Beretta.net

Brad aka “Godlike” 1990 GTZ 5-speed Quad 4

I bought my GTZ in 2002 before I knew anyone on this forum and went to work on it right away. The license plates were in reference to a KMFDM (techno industrial group) album cover which at the time I was considering painting on the hood. That’s when I dubbed it Project Godlike.

Working at a body shop at the time the first thing I did was repaint it jet black. The guy who sold me the car was a friend who sprayed some nice ghost flames on his S10. I told him I was interested in trying something similar and he called me one day out of the blue and said lets draw em out. I had the front end wet sanded when he got there and the next morning I drove it to work covered in masking tape and wrapping paper (that’s all I had to cover it) and misted on 2 coats of harlequin chrome illusion and buried it in 4 coats of clear. This was always the outstanding feature of the car. It seems to turn a lot of heads and gets compliments from people who normally would show no interest in a FWD GM car.

Since it only comes out of hiding a few times per year there have been several rumors floating around my home town. Someone was describing the “Godlike GTZ” to one of my best friends in a bar one night, evidently its a 10 second car with close to 400hp! That’s not what my dyno sheet says… There was also some guy with a turbo Integra GSR who was looking for me wanting to line up for a few years. I still don’t know who he is.

I drove the car to Bfest Milwaukee where I met a lot of you for the first time. It went down the drag strip with a dry 50 shot and got me home but the Original Quad was running on borrowed time. A few months later I drove it to a friends shop with a white jet stream of coolant rolling off the back fin. We pulled the motor and took it to Kelly Moss Motorsports in Madison where they tore it down and found a bad head gasket, cracked head and cracked block. Other than that it was fine. But I was ready for the bad news and had money to burn so we basically started from the ground up. Although I didn’t build it myself it was still a grulling process of sourcing parts and relaying measurements back and forth. Mantapart failed to insure an $1800 prepaid order and the flunkies at UPS lost them. And finally with a week to go till Bfest Columbus I frantically put the car back together hoping to have enough time to break it in and when I fired it up for the first time there was no oil pressure! Missing windage tray bolt. common mistake on these… But I didn’t figure it out in time and gave up and bought my Z26 to take to Bfest. The GTZ was basically down for 3 years.

Since then Ive put about 15k/mi on the built Quad including a bunch of autocross runs and quarter mile passes, 3 trips to Bfest and Nitrofest. Its best 1320′ pass was a 13.3 @ 104 with no tuning whatsoever.
This car is not at the top of my project list right now but future plans are to switch to a higher quality damper system, make some interior changes, setup an engine management system and go faster!

GTZ build list

92 GRANDAM low output long block
-new oil pump, water pump, crank/ rod brgs, all new gaskets.
-decked and bored .020 over
-balanced knife edged crank
-Eagle H beam shot peened rods
-Wiseco forged pistons -ceramic coated and teflon sleeved by Polydyne
-Felpro head gasket

90′ 086 head
-Port matched and polished both sides
-3 angle valve grind
-new H.O. springs
-W41 cams

Bolt-ons
-MSD blaster coil
-Taylor 8mm wires
-Denzo iridium spark plugs
-RC peformance 320cc injectors
-Wepon R CAI
-A/C delete -27#
-Unorthodox crank pulley
-A/C delete pulley
-Fidanza flywheel
-Spec stage III clutch
-Holly Powershot wet nitrous kit

Exhaust
-wicked-irocz Ported H.O. exhaust manifold
-2.5″ stainless mandrel downpipe
-Borla XR-1 Bullet oval track muffler
-2.5″ mandrel aluminized cat back
-Borla XS straight through muffler
-Borla angled dual hex afterburner tip

3.61 to getrag 3.94 swap
-Jbody front trans mount added

Brakes
-92+ L body front brake conversion
-BFGoodrich steel braided brake lines
-Wilwood brake fluid
-Hawk Hp pads
-Powerslot cryotreated rotors

Suspension
-Custom rear shocktower brace
-Factory FE7 active front sway bar w/ poly
-Factory Z51 strut tower brace
-Custom strut tower to rad support braces
-Kyb Gr2s / Koni yellows soon
-Eibachs
-3 sets of wheels
-Factory GTZ 16x7s /kumho ASXs
-Katana C5 17x7s /Nankang Ns1s
-Olds Acheva magnesium 14x7s /20″ Mickey Thompson Drag slicks

Extras
92+ head lights with TSX projector retrofit
Clear markers and parking lights
Factory Z04 aero package
Black interior conversion
Tenzo R front seats
custom upholstered rear bench
92+ center counsil
Moroso switch panel for bottle purge-arm-opener-heater
Halon Exstiguisher
Alpine Head unit, 6x9s, 4x6s, 360w amp
Blacked out tails PPG tinted automotive clear

Carl & Linda Little 1988 GTU, 2.8L 3speed Auto

We bought it from the original owners in the Traverse City. It had never been exposed to salt, no rust at all. We have owned it since May of 07. Never seen snow with us either. First berettafest we went to was Niagra Falls. That year Linda won Garage Queen and Best of Berettafest. The car has been to every one since then, except Denver. Auto, 2.8 Less than 50k miles.   This GTU is the second we have owned, the other was an 89, plus we had a 90 GTZ.

Mark Burdick 1995 Base 3400/Auto  aka Black Betty  BAM BLAM

293,000 miles.  Ten years. Three engines.  Two transmissions.  One body.  Betty has been with me through good times and bad times.

I got her in 2004 as a 1995 Base Model with the 3100 V6 engine.  It was my Junior year of High School. My Pontiac Sunbird was giving me issues, so it was time to get something a bit more reliable.  The choices before me were a Chevy Beretta or a Ford Tempo, with dreams of a Lumina Z34 that would never happen.  I was not feeling the Tempo, so I started to look into the Beretta.

I stumbled upon Beretta.net and Bstuff.com, as well as a few cardomain pages.  A rudimentary Google search found me images of GTZs, GTUs, and Z26s.  After a night of browsing, I had to have this car.  $2000 and a few days later, she was sitting in my driveway.

Although I greatly appreciate the Base/GT body style, back then I was dead-set on the Z04 ground effects.  That led me to my first Beretta friend, Eric Custer.  I bought the whole Z04 ground effects from him, as well as a set of wheels and a gauge cluster.  Within a few months, the ground effects were painted and installed.  Another friend provided me with the sound I wanted via a Flowmaster 40 Series muffler.  A trip to a local junkyard, based of a tip from a friend that a 60k mile Cayenne Z26 was there, got me my Z26 seats.  And finally, an acquaintance in Iowa sent me a solid grille.  Betty was looking pretty slick.

In my Sophomore year of college, disaster, or at least what I considered a disaster, struck.  Betty blew a head gasket.  I brought the Sunbird out of retirement only to blow her head gasket just two weeks later.  I was now stuck driving my grandparents Mercury Grand Marquis and having no idea what I was going to do.

As luck would have it, a 3400 more or less fell into my lap.  I would later find out it was a result of some Beretta-world related drama, however I am still good friends with one of the parties involved.  Parts were gathered, and by the end of the year, I had my baby back.  Eric again helped me out by offering his place as the home of the swap, and my new friend, Scott0999 from the v6z24.com forums was a huge part of making this swap happen as well.  I cannot thank those two enough for everything they’ve done for me over the years.

A few years passed with no major to the car, but over that time I acquired little things like E36 headlights (from Mr. Jonathan Chmura), an MRZ flush-mount kit for my cd player, as well as an MRZ rear shock tower brace, LED side markers, and a set of 17″ Nexo wheels.  I also upgraded the upper and lower engine mounts with a set that came from McGavinZ26′s supercharged 3400 Beretta.  Thinking that she looked a bit goofy on 17′s with stock springs, I made a purchase from Mr. Eric Wood: Eibach lowering springs and KYB front struts.  These came off of his own ’95 Z26 that sadly had to end it’s run due to rust.  It was at this point that I started to develop more engine issues.

This time, I decided I wanted a newer engine, so I chose a 2004 3400 from an Oldsmobile Alero.  Having done the swap already, this swap was simply a plug-and-play.  Eric C. and Scott0999 helped me yet again to do this swap.  I also upgraded to a set of modified S&S Headers, and removed what remained of my A/C (I found out just how much I’d regret that during the trip to Bfest 2013) and my ABS.

I sold my old E36 headlights and upgraded to a set of DJ Auto reproduction units that are glass lensed with projector HIDs and angel eyes.  Simply put, I find this look incredibly sexy on a black Beretta.  I also had a good friend of mine ‘smoke’ my tail lights ever so slightly to pull together the back end of the car.

In one more stroke of luck, I finally destroyed my factory transmission at 280,000 miles. I replaced it with a 60k unit from a 1995 Buick Skylark, and proceeded to destroy an axle with it just last month.  To be fair, the axles made it to 292,000 miles =).

If you’ve made it this far in my babbling story about a car that I love to pieces (literally, you should see the rust), I would like to take the last bit of your time to thank all of the people who have been a part of this car’s life.  Everyone who I have met on Beretta.net, Bstuff, and at Berettafest and Nitrofest.  You all have been one of the greatest group of friends.  Without your help, I would have had not the slightest clue where to start.  I am so proud to own a car with such a unique following.  I was one of those folks who was always going to go to Berettafest, but could never swing it, until one year it was so close that it would have been dumb not to go.  I am now hooked and I will never miss another one if I can help it.  I’m sort of the quiet kid who takes a while to warm up to everybody, but even with all the anxiety I had leading up to that first Berettafest, I never felt unwelcome.

Thank you all, and thank you for picking my rust-mobile to be in the calendar this year, during my birthday month of all months!