the inevitable photos, but the car wash was broken. First piece of interesting road I came to turned-out to be my favorite. Just East of Salt Lake City off of I-80. There is a road that leads up into the Wasatch National Forest.

Hwy 65 is a ribbon of asphalt (freshly paved in almost all of the corners) that was so much fun that I had to drive it twice! Friday morning the road was almost empty of traffic (except for a few cyclists) and it made for a thrilling drive. The posted speed limit is a little low for my tastes, but the “safe speed for current road conditions” was fun enough. The up-hill climb is quite steep and the series of hairpin turns are a blast… they are just wide enough radius to allow for some fun (which is apparent by the number of tire marks from people drifting up there). At the summit there is a nice little lot to pull-off (and even a restroom). The view was definitely enjoyable!

The decent off the backside is a little more gentle (if you consider -9% grade gentle) and and has some great sweeping turns through forests of birch trees.

Utah really has some beautiful scenery along its roads… Not that California doesn’t, but sometimes the typical “brown grass” gets a little old. One of the really cool features of the area I drove through mid-day Friday was the red rock hills/cliffs that run along the road.

Once into Idaho there was also great scenery to enjoy. I really liked the rolling hills that, despite being August, were green. The blue skies with fluffy clouds were so picturesque… I had to take a photo.

I arrived in Pocatello, ID and headed to the bank to deposit my paycheck… then headed to the hotel to check-in. One perk of spending so much time on the road is that I have more free hotel rooms than I will ever be able to use (seriously, I have about a month worth right now). Just how much time have I been spending in hotels? I stayed in the hotel for free (used points) and still received a free gift when checking-in (yummy Ben & Jerry’s Tripple Caramel Chunk ice cream).

Day 2: 239 miles (4hr 32min)

After the many hours of driving on Friday, I decided to make Saturday a little more relaxed. The route I had planned for Saturday was longer, but didn’t have many exciting roads. Rather than spending almost 7 hours driving on (comparatively) straight roads, I took the more direct (and 2 hour shorter) route back to Tooele… with a detour back to Hwy 65.

The Hwy 65 ends at a small reservoir, so Saturday had all sorts of traffic on it (even a better reason I didn’t take the previously planned route… as there would have been more traffic there as well). There is also a bike (bicycle) race next weekend… so was crawling with cyclists. I was traveling the opposite direction (North to South) Saturday and was able to experience the hairpin turns with a -10% grade! Fortunately, I was able to get a clear stretch of road from the summit down… and boy was I glad this road was freshly paved!

The rest of the drive to Tooele was mundane freeway driving, but I did stop-off at the Sugarhouse Barbecue Company for a great lunch (yummy pulled pork sandwich).

The weekend was a total blast… some people might think driving over 600 miles just for the heck of it is kinda crazy (I did deposit a pay check right?)… but I found it very relaxing. After nearly two months without a break, it was great to just loose myself in the drive. The roads of Utah and Idaho were very welcoming… I know I will be back out there again soon (and next time with the G8)!

A Metamorphosis is Coming

The G8 is going through a metamorphosis…
What once was a nymph will soon be a beast of a machine…

Mt. Hamilton Cruise

Having spent the last few weeks on the East Coast for work, I was really excited to get back to the Bay Area and the G8. To take advantage of this trip home I hooked-up with a few GTO owners today for a spirited drive up to Mt. Hamilton near San Jose, Ca.

I have been wanting to make this drive for some time, but have always been a little leery of doing it on a weekend. This is a road that the crazy cyclists come to test their muscle, and it can be quite busy when the weather is good. Fortunately, Friday turned-out to be a perfect day to make the drive… there were zero cyclists on the road!

The group met-up in San Jose and headed up towards Mt. Hamilton. I lead the cruise, not like anyone could have become lost, and it turned-out to be a good thing… the road conditions were less than ideal and having the car with the most tire sidewall up front paid-off. To the best of my ability I tried to radio back when I hit a big bump, but I don’t think it was enough sometimes… there were several occasions where the GTOs had to slow down to avoid the rough roads.

As we made the climb up Mt. Hamilton we came-up on a Toyota 4-Runner, which normally would have been holding us back, but it turned out he was a local who likes to drive! At the top of Mt. Hamilton is the Lick Observatory. The driver of the 4-Runner was heading to the observatory and had obviously driven the road quite a few times… he was actually giving me a run for my money up the mountain!

At the top of Mt. Hamilton we stopped at the Lick Observatory for some photographs and sightseeing. I had never been to the observatory, so being able to walk around and look at some of the memorabilia was very cool. They even have an original seismograph from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake! Before leaving we had to take advantage of the scenery and take a few photographs.

Rather than just driving back down the road we had just driven, we decided to head out towards the Central Valley and drive on San Antonio Valley Rd. and then out on Del Puerto Canyon Rd.

The descent from the Lick Observatory down San Antonio Valley Rd. was just spectacular! This is a smooth section of road that through a series of switchbacks drops almost 2000′ in less than 4 miles (at up to a -11% grade). If this road wasn’t in the middle of nowhere I’d drive it every day. What better way to explain… than a video!

The G8 really handled this stretch of the drive well, no matter how hard I tried to push it. The driver of the GTO behind me commented that he could smell my brakes as he was going through the corners! There were several times where I was locking-up a wheel or two… and I know if I had not been using the transmission to help slow down into corners I wouldn’t have been able to be as quick. I can only imagine how this road will be after I do my suspension upgrades!

After the wonderful descent from Mt. Hamilton we headed out into the middle of nowhere. The only thing you’ll find out here are some farms and the occasional cow, but it does lend to some nice “relaxing” driving roads. San Antonio Valley Rd. leads out to the crossing point for three roads at “The Junction”. Mines Rd. leads to Livermore, Del Puerto Canyon Rd. heads out towards the Central Valley, and San Antonio Valley Rd. to the Lick Observatory and San Jose. The Junction is also the home of a little bar, named “The Junction” (big surprise huh?). We stopped there to catch our breath, and after spending some time with the locals we headed back out to finish-up the drive.

The day turned-out to be a great outing. I had hoped to have a few more cars, but I think it worked out better than we only had the four of us… it allowed us to push things a bit harder. I wished I’d been able to spend more time with the G8, but it was great to get out and romp around while I had the chance!

CCG8CC Skyline Drive

So work has lead me to spending some time on the East Coast again… and away from my G8. I’ve been living in Maryland for the last few weeks and really been missing the company of fellow car nuts. Fortunately, I’m lucky to be staying only a few minutes from another G8 owner and in one of the most active G8 communities in the country. The Capital City G8 Car Club (CCG8CC) was nice enough to let me tag along at their spring cruise to Skyline Drive in Virginia.

A total of 13 G8’s (YES! Thirteen!) gathered in Virginia to head down Skyline Drive. Not having a worthy car (the Toyota Camry rental just wasn’t up to the task) I found myself a passenger in a G8 for the first time. Also, not having a car of my own I was forced to mount my video cameras on other people’s cars to get footage.

In the end, I had a total of 12 hours of video footage that I needed to process and clip together from this cruise. I was really impressed by the numbers the G8 community in the Mid-Atlantic region is able to pull-together for a cruise. I was really glad that I could put together a couple of videos of their activities.

SF Bay G8 Cruise

A couple of G8’s from the SF Bay Area got together this morning for breakfast and a cruise. We met at Lou’s Coffee Shop in Palo Alto for a nice breakfast and then headed-out across Palo Alto towards the hills south of San Jose.

This was the first time I’d been on a cruise with my HD GoPro Motorsports Hero cameras. For the first part of the cruise, through town, I had both cameras on the back of the car to get footage of the other cars on the cruise.

Before we headed into the hills we stopped so I could reposition the cameras. We took advantage of the stop to grab a few photos.

The second half of the cruise was much more fun, driving wise, and really gave the group a chance to push their G8’s to towards the limits. The roads that were selected to drive were really fun and quite challenging. The start was very tight and twisty with quite a steep ascent. As the road continued it became much more sweeping and much quicker.

I had one of the video cameras mounted to the front bumper and another on the rear bumper. This produced a bunch of great footage and did quite a good job capturing the sound from my exhaust.

The cruise ended at a parking lot and the group spent quite a while talking about just how much fun the drive was. Many of us had our hoods open trying to cool things off… we were really pushing things, and the cars showed it (my IAT and Trans temps were well normal).

While I had hoped we would have more cars attend the event, it was great to spent some time driving with friends. Maybe someday the G8 community will pull together like the GTO community has…

NCG Mega Mod Day

NorCal GOATs had a Mega Mod Day today. What might you ask is a “Mega Mod Day”? Well, imagine having a full garage with all the tools you could ever want… a bunch of parts… and a great group of knowledgeable people to help get the work done. Big thanks goes out to Garage Works in Vallejo, Ca for welcoming us into their shop, and Big Joe for setting-up everything.

I didn’t have any work that I needed to get done on my car, but there were many impressive tasks going on. The big one was a stall converter upgrade, which I guess isn’t that complex, but anytime you have to remove the transmission from a car it’s not a “simple” job.

I spent most of my day standing around a G8 GT that was getting the Solo High-Flow Cats installed. Working under a car that is on jack stands isn’t one of my strong points, so I ran around gathering tools and parts. The HF Cat install process sounds simple on paper, but due to the location of several of the bolts and connectors (specifically those for the front O2 sensors) it took much longer than expected. Once the work was done though, the results were spectacular. The car went from be loud to a monster… so much so that the owner has since changed exhaust/mufflers to quiet things down. I think when I get my HF cats I’ll save some trouble and have them installed.

Other work that was being performed included the installation of a dual-exhaust on a ’04 GTO (which is a factory single-exhaust), trans-cooler, headers, and a drive-shaft loop.

Like the previous mods days, I really learned a bunch. I’m still a little unsure about doing too much work myself, but the more of these events I get to the more confident I am getting about doing the “simpler” things.

Welcome Back OnStar

My battle to get Bluetooth in the G8 has been a crazy one. While I was looking forward to getting the BlueStar system, I was a little disappointing that I would loose the functionality of OnStar. Today I happened to get really lucky and was able to purchase an OEM OnStar module with Bluetooth! After reprogramming, this will give me all the functionality that I was exited to have all the way back in October. When I get everything together I’ll reactivate my OnStar subscription.

One Year Later

It has been one year since I purchased my ’09 Pontiac G8 GT… after 16,264 miles and everything is great!

I really think I made a great decision getting the G8. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve been glad to have four doors and a huge trunk. I have a real sense of pride for my car and really enjoy the car culture that surrounds it. So much of my life revolves around the G8 and the people I have met through cruises and car club events.

While some things have changed, like my desire to modify more and more of the G8, some things have stayed the same. The G8 still has a split personality. I am surprised today, as much as I was when I first drove home, just how refined the car is for daily driving around town… yet give it some more throttle and it just takes-off. It’s always a total blast when I go for a drive… just remote starting the G8 and hearing the engine roar to life puts a smile on my face.

The next year will be different… I’m not going to have as much time with the G8, but as a result (indirectly) I will be able to perform more extensive modifications. I’m sure that, despite the changes, the next year will be just as enjoyable as this one.

Valentine’s Day for the G8

Because I love the G8 so much, I decided to buy ‘her’ a Valentine’s Day present… a Carbon Fiber Rear-Lip Spoiler!

Not that I don’t love the G8, but V-Day wasn’t the real reason for buying some carbon fiber. The G8 is a rare car, especially being discontinued, so there are very few aftermarket companies producing parts. One person who has been a stand-out in the GTO community is Maverick Man. He has produced some really high quality, pre-preg autoclaved CF, parts for the GTO… and when I heard he was looking into making parts for the G8 I was very happy!

I’ve always been a fan of the look of un-painted Carbon Fiber and I think it would go perfectly on a MGM colored G8. The CF Rear-Lip Spoiler attaches to the trunk using all the OEM hardware, but has a slightly more aggressive/taller lip. The mod should be subtle (far from a multi-level ‘ricer’ wing), but just a little touch of style to set my G8 apart from the rest.

Unfortunately the lead time on Maverick Man’s products are several months, but I should be towards the top on G8 waiting list. I really can’t wait to get this spoiler on my car… and hopefully enough people purchase it, encouraging MM to develop additional products (like CF Kidney Grill surrounds).

Header Swap

I have been having a rubbing issue with my JBA Shorty Headers since they were installed over six-months ago. The steering shaft has been coming in contact with the driver’s side header, mostly when turning right while accelerating. It had not caused any handling issues, but it did produce a noise that was very annoying.

With the help from a member of the G8Board I was able to get in-touch with Pertronix, apparently the company that makes JBA headers, and aquire a re-designed shorty header. The replacement header arrived a few weeks ago, but I’ve not had the chance to get it installed… until today.

While I did the install of the headers originally with a group of friends, and it wasn’t too difficult, but getting people together for another Mod-day (without a garage) wasn’t possible. I decided to head to Synergy Motorsports to get the work done.

The experience was just what I expected from all the comments I’ve heard about Synergy. It took a little over an hour to get the header out and the replacement header installed. I was really impressed with the service that Rick provided… I called today at noon and he was able to get me in/out quickly. It was also nice to pick his brain about different Mod ideas I’m having for the coming months.

After the work was completed I headed home with a detour on Palomares Rd. In the past when I’ve driven this road there were several times the header would rub. Today, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the header to rub against the steering column! I’m going to have to make a trip up Mines Rd. just to make sure, but it seems like everything is good to go.