Here is a project thread for my slightly tweaked 3000GT TT (they are not called VR4 here in Europe since the SL/base models where never sold here).
In contrast to many of the really extreme builds this thread may look a bit wimpy however it may be interesting to follow for those members who have not reached the full "because race car" stage yet.
I started this thread over at the Swedish 3000GT forum (forum.3000gt.se) this summer but I thought I'd translate it to and post it here too. It may take a while before I have to time translate all posts but anyway lets get started.
Bought my 1996 3000GT (a German import) in 2007 and apart from some small fixes and quite a bit of gearbox troubles I haven't really done too many changes to the car yet.
I have always had some plans for the car however just after I bought it we got our first kid, then a house and then I started my own company.
However things are starting to settle down and I now have a proper garage to work so it's time to get started. I have quite a bit of experience working with old Volvo turbo cars from when I was younger. I've done a bit of tuning and mapping in the past however the priority with this project is to have as many driving hours per garage hour during the short summer season we here, therefore the "wimpy" approach.
The first thing I did when I bought this car was to fix all the small issues like the a switches in the rear wing and a proper wheel alignment etc.
A bigger issue however was that the reverse gear was completely hopeless. It grinded badly going and didn't want to engage properly. When you finally got it to engage it often popped right out again when you released the cluth.
After a year or so when the bearings in the gearbox started making noises too. I handed my car over to a member of the Swedish 3000GT club (first time I've ever let someone work on any of my cars) to replace all the bearings and the reverse gear in the gearbox. After replacing the reverse gear the grinding stopped but the reverse gear would still pop put from time to time. We replaced the shift fork and the axle that the shift fork attaches too but it still wouldn't stay in reverse properly... when the then gearbox started leaking oil onto my clutch thru the input shaft bearing for the second time my patience ran out... more on this later on.
First thing on the agenda apart from the gearbox and now oil drenched clutch was a lowering and removal of the horrible stereo that was installed in my car.
When I say that it was a horrible car stereo I'm not exaggerating, it is an odd Blaupunkt system from the 90's with extra everything which means cables, boxes, sensors and antennas all over the damn car.
This is how the head unit and separate display unit looked like.
Decided that whole system had to go which turned into a two day project...
If you looked behind the rear seats this is what you found. A amplifier that used fiber optic cables (which meant I couldn't reuse them...), a CD changer and whole forest of various mysterious small boxes.
If you looked closer you could see an alarming amount of cables
Under the floor in the rear compartment there was some sort of navigation computets with it's own optical disc reader.
Should it really be coming cables out through the back of the rear seats? ...I don't think so!
The poor people that installed this stereo system really did a thorough job. Inside of the back of the rear seats there was a whole carpet of cables...
All the stuff removed so far is piling up the garage bench.
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