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> My '09 Pontiac G8 GXP 6M Journal
HKYStormFront
post Nov 11 2013, 07:18 PM
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After an exhausting (pun intended) search beginning in January this year, I have finally purchased a car! I was looking for a fun to drive sedan that would be a good highway car to drive to and from events with my camera gear and any passengers I might need to pick up, flag girls, etc. I was originally looking for Audi RS6's but after talking to several sellers who got tight lipped when I started asking about service history and so forth, I got burnt out on them. Around that time, I rode in my friend Kyle's G8 GXP and realized it was exactly what I was looking for. So I changed focus around the summer to looking at GXP's and came across this one on Cars.com.

I spoke with the seller, Eric, and we coordinated via email for the past few weeks until we settled on a price and arranged a time to meet up. Dad and I flew up to Pittsburgh to pick it up this past Thursday and Eric picked us up at the hotel Friday morning. Eric was very friendly and it was obvious he took great care of this car. He was the 2nd owner. He said he was selling it so that he could move on to something else, possibly some classic muscle that he could work on with his dad.

This car is black on black with the 6 speed manual transmission and the sunroof (the only two options on GXP's). It had just a hair over 15k miles on it at the time of purchase. It is all stock except window tint.

We drove down to I81 and headed south through Virginia; made it to Dad's house in NC around 10pm. We averaged 26mpg on the highway. The car is a dream to drive. It feels raw yet just refined enough to be comfortable at the same time. The sound is fantastic, the torque is evil-grin-inducing, the seats are comfortable, lots of room inside and the trunk, and it turns heads. It's an amazing car all around.

I don't really have a lot of plans for it, I truly like it just the way it is but I'm sure I'll find some things to do. It will stay mostly this way until it's paid off, then I may do some performance mods but I'll figure that out later.

First bath:


Eric let me borrow his tag since we couldn't get a transit tag


Me and the GXP


All cleaned up, at least for a few minutes




Thanks for looking, I will update this thread as I start to mod it. smile.gif
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dukenukem
post Nov 11 2013, 09:33 PM
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Awesome car! i love these things! smile.gif
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clarkma5
post Nov 11 2013, 10:00 PM
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That is gorgeous! Great choice and beautiful find smile.gif
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SlowHamster
post Nov 11 2013, 11:41 PM
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That is AMAZING!!! I loved that car (well, the idea of it, never drove it) and was sorry it was so short-lived. Awesome find! Looks great in black too.
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fiber optic
post Nov 12 2013, 07:18 AM
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Very nice.
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HKYStormFront
post Nov 12 2013, 02:53 PM
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Thanks guys, it's truly a amazing to drive. I haven't driven an E39 M5 recently but from what I remember it feels extremely similar.
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Halflifehavock13
post Nov 12 2013, 07:16 PM
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Congrats on the purchase - now don't ever sell it.
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HKYStormFront
post Nov 13 2013, 02:52 PM
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That's the plan!
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HKYStormFront
post Nov 16 2013, 04:48 PM
Post #9


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Bought a "GXP" tag for the front off of Amazon. It's definitely not OEM quality like you would have been able to pick up at a GM parts counter a few years ago but it seemed to be my only option these days. Today, the sun broke out for a few hours so I pulled the G8 out of the garage, cleaned the garage out and moved my car care stuff down to the garage. Parked the both vehicles together and stopped to take a quick pic before getting back to work...

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clarkma5
post Nov 17 2013, 10:07 AM
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Gorgeous! You'll have to post your truck too, I'm a big fan of compact trucks and a tuned Frontier 4.0 6-speed sounds pretty damn sweet smile.gif
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HKYStormFront
post Nov 17 2013, 07:19 PM
Post #11


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Thanks! Here's one I took a couple years ago when I got my Michelin's:



updated my signature, too. i took it down to Z1 Motorsports weekend before last and installed a cold air intake and intake manifold spacer then got it retuned. gained 14hp and 19 ft lbs but the big gains were down low, it's got a ton of low end torque now smile.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le7xvWEr2DY
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Bjorn
post Nov 22 2013, 10:25 PM
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They were blowing these things out the door when I bought my Legacy.

Every time I see one I think "I could have had a RWD sport sedan with a Corvette V8 for what I paid for my Legacy."

Then I remember I live in a place that's a skating rink for five months of the year.
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HKYStormFront
post Nov 23 2013, 03:29 AM
Post #13


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QUOTE(Bjorn @ Nov 23 2013, 01:25 AM) *
They were blowing these things out the door when I bought my Legacy.

Every time I see one I think "I could have had a RWD sport sedan with a Corvette V8 for what I paid for my Legacy."

Then I remember I live in a place that's a skating rink for five months of the year.


hahahaha! so true. it snows here maybe twice a year and it's perfect weather for 5 months out of the year. it truly is amazing bang-for-buck. it's not cheap but man is it worth it!
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HKYStormFront
post Nov 23 2013, 11:57 AM
Post #14


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went to Cars & Coffee Upstate this morning and parked with some other fellow Holdens. That's Wendel's white GT on the right, Kyle's silver GXP in the middle and mine down on the end...

Kyle said his wheels were "competition gray" lol


front tag helps A LOT lol


oh yea, there was a C6Z next to us as well smile.gif
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HKYStormFront
post Dec 31 2013, 02:42 PM
Post #15


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Pulled the GXP out of the garage during the warmer part of today (55*) to give it a bath so I could install my new VG SharkFin and replace the unsightly factory antenna.



Before SharkFin








After!


Mileage: 16,510
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Von Z
post Jan 16 2014, 04:40 PM
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Looks good, man. Congrats on the find and enjoy it!
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HKYStormFront
post Jan 17 2014, 03:37 PM
Post #17


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thanks! i'd say we're somewhat of kindred spirits being on virtually the same platform with the same powertrain smile.gif
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HKYStormFront
post Jan 23 2014, 03:19 PM
Post #18


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Car: 06 Frontier SE



My father ordered me an dash plaque from Third Shift Studios as a Christmas gift. It was finally delivered today in the mail. Here's some pics, came out pretty nice I think!



Before (above the air vents)


Installed


After!
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HKYStormFront
post Jan 27 2014, 07:15 PM
Post #19


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Car: 06 Frontier SE



Finally got a tag for my car on Friday. Long story but a lot of stuff got screwed up on the bank's side of things and had to get resolved, protracted by the holidays and vacation time people take towards the end of the year. Regardless, the car is now street legal and just in time. The driver I shoot for in Pirelli World Challenge, Brian Kleeman, flew down Friday night to hang out for the weekend. We took the car to an AutoX over in Clemson to finish off the OEM Bridgestone RE050's which were pretty much shot when I bought the car. We had a great time tossing the car around and I think we did pretty decent considering. Times have yet to be posted but I'll follow up on that along with a video (we had all three of my GoPro's going). Here's one and the album if you want to see any of the other shots:



Clemson Sports Car Club AutoX - 1/25/14 - JPMcG Photography

After the AutoX, we drove down to Z1 Motorsports in Georgia for a meeting about the upcoming year in Spec Z racing and hung out with our ATL friends the rest of the weekend. Capped it off by meeting up with some G8 owners in Duluth on my way back home last night (excuse the poor photo quality, Facebook upload here) :

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HKYStormFront
post Jan 28 2014, 08:11 PM
Post #20


Pit Mechanic
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From: Greer, SC
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Car: 06 Frontier SE



Here's the autox video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_BfDK_jQzs

Read below video for description of laps.
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