First TPG for sale...

[perfecseal]

http://www.hemmings.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/dealers.detail/hmn_vehicle_id/169639/

 

Check it out the prototype is for sale..

[GP1138]

That's been for sale for a while now...

[Robby1870]

That's been for sale for a while now...

 

Yup same $15K price tag

[perfecseal]

just on a random search for tgp stuff and found it .. had only seen it on jeffs site.

[dbtk2]

Its been for sale as long as I've had mine, so whats that like 3+ years at least now???

 

Shawn

[jeremy]

[Prospeeder]

 

werd x1001283918387 the prototype has been posted like 20 times

[Jeff M]

Ok, so its old news already

 

This car started for sale back around 2000, was only $9k back then, owners has raised the price, and the owner is not interested in coming down . The original dealer that put this car together and raced it sold it off after a while, then it was owned by a gentleman I have info on (wants his name confidential ) then was bought by the current owner. Was seen a few years back by the guy that owns the dealership that made it and was almost bought for his kid, but even if his kid knew what it was I think his kid would not think it that much fun to drive, and too rare to drive much anyways. Nothing production on it, very custom, just a cat so its streetable, does have a chip that is labeled with McLaren's name on it, some differences to it as compare to stock chips 8)

 

Jeff M

[Prospeeder]

im surprised Jeff M hasnt like, saved up for it and bought it

[no1kicker]

Was it ASC/McLaren who made the chip?

[Jeff M]

"McLaren" did the chip, ASC as with past specialty cars they did, outsourced the mechanicals or the "Turbo" part to McLaren, ASC just headed up the project and of course our Aero Kit and Sunroof , though its an Analpha brand/good brand!! 8) . Just got done doing some emails with the second McLaren Employee I have talked with that worked on our car, he did the testing and validating as they call it, smash it, abuse it, make it run good (pretty good but he admits 2 years and each day when he drove the car home it had a different version of the chip in it :shock: ). Abuse includes while its cold, run hot water into it, then while its hot run really cold water into it, to test the gaskets mainly but also the rest for stress problems. Trannies were having problems so is why ours has the upgrades it does 8) . First guy I talked to said their engine tests showed the stock crank could not handle over 200 hp and all they put it through, so that’s why ours has some improvements to it, and with Curtis running well over 300 hp on our crank , they did their work, in our favor !!

 

Too much money for that car , already got many photos and history, and a copy of the chip, but no room here with a Typhoon, 2 TGPs and a TSTE, already sold off an olds 98 and olds Trofeo, wife at least has room for her car in the garage, and I would stack more in the garage if a lift/hoist did not also cost $2,000 :oops: , neighbor has this same cool hoist to stack his 68 Vette over his 04 Vette, and is going to get a 63-65 Vette next , guess he likes Vettes and I like Turbo cars . He is someone that has to win in a race, seen a lot of his toys get sold when they got beat that's just not right, there is always something faster, and I liked a lot of what he had/sold. I know he wants to race my Turbo GPs with his 04 Vette, but knows if he beats one I will challange him to my Typhoon which he knows is faster, and saying no to racing my truck is admiting defeat for him so he has not challanged me yet on the GPs .

 

We all have our things, all good fun .

 

Jeff M

[Jeff M]

and a copy of the chip

 

i knew it

 

Yea being into these cars for so long I find chances to meet other TGP owners, and people from McLaren, take tours of the plant, and copies of their chips , and other fun things. Have a copy of the chip from the Pace Car, another that was custom by the McLaren Tuner guy for a friend of his (liked overboosting too much), and some other odd ones, all very different not just what you would think…higher boost settings :shock: .

 

Met the President/Wiley McCoy of McLaren (Pres back when the TGP was being tested, built and for a few years after that) at the 2000 SAE MotorSport Conference in Detroit, toured their plant, and there were so many (more than they “said†they had time for) SAE Members that signed up for the tour they needed more tour guides and Mr. McCoy said he would help so I moved to the back of the pack of people waiting to see what group of people he would take then moved up quickly into his line . Heart pounding the whole time I was there

But backing up, when I first walked into the McLaren headquarters right there in the foyer was a complete engine/turbo/tranny of…you guessed it, the TGP . He said he would never sell it so oh well, it was a little different than production and had me wanting my camera but NO CAMERAS allowed while touring, too many proto-type projects going on there!...did see that they used/back then, the same Accell DFI I had on my truck. But touring the plant was fun, best part was hanging around after all was over asking him questions about the TGP, you could tell it was his baby and that he was proud of it 8) , so I learned a ton from him like the HUD was being tested in this small group of cars to see if it would function long enough to offer it as a production option on other more common GM cars . They knew about the crossover pipes , that was GM’s call on that one/cheap low bid . Mr. McCoy got to take a white TSTE home for 7 years as his daily driver :shock: , in case there were any driveability and/or emission issues as they were the ones that certified its compliance, after the 7 years it went to the crushers as all proto-types are supposed to . In 2002 met Mr. McCoy again at the SEMA show in Vegas, had lunch together and heard about his career, that was something I would give both my nuts for, too cool, though he was a very good down to earth easy going regular guy, I was still very humbled :oops: talking with him. While in Vegas I checked out this historical 1988 Turbo GP at the Blackhawk Collection, had my little diy rig to copy chips and did it within 3 minutes, took some lame pics and knew I had to come back, so I did in early 2004 with the digital though the car was packed tight in the back of the display floor and the helper/worker showing it to me was an inpatient jerk so not quite the involved pics I wanted.

 

But all in all its still fun thinking about and working on these cars, even after 15 years and quite a few hoods up in my garage, but I am not telling your guys anything you don’t already know and enjoy 8) .

 

Jeff M

[Prospeeder]

i cant belive they knew about the xover, and didnt do anything about it, on a car they knew would be limited production and that part would discontinue, and cost so much money on apart that HAS to be fixed for the car to be properly drivable, thats crap. i wonder if GM knew the PM3 would be such a piecer

[Jeff M]

i cant belive they knew about the xover, and didnt do anything about it, on a car they knew would be limited production and that part would discontinue, and cost so much money on apart that HAS to be fixed for the car to be properly drivable, thats crap. i wonder if GM knew the PM3 would be such a piecer

 

Ummmm :? , you need to learn how to read

 

They (McLaren) knew about the crossover pipes , that was GM’s call on that one/cheap low bid

 

McLaren knew about the pipe from feedback (mainly from me) over the years/NOT before production started and they had already did their design part to the rest of the drivetrain (NOT the pipe!). GM did not know it was a fact at first and even if they did at some point, the parts department/GMSPO :!: would have only been the ones to know, and they like selling parts .

 

As for the PM, like the tranny, a 15 year old part that can wear out from neglect more often than not. And if owners replaced the damn accumulator instead of letting the pump motor run and run and run, and send wear particles into the fluid (and no one changes/flushes their fluid every 2-4 years like your are supposed to!) that wear out the internal seals of the PM Unit from these metal particles, then there is a damn good chance those few with problems over the thousands of owners that have not, might not have so much to complain about .

 

Jeff M

[Prospeeder]

oh, u made it sound like they knew when they made it way back in production and research, and I just had my Fluid Flushed, my pumps still good, yay for that one, im sure granny replaced it then keeled over.

[Jeff M]

oh, u made it sound like they knew when they made it way back in production and research, and I just had my Fluid Flushed, my pumps still good, yay for that one, im sure granny replaced it then keeled over.

 

All clear now 8)

 

Fluid flushed in the PM :shock: GREAT , for you actually as this will certainly lengthen the time before it does need repair. And one last thing, the pump running so often on owners car can wear out the pump motor relay....though it was designed for many "X" number of cycles (MTBF/Mean Time Between Failure they call it) for its expected life, a worn out accumulator will get the relay worn out before it should have needed it.

 

Getting tired, that is nasty for sure grammer

 

Jeff M

[Prospeeder]

wow, touchy, ill remeber to replace mine ASAP once it starts going bad, there onnly 100$ from prior right now, score

 

when the accumulator is wore out, why it runs constantly, is because in one full cycle, it cant charge as much pressure, and you use up the pressure and it has to re pressurize it constantly to keep it above like 2800 psi i think, correct? it makes sense

[Jeff M]

wow, touchy, ill remeber to replace mine ASAP once it starts going bad, there onnly 100$ from prior right now, score

 

when the accumulator is wore out, why it runs constantly, is because in one full cycle, it cant charge as much pressure, and you use up the pressure and it has to re pressurize it constantly to keep it above like 2800 psi i think, correct? it makes sense

 

Well kind of touchy there are many pump motor cycles during a daily drive, even with all things working proper, but with a bad accumulator/low internal charge, pump runs much more often and things wear out faster. Nippon assembles the relay, someone else makes the parts for them, GM still has the only rights to sell it so I could not score any (cheap$$) direct from Nippon, yet I still got the phone number and contacts when GM discontinues it 8)

 

Very close idea on the issues when the accum is bad. The accum is like the pressure balancing reservoir, internally there is a high-pressure nitrogen charged side, and on the other side of the internal diaphragm in the accum is the brake fluid pressurized by the pump motor. The pump motor pushed brake fluid at pressure into this side of the accum, against the diaphragm with the nitrogen on the other side, the charge of nitrogen (once the pump has cycled off) pushes the brake fluid back out when the brakes are applied giving you the “pressure†to close the calipers. Once the accum ages and the nitrogen charge gets low there is little left to push the brake fluid after some brake pedal use, so the pump cycles back on again, and again depending on how much brake pedal use there is.

 

So far never heard of a pump motor failing from all this extra running, nor the pressure switch, and there are some really high milage owners out there (a few in the 200k+ range). Other than that its just the seals that can wear from use (long as no metal particles as stated before), and some solenoids which still have not been very often from the owners I hear from.

 

Its funny, we have like (WAG) a hundred maybe more TGP/TSTE owners here, that came here most times to look for help fixing things, that leaves a few thousand that don’t come here :shock: ….because they are not having problems with their car(?) , ummm…looks like the majority has little problems with their cars, wallet-mastes/trannies/etc? something else to consider 8)

 

Jeff M

[skalor]

So, they actually let you copy the chip in the prototype TGP that's on display in Vegas??

[Jeff M]

So, they actually let you copy the chip in the prototype TGP that's on display in Vegas??

 

That is what the guy said The owner that ran the collection display then/2002 was a bit more open to my checking out the car, I was looking to buy it then so that helped, shame that was when I had a junk camera, but I did have a chance to really check this car out. The new owner of the collection display/younger guy is very tight about such things now, in 2004 when I met him, the display had way more signs telling people to not touch and stay away, with quite a few higher priced cars in a seperate locked-door room by invitation only :shock: . I can guess that something happened to one or a few of the display cars that caused these changes happens all the time that one or a few spoil it for everyone .

 

Jeff M

[skalor]

So, can I score a copy of that binary??

[TGPilot]

So, can I score a copy of that binary??

 

Wrong place to ask that question...PM may be wise!

 

Now let's see how many people start asking for it!

 

Just say no JEFF!!

[Jeff M]

So, can I score a copy of that binary??

 

No way I got to have my fun stuff Like owning one of these unique cars, I like to be one that has a few other unique things like this chip.

 

Actually some of the changes are setting the wastegate DC to 50% all the time, really works the solenoid :shock: , and was used to try and overcome the (too high) boost initialization values that caused overboost on the street, maybe not so on the race up Pikes Peak where the driver used a lower gear all the time/rpms always high. Next was a little less boost fueling, not a lot less. Even with the check-sum disabled there is an area in the program that puts things into limp mode if changes to this chip are made. One EGR table is changed to a different strategy. Little more timing in the boosted areas, and with the less fueling mentioned above was not for a car that was going to get 100k miles on the injectors and fuel pump. Not setup for 100 octane or anything like that, but the typical 3-5 degrees still applies. Some other changes but those are the areas of most interest.

 

Jeff M

[skalor]

So, basically you have bootleg McLaren binary.

[Jeff M]

So, basically you have bootleg McLaren binary.

 

Bootleg only if I sell it or give it away But for me its just for reading 8) . Did not sign a no-release clause but the other chips and McLaren chip doc ("GMCM Macro Cross-Assembler/Control/Traceability Parameters" they call it :shock: ) I have were gained with that understanding verbally . Same understanding that many aftermarket companies like Superchips and Hypertech etc have with such info.

 

Jeff M