GTO Engineering

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PSk
Posts: 100
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:35 pm

GTO Engineering

Post by PSk »

Hold on to you wonderful 2+2's you lucky owners

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.topgea ... to%3famp=1

I've read they already 20 orders for their SWB, so that's 20 genuine Ferrari's as donors gone ... sad
Pete
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tyang
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Re: GTO Engineering

Post by tyang »

Yeah, not a fan. I can understand people justifying saving a car that was too far gone to save because it was economically unfeasible, but when selling examples for about a million bucks, any reasonable donor will make sense. I know there are friends of mine that disagree with me, so it's often the elephant in the room!

Tom
'63 330 America #5053
PSk
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Re: GTO Engineering

Post by PSk »

I guess this has happened for years, i.e. Bentleys, Bugattis and vintage Alfa Romeos, but making a production line like they are means that okay cars will just disappear for good.

Unfortunately I am no where near rich enough to save one, but the people on this site are doing great things with these 2+2's. Thank you
Pete
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Terry Gardiner
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Re: GTO Engineering

Post by Terry Gardiner »

Some years ago I met Mark Lyon while visiting GTO Engineering. Almost his first question was “would you like to sell your 250 GTE?”

I declined because it seemed likely the car would become a donor, although Mark did have a very tidy ‘unmolested’ 250 GTE for sale at the time. So perhaps not.

While I’m not enthusiastic about replicas and recreations there must be some positives in what Mark and his team are doing. Their development of new spares, like Roelofs, is supporting keeping these cars going. The vehicles that become donors are also likely to be a source of some hard to find original parts that don’t match the new identity. I believe Vernon Lyon is the contact in this area. And their workshop is keeping some old knowledge and skills alive.

Whether or not you agree with the production of ‘new’ 250 SWBs the GTO Engineering operation makes for a very interesting visit. It’s a high class operation seemingly doing some very good preservation work alongside their ‘production line’.
Terry Gardiner
250GTE - #4681
365BB - #18131
B24Spider
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Re: GTO Engineering

Post by B24Spider »

Interesting development. Sorry to hear about it.

Most Lancias not having quite the value of many Ferraris, there are fewer opportunities for replicas, but they do exist. There have been "resurrected" Aurelia Spiders that started life as Berlinas (I still get calls about a burned out one that passed through my hands a few decades ago), the D24 replicas (virtually nil controversy about those), some Flaminia covered-headlight Sports. Not much else, unless I win the lottery, and can finally make my PF Aero Astura, LHD. That'd raise a few eyebrows...

But now there's these:
https://www.thornleykelham.com/assets/U ... 507-V3.pdf

In the land of Lancias there now exists the Brit built Aurelia Outlaws; very well done, very modified B20s. My initial reaction wasn't particularly positive, despite the efforts in our younger years to make them "better" (I'd had visions of a blown FI 2.8 V6 with hydropneumo/oleomag/? valves. Sure.). Back then our perspectives were different, but now I not only recognize the limited number of extant examples (more than a few in the case of B20s, to be honest, with some 3,871 made), but have become an advocate and practitioner of the cult of preservation. So, as I said, not particularly positive.

Then a friend showed me pictures of the cars he'd sent as donors. Far worse than we'd parted out in the day, in two or three pieces, at best only fit for eastern European panel beaters. And they were using Flaminia motors, so they are fully Lancias. So I decided good on TK, anything they could make out of them is fine with me.

But now, the last three (of the edition of ten) are going to have Alfa motors, and custom driveline/transaxle/brakes/front and rear axles and suspensions/interiors/etc. Alloy body if you want.

So where does that leave us? Is it still what it calls itself, a Lancia, in particular an Aurelia? Not much left but the monocoque chassis, maybe the body. A silhouette? As I said, it's not like Aurelias are as few on the ground as GTEs, but still...
PSk
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Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:35 pm

Re: GTO Engineering

Post by PSk »

B24Spider,

It all comes down to profits. Yes presently they are using roof donors, but when they dry up AND there are still profits to be made, no Aurelia is safe. Just as no 2+2 is safe from GTO Engineering. They have businesses to run, not history to preserve.

Even the Alfa guys look at 60's 105 series Coupes as potential "close to authentic" GTA replicas. Last I looked Alfa Romeo were not making any more 60's 105 series coupes, so we will eventually run out of them.


Its all just sad, these cars are lots of fun as they were originally. We just have to hope that some survive due to stubborn owners, as while there is money to be made this process will not stop
Pete
2837GT
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Re: GTO Engineering

Post by 2837GT »

I have never been a fan of GTO engineering, for GTE preservation reasons.
However, they do some interesting stuff.
Due to my overdrives issues I did toy with the idea of one of their 5 speed gear boxes.
Hopefully de-bugging my overdrive will be done soon, but the idea of a 250 series with a proper 5 speed is not unappealing. 'Originality' remains a question of course, though the OD could be retained in a box, like my dynamo.
Has anybody ever driven a 250 with a five speed?
mechaniker
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:18 am

Re: GTO Engineering

Post by mechaniker »

I struggled to reply to the OP of this topic since he posted...


Sorry to go a little off topic first!

We had some different projects on different cars over the last couple years and bought at a lot of different supplyers/dealers. Some parts were just ok, some pure rubbish. We had a lot of dissappointments with a lot of trouble. Some parts werts were sold an NOS/New but turned out to be worn to death...

We also needed to have some parts reproduced, wich is fun, but also risky. Last part just came back with 0.25 mm out of tolerance on the most critical surface.

Luckily, we have a good stock on NOS parts, that are good to have for the specific car.

We are just about to have gearbox parts remanufactured for the F40, as we need some stuff and one of my customers needs a lot of stuff. Not obtainable at the moment parts, taht were a lot of money a while back.

The remanufactured parts will be to the most recent production technology and I really hope, they will fit and work. Prices will match around the latest prices, when available OEM.

The producer I choose had a lot of english reproduced gears in for measurements, as they had gear mesh problems. Crown and Pinion that far out, that at one position they were binding and 180 degrees around, they had a LOT of play... A disaster.

I could write for a while, so consider this as the short version...





Now back to the question:

I would stay away from the conversion. You may also should remember, that the final drive may need a change, so that you won´t end up reving 6.000 going 90 mp/h in 5th gear (happened to a poor 250 driver...).
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