Just got back from a trip down to Jackson Hole Wyoming. I drove all the way from Vancouver B.C. Although I got the wheels and tires before I left, plus the GIAC upgrade, I wanted to wait posting a picture until my return. That way I could relate some performace opinions.

There are some great long straightaways in central Washington. I made 6 attempts at hitting top speed only to either run out of viewable road or not top more than about 285 KPH. From my house to Spokane is approximately 420 miles. I arrived into downtown Spokane in 4.6 hours. The last time I did that drive it tokk me slightly more than 6 hours.

I was somewhat upset about missing the 300 KPH mark since the car is listed as being capable of over that. Through Idaho and parts of Montana the roads are good for quick speeds but not for top speed runs. You can easily cruise at 100 MPH. Just before Butte Montana I swung south on the I-15. After a short stint of curvy road it opened up to fairly flat farm country with very long straightaways. My next run got me to 290 KPH with a slight headwind. Once again frustrated, I was at a loss as to why the car could not make 300 KPH. Then it suddenly came to me, I had the air conditioner running at 75%. I turned it off and on the next run I finally topped 305 KPH before I ran out of road.

I don't know how many of you CGT owners have had the chance to go this fast with your car, but I can now attest that this car is amazing. As I would pounce on the accelerator pushing for full throttle, the engine pulled nice and strong all the way up through 260 KPH and then gently nudged it way for the last 30 or so KPH. At the very top end of the speed the car handled just as well as it does in the lower end of the speedometer. My last 150+ MPH car was a Testarossa. At speeds over 150 MPH the Ferrari sucked itself down to the road giving a very firm ride and a very touchy reponse in the steering wheel. The aerodynamics of the CGT are not only striking to look at but the engineers found a way to make it all work at top speeds as well.

Again I will state that the only thing about this car that falls short is the NAV system. The only way to improve them is to buy the upgrade that has been installed in the 07's and to drop another $15k. A little rich for a DVD player and some software.

Who likes the wheels & tires?



Ernie....

 

Kahn design wheels look great.
Nice Bent!
Nice story, i hope to find myself on those roads one day.


**edit.
Can you elaborate more on the GT's Nav? Whats so bad about it?

 

Great wheels, they are a perfect compliment to your car.
Great write up too, have not had mine out of town yet so have not tested the upper limits yet.
07 nav is not any better, worse navigation on any car that I've owned.
Whats your thoughts on the increased power from the chip, other than top speed.

 

There is a definitive increase in power and a more aggressive growl to the car now. But I still have my reservations about giving this a full two thumbs up.

The first thing I have to pass on is that my previous toy was a fully supercharged SRT 10 Ram Truck. This was an 8.3 litres V-10 Viper engine, 643 HP at the rear wheels with 4:56 gears and just over 775 RWTQ. If you avoided smoking the tires at startup, this thing put out enough G force through acceleration to make the blood drain to the backside of your head. What I'm getting at is that the CGT does not come close with twin turbo's that need a little time to spool up. However, the CGT is also not about that sort of raw power either.

The GIAC upgrade certainly perked up the midrange acceleration in all of the gears. The problem I have with it is that there appears to be some confusion with the signals that the transmission is receiving. I took it back to the installer a week or so after installation and took him for a ride. He suggested I drive for a while longer and try to see if I could adjust my driving in a way as to not encounter the problems. I don't feel that that is going to be possible.

What happens is that as you accelerate the power range is great. But if you let of the throttle a little to fast the car suddenly jerks as though it can't figure out which gear is should get to. The feeling inside the car is as the engine has a huge missfire. And this happens most frequently down in the lower range of gears where we do most of our driving.

Although a bit pricey when you include the switch unit, it still adds a substantial amount of HP for just an electronic upgrade. In my truck, the one they had barely gave you 45 HP if you had a higher flow exhaust system as well. By the time you bought both you were pretty close to $4k as well.

Thanks for the compliments on the wheels. The first time I saw them on their web site I fell in love with them. Kept searching and scouring every Bentley photo shoot but never found anything I liked better. By the way you have in my opinion the best color combination of all of the Bentley schemes.

Good luck with it!!!

Ernie...

 

very clean. great job

 

Thank you for the complement on my color combination, I agree with you.
Great write up on the power upgrade, very interesting. I thought about doing this but have two reservations, one the price is too steep at $5995, no reason for it being so high and two had chipped my Porsche Cayenne Turbo and it had some hesitation at times, so do not want that on my Bentley. Besides with 552 hp who needs more, well I do at times!

 

The lowest detail setting is only 200 meters. At this setting all I get in town is major routes with the name showing up and lines simply showing the streets but with no names. On my wife's Jag the detail goes down to 50 meters and shows every street name, destination entry is by qwerty touch screen keyboard. It takes me 5 times longer to enter a destination with the Bentley's rotary style dial.

I'm not one who needs to enter a destination everytime I head to a new location in town, but being able to see the streen names helps alot if you know the general area that you are heading but need to see some detail. But it's most helpful when your travelling in a new city.

Considering the cost of these cars, money should have been no object in creating or installing the most advanced of navigation systems.

Just my opinion....

Ernie

 

Nice wheels and great write up about the 300km/h story. Remind me the first time I've hit 300km/h with my TT. Couple runs with 290+ but need to hit 300 before runout of road. I've just move from Toronto to Vancouver. There are so many BGT in town, you really need some aftermarket wheels to dress it up here. Hope to see you around town

 

So, have you heard from any other GIAC flash upgrade GT owners with this problem? Howabout from the GIAC Flash dealers? reading about your experience makes me want top skip the GIAC flash upgrade. mark mburnste@dmc.org

 

The problem you are experiancing is not with the GIAC software but the transmission ECU software. This was a common problem experianced on early GT's. I was with BentleyNA when this car was released and this has been a known problem. A simple re-flash of the trans ecu at the dealer solves the problem.

We have done a few dozen C-GT's and have not had any problems with the GIAC upgrade.

Its the best performance money can buy.

While it is not inexpensive .. It is priced right based on the limited # of cars and the amount of work that needed to be done to properly develop the software. GIAC had our C-GT for over 2 weeks..

The car does have 2 ECU's and they need to be synchronized to work.
Its not something a bunch of kids are doing in there garage at home.

Not a bad upgrade considering the car has a 175K + sticker.

Gentlmen these are Bentley's ...........



Ad an exhaust and the cars really become a ton of fun.


Hope that sheds some light on the topic!

 

Hi
Thanks for the response,
Any idea if any of the ECU upgrades were implemented in the new GT Speed? The regular GT Coupe can handle the extra HP and torque from the performance upgrade of the GIAC ECU flash without harm to the engine and powertrain?
I'm getting an 06 GT Coupe , that was in service 04/06. The transmission ECU should have been fixed, maybe with a Technical Service Bulletin from Bentley NA? My car is now undergoing a CPO in NY. I'll ask them to check out any TSB issues. So the GIAC Flash for performance even with exhaust upgrade, no worries for engine and powertrain lifespan??

 

Very nice rims.

 

clean wheels

 

Thanks for the response,
Any idea if any of the ECU upgrades were implemented in the new GT Speed? can the regular GT Coupe handle the extra HP and torque from the performance upgrade of the GIAC ECU flash without harm to the engine and powertrain??????????
I'm getting an 06 GT Coupe , that was in service 04/06. Any transmission ECU issues for that year ??
So the GIAC Flash for performance even with exhaust upgrade, no worries for engine and powertrain lifespan?? And daily driveability?

 

Wheels look perfect on it.