Kit Disassembly

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Major System Category: Misc
Task: Dismantle the kit
Parts: Everything attached to the chassis as delivered.
Prerequisite Tasks: Physical Inventory
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: Depends, but budget 3 to 6 hours
Date Started: June 29, 2012
Date Completed: June 30, 2012

If you go to the manual, it talks about taking the body off as the first task. Except there are a number of things you need to do before you get there. The GTM is shipped with the doors, hatch, hood, front and rear glass attached to the chassis. I think a fair estimate is this weighs around 600 lbs. (My drive has an incline, so it felt like 600 lbs when we rolled it up from the truck.)

Consideration: The front and rear glass is not packed away in a padded box. You need to think about how you are going to safely store these pieces until you need them.

The body is off the car and sitting on my Swisstrax floor. This polymer/plastic surface  is a perfect resting place for the body.

The reason the car looks like it is put together on delivery is because the doors, hatch, hood and glass are duct taped together. I started with the doors, moved to the rear glass, then the hatch. Inside the hatch, I discovered the diffuser taped to the chassis. Inside the car, the roof scoop and splitter can be found resting in the cockpit. The hood weights between 50 and 60 pounds, and it is a little ungainly so you might want an extra set of hands.

This parts bin costs about $8 at Harbort Freight. The last time I was in Myrtle Beach , I picked up three of these. I have one dedicated to the GTM build. It has come in very handy as I removed the panels from the chassis.

Consideration: The front glass is going to slide down once the duct tape is removed. This weighs between 30 and 40 pounds. The last thing you want to do is break the windshield on day one.

The main body shell is secured to the chassis by eight screws. The screws are a mix of 6mm and 8mm. Technically the front screws are attached to a sheet metal piece, but you want to detach this anyway. The other screws are located in each door sill and the rear license cavity. This is where the manual starts! Once the body shell is off the car, it is possible for one person to move the body shell as long as you stand in the hatch and lift. The tail end is heavier so your balance point is further back than you would expect.

Front view of the chassis resting on the lift. At the bottom of the chassis you can see the inline jack. This has three physical locking points, so you are relying on the hydraulics. The chassis is five feet wide and easily straddles the lift.

Get your smartphone or camera ready - it's picture time. You need to remove all the aluminum panels. There are more than it seems and a gazillion screws (maybe 150) to unscrew. This is going to take a while. I took pictures, marked each panel and separated them into two piles: powder coating and left alone. Powder coating is entirely optional.

Consideration: Due to space considerations, I had a need to move the chassis. Home Depot makes these $20 furniture dollies rated to 1000 lbs. I had one and purchased a second. If you decide yo drop her on the furniture dollies, then remove the front aluminum panels; otherwise they will interfere with the floor jack.

This is the Home Depot furniture dolly. This really bailed me out today.

Once on dollies, I could move the car around the garage. Those dollies kept the chassis at the same level as my lift, and after I shed all the excess weight (I am guessing the bare chassis is 200 lbs), I was able to get the chassis on the lift by myself. It was a lot easier than expected. The inline jack and reinforced tray helped a lot too.

Side view of the chassis. The front is on the left. It is easier to see the inline jack circular pad holding the corner of the frame. The red jack stands show where I am supporting the rear of the car.

One thing that didn't go according to plan was my storage solution for the body. The pulley system I devised just wasn't working. The 90 degree heat and getting tired probably contributed to my decision to rethink body storage. Those dollies came in handy. I placed them right at the forward edge of the wheel wells, and pushed the body sideways under the lift against the wall. It isn't an optimum solution, but I can park the Boxster, the Camry and the GTM in the garage. That was the goal.

Arrival

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Major System Category: Misc
Task: Delivery via Stewart Transport & Inventory
Parts: Basic kit plus optional parts ordered April 2012
Prerequisite Tasks: See planning phase
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 1 hour
Date Started: June 29, 2012
Date Completed: June 29, 1012

Stewart Transport is an independent entity from Factory Five. They have delivered over 11,000 kits, so they're experienced. After you call them up and pay your money, their driver will pick up your kit on the next run. This can take 7 to 10 days after the kit is ready to ship.

The build site.

Next, you will get a call from the driver. He'll give you a date and ask if that's okay. If you're like me, you're going to clear the calendar (I started this process 14 months ago).

First shot of the GTM being winched out of the truck.

The night before delivery, the driver calls again and we settle on a time. (In my case: noon.) The driver told me he was about 250 miles from my house. I figure this is roughly Madison, Wisconsin. I know this road well, so allowing for summer road construction noon sounds about right.

She looks fast just hanging there.

I need four jack stands and some kind of jack. I have a four post lift, four jack stands, an inline jack and two floor jacks. I think I've got things covered. The plan is to roll the GTM onto the lift, raise it slightly, jack up her up and set her down on the jack stands.

She's resting on jack stands in the garage under the lift.

Things didn't go according to plan. The cart they have to roll the GTM into your shop or garage isn't wide enough to roll up a four post lift. It might work with a 1 or 2 post lift with extended arms. We rolled her into the garage. I used a floor jack to raise her up and we deployed jack stands under the car.

There were a few boxes too. My shipment included 22 boxes and/or pieces (e.g. roof scoop. splitter) and 1 box back ordered.

Stewart Transport is definitely the way to go. The driver was great! Plus they have the trucks and equipment to get your car where you want it.

Kit Physical Inventory

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Major System Category: Misc
Task: Physical Inventory
Parts: All
Prerequisite Tasks: Take Delivery
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 1 - 2 hours
Date Started: June 29, 2012
Date Completed: June 29, 2012


The driver shakes your hand and wishes you good luck. So here you are with a dream, a body and chassis, a bunch of boxes and an envelope. (Clue: Open the envelope.)

Each box is labeled with a general description (e.g. GTM Options, Seats). There are a couple of heavy boxes, but nothing that you can't handle by yourself. I was lucky. My friend Vern came over after work and helped me get everything stowed away in my storage locker. A ten by ten space easily holds everything plus my rims and tires. The rest of the donor parts are in the basement.

I know most of you forgot about the envelope, Who cares about paper work, when you have a GTM sitting in your garage! Go get the envelope. Trust me!

The envelope contains two things. A detailed inventory of all parts and what box they are in. So go get your three hole bunch and insert this in your three ring binder. The other thing it contains is any additional instructions for the build manual. BTW: Where is that build manual? You have 20 boxes. So you have a choice:

1. Read the detailed inventory.
2. Shuffle through 20 boxes.

Imagine that. The detailed inventory identifies which box contains the build manual. Go find the box, open it up and look for something roughly square in a white cardboard box. There were four such boxes in box number 1 (the box identified in the detailed inventory). I found the build manual on the third try. (I hope I get better at this.)

One thing that isn't in the envelope is your certificate of origin. On the first page, there is a notation that Factory Five is mailing you the certificate of origin and chassis serial number plate.

As I mentioned previously, I have a build spreadsheet that I maintain on Google Drive. This allows me to access it from multiple devices and locations (e.g. smart phone, tablet, laptop). Since I have multiple storage locations (e.g. man cave, storage locker, neighbor's garage) and there are a lot of parts to keep track of, I created a new page that identifies box and/or part (e.g. splitter) and the location. Nothing fancy, but trust me you're going to working on this for a while.

Okay. Enough paperwork. Go back to drooling over your car.

Traction and Launch Control

One of the items that the GTM lacks is traction and launch control. These are items found in top end sports cars around the world. It usually is manifested in a dial or switch that turns functionality on or off, or allows the driver to dial in the level of traction control desired. However, just as there is an aftermarket solution for blind spot assist, there is an aftermarket solution for traction and launch control.

Traction control is a computer assist to designed to keep the car on the road and under control. It accomplishes this by reducing spark, fuel supply, throttle and increasing brakes on one or more wheels.

Launch control is a computer assist designed to eliminate the human factor in launching the car from a standing start. Instead of having to balance clutch and throttle, you only have to worry about letting out the clutch.

As I have mentioned before, there is a wealth of knowledge on the Factory Five Forums. I found this in a post by Spytech. I know he's one of the frozen chosen in Minnesota, and he has had his car running for a good year now. His build log is a treasure trove.

Racelogic traction control module.

Racelogic offers an traction and launch control module, wheel speed sensors and programmable software that can be customized to for a GTM (or any other car).

The digital adjuster sets slip levels in 1% increments from 0 to 25%. Launch control is a standard feature. This available in brushed aluminum (shown) or black.

My GTM will not have ABS. I don't plan to drive her in bad weather. However not all things can be foreseen, and for a car projected to have approximately 575HP, traction control sounds like a very good idea.

The software has input screens for the following:

• Main configuration
• Launch Control setup
• Slip control setup
• Wheel channel assignments and setup
• Rev-limits setup
• Data-logging setup

You need a laptop to hook into the system and get things running. The software is available for download on the Racelogic website. You can get an up to date list of US distributors on the website.

It is a good thing I am going with a paddle shift system, because I really don't have any room for a conventional shift lever. I'll need to be very careful on how I map out my center console.

Tire Decision

The kit is due to be shipped from Factory Five in about six days. One of the first elements of the build is to get the chassis up on wheels so that it can be moved around. The goal is to have it mobile by the end of July. I believe that is doable (and I could be a 100% wrong!).

This means the tires need to be purchased sometime in the next six weeks. As of this writing it is June 3, I probably need to get tires ordered by June 17. This is where previous build decisions have an impact on the tire decision. The stock tire sizes for a C5 Corvette are 245/45 - 17 (front) and 275/40 - 18 (rear). If I were going with the stock donor, then I would use the donor wheels and purchase matching tire sizes.

One of my decisions early on is based on the whoa and go concept. The GTM (regardless of the engine) has plenty of go. It is fast. It is sleek. It will rumble and growl. It looks like it is breaking the speed limit sitting still. I have an LS1 in my C5 (albeit, with a Hurricane cold air intake, Corsa Pace Car Sport Exhaust with Tiger Shark Tips and a cross over pipe) and she pops, rumbles and growls. There is plenty of power for the C5. A GTM at 800 to 1000 pounds lighter will be that much quicker. However, my buddy Brian pointed out that while I had the Go figured out, what about the Whoa? The Whoa comes in the form of the Big brake Upgrade.


The big brake upgrade requires 18 inch wheels front and rear. This is a departure from the stock C5 configuration. To accommodate the big brakes, I needed to purchase bigger wheels. I purchased Forgestar F14 wheels. These are the same wheels featured in the Factory Five catalog. These changes are within spec for the GTM. The monster LS7 power car that Factory Five built and that was featured in Car & Driver had the big brake upgrade and the larger wheels.


Tire sizes jump to 245/40 - 18 (front) and all the way to monster 335/30 - 18 (rear). The rear tires are a street legal drag radial. An alternate size for the rear tires is 295/35 - 18. Selection for the largest tire size is extremely limited and cost is quite high. The intent for my GTM is street use (granted I'll be the leanest, meanest on the block - Dodge Vipers beware!) When I drop down from the 335 to the 295 width, my tire selection goes up and my costs come down.

The OEM tire for C5 Corvettes is the Goodyear F1 Eagle run flats. These are noisy tires. They tend to drone on long trips. I would be hard pressed to point out a C5 in the Myrtle Beach Corvette Club that hasn't upgraded/replaced the Goodyear tires. Most people migrate to the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 or PS3. This seems a safe and popular choice. I bounced this off my buddy Brian and heard quite the horror story about his Michelin Tires. The approximate cost for these tires is $1510 ($320 for front, $435 for rear).

Factory Five recommends Toyo Proxes 1. From everything I read on these tires, they are real good, a tad bit noisy and tread life seems a bit short. There is a real shortage of dealers selling these tires. The lack of a good dealer network is a deal killer. The approximate cost for these tires is  $1272 ($255 for front, $381 for rear).

About a year and a half ago, I replaced the tires on my Boxster with Continental Extreme Contact DW. What a difference these tires made! They were quiet. The grip the road. In the Boxster this is important, because I like to take sharp turns (testing the strut braces and Eibach performance sway bars - you know. Especially on Troy Lane!). These tires live up to their billing. I really like these tires and I have experience with them. The problem is availability in the rear tire size. The approximate cost for these tires is  $? ($195 for front, $? for rear).

This winter I replaced the tires on the Corvette. I wanted to go with Nitto Invo, but I could not find them in the Myrtle Beach area, so I went with the NT555. These are good tires. They are quiet. They have a long tread life. They hold the road (and some of the roads along the Grand Strand leave a lot to be desired). The Invo is an asymmetrical tire (like the Continental Extreme Contact DW) and it is available in the sizes I need. The approximate cost for these tires is  $886 ($188 for front, $255 for rear).


I based my cost estimates at Tirerack. 


I am going with the Nitto Invo. I am impressed at the ride quality I get in the Corvette. I like the way she handles. The Invo is Nitto's premier performance tire.