Another gearhead from Hopwood

[psu goat]

Hey, my neighbor Drew (2010 SS on here) told me about the site, so I figured I might as well join another car forum. Anyway, my name's Dan. I have a 2006 Pontiac GTO as my Autocross/Car Show toy and a 2008 Trailblazer SS as my daily driver :)

The goat is my pride and joy and has a few things done to it, lol, and I actually bought the TBSS off of Drew so he could buy his new SS RS that Tim is tearing apart right now.

Enough with the typing, here's some pics of each.

The big, blue cone killer...
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/GTO/DSC_2114.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/GTO/Picture6040001scca.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/GTO/gtoautox138_resized.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/GTO/IMG_9538.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/GTO/gmnats2008_show_-0167.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/GTO/IMG_0055.jpg

The SUV that is stupidly fun...
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/TBSS/tbss1.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/TBSS/FILE0859.jpg

Two LS2's are better than one, right?
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/TBSS/goat_and_tbss.jpg

As it sits now in winter battle mode...thing is a friggin tank in the snow
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn232/psugoat/TBSS/FILE0322.jpg

Thanks for looking :)

[2001GTTT]

welcome, very nice rides

[Pop's Stang]

:welcome:

[1Badbird]

Hello and welcome! Sweet rides!!!!

[Rodeheavers]

welcome, nice rides.

[cwh19]

welcome man

[psu goat]

Thanks guys :)

I just got in on a group buy on a Wilwood Big Brake Kit two days ago for $3k, saved like $800. Yes, I'm crazy :faint: I'll post some pics of the giant brakes when they get here.

Still have lots more planned for the car too ;)

[Rodeheavers]

Thanks guys :)

I just got in on a group buy on a Wilwood Big Brake Kit two days ago for $3k, saved like $800. Yes, I'm crazy :faint: I'll post some pics of the giant brakes when they get here.

Still have lots more planned for the car too ;)

Wilwood makes a killer brake set up, I run their rear disks on my mustang and love em!

[talontsi92]

Welcome to UGH.

Nice cars!

[Hidalgogt]

nice rides and welcome

[AdamantiumSilvr]

What up n welcome?! Nice lookin rides.

[Tom]

Welcome! What kind of wheels are those (gto)?

[94svtcobra]

welcome

[SS-Swaney]

Welcome! What kind of wheels are those (gto)?

Rota p45r in the rear and p45f in the front. I know cause I'm getting them for my talon.. Hello daniel!!

[psu goat]

Yep, Rota P45f 18x8.0" with a 42mm offset in front and P45r 18x9.5" with a 47mm offset in rear. 245/40/18 RE-11's in front, 265/35/18 RE-11's in rear. The wheels are knock-offs of the Nismo Skyline wheels.

There was a guy on ls2gto that had 20 sets special made from Rota, with good offsets, proper bolt pattern, and hub-centric bore, so no need for hub rings. 10 sets in the hyper black finish I got and 10 sets in a dark gray finish.

I had the rear cradle aligned and had to get the rear quarter panel lips rolled for them to fit perfectly without any rub issues, due to how much I have my car lowered with the coilovers. Once these rear tires wear out, I'm gonna try to squeeze 275's in the back since I have a bunch more negative camber at all four corners of the car...it might just give me enough clearance from the quarter panel lip for them to not rub. If not, I suppose I could firmer spring rates on the car and raise the rear end up a bit.

*cough*swaneyisacopycat*cough* ;)

[SS-Swaney]

My talons gonna eat that goat DANIEL!!!!!!!!!

[psu goat]

meh, goats eat anything you know...just kidding.

I honestly don't care if my car isn't the fastest car out there in a straight line...ask the rest of the PGH goat crew. Yes, GTO's can be made very fast in a straight line, but I really don't feel like swapping out half shafts, axle stubs, and the driveshaft just yet. The car is quite tricky to launch properly because of the independent rear suspension, at least for me.

I'm more interested in going right and left real quick :)

I'll probably end up putting a tvs 2300 on it next year when I get bored anyway.

[scott5]

NIce rides.. I am loving the TB SS and actually looking for one right now to take over my DD duties so cobra can stay stucked away...

HOw you like the TB ss?

[psu goat]

Couldn't be happier with the SS :) My goat is tucked away for the winter as well.

It's fully loaded except the touchscreen nav and rear seat DVD. The power and handling is ridiculous for a 4800 pound suv. 4.10 gears front and back and all wheel drive make for a great combination, lol.

I've never had a vehicle with heated seats before, so now I'm spoiled. I just drove it up and back to Syracuse last week, and it was pretty comfortable for a 7-hour drive. I averaged 16.9mpg on the drive up, with cruise set the whole way. At 70mph it's doing around 2500rpm. Around town, I get 12-14mpg, and I don't exactly baby the truck. The ride is sports-car firm, with some pretty aggressive shock dampening, but I actually prefer that. It doesn't punish your kidneys or anything like that, but it definitely doesn't float over bumps like an older buick or caddy. There isn't much body roll at all for a big suv, and the 20" wheels don't seem to affect the ride much at all compared to the 17's and winter tires I have on it now.

You can hear the drivetrain clunk around some when driving around slow but it doesn't bother me. I guess my only minor complaints are the center console lid squeaks sometimes when I rest my arm on it (there's a fix on tbssowners for that though) and sometimes it's a little difficult to pull away from a stop smoothly due to the torque, gears, and awd...you really have to ease into the go pedal. I'm sure a little messing around with shift points and shift pressure in hptuners could fix that though. The main problem area is the stock transmission. People that track the truck often seem to grenade them even at stock power levels.

I took it to PRP once last summer. My best run was a 14.2@98, completely bone stock on a humid night. This was my second time ever at PRP, so I was a little nervous. I was trying to stall it up to around 1200-1500 and then launch, but I kept almost rolling through the timing lights. After reading around, it's best to just go off the line at idle if the truck still has a stock converter and torque management enabled. I then found out that even if you disable stabilitrak, it doesn't completely shut off, and you need to pull a fuse under the hood. I was cutting 2.2 in the 60', and people seem to get down to 2.0 or lower when they pull the fuse.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope that gives you some ideas. I really love the TBSS, and I think the only thing that I would ever consider trading it in on would be if the bring over the Holden Ute as the new El Camino.

[scott5]

Nice.. Yea i joined up on TBssowners to get some more info on them.. And i think i am making a good decision since i dont need a truck anymore since im selling my new dirtbike

[psu goat]

Tow ratings are 6600 pounds for the all wheel drive and 6800 pounds for the rear wheel drive, in case you were wondering. I'm thinking it should be able to tow a trailer and my goat without too much problem if I ever decide to really start tracking my car at road courses and such. The brakes on the TBSS seem pretty good, but it might be a different story with 3600 pounds of GTO and trailer behind it.

There's not too many differences between the different model years either: The '06 and '07's had chrome interior door handles that they changed to black plastic in '08. If you're going for the leather/suede interior, I'm pretty sure they started putting the suede inserts in the rear seats for 2008 ('06 and '07 only had the suede inserts for the front seats). Not many 2009's were made at all, but I think they came standard with bluetooth connectivity. The rear wiper assembly was changed at some point too.

[scott5]

Yea i am looking for an AWD 3ss without the navigation and the rear dvd player basically looking for one with the same setup you got.. And im thinking towing with a tb ss will be the same as with a lightning and have seen them haul cars with no problem.. Thats why im choosing the TB SS over the SRT-8 jeep.. I can get an enclosed trailer for my motorcycle and haul my next car with the TB ss also even tho it will be a street car. You just never know what can break at any time.

[2010 SS]

:welcome:

I miss my old tbazer

[MBH]

welcome! I love your goat! Do you drive through the south hills on rt 19? I feel like I may have seen you around before during the morning commute... but maybe I'm crazy. Not too many bermuda blues around, and I didn't get a good look at the rims.

p.s. whoever took that 4th pic must be really good. best pic I've ever seen haha just playin

[psu goat]

No, that's not me. I'm down in the Uniontown area. You're probably seeing my friend Bill. He just cammed his and put a procharger on it, so you should definitely know if it's him or not. I've had a couple people from various forums ask me if it was my car they saw on 19. lol.

I do drive up the turnpike, route 8 and route 51 a lot when I go to Pittsburgh though. I'm going through withdrawal not driving the car now. I wish winter would end already.

Oh, and not trying to be rude but the paint is impulse blue metallic and the blue leather is bermuda blue :)

Did you take the 4th pic? If so, thanks for not showing the aftermath :) I ran that diesel Ram twice and he crushed me both times. At the time I had Dunlop autocross tires with super stiff sidewalls that weren't the greatest for straight line traction. My buddy Matt found the picture online for me.

Oh, and hi Drew. You're not getting your old TBSS back!

[cwh19]

NIce rides.. I am loving the TB SS and actually looking for one right now to take over my DD duties so cobra can stay stucked away...

HOw you like the TB ss?

Off topic but you got a cobra?

[2tall]

welcome, nice rides... im just down the road from you. bout 10minutes south

[Tom]

Yep, Rota P45f 18x8.0" with a 42mm offset in front and P45r 18x9.5" with a 47mm offset in rear. 245/40/18 RE-11's in front, 265/35/18 RE-11's in rear. The wheels are knock-offs of the Nismo Skyline wheels.

There was a guy on ls2gto that had 20 sets special made from Rota, with good offsets, proper bolt pattern, and hub-centric bore, so no need for hub rings. 10 sets in the hyper black finish I got and 10 sets in a dark gray finish.

I had the rear cradle aligned and had to get the rear quarter panel lips rolled for them to fit perfectly without any rub issues, due to how much I have my car lowered with the coilovers. Once these rear tires wear out, I'm gonna try to squeeze 275's in the back since I have a bunch more negative camber at all four corners of the car...it might just give me enough clearance from the quarter panel lip for them to not rub. If not, I suppose I could firmer spring rates on the car and raise the rear end up a bit.

*cough*swaneyisacopycat*cough* ;)

cool, they look awesome.

[haloSi]

Wow the P45R's are perfect on that thing! Looks good.

[psu goat]

Wow the P45R's are perfect on that thing! Looks good.

Hey thanks, that's why I bought them. Well, that and the fact that there aren't many good wheels made for the gto to fit decent width tires in the back unless you want to spend $2700 on CCW's, and there's only 20 goats in the country with these wheels :)

A lot more stuff planned for the big blue goat soon, so I'll be sure to post up another thread when the parts get here.

[06zx3]

looks good :cool: i think i've seen this goat once or twice

[psu goat]

Yeah, I drive it around Uniontown a bunch, but it's been parked since November :( When the weather is nice, I daily drive it to work, but there's at least 2 or 3 other impulse blue gto's in the area - an 04 with a ridiculous carbon fiber hood, an 04 that I see at Eat 'n Park a lot with really dark tint and black wheels similar to what I used to have, and another 06 with stock 18's.

[06zx3]

lol i thinki saw it at one of those car shows at the laurel mall...where do you live in hopwood? all my family lives there pretty much but somehow i've failed to ever notice your car anywhere there lol

[GrabberC-500]

mighty nice car you got there 06zx3 :wink:

[psu goat]

Yeah, me and 2010 SS on here with the amazing inferno orange Camaro were at the one car show at the Laurel Mall last summer. He's actually my neighbor. We live close to the dairy mart, but I don't want to be more specific than that since the car isn't garaged...it's in a carport, lol. That should change soon though when I find the right house to buy :)

[06zx3]

mighty nice car you got there 06zx3 :wink:

Thanks :) hahaha





I see lol well i'll keep my eyes open for you guys this summer