Just picked up a 1989 GTU's black on black on thursday..
just got pics its a little ruff but i was hoping you guys can let me know what i should do heres what i got
It has decent compression 112 and 110 or so. Iinterior is real good condition.Body and hood has few dings here and there.Came with all brand new shifter and rubber boot hardware.bran new brake pads.runs real nice drove it all the way from portland to federalway no probs at all.
So Are my questions.......Should i do a T2 swap and get bodykit,rims,magnaflows,or keep it N/A origanal ?

 

more

 

2 interior and engine bay(dirty)

 

Keep it stock! ^_^ [except for the rims...]
It'd be a waste to put a body kit on such a nice looking car..

Oh and how much did it set you back?

Plus with the engine in good shape there's no need for a swap..

 

Ya thats what i was thinking. What about the suspension ?
Gonna pressure wash the engine and clean her up tomorrow i will post pics..
gonna have new paint in a couple of weeks. I will keep u guys posted of progress ...
picked her up for 1,800

 

holy ****! 1800! thats sooooo cheap, that guy must not have known what he had, ****! ok, heres the thing GTUs' are very very light compared to a gxl or any other fc. the scoops in the bumper lead straight to your brakes for instant cooling. the weight of the car makes this very fast, i knew a guy with a GTUs n he use to pull on stock TII's. no ****! this car is light with a agressive NA engine, if u swap the TII it'll be faster for sure. suspension: im not sure where it stands put up against normal fc's but look around, dont commit to anything though cause u may just want to restore this thing cause its a gem! they were super low production, only like 600 ever i think. correct me if im wrong.

 

I can't find the production numbers for 1989.

A very rare care though is the 1990 GTUs.
Exactly 100 were made.

And 1800 for a GTUs in that kind of condition is an excellent buy.

Some sold one in the portland area about 3 or 4 years ago that went for 5k.

 

Ya i was going to make this my new car....what i mean by make this my new car is put the full coverage on it and start dumping money into it...Anyone know what kind of suspension i should get?
would the value of the car go down if i got rid of the stock cats, stock mufflers header,piping size. I was debating if i should go all aftermarket?

 

Turbo swap ftw.

 

Couple of things:
A GTUs is heavier than any S4 NA coupe. Brake ducts were standard on all FCs regardless of model. The GTUs had the same engine as all other S5 NAs but with a lower final drive. The GTUs also had the same basic suspension as all other S5 NAs = same lame suspension.

Good find regardless, GTUs(s) are rad IMO!

 

but its a hardtop. in my book that makes it valuable. low weight and lower CG makes a car a keeper :-) its the ultimate S5, the Efini IV of NA's

 

the whole front fasia (at least on the 90's) was all aluminum. i knew a guy who had one n then he sold it, he said it was very quick n fast. (quicker than most fc's). n if it wasnt lighter n faster n just plain better y would they have made one? the gtu-s' are stripped down a ton, they're made for track.

 

An S4 Sport is immediately comparable to a GTUs and is much easier to find as well.

Front fascia? I'm not sure to what you are referring. The GTUs hoods were aluminum as were select suspension pieces not unlike many other FCs. A GTUs is only marginally lighter than other S5s due to the lack of a sunroof. An S4 Sport or GTU is lighter than a GTUs with comparable performance.

 

wuteve dude, the point is they are lighter. am i right? they are lighter because of no power windows n no sunroof.

 

Oh wow! major difference between the doors of my gxl and this one way lighter, makes more power in higher rpm compared to my s/4,lots of throttle response even in 5th.
had to put her on the back burner until i get her tabs up to date.

 

see, a lighter car is a big difference. the guy who had the 1990 gtu-s could pull on tII's! well thats what he said n i belive he could pull for a while but its a pretty dead even race if u ask me. think of it this way every 100lbs u shave off is like adding 10hp! it ends up being like for every 100lbs its .10 seconds in the quarter mile or something like that.

 

I seriously dont think a gtus could pull on a stock TII. A gtu's might be able to keep up with a TII if it had slight mods- pipes intake,and header....

 

u have to think about the lag, on a freeway pull ur turbo isnt spolled competley. once u step on it is when the turbo hits full boost, the na will pull but not for long

 

how much is a stock 89 gtu's worth with 131,000 miles

 

i dunno, a pretty penny for sure. check bluebook.

 

Stock FC NAs (any trim other than slow GXLs) run 16 second quarter mile times stock. The TII (S4 or S5) ran mid-low 15s. A S4 NA with a few mods like exhaust can run with a stock TII.

 

it depends on which series engine ur talking about. the s5's somehow got to 14.3 with 183 hp to the wheels n 184 torque with the tII's. yah i know, kinda hard to belive but it seems to be true. the s4's run 5lbs boost n s5's run 8-9lbs boost.

 

The GTUs is a nice car. It is lighter than most other trim levels. It is very comparable to the '86 sport models, which also came with an alluminum hood, and other light components. The manual windows actually are heavier than the power windows. The Efini models were made with the lightest parts possible, including less sound deadening material, and that car had power windows. The difference in weight shouldnt be enough for that car to keep up with a stock Tii.

Consider a turbo swap once the engine is dead. That way you maximize the value of the current engine.

 

how can manual windows be heavier than power? '
n the thing that i was saying was that the gtu-s pulled on the TII, not won. its common sense, when ur on a freeway n ur not on the throttle the turbo isnt fully spooled. so this gives time for the NA to put some slight distance on the TII, granted its not a whole lotta distance but it'll make the TII look slow for about 2 seconds

 

There is now way a stock NA would even challenge a stock TII. I don't care if it was from a dead stop or at freeway speeds. Stock TIIs have no real lag at stock boost pressure. Nice find with the GTUs! Clean it up and keep it stock, other than rims and coilovers.