93 GT Update: custom suspension badassery in the works.

[KFLO 93 GT]

So... there's a thread about the mini resurrection I gave my white 93 GT, but really nothing about the black 93 GT - which let's face it, is my real car. This car has been a part of my life for quite some time now, purchased in June of 2000 with 74k on the odometer. It was very clean, the only mods being a LeBra, tint and the white bowtie that it still wears on the back window. My first mod was a Pioneer 1.5 din headunit in August of that year, followed up shortly by some GTS headlight covers (the ultimate high school mod), and a K&N drop in.

After a while I got pretty tired of the car, and really thought I needed to be in an import once the Fast and the Furious craze set in. But eventually I found the right way to go once this place and berettastuff became a big part of my web cruising.

A lot of the earlier photos have been lost due to a failed hard drive, so we start at BFest 03 in Milwaukee. This was shot by Bryan the old webmaster at the check-in. My car was right off the interstate from Iowa and this was the first time I'd met a lot of people.



It was a great time, and got me completely hooked on my car and BFest. The next photo was taken right after I got the car lowered. It was spring time 04 and the itch to "mod up" before the fest was setting in.



Then the next big mod was one that I had wanted since I initially stole the GTU gfx from the 89 GTU that I had bought. A mint front piece. It had taken quite a while to find the right one, and when I did I paid big for it. Once it arrived I painted it myself in my garage, and it still retains that same paint almost 7 years later. (Styluss loves it.)



So between those mods my car was set and ready to roll to BFest 2004 in Denver. We got the great idea to leave around midnight on Wednesday night so that we'd arrive in Denver bright and early Thursday morning for check in. The drive kinda sucked, but once the sun came up and we were in Colorado Dustin snapped this pic of my car - it's still one of my favorites to this day - even despite the fart can.



I've been to Denver a ton of times since then and everytime I always make sure to look at mile marker 67. It's got a special place in my heart.

Part of me always felt that my car never ran the same following the Denver Fest, and thereafter it kind of entered a weird period in its life. I bought a 99 Z24 in July of 2004 and being new and a 5 speed it kind of stole the thunder and mods away from the 93.... This weird part of its life included losing the 17s to the Cavy, so it took on a lot of different looks in the meantime.

Sportin' GTU wheels:


Sportin Z24 wheels and stock E36 headlights:


One thing that I liked about those wheels on the car was that it did a hell of a burn out from a stop and the tires on those wheels screamed for their lives. But yeah... that was probably the only good thing about that combo.

[KFLO 93 GT]

Later that year I moved out of my dad's house for the first time, which left me with no money to mod, and the Z24 moved with me while the 93 stayed in the garage at home. So fast forward to spring of 2005 and I'm back home already and getting interest in the GT again. It spent the summer getting cruised - and then in fall of 2005 I blew the engine in the Z24 so the GT was reinstated to main driver. I had other vehicles for winter, but when it was decent - the GT was out. This is probably the last good photo of what I like to call the car's first life. A car show in May"ish" of 2006.



Dustin got 3rd in our class, and my car got 5th. The cars that beat us out were kind of insulting... so that gave me even more drive. Eventually I bought Norm Crowe's old headers from his GT - and I set out to put them on my car.... while it was still an automatic. Well... that crap sure didn't work out - and I didn't have the ability to mod the headers to clear the auto. In the process of all of that attempt I put new headgaskets on the 3.1 that was in the car and buttoned it all back up - thinking now that a 5 speed swap was definitely going to happen because those headers HAD to go on the car. That was probably my mighty 3.1s highest and lowest point...



After all of that work the cooling system never would bleed - or at least I sure didn't try very hard and the car got parked while I planned for the future. A buddy of mine had been beating around in a 90 GT 5 speed car for a while, and eventually he lost his license so I offered him $500 for the car. After doing some rattle can paint work and throwing my GTU wheels on it looked alright for $500.



I beat the car around until it started to give up the ghost - and right around the same time I went back to college and moved away again. I came back home for the summer of 2007 and at that time the swap work actually began... at a somewhat slow rate because I was slightly overwhelmed at the start - but I knew that if I just kept at it I would get it done. My time over next couple of years was split between school, work and then time when I could go home and kill myself in the garage working on the swap. For quite a while it looked like this:



Overall I consider it to be a slow swap because it took a long time overall, Mayish 2007 to June of 2009 - but I took a lot of time to use only the best parts - and I found someone to make a suitable tranny mount - which became the white88gt upper trans mount. Having that mount made was paramount for me because the stock 87-91 upper trans mount (the style I welded into my car) is weak in factory form.

So right around the time I was finishing up the swap - a set of Baer brakes nearly fell into my lap. The car had less than 5 miles on the swap when the Baers went on:



At the same time a new set of Enkei RS7s went on the car, wrapped in Falken Azenis RT615s... so between the new 3400, 5 speed, huge brakes and new wheels and stickzilla tires it was a completely different car - hence the first and second lives of my 93 GT.

[KFLO 93 GT]

The car's official re-debut came at a local show in June of 2009. I've never been much a car show person as far as showing my own vehicles is concerned, but the car couldn't be driven hard yet - so letting it sit pretty seemed like the next logical idea for activities with my reborn baby.









The car looked stellar, especially with the overcast day - and I got a lot of compliments on it that day, even from people who had always disrespected it/and all Berettas in the past. But, as usual, I got kind of hosed at the show and took 3rd in class to a couple of Grand Ams who refused to open their hoods to show their stock 3400s.

There after I've just kind of been on my own mini Tour De Force and have just been loving the car to death. It looks and runs better than it ever has, and that makes me a happy camper. I'm not completely sure what the future holds for the car, other than adding more power and some rear discs at some point. So here's a few parting shots for the time being, this is going to be the home of my updates on this machine - so stay tuned!

[Wanako]

That thing looks great Kurt! So much badassery here.

[Barry]

Do you push limits often? How do you like then rt615's?

[SuzukiGhostRider]

I gotta admit, I like this car Kurt. Your tastes , at least in cars and mods, fall in line with mine. Very nice.

[Wanako]

I gotta admit, I like this car Kurt. Your tastes , at least in cars and mods, fall in line with mine. Very nice.

indeeeed.

[woody90gtz]

Looking good. Always been once of my favorites since I was 17 and found bnet.

[KFLO 93 GT]

So... this just came into my possession today.



Question for Jon, Cliffy or someone else who may know. As far as blocks go, all 3400 blocks are the same, correct? I'm pretty positive this is a 99 Grand Am engine (it has 99 stamped on the LIM) and essentially I just want the block and crank, timing cover and a few other items.

I think you know where I'm going with this.

[woody90gtz]

Boost the bitch!

[Baims_91Base]

It's been amazing to watch the progress of this car over the years - I doubt my base would be where it is today if my interest to mod it wasn't at least partly fueled by your latest mod to the GT. The cleanliness of your engine bay was the reason I started to give a damn about that part of my car...I used to only care about keeping the exterior and interior looking good.

I find it interesting a lot of the parallels between the base and GT now-a-days....and how close they will be performance-wise for the first time ever once I get mine boosted to catch up on HP.

[13's or bust]

kurt do you want to sell the fuel rails, injectors and fpr? or ill trade you for a 3500 uim.

[KFLO 93 GT]

I've got a 3500 uim.

[jackattack193]

I'd say a lot of time went into your write-up to post this for us..........it shows how much you love your car.......not to sound silly, but I for one appreciate all your effort in sharing it with us. Rock On!

[Cliff8928]

So... this just came into my possession today.
As far as blocks go, all 3400 blocks are the same, correct? I'm pretty positive this is a 99 Grand Am engine (it has 99 stamped on the LIM) and essentially I just want the block and crank, timing cover and a few other items.

Hey, I've got one of those!

I don't think there's any differences with the parts you're going to use at all... It was only in the upper end and the cam for the most part.

I may someday be looking for a 3500, but I won't need the crank...