2014 TTA reuniuon? Let's vote on what you guys like the best...

[Jan Larsson]

I just got a call from Jim Lyons confirming that he will attend the Trans Am Nationals and speak of his experience with both the Pontiac 301 Turbo and the '89 TTA. Some of the information he shared with me about the durability validation testing on the '89 was mind-blowing. If you haven't yet registered or made plans to attend this years Trans Am Nationals, you're missing out!

All of you that will attend see if you can talk to Jim and remind him about the testing they did (see TTA Testing - Original Documents - August 1988 - Turbo Trans Am Forum print out copies and bring with you for him

And again anyone that can record his presentation/s and share with us all would be much appreciated.

Take plenty of photos and if Jim Lyons is up for it see if he can share stuff with us all ... we can help to scan

 

[Jan Larsson]

Jan,

I did send an email to the address on the T/A Nats website asking if it would be OK for me to videotape the session.

A guy replied quickly that he would find out and let me know.

I am waiting for their confirmation, as I would have to buy a camera and a tripod, in order to try to get decent results.

Much appreciated, I'm sure it's not a problem unless you bring some TV production equipment in ... just say it's for personal use

Any efforts to document this would be much appreciated !!! Tell Jim Lyons about this crowd on here and see if he can share more with us moving forward!

 

[PhillyTurboSix]

I spoke with Scott Kelly recently on the phone and there is a possibility he might "pop in" at the nats. Nothing official. Wish I could make it out but my schedule is not allowing me this year! :disgust:

 

[kymmee]

I spoke with Scott Kelly recently on the phone and there is a possibility he might "pop in" at the nats. Nothing official. Wish I could make it out but my schedule is not allowing me this year! :disgust:

That would be cool if he does. Let us know if you hear anymore about it.

 

[Mark T-TB]

I "counted" 7 ['89] TTAs in the Show today... they were sorta "scattered" around the field.
I'm not sure of the official/final tally, but over 300 Firebirds were registered for the event :cool1:

 

[Jan Larsson]

I just got a call from Jim Lyons confirming that he will attend the Trans Am Nationals and speak of his experience with both the Pontiac 301 Turbo and the '89 TTA. Some of the information he shared with me about the durability validation testing on the '89 was mind-blowing. If you haven't yet registered or made plans to attend this years Trans Am Nationals, you're missing out!

Did anyone record / take photos / take notes and can share what Jim spoke about?

Would be great to help fill in any historic gaps (I hope) :thumbup:

 

[w_mcvicker]

He didn't really say anything about the 89 mostly about the 81 and the skybirds!

 

[Mark T-TB]

It seemed as though his memory of events from 35 years ago was a little spotty (I understand ).
As Bill said above, the majority of the talk and questions were related to the 301 Turbo motor. Jim indicated that he had much more hands-on/technical involvement with that project, and had more of an administrative role with "our" TTAs.
I didn't take any notes, but the main points that I took out of the presentation were something like this:
* TTA is a great performing car, well exceeding the Speedway's Pace car requirements. Also that the cooling was very good - cars could idle for the duration of the race with the A/C on.
* Buick was not exactly cooperative with the project, "charging" Pontiac what Jim thought was excessive $$ for any changes. He also said that no "GN engine" ever passed a durability test - but the TTA motors did with flying colors.

(If I think of anything else, I'll edit this later)

 

[TTA984]

The TTA pace cars at 89 Indy 500 had no air condition!

 

[Mike Arrigo]

I did and dropped them in our drop box, but ran out of room after 1 video. Need more room. The 11 minute video is 1.25gb and the other 12 minute one is 1.35gb

Did anyone record / take photos / take notes and can share what Jim spoke about?

Would be great to help fill in any historic gaps (I hope) :thumbup:

 

[ntmmd8r]

It seemed as though his memory of events from 35 years ago was a little spotty (I understand ).
As Bill said above, the majority of the talk and questions were related to the 301 Turbo motor. Jim indicated that he had much more hands-on/technical involvement with that project, and had more of an administrative role with "our" TTAs.
I didn't take any notes, but the main points that I took out of the presentation were something like this:
* TTA is a great performing car, well exceeding the Speedway's Pace car requirements. Also that the cooling was very good - cars could idle for the duration of the race with the A/C on.
* Buick was not exactly cooperative with the project, "charging" Pontiac what Jim thought was excessive $$ for any changes. He also said that no "GN engine" ever passed a durability test - but the TTA motors did with flying colors.

(If I think of anything else, I'll edit this later)

He said that the durability tests that Buick imposed added $8k per every TTA built.

 

[Jan Larsson]

It seemed as though his memory of events from 35 years ago was a little spotty (I understand ).
As Bill said above, the majority of the talk and questions were related to the 301 Turbo motor. Jim indicated that he had much more hands-on/technical involvement with that project, and had more of an administrative role with "our" TTAs.
I didn't take any notes, but the main points that I took out of the presentation were something like this:
* TTA is a great performing car, well exceeding the Speedway's Pace car requirements. Also that the cooling was very good - cars could idle for the duration of the race with the A/C on.
* Buick was not exactly cooperative with the project, "charging" Pontiac what Jim thought was excessive $$ for any changes. He also said that no "GN engine" ever passed a durability test - but the TTA motors did with flying colors.

(If I think of anything else, I'll edit this later)

Thanks for sharing, much appreciated.

Too much politics going on between the different GM divisions at the time ... as far as I've been told Buick were given no budget what so ever to make all this happen and had to do it under the radar of the corporate guys as well ... so I'm sure they tried to get some money back once the project was a go

 

[Jan Larsson]

He didn't really say anything about the 89 mostly about the 81 and the skybirds!

That was a pity specially with him being involved (not technically necessarily) and somehow responsible for part of it at Pontiac's side.

 

[Jan Larsson]

He said that the durability tests that Buick imposed added $8k per every TTA built.

That sounds a lot and can't have been passed onto the end customer or the price would have been much higher than what people paid back in 89 for them new ... looking at the factory invoice not even the conversion done by PAS cost that much per car.

I suspect the imposed durability test was due to the high warranty costs Buick had on the GN as they addressed the key warranty return issues when they did the engine for our cars bringing warranty costs at their end to a record low.

 

[Jan Larsson]

I did and dropped them in our drop box, but ran out of room after 1 video. Need more room. The 11 minute video is 1.25gb and the other 12 minute one is 1.35gb

Mike you're a star ... I've emailed you about it ... no video up there at the moment and you got just over 6GB of free space.

 

[Jan Larsson]

The TTA pace cars at 89 Indy 500 had no air condition!

Mike are you sure about this? I'm pretty sure they did not change or modify anything on the 3 pace cars more than the safety strobe lights and camera / communication equipment needed.

 

[TTA984]

Jan, I thought I read about that, the article might have been wrong!

 

[ntmmd8r]

Mike are you sure about this? I'm pretty sure they did not change or modify anything on the 3 pace cars more than the safety strobe lights and camera / communication equipment needed.

The man speaking at the Nationals said that when they asked which 3 would be used for the pace job, he pointed at all of them, and said everyone were the same and could do the job. He did mention the fact that they could actually let the pace car sit there and idle, during the whole race, and the folks inside could leave the a/c on. It was while he was bragging about the cooling abilities of the car.

 

[Mike Arrigo]

They all had A/C!

 

[TTA984]

It was here in Car and Driver June 1989, so the mag was wrong!

http://www.gtasourcepage.com/8920thTACDReview.html