Posts: 624
Since: 22/10/2007
Status: offline
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I am travelling to Modena from the 19th May, taking in France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. I will be driving some of the best roads in the world and wanted to make my car the best it could be for the drive. I will also be upholding the Maserati honour against Lamborghini, Ferrari and the entire DeTomaso clubs of Europe combined, who's event I have crashed.
I thought I might start a thread up here seeing as I am making these modifications to my 4200GT. It's a 2002 car with 63k on the clock, full history and was very standard when I bought it, though as an ex dealer demo it had £8k worth of optional extras on it. Blue Nettuno and a classic Italian tan (cuio) which I haven't seen on another Maser yet. I bought it for the interior alone, wonderful.
First upgrade - Larini backboxes. They gave a lovely noise but with ever so slight boominess in the cabin at 2k rpm but still well worth it. If they gave any extra power (I believe 7bhp claimed?) I didn't notice it, and indeed they might have induced a very slight flatspot at 2500-3000rpm. But very slight and was possibly there before.
After the Llandow trackday (an upgrade to my driving as it turns out) and chatting to Rich and Malcolm I decided on de-catting the car so took it to Prospeed in Cardiff. Due to having precats and big cats they advised just changing out the big cats to sports units to avoid the ECU light coming on and failing the MOT every year. I went in for two visits, the first being for the sports cats which did yield a noticable boost in power (the owner estimated 20bhp?) and the second visit for just an increase in everything  I wanted more noise, chav-in-a-suit that I am.
My centre section was removed and replaced with 4" piping which has given another power boost (estimated total 30bhp or 8%?) and the most incredible noise. The cabin boominess (and flat-spot) has gone to be replaced by an angry burble and very metallic roar up to 3500rpm where it just sounds like a louder version of the noise we all know and love. I am very pleased with it, the wheels lose traction far more easily in 2nd and third and top end power is greatly increased as is in gear acceleration. I believe the power claims and the torque comes for free.
The Larini cost £750 second hand from a forum member (should have been more like £1500) but is worth it for the craftmanship involved. It's a work of art and vastly lighter than the original parts. The sports cats were £460 and the rest of the piping was £100. That concludes the exhaust as far as I can tell, any louder might detract from the car's purpose as a grand tourer. As it is, at 80-90mph it's as quiet as it needs to be, quiet conversation is just fine.
The next steps start this Saturday at Emblem. After a lot of talk with Jeff Roelands from Formula Dynamics I ordered the air filter, the brake pads, the ECU module, the drive-by-wire module, the sports springs and the wheels spacers. I have paid extra to have 2 sets of rear spacers, both 15mm and 25mm as I am nervous about wheel arch scraping. I will try the 25mm first and hope they fit, if not I will make do with the 15mm. If they do fit, there will be a set of 15mm spacers for sale in the classifieds! These have been sent with all the bolts needed too, somewhere north of US$5800 in total. Combined with the exhaust... I don't know how the car can fail to have a lot more power. I am not going to start throwing out wild guesses though 
With the assistance of fellow forum member Loz, I am trying to find a Gransport front and rear bumper assembly. I won't be fitting the surfboards on the side as I believe this is what defines the GranSport visually and I want something that goes like it but is different. We've had a couple of near misses but I'm ever hopeful of some luck - but Monday 11th may is the deadline for the paintshop so time's a tickin'. I may be making the drive in a standard looking car 
To complete the look, I ordered some 19" wheels from some chaps in Essex (DGT wheels) very helpful and did me a deal, £1300 for 4 wheels, with 4 x Goodyear F1 Asymmetrics, 235 front and 275 rear (hence my worry about spacers causing rubbing). These are due to arrive at Emblem any day, I have bought them based on a small picture so fingers crossed they look good!
The car will be lowered by as much as I can get away with, probably 12-15mm or so. This should be OK with the stiffer springs and 19" wheels and just to keep everything where it should be, the geometry will be set again. The cars should then handle and drive like a GranSport but with more power and of course the manual gearbox who's long throw and awkward second I have come to enjoy as a challenge - reminds me of older cars, none of this snickety-snick accurate Japanese stuff 
I will be travelling to Emblem this Saturday and then collecting the following Saturday, hopefully with it all finished. Anyone up for a coffee at either end?
I'll update this thread when I know a little more...
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Lewis
4200GT - Nettuno with tan
Aston Martin DB7 6.0 Vantage Volante
Marcos Mantula GTSpyder 4.6
Lotus Turbo Esprit S3 2.2 - almost finished!
Jaguar S-Type 4.0
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oh and your own personal bucket and chamois
Wish I'd bought the sway bar from them now, too late for this trip but will have it before Goodwood. 
Claudio sorting it out today. 
