GS for sale at Ripley CC

[porsche girl]

Hiya.

I have looked and made a small deposit for the black GS at Ripley (Jason Parker). It drives very nicely and has a good history. The clutch is fine it's just that the shift is very slow compared with my late model 360 Modena F1. Any ideas how the shift time can be improved? (it was in sport mode).

Secondly - does anyone now anything about the car at Ripley?

Thirdly - (and this has probably been answered a million times) what is the well trodden path for the exhaust. I was thinking about Fabspeed secondary straight through pipes and x pipe maybe. The secondary cats and squashed section can't be good news.

Do you get any improvement in peak torque without a remap or not really ?

Alexandra

 

[outrun]

Welcome Alexandra.

With regards to the clutch, it can be adjusted to your liking however it is a fine balance between making the shifts more aggressive and causing clutch drag. To light and the changes take forever, too aggressive and it smashed into gear with a jolt and makes it hard to drive smoothly in traffic etc. Any of the good independents can set this up for you, as can our own set-up hero Voicey is you're inside the M25. Where are you located?

Exhausts are a personal thing, or rather exhaust noise is ! X-Pipes and H-Pipes from Larini, Quicksilver, Fabspeed and the like as well as valved and non-valved back boxes are all popular. Once you start to think about cats, then the prices and noise heads north at an alarming rate. An idea is to pop to the Ace Cafe meets if you can where you can hear the full range of exhaust tweaks from full manifold back to just back boxes before you decide. Many GS have USA spec cats which means there is a set coming off the manifolds (or headers if you're so inclined) as well as the regular ones. It varies from car to car and the only way to find out is to look for them! Manifolds are expensive but a few have changed them with great results.

If you post up a pic of the car and it's details, it is likely that someone will know of it.

Good luck.

 

[dem maser]

Got to change your user name.....welcome.....Outrun has given good advice there, anytime you want to meet a few members and talk cars your welcome, 14th April at Ace cafe

 

[MAF260]

Welcome and congrats on the purchase. Formula Dynamics offer a DBW enhancement which improves throttle and clutch engagement. There are mixed views on the benefits of this module - some people love it and others don't.

Have a search on the forum regarding exhausts, there is plenty posted that relates to various different methods from full Larini (mine) to SM's own modifications which are a fraction of the price.

A remap is only necessary if you've made other mods, it will do very little on its own. Have a read of the thread I posted a while back which documents all of the mods I've done to my GS and the results. These cars don't really have much improvement to make from tuning.

I know nothing of the car at Ripley, but another member recently bought a 4200 from them and gave a positive review.

 

[Andyk]

A big warm welcome to the forum ...... The GS is a great car.......I always found the shift changes sluggish compared to other gearboxes of this type but it is still a lot of fun and you learn how to the use the box the more you drive it.

 

[m1980k]

Welcome. I bought a GS a few weeks ago and have been thinking about exhausts.

The jury is very much out on the squish pipes. Some people think that they aren't a problem at all - you have an extra wide pipe which is then squished, and that actually lets more gas pass through than the two little pipes that you get from Larini and comparable systems.

If you really want to improve breathing, you need to get rid of both pairs of cats and replace one set with sports cats. That will give you the largest step up in power and torque. Won't boost volume much though. If you were going to do that, I'd get the exhaust custom made because that will likely be cheaper than buying Larini.

I was leaning towards making this type of change, but now that I've driven the car a bit more, I find that I'm already testing the rear tyres and having to back off to keep my licence, so don't feel like I need any additional power or torque!

Also, the gearbox isn't the best in the world, but you'll probably get used to it (and setup can be tweaked).

 

[porsche girl]

Thanks All.

I have been 'dancing' around the idea of getting a GS for a long time. I had a numbe of fast Porsches hence my handle and then had a Vantage and then a 360. Finally I have got the car I wanted all those years ago in 2009 when I first started looking.

Once the beauty is in my possession - I will talk to Voicey - who I know through the Ferrari link up. The exhaust on the GS isn't all that flash until you get to the back box is it ?

Tx

A

 

[Contigo]

The design of the exhaust is ******* hideous when you look at it. Those squished pipes are ridiculous.

 

[hilts uk]

I have larini sports cats and it's. a big difference to pick up, torque and sound. Price has just dropped by £600 as well. I also have a larini X pipe but kept the standard boxes so the car still looks stock .

 

[GeoffCapes]

I guess the first exhaust mod is a H pipe for a rumble or X pipe for a scream.

 

[StuartW]

Welcome along. Good advise here already and as Phil said above, the exhaust design is pretty awful but all things Larini are a thing of beauty if you are inclined to look under your car & enjoy.
Good luck with the purchase & we're looking forward to pictures

 

[porsche girl]

Thanks everyone.

Pics will follow in due course. The exhaust just plain upsets me because it doesn't have to be like that. What were they thinking? I am surprised that the supplier went along with the idea / surprised that the component engineer didn't get sacked for doing it! I have this funny feeling that I am buying in just as a price rise is about to hit. GS's are a lot of Italian stallion for the money aren't they. It's one of those cars that makes you want to drive it as much as you can. I found the Aston to be lovely to look at but boring and slow to drive. My Ferrari 360 was rabid if I was in the mood but was a fuss to live with. The 996 Turbo R was a rocket when I was in the mood but boring when I wasn't. I am hopping that the GS is the answer. Every time I drive one it makes me smile - now you can't ask for more than that can you ?

 

[Contigo]

Thanks everyone.

Pics will follow in due course. The exhaust just plain upsets me because it doesn't have to be like that. What were they thinking? I am surprised that the supplier went along with the idea / surprised that the component engineer didn't get sacked for doing it! I have this funny feeling that I am buying in just as a price rise is about to hit. GS's are a lot of Italian stallion for the money aren't they. It's one of those cars that makes you want to drive it as much as you can. I found the Aston to be lovely to look at but boring and slow to drive. My Ferrari 360 was rabid if I was in the mood but was a fuss to live with. The 996 Turbo R was a rocket when I was in the mood but boring when I wasn't. I am hopping that the GS is the answer. Every time I drive one it makes me smile - now you can't ask for more than that can you ?

Very true, to try is to love one. All Tridents have that smile appeal and that is something a lot of other cars don't give.

 

[GeoffCapes]

Thanks everyone.

Pics will follow in due course. The exhaust just plain upsets me because it doesn't have to be like that. What were they thinking? I am surprised that the supplier went along with the idea / surprised that the component engineer didn't get sacked for doing it! I have this funny feeling that I am buying in just as a price rise is about to hit. GS's are a lot of Italian stallion for the money aren't they. It's one of those cars that makes you want to drive it as much as you can. I found the Aston to be lovely to look at but boring and slow to drive. My Ferrari 360 was rabid if I was in the mood but was a fuss to live with. The 996 Turbo R was a rocket when I was in the mood but boring when I wasn't. I am hopping that the GS is the answer. Every time I drive one it makes me smile - now you can't ask for more than that can you ?

I've had my 4200 for 2 months now, and I find myself just going out in it purely for the grin factor.
I'm almost on first name terms with the bloke at the local petrol station as a result!

 

[m1980k]

Thanks everyone.

Pics will follow in due course. The exhaust just plain upsets me because it doesn't have to be like that. What were they thinking? I am surprised that the supplier went along with the idea / surprised that the component engineer didn't get sacked for doing it! I have this funny feeling that I am buying in just as a price rise is about to hit. GS's are a lot of Italian stallion for the money aren't they. It's one of those cars that makes you want to drive it as much as you can. I found the Aston to be lovely to look at but boring and slow to drive. My Ferrari 360 was rabid if I was in the mood but was a fuss to live with. The 996 Turbo R was a rocket when I was in the mood but boring when I wasn't. I am hopping that the GS is the answer. Every time I drive one it makes me smile - now you can't ask for more than that can you ?

The only way to conclusively prove it one way or the other would be to swap just the double pipe that you get on Larinis with the standard squish pipe, but as I said before, there are some people who believe that squishing a wide pipe might actually be a better engineering solution than having two smaller round pipes.

http://www.sportsmaserati.co.uk/showthread.php/12699-DIY-4200-sports-cats/page2



That squashed pipe on the left has a much larger surface area than the two little round pipes.

 

[CatmanV2]

Do you mean surface area, or cross sectional area? I think that multiple pipes are not great because of the side wall effects. The larger the wall area, the greater the drag.

Someone with a good education in fluid dynamics would be able to tell for sure. I know a couple of people that studied it as part of chemical engineering. I might well ask them...

C

 

[porsche girl]

Out of interest. here is a pic of 'my' car

 

[outrun]

Looks lovely. Welcome to the Maserati life. I also went through 911 turbos and the like before finally settling into a GS and wondering what took me so long ! They really should be £50k I reckon.

 

[Contigo]

Look lovely, a bit of a thug!

 

[porsche girl]

out of interest I led the team which did the intakes and exhaust for the original F type jag. The argument about x section is not as easy as all that because the higher speed gases will not 'stick' to the walls of the tight radii. So the squashed pipe may be quite bad at high gas velocities. I would think that the other salient point is the relatively nasty 'S' shape in the pipe that is needed with the OE part. Gases don't like 'S' shapes. Has anyone done anything really rad like dyno before and after or a flow bench test? If i get a chance I will get out my old GT Power handbook and give you a definitive answer if you like. These days I usually prefer to act stupid and let other people do the thinking for me

That said, if Larini (or Fabspeed) have a better underfloor section than the standard one then I'll embrace it. I have to say that the Fabspeed one looks faster but I know from bitter experience that 'looking faster' means nothing.

If you believe the hype then the GS ought to be capable of 430-440 PS (I wish I had the actual torque figure at the rpm for that) once the underfloor pipe is changed and the engine remapped. Is that for real? If so at what peak engine speed? the crank ought to be safe for waaaaaayyyy behond 7,500rpm but the valve gear is not going to like it at above 8,000 rpm is it ?