Whatever became of GRT on the national scene?

[MI Dirt Fan]

Did GRT and Shaw get in when the mod boom began?

[old fan]

Dumbf!ck why would you post the same link I did?

just to piss you off, have a nice day

[Aces&Eights]

It looks like they rely on racers to submit their wins so some may not be posted. Seems as though the same can be said for Larry Shaw.

Larry Shaw never had a dominant presence in the SE, GRT was everywhere.

[Aces&Eights]

i can take a 2002 to a 2007-8 and be very competitive with a few tweaks,not to mention everyone forgets very quickly who was one of the first to try and build a car that doesn't flex,and everyone thought they were junk,now take a look at todays cars,they were ahead of there time

Well actually I guess you could say Joe did both. I have both his books and first one touts firm chassis, second goes into flexible chassis. I always thought it odd he went from pillar to post like that, I mean to an extreme. In the span of what 3-4 years he goes from computer car to flex X car... Personally I always thought the flexing X brace and flexing cars was a bad idea.

[fastford]

I can tell you exactly what's wrong with GRT , his initials are JG , met him In Memphis at sentmans race expo several years back , when he found out I wasn't loaded with $$$$ , he wouldn't give me the time of day, a real piece of work.....

[Necrosis]

I can tell you exactly what's wrong with GRT , his initials are JG , met him In Memphis at sentmans race expo several years back , when he found out I wasn't loaded with $$$$ , he wouldn't give me the time of day, a real piece of work.....

Yep, I had a run-in with Jorge Guzman as well. He was doing the weed-eating outside of PRI one year, and I asked him if he was accepting new clients in the Orlando area. When I told him my yard was only 1/10 of an acre, he about cut my feet off at the ankles with that dam weedwacker... What a pr!ck.

[Aces&Eights]

I always wondered if it wasn't rooted in his personal life, it seems like he suddenly had a new younger wife and baby a few years back and presto-chango GRT evaporated from the national discussion. To me they were at one time, bigger than rocket was for a while. Rocket may be super supreme(with anchovies) since 2000, but I think prior to that it was the GRT show. It wasn't like performance had dropped off, they just seem like they left, poof.

[fastford]

Yep, I had a run-in with Jorge Guzman as well. He was doing the weed-eating outside of PRI one year, and I asked him if he was accepting new clients in the Orlando area. When I told him my yard was only 1/10 of an acre, he about cut my feet off at the ankles with that dam weedwacker... What a pr!ck.

I have no idea what your talking about , but that's not who im talking about , but you know don't you?

[Necrosis]

I have no idea what your talking about , but that's not who im talking about , but you know don't you?

Pretty pretty pretty please tell me you caught my sarcasm.

[fastford]

us dumb azz red necks are a little slow sometimes, but ya, I gets it......lol, by tha way, your name isn't Joe is it?

[Necrosis]

us dumb azz red necks are a little slow sometimes, but ya, I gets it......lol, by tha way, your name isn't Joe is it?

Yes, my initials are JG. However, I can only answer any further questions after I receive confirmation of your wealth, and willingness to part with it. Good day, sir.

[RoadtoPennsboro]

There was a time in the tri-state corner of NW PA, Eastern Ohio and SW NY had GRTs at every track. I can't remember who the dealer was? Maybe Bob Close? But mostly, my favorite LM of all tme (the 28B) was a GRT and won many a race and track title from the mid 90s to mid aughts.

[Josh Bayko]

There was a time in the tri-state corner of NW PA, Eastern Ohio and SW NY had GRTs at every track. I can't remember who the dealer was? Maybe Bob Close? But mostly, my favorite LM of all tme (the 28B) was a GRT and won many a race and track title from the mid 90s to mid aughts.

Yeah, the dealer is Bob Close. I believe he's still a GRT dealer, and there's still a pocket of GRT cars up that way, but almost all of em are crates. I think he sells GRT mods too.

[hardracer32]

GRT got lost..

I can tell you exactly why GRT fell off the face of the Late Model Scene. The best front end they ever designed was the 1996 design. After that, everything they put out was a flop. I had 2 GRT's and they were both good cars. I always ran the underslung cars. You couldn't beat that design. The cars were great as far as from a contsruction standpoint, but even in 2007 when I got my last new car, everybody was still ordering the 96' front end. And the problem with that is that when Rocket came along and put a real front end on a car and people started to see what it was like to have a car that actually steers, then it was pretty much over for GRT. Everybody else started innovating and changing to try and come up with something better than the Rockets. Heck, even GRT made a direct copy of the Rocket front end in 2002. But everybody that got one ran it for like 3 races then cut if off and put the 96 geomertry back on them. Once Rockets started taking off (pun intended) eveybody was switching. A few guys went back to GRT before they bounced to something else, but eventually nobody had any faith in those cars anymore. When big names like Ray Cook started finding other brands it was over. When Ray made the switch to Mastersbilt then a lot of the guys in my area started doing the same thing. A lot of guys also went to Rayburn around here. Now you have all these new chassis guys that really have their crap together and the origianal big name chassis that this sport has know for so long aren't even in the field anymore at national events. Only Rocket really still has a presence on the national scene. Look at the field of any national event and you'll see quite a few Rockets, some Capitals, Longhorns, Bloomquist, Club29. After that you might have one or 2 of one of the other brands. Most likely Mastersbilt, BWRC, Warrior. But hardly ever do you see more than a handful of those cars. I haven't seen a GRT in anything but a local show or midpack regional in a quite a while. If I was buying a new race car I can tell you right now that GRT would be at the bottom of my list. My top pick would be Longhorn, after that probably a Pierce cuz I think Bob builds a good piiece. Then it woudl be a tie between Rocket and Warrior, mainly because Warrior is only a couple of hours from me.

[Aces&Eights]

I can tell you exactly why GRT fell off the face of the Late Model Scene. The best front end they ever designed was the 1996 design. After that, everything they put out was a flop. I had 2 GRT's and they were both good cars. I always ran the underslung cars. You couldn't beat that design. The cars were great as far as from a contsruction standpoint, but even in 2007 when I got my last new car, everybody was still ordering the 96' front end. And the problem with that is that when Rocket came along and put a real front end on a car and people started to see what it was like to have a car that actually steers, then it was pretty much over for GRT. Everybody else started innovating and changing to try and come up with something better than the Rockets. Heck, even GRT made a direct copy of the Rocket front end in 2002. But everybody that got one ran it for like 3 races then cut if off and put the 96 geomertry back on them. Once Rockets started taking off (pun intended) eveybody was switching. A few guys went back to GRT before they bounced to something else, but eventually nobody had any faith in those cars anymore. When big names like Ray Cook started finding other brands it was over. When Ray made the switch to Mastersbilt then a lot of the guys in my area started doing the same thing. A lot of guys also went to Rayburn around here. Now you have all these new chassis guys that really have their crap together and the origianal big name chassis that this sport has know for so long aren't even in the field anymore at national events. Only Rocket really still has a presence on the national scene. Look at the field of any national event and you'll see quite a few Rockets, some Capitals, Longhorns, Bloomquist, Club29. After that you might have one or 2 of one of the other brands. Most likely Mastersbilt, BWRC, Warrior. But hardly ever do you see more than a handful of those cars. I haven't seen a GRT in anything but a local show or midpack regional in a quite a while. If I was buying a new race car I can tell you right now that GRT would be at the bottom of my list. My top pick would be Longhorn, after that probably a Pierce cuz I think Bob builds a good piiece. Then it woudl be a tie between Rocket and Warrior, mainly because Warrior is only a couple of hours from me.

The team I was with in 02' & 03' had 3 cars. The first was a 00' or 01' with the 96' front end, worked great won 2 track titles and many races with it in 02'. Got a new car late in the season with the new front end and debuted it the following year and never could make it go. I was told it was designed with Eastbay in mind as GRT had struggled there for many years and had the RC located to the right a good bit or maybe it migrated to the right. Mid season we parked it and got another new frame w/96' front end and went back to winning.