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I am thankful to report that I am continuing to find time to move the project forward.
Although there is still finishing work to do on the body I am able to start working on the interior.
My plan is to convert my comfort seat to the sports seat back rest with the more aggressive side bolsters while retaining the full electric comfort features.
I bought a sports interior courtesy of Mark Anderson (thanks Mark) a couple of years ago in order to facilitate the conversion.
I couldn't find anything on the forum about doing this conversion so I started by removing the backrest from a sports seat and a comfort seat to compare them, I then removed the leather covers to see the inside structure of the seat
see picture below
It seems the only difference between the two backrest structurally are the addition of a support bar for the larger side bolsters. I think the easiest way to do what I want is to add the support bar and foam cushion from the sports seat to the comfort seat. That looks easier than trying to move all the motors across however I will see soon!
Seat foam removed from the sports seat back showing the support bars Differences between sports seat back foam and comfort seat. There are large cut outs for the electric motors in the comfort seat Sports seat back and comfort seat back side by side Preparing the comfort seat to weld on the support bars
After comparing the seat backs it is preferable for me to transfer the side bolster bars from the sports seat to the comfort seat. There are a number of differences between the sports seat back and the comfort relating to the electric motors which would require a lot more work to mount the motors in a sports seat back, not to say that it's out of the question but definitely much easier to convert the comfort seat to sports side bolsters.
I need to decide on how to approach the issue that the head rest for the two seats are quite different. One option would be to cut the side bolsters off and switch them somehow patching them together
Maybe most people would simply stick with the sports seat without motors etc and take a small weight saving but that's not my approach to a luxury GT, I would rather take the few extra kgs and have the luxury. I am not increasing the weight over the standard car so have no concerns about affecting performance.
I am going down the route of tuning the stock engine first before considering a stroker because if I get enough of an improvement with cams, headers, inlet manifold and fuelling then I will probably be satisfied. The power number I think will work for me is about 400 hp while maintaining good torque. i think a worse case scenario with these mods would be 370 and at best 410, either way it will be fun to find out.
It would be nice to have 500+ and I love the idea of saying I have a 6.5 but ultimately I don't want to make it to challenging to drive, however saying that I do have a spare engine to use for a stroker and have done a fair bit of research on building one.
Don't let down the GTS brotherhood by being an S4 in GTS clothing! Get to well over 400, or remove that badging, sir!
I'd say it's not really worth upgrading the engine if keeping the automatic is the plan. S4's & GTS's engine's feel very similar. I'd start with a manual conversion for sure!
Don't let down the GTS brotherhood by being an S4 in GTS clothing! Get to well over 400, or remove that badging, sir!
I am looking at the option of going to 6.5 as a phase 3 to the project. I will definitely be installing the new cams in the next couple of weeks and performing some shark tuning to optimise things in the short term.
It has taken a monumental amount of work over the past 14 months to get to this stage as I kept adding to the scope of the project in an attitude that was "I may as well do this at the same time". There are limits and a balance to strike and I am looking forward to getting it on the road soon and getting some use out it.
The latest work has been concentrating on the interior which has been a welcome change as well as rewarding. Paul Champagne has been helping me remotely and I have to say a big thank you to Paul.
Pictures will follow of the seats, but until then here is a picture of the carpet work
07-15-2017, 06:28 AM
