papak

I like the pinstriping. Nice “old school” touch.

I have given much thought to this topic and will share the "anal-retentive" driver's boot contents. If I'm going to carry that spare tire on the back of the car, I definitely bring a scissor jack. I use an aluminum one from a Porsche 944 (3 lbs 6 oz) to which I have welded a section of 19mm coupling nut. This allows me to use the same socket that I use for the lug nuts. This is secured in the boot with an aluminum bracket. I also carry the following: ½" ratchet 6"extension for same 19mm deep socket lug nut adapter spare ribbed belt for the alternator (4 rib x14x793). I have been told that this is the smallest 4 rib belt made, therefore unobtainable on the road. special tool for the low profile oil filler cap a variety of allen wrenches, many shortened as appropriate for their application .032 safety wire small wire cutters various quick ties various wrenches in a fabric roll-up a couple clean microfiber towels and a small tube of metal polish bandaids two LED flashlights 2 spare relays my notebook that contains all of the specification, part numbers, etc pair of leather work gloves swell as a pair of nalgene gloves The top picture shows a small bag that I keep behind the seat. It hold a collapsable phillips head screw driver for the quarter-turn fasteners that secure the boot panels. On the longer trips, I carry a quart of oil and a dipstick. I use a section of ss wire as a dipstick so this simply coils up in the bag. Probably too much but it is my firm conviction that my car has been reliable only because I carry all this stuff. 5,500 trouble free miles so far...

I just tell them that I built it myself (essentially true). When they ask me how fast, I just say "faster than me". When the question of price comes up, I just say that I haven't added up the 2" stack of receipts.

I feel quite fortunate, having a Birkin, to not have experienced these heat issues. My transmission tunnel is incredibly tight as well but I have NO heat issues. In fact, I wear shorts all year round out here in SoCal when driving the car. Just visually, I have a similar array of louvers to Croc’s car. There is a layer of reflective insulating material in the tunnel resulting in about ⅛” clearance all around.

Try Nord-lock lock washers. Available from McMaster, Aircraft Spruce or Pegasus. I haven’t had one loosen yet.

I am running a Typhoon ECU (from Specialist Components in England) that I got from Tom Carlin at Birkin. Quite sophisticated and very programmable. I initially ran into some issues with the O2 sensor/controller but that has been worked out. After running it in "closed" mode for a thousand miles, it has filled out the fuel map nicely. Not that it couldn't benefit from a tune on the dyno but I haven't run across anyone out here who has any experience with a Typhoon ECU.

During a morning run in the Malibu hills. Some great canyon drives up there!

Thanks. I was hoping that the wider scuttle fitment might work. I misspoke in my initial post. I am looking for the dimension of the wider scuttle, SV/CSR. If this doesn't work, I'll probably make a mold and lay one up myself.

I am considering switching from Brooklands windscreens to a moulded aeroscreen on my Birkin. Could I trouble any of you with an S3/CSR for the dimension across the scuttle between the lower windscreen stanchion mounting points? Basically the width of the scuttle at that point. Thanks

Nice job!

Sad to hear it.

Does anybody know if Aerodynamix (aero screen supplier in the UK) succumbed to the pandemic? It seems as though their website is not running.

Thanks for the info. A friend has one in his Caterham and was bemoaning the lack of an overdrive option. I was sure someone here would have a definitive answer.

Does anyone make an overdrive sixth gear for a Caterham 6-speed?

I ran into the same issue with the Kirkey's in my Birkin. You need to use the "Drag" version of the same seat. It's dimensionally the same except no shoulder supports. I cut the supports off of my seats and salvaged the soft aluminum edge trim and tack welded it to fit the revised edges. I had a local upholsterer (hot rod guy) modify and re-cover the Kirkey upholstery to fit.

You just need to run a hose from either the crankcase vent on the side of the block or the valve cover to a barbed fitting installed somewhere in the air filter housing, SB100 does not require smog compliance. That is one of the major advantages of the rules.

I did check with Tom. All he has are the nose badges. I’m working on a rendering now. It looks like the image on the nose badge was done freehand as well.

I am looking for a flat, “planform” image of the Birkin logo. The nose badge , with it’s curvature is still a bit distorted. My plan is to make a template and/or a transfer, possibly a decal. Once the image is in a digital format, scaling for size is easy.

You could try vvivid.com. They are US based and sell a wide variety of high quality vinyl wraps. I used a carbon fiber vinyl from them for my dash. It has worn well over the 3-4 years I have had it on the car.

I used a 2 qt. Accusump with -8 lines, front mounted oil cooler. I think the quantity went from 6.5 to 9.5 qts. I opened the valve prior to start, looking for the oil pressure rise before starting. I left it on until just prior to shutdown. Due to the hot oil pressure drop, I would have to rev the engine to 2,000 or so to get a "running" oil pressure to replenish the accumulator. At that point, I closed the valve. The real challenge was at "oil change" time, getting all the oil out of the cooler, air/oil separator and accusump lines.

John, I've been using a similar lithium technology battery for the last six months now and love it. Made by Battery Tender, it sells for a little over $200 as I recall. I never have to leave it on the float charger (as I used to have to with the Braille). It only weighs about 3.2 lbs as opposed to the 9+ of the Braille. Internal BMS, smaller footprint and multiple connector choices. It seems to be immune to vibration issues. I have noticed that the VM readings while running are a little lower than with the Braille, about 13.5v. The Braille showed about 14.4. Kevin