I saw a question about the ownership of PAS on another thread. I can answer the question, but first let me tell you how I know.
I owned an ‘85 and ‘88 S-10 Blazer and liked them both, but wished they had a little more performance. When they came out with the Syclone in ‘91 I was unhappy because I wanted the Blazer style, not the pickup. I watched closely and when they came out with the Typhoon in ‘92 I got one of the first that showed up at a dealer near me. It was Aspen Blue Metallic. Over the course of the nest 10 months I had it in to the dealer more than I drove it. I found out that they only made 28 that color. Between liking the color and the rarity, I tried to get them to fix it so I could keep it. Finally asked me! if I wanted to lemon it. They put me in contact with customer service in Detroit and I had many conversations with a guy to get it traded for a ‘93 Ty.
I also had talked to the head trouble-shooter at PAS many times. I don't remember any names after almost 12 years. So in January of ‘93 I got things arranged with customer service to get a new Ty for $3500. My ‘92 had 23k on it with brakes on the squeekers and bald tires. Not a bad deal. So I asked the guy jokingly that it would be cool if I could come back and see how they are built, and he said he thought he could arrange it. Well I took him up on it, and with a friend and my 16 year old son, we went back to Detroit in early April ‘93. We got a private tour of the GM assembly line and the PAS facility, where the Typhoons were being built. I think I am qualified to explain how they were built, so here goes.
The assembly line at GM had Blazers, Jimmys, and pickups as well as Typhoons. They put a Typhoon on about every 12th vehicle. When they came off the line they would drive but were missing front and rear bumpers, and intercoolers plus other little stuff. They drove them the five miles to PAS to finish them up.
GM did not own PAS. GM contracted PAS to modify different cars and trucks for them. PAS did the 89 Turbo Trans-Am with the Buick 3.8 turbo motor. Also, some larger box trucks with a propane conversion and, of course, the Syclone that was assembled in Shreveport LA. PAS had a shop a short distance from the GM plant down there.
The building at PAS was about the size of a football field inside. On their assembly line, cars moved up on their own power. At Pas they received the motors in crates. They were sort of a long block because they had to put fuel rails and other parts on them. They also put the transmission and transfer case on. Then they hooked up a fuel line and checked for leaks, and hooked up wires and checked everything electric. Then they crated the completed motor, transmission and transfer case and had a truck take them to the GM plant twice a day. PAS also put the instrument cluster together and sent them to the plant also.
After GM completed the assembly and PAS got the trucks back, they put the front and rear bumpers on, the intercooler in, put the ECM up under the dash and other things. Then they had a four wheel dyno of sorts and checked to see that everything worked: satisfactory emissions, all cylinders firing, transmission shifts ok and so on. And guess what! they punched it like you would on a power dyno run.
Then when the testing was all done, they took it out for about a two-mile shake down run. We watched as they left and gave each one a 0-60 test on the street right in front of us. They did this to each one of them! There are probably some details I'm not remembering, but I think that's most of it.
So they were built at a GM plant and GM did not own PAS. PAS went out of business in about ‘95 or ’96 - why I don’t know. I heard though that GM screwed them out of some money and either the owners of PAS took the spare parts left over or GM gave them to them to settle up. Anyway some of that stuff was sold to people later. I got a complete motor, transmission, and transfer case in factory wrap from a guy in Calif. that I still have. He had at least six or seven motors he sold years ago.
I hope this clears up some the questions that I saw on another thread. And by the way, if anyone tries to ask me anything more on this now I won't be able to reply because my computer won't let me log in or post. I'm at a friend’s house sending this. Don't know if it will be days or weeks before I can get it fixed so I don’t want anyone to think I'm ignoring them. I can read posts however.
I owned an ‘85 and ‘88 S-10 Blazer and liked them both, but wished they had a little more performance. When they came out with the Syclone in ‘91 I was unhappy because I wanted the Blazer style, not the pickup. I watched closely and when they came out with the Typhoon in ‘92 I got one of the first that showed up at a dealer near me. It was Aspen Blue Metallic. Over the course of the nest 10 months I had it in to the dealer more than I drove it. I found out that they only made 28 that color. Between liking the color and the rarity, I tried to get them to fix it so I could keep it. Finally asked me! if I wanted to lemon it. They put me in contact with customer service in Detroit and I had many conversations with a guy to get it traded for a ‘93 Ty.
I also had talked to the head trouble-shooter at PAS many times. I don't remember any names after almost 12 years. So in January of ‘93 I got things arranged with customer service to get a new Ty for $3500. My ‘92 had 23k on it with brakes on the squeekers and bald tires. Not a bad deal. So I asked the guy jokingly that it would be cool if I could come back and see how they are built, and he said he thought he could arrange it. Well I took him up on it, and with a friend and my 16 year old son, we went back to Detroit in early April ‘93. We got a private tour of the GM assembly line and the PAS facility, where the Typhoons were being built. I think I am qualified to explain how they were built, so here goes.
The assembly line at GM had Blazers, Jimmys, and pickups as well as Typhoons. They put a Typhoon on about every 12th vehicle. When they came off the line they would drive but were missing front and rear bumpers, and intercoolers plus other little stuff. They drove them the five miles to PAS to finish them up.
GM did not own PAS. GM contracted PAS to modify different cars and trucks for them. PAS did the 89 Turbo Trans-Am with the Buick 3.8 turbo motor. Also, some larger box trucks with a propane conversion and, of course, the Syclone that was assembled in Shreveport LA. PAS had a shop a short distance from the GM plant down there.
The building at PAS was about the size of a football field inside. On their assembly line, cars moved up on their own power. At Pas they received the motors in crates. They were sort of a long block because they had to put fuel rails and other parts on them. They also put the transmission and transfer case on. Then they hooked up a fuel line and checked for leaks, and hooked up wires and checked everything electric. Then they crated the completed motor, transmission and transfer case and had a truck take them to the GM plant twice a day. PAS also put the instrument cluster together and sent them to the plant also.
After GM completed the assembly and PAS got the trucks back, they put the front and rear bumpers on, the intercooler in, put the ECM up under the dash and other things. Then they had a four wheel dyno of sorts and checked to see that everything worked: satisfactory emissions, all cylinders firing, transmission shifts ok and so on. And guess what! they punched it like you would on a power dyno run.
Then when the testing was all done, they took it out for about a two-mile shake down run. We watched as they left and gave each one a 0-60 test on the street right in front of us. They did this to each one of them! There are probably some details I'm not remembering, but I think that's most of it.
So they were built at a GM plant and GM did not own PAS. PAS went out of business in about ‘95 or ’96 - why I don’t know. I heard though that GM screwed them out of some money and either the owners of PAS took the spare parts left over or GM gave them to them to settle up. Anyway some of that stuff was sold to people later. I got a complete motor, transmission, and transfer case in factory wrap from a guy in Calif. that I still have. He had at least six or seven motors he sold years ago.
I hope this clears up some the questions that I saw on another thread. And by the way, if anyone tries to ask me anything more on this now I won't be able to reply because my computer won't let me log in or post. I'm at a friend’s house sending this. Don't know if it will be days or weeks before I can get it fixed so I don’t want anyone to think I'm ignoring them. I can read posts however.
:wink:
