New Lower Priced GTM Universal Wing Mount

[Shane]

As many of you may be aware of, I've been selling my Universal Wing Mount system for the GTM for a few years now. To be honest, I've been lucky to break even on each one I sell. The aluminum pieces were very expensive to have made, and once those pieces came in, I had a half-day's work in drilling and tapping holes in those parts to get them ready to be shipped to the anodizer or customer. I pretty much just kept them available because I had so much design time in it, I felt is was a waste to just have them made for my own use. Just for the bare aluminum pieces to make up a complete wing mount (drilled and tapped but not anodized) and the hardware to install it, it was priced at $649......and as I said, I made virtually nothing on the deal at all.

The other problem was lead time. To keep that pricing, I had to stick to the least expensive water-jet cutter I could find, and many times, they would take 3 months or more to cut the pieces and ship them to me. This part may not go away immediately, but hopefully with this new system, I will soon be able to keep the needed parts in stock to eliminate the lead time on them.

With all of that said, essentially all I've done is convert the thick aluminum parts that are under the hatch and not seen over to 1/4" steel that I can cut on my plasma table. This makes the new system a weld-on proposition vs bolt-on like it was before. To some this may sound like a problem, but:

1. The bolt-on system couldn't be completed with the body on the car anyway.

2. Hand-drilling large bolt holes precisely is a real pain.

3. The rear sub-frame is easily removable without the body on, and there's not much time difference between marking and drilling holes vs. clamping the new parts on and welding them. If you don't have a welder, you can just pull the sub-frame off the car and take it in to your local welding shop. This is not a complicated or difficult welding job. Even with the transaxle and exhaust already installed in this car, it took me all of about 10 minutes to pull the sub-frame off.

4. The water-jet cut parts sometimes had quite a bit of bevel on the edges, which meant you may have needed to shim one side to get them to come out level in the end. With the steel parts, you clamp them where you want them, weld them up and you're done.

I did weigh the steel parts and the corresponding aluminum parts. In the end, we're looking at a 2 pound difference in total weight between the 2 mounting systems. If you're planning on using the rear wing for actual downforce.....I just gave you 2 more pounds of "downforce".

Once again, all of the parts that are seen.......that protrude thru the hatch (Gen I GTM) or body (Gen II GTM) are exactly the same as before.....Aluminum. The only parts that are different are the ones under the hatch/body.









As you can see, there is still plenty of clearance underneath for the cable shifter components. As with the original system, this will easily hold all 200 pounds of me sitting on it without a sweat. This is designed to accept my custom VRSW gel-coat wing or the APR carbon fiber wing (same wing that FFR offers, but with my custom mount spacing....and it's less expensive!)

New price for this system (complete with all of the steel weld-on pieces, the alum stand that protrudes thru the hatch and the wing stand (for either APR or VRSW wing) and mounting hardware (not including the quick release pins....they are sold seperately) is $479. This is a significant savings! I will have this listed on my website shortly. The old system will likely be discontinued. You can contact me thru the email address on my website if you have any questions or if you would like to order. Thanks!