nineinchnail1024
05-03-2008, 09:23 PM
As many of you may have read in the forums, I had a not-so-positive experience with the last set of coils I bought from Granatelli Motorsports. I bought their original design a couple of years ago and had consistent failures from the coils. I eventually gave up on them and sold them. A few days ago, I was offered a great deal on a set of the updated design coils (thanks again, Dex), so I decided to give them a shot.
Some of you are probably wondering why I'd go back to granatelli after having problems with their first design. Well, I've bought many products from the company over the years, and the only one I ever had trouble with was their old design coils. Also, there are several other companies manufacturing coils for the S197 GT, but I could never get any real information from them in regards to the performance of their coils. All I could get out of them was that the coils were a "significant improvement over stock," which was not good enough for me. Granatelli actually has hard numbers in regards to the performance of their coils.
So, the review:
So far, so good. The install is extremely simple. If I didn't have the whipple supercharger, it would have taken 15 minutes, but I had to remove my intake and throttle body to get to the driver side coils, so it took about 40 minutes. I started the car immediately after installing them, and noticed an immediate improvement in the amount of time it took for the car to start. In fact, it took no time at all. I turned the key and the car was on. Usually it takes a half to a full second to start the car, but now it fires up immediately. I let the car warm up for a few minutes, and then slowly revved it up to about 4K RPMs. Revs were smooth and clean with no detectable spark blowout, despite the whipple. I gave it a quick rev to near the redline with the same result. Today I took it out on the road. I tried my hardest to punish the new coils and expose any weakness. I ran through the first three gears as hard and fast as possible. No problems. I shifted into fifth at 35 mph and floored it. Still no problems. I dropped into second at about 35 with the revs up. Still no problems. The car pulls smoothly and solidly and doesn't have that "rough around the edges" feel that I had become accustomed to with the stock coils.
As of now, everything is great. If there are any problems in the future, I will be sure to update this thread.
Some of you are probably wondering why I'd go back to granatelli after having problems with their first design. Well, I've bought many products from the company over the years, and the only one I ever had trouble with was their old design coils. Also, there are several other companies manufacturing coils for the S197 GT, but I could never get any real information from them in regards to the performance of their coils. All I could get out of them was that the coils were a "significant improvement over stock," which was not good enough for me. Granatelli actually has hard numbers in regards to the performance of their coils.
So, the review:
So far, so good. The install is extremely simple. If I didn't have the whipple supercharger, it would have taken 15 minutes, but I had to remove my intake and throttle body to get to the driver side coils, so it took about 40 minutes. I started the car immediately after installing them, and noticed an immediate improvement in the amount of time it took for the car to start. In fact, it took no time at all. I turned the key and the car was on. Usually it takes a half to a full second to start the car, but now it fires up immediately. I let the car warm up for a few minutes, and then slowly revved it up to about 4K RPMs. Revs were smooth and clean with no detectable spark blowout, despite the whipple. I gave it a quick rev to near the redline with the same result. Today I took it out on the road. I tried my hardest to punish the new coils and expose any weakness. I ran through the first three gears as hard and fast as possible. No problems. I shifted into fifth at 35 mph and floored it. Still no problems. I dropped into second at about 35 with the revs up. Still no problems. The car pulls smoothly and solidly and doesn't have that "rough around the edges" feel that I had become accustomed to with the stock coils.
As of now, everything is great. If there are any problems in the future, I will be sure to update this thread.