New G8 GT Owner in South Florida

[waltjrUM]

Hi guys, my name is Walt. I've been lurking for about 6 weeks, but bought a 2009 Stryker Blue GT about 3 weeks ago. Only pic I have that was taken by me so far is below. Flew out to Southern Cali to buy and pick it up from a dealer, then drove it back. Since then I only did a quick wash to get the crap off. Between work and crappy weather here, I haven't had a chance to do an all out detail on it and take some good shots of it. Car has a couple minor exterior flaws, flawless interior, and mechanically sound with the exception of the vibration at highway speeds when AFM engages and intermittent steering wheel shake which seems to be somewhat related to AFM, but maybe the control arms.

Today I changed the oil for the first time (dealer changed the oil and put on new pads and rotors on all 4 corners before I bought it). I also did the antenna extension for remote start and subwoofer rewiring today. Those 2 mods made a big difference and so far I'm very happy with the car. First significant mods will probably be the control arms and HPTuners to clean up the transmission shifting, plus possibly disable AFM at higher speeds if I decide not to take it to the dealer for the softer motor mounts.

I've seen a couple people I recognize from Club GP already (my screen name there is baddestGTP).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hz-WDuUhIzM/T8loR-yGCnI/AAAAAAAAAuE/We8LsLNUhy0/s800/IMG_20120529_143235.jpg

[saltyrodz]

Nice I'm also in south Florida Miami area we are growing strong down here almost as strong as Texas.

[texn884]

Nice find and welcome from Texas. Let the Mods begin and enjoy the car will give you many smiles and woodies

[ecmoney]

West palm beach here wordddd

[LDM]

Welcome Walt. If you want to disable AFM temporarily, just shift the transmission into manual mode. At highway speeds you won't be doing much gear changing anyway.

[Darkmanx]

cool in in ft lauderdale as well.

[silver6.0L]

Welcome!

[MongosG8]

Welcome Walt!
Picked a nice color!

[travis gore]

Welcome Walt

[-Ray-]

Welcome to the forum.

[waltjrUM]

Thanks for the warm welcome! Good to see at least a few people already in my area! I still have my GP and the following is pretty sad these days, I think the closest person to me is Daytona beach!


Welcome Walt. If you want to disable AFM temporarily, just shift the transmission into manual mode. At highway speeds you won't be doing much gear changing anyway.

Yep, I'm already on top of it, that's how I "diagnosed" the problem. :)

I forgot to mention, the car had 26,128 miles on it when I purchased it. Now it has about 29k after the 2700 mile trip home and some daily driving.

[NWOG8]

Welcome!

[macvangelist]

Nice car! Just like mine... :-)

Good to know of somebody in Ft. Lauderdale! I am usually there once or twice a year because I have family in Deerfield Beach. Earlier this year I was hoping to meet up with some of the South Florida guys... maybe next year!

[Fatdaddy]

Welcome!

[Tooler]

welcome! Another Stryker :cheers:

I will be flying into Ft Lauderdale on the 3rd for vacation. Cant wait! wish I could have the Blue Beast with me. I will sure miss it while I will be driving a econo box. We are planing to drive to Key Largo after a day and then back. Do you have any suggestions on good beaches that are not too crowded? or any suggestions of things to must do? So excited... I have wanted to hit southern FL for a long time.

[ecmoney]

All of the beaches up and down south FLa are really good. you will have a great time.

[saltyrodz]

Anything north of south beach is nice to go and relax south beach is just plain fun and nice and the keys are so laid back you will forget your in the US. If your going to the Key largo go to John penne camp and dive the Christ of the abyss. An if in key west the must see is the sunset at Mallory square. For food you can not go wrong eating at the fish house or the fish house encore in key largo.

[thebeast]

All of the beaches up and down south FLa are really good. you will have a great time.

Is your car at torq getting a cam, Maggie and more?

[saltyrodz]

No not mine waiting on parts and time with jeff to get mine done gotta keep up with my buddy's lightning now. Lol

[waltjrUM]

Just checked back on this thread, but salty pretty much covered it. I only hit South Beach once or twice a year, typically because it's a lot more expensive, but mostly similar to the rest of the beaches. You have to go at least once though when you visit, else you're missing "Miami." :)

On another note, a guy cut 3 lanes over and cut me off as I was merging onto 95 this morning, shielding my view of the road, then he quickly swerved into the exiting lane where I was merging from revealing a laid down construction cone in the road. And there went my front bumper... :bye:

Scuffed and bent the lower left of the fascia and cracked the lower grill. The bumper already had scratches on the underside of it from the previous owner, so I'm just going to go ahead and do the GXP upgrade. Sucks that the prices have increased so much. It looks like my best bet is the kit posted by crazy Paul recently, plus getting the bumper somewhere else online or perhaps at a local dealer. Does anyone have a South Florida dealer discount/hookup?

[saltyrodz]

Greg at pace performance.com can hook you up as Jessika at superchargerconnection.com if you need paint and body work the only place I would recommend is Williamson caddy body shop off of the turnpike and 184 i think right next to the home depot, or the body shop next to the fire station where I'm at on banks road and 24th in margate fl.

[Darkmanx]

I went to a body shop in Hollywood to paint mine 1 1/2 ago to paint mine and it holding up nice