70Firebird/TTA
Member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2002
- Messages
- 194
The old adadge that "it's a small world" applies to this experience.
An interesting "Insider" viewpoint.
While parking my Turbo Trans Am at the H.B Cal morning car show...this gentleman (mid 50s) approached me and told me some interesting stuff regarding the production of the 89 Turbo car.
Story: His office was responsible for (Pontiac Division (GM branch) for a leg of TTA production....mostly "overseeing" that the PAS facility in Cal had the necessary tooling/staffing and car and parts delivery channels in place for the Buick Turbo V-6 engine/TH200 conversion.... The gentleman stated that most difficult was the paperwork and made the impression that it was a beaucratic nightmare.
Interesting part: When the first cars were built in the new facility...a complete taredown was performed on 2 TTAs to address assembly issue...most notiably a vibration/whinning sound eminating somewhere in the engine bay. The top facility engineers were on it...but couldn't isolate the problem so GM called in "engineering extrordinaire" "Corvette Godfather" the late ZORA DONTOV to fly down from Detroit and give his assessment. According to the gentleman...Dontov basically had a TTA started and stood at the foot of the engine bay and starred down on the engine bay with his hand under his chine (without even picking up a tool or tweaking the engine in any way)---Successfully diagnosed the issue. Dontov was really in a class by himself with Larry Shinoda.:hail: :hail:
An interesting "Insider" viewpoint.
While parking my Turbo Trans Am at the H.B Cal morning car show...this gentleman (mid 50s) approached me and told me some interesting stuff regarding the production of the 89 Turbo car.
Story: His office was responsible for (Pontiac Division (GM branch) for a leg of TTA production....mostly "overseeing" that the PAS facility in Cal had the necessary tooling/staffing and car and parts delivery channels in place for the Buick Turbo V-6 engine/TH200 conversion.... The gentleman stated that most difficult was the paperwork and made the impression that it was a beaucratic nightmare.
Interesting part: When the first cars were built in the new facility...a complete taredown was performed on 2 TTAs to address assembly issue...most notiably a vibration/whinning sound eminating somewhere in the engine bay. The top facility engineers were on it...but couldn't isolate the problem so GM called in "engineering extrordinaire" "Corvette Godfather" the late ZORA DONTOV to fly down from Detroit and give his assessment. According to the gentleman...Dontov basically had a TTA started and stood at the foot of the engine bay and starred down on the engine bay with his hand under his chine (without even picking up a tool or tweaking the engine in any way)---Successfully diagnosed the issue. Dontov was really in a class by himself with Larry Shinoda.:hail: :hail:
