11Budlite

Birkinpilot - Beautiful car!! Was that a Westfield 11? Back when we were saving for/building our house, I wanted one of those in the worst way. One of my all time favorite magazine articles is Peter Egan's "Northeast by Westfield", http://members.toast.net/joerger/north.html Hope you get your Christmas wish to replace it!! PS: Hope none of those "bad" parts are Pratt & Whitney parts! Al - You're welcome! I can't seem to get the link to work. Sorry, I'm computer illiterate... 11Budlite2006-11-28 04:34:53

Ok, with a little help from Al, I guess it's my turn.... I'm married with 3 kids ages 20, 22, and 24. I'm a QC inspector/engine technician at PWA in Cheshire, CT. I've been a sports car nut for as long as I can remember. Every drive in the back of the family station wagon growing up, was spent with my head hanging out of the window trying to catch a glimpse of ANY sports car buzzing around the local roads. My dentist had a Porsche 356 that I used to drool over, a friends boyfriend had an MG TC that I could just stare at and lust for, for hours. Waiting at the bus stop, occasionally a red Fiat Abarth "Double-Bubble" with a white racing stripe would drive by and I'd be speechless!! I could never understand why nobody else had the same reaction as me!! So I started reading SCG, C&D, and R&T and dreaming of the day I could have my own sports car. That car would be a $275 1961 Bugeye Sprite that I dragged home to my parents house, and proceeded to learn all about brakes and cylinder heads and sanding and painting. Spent about four months getting it road legal and what a blast I had buzzing around in that thing for the summer!! But a lady ran a stop sign, and my Bugeye was totalled... So, I replaced the Bugeye with a 1972 MG Midget which was a little faster and a much better daily driver. It was in that car on one of my first trips to Lime Rock, that my new wife and I saw our first Lotus 7 and original Mini Cooper in person. My wife was immediately drawn to the Mini Cooper, and I was mesmerized by the Lotus 7's and 11's. The polished aluminum bodies with the intricate space frame, wire wheels, Raydot mirrors, and red dash boards with Smiths gauges, to me, were just the pure essence of a sports car. I was hooked, and I knew that some day I would own one.... Well, that day came a few years ago when, with my very understanding wife's blessing, I picked up a 2001 Birkin that was a dealers demo. I'm sure her blessing had nothing to do with her needing a new daily driver that arrived in the form of a 2003 MINI Cooper!! Well she got her dream car and I got mine! So I drove my new toy that summer and after many years of driving more mundane Brit sports cars, what can I say but what a rush!!! The acceleration, the handling, the ride (ouch)! The looks from other drivers on the road were priceless!! Every drive was an adventure. You could drive that car at 30 mph and watch the suspension move up and down, the reflections off the chrome headlights, and the heat waves coming out of the louvered bonnet. And then you could come to a highway entrance ramp or a set of curves and it would just blow you away!! Maybe the actual speed wasn't THAT fast, but it sure felt fast sitting a few inches off the ground and being blasted by the wind!! There was nothing like it! So that fall I started taking my Birkin apart to fix the wipers that didn't work and a few other niggling little problems and pretty soon I had it "almost" stripped to the frame. So I redid the wiring harness, installed stainless steel/braided fuel lines, Fuel Safe fuel cell, Jenvey throttle bodies with an Emerald ECU, rebuilt the tranny with the help of Cherik and a close-ratio BGH gearset, and many other little jobs too numerous to mention. I've pretty much left the ZX1 motor alone other than ARP rod bolts, Esslinger cam gears and under drive crank pulley, and a Raceline water rail. My plan from here is to have it all back together for the springtime so I can celebrate my 50th birthday driving my toy again, the same year that the Lotus 7 celebrates it's 50th birthday!! Well, sorry for the long rant! I hope to meet up with some of the local crazies at some point and would love to make it to the TotD if a spot opens up!! It's somebody else's turn now.... Bruce "Budlite" Wiser 11Budlite2006-11-26 07:18:24

Didn't know if you were still looking, but I found this T-9 gearbox on e-bay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110055107872 Bruce