jloehlein

I've just got the images that were part of the auction. If there is anything specific you're looking for, let me know. The Cobra is a MkIV. It's got a 408w and Tremec TKO600. 3-link rear end. I go carted it at a couple autocrosses last year with some 12 year old street tires and it was fun. Hoping to get it looking like a car in the next two weeks so we can kick off the registration process.

Well, unrelated to the Birkin, but exciting to me...I painted my Dad's Cobra over the weekend! The color is Lexus Matador Red Mica. My Dad is wet sanding the whole thing and I've gotta spend the next weekend or two buffing before we unmask everything and can do the final assembly (windshield, wipers, lights, etc). In the meantime, Jeff re-installed the exhaust on the Birkin with new gaskets. We've gotta figure out where we want to drill the hole to run the wideband O2 into the passenger footbox and then hopefully we can fire it up and start tuning...in a couple weeks.

Wanted to take a minute and introduce myself. I bought the Supercharged 2009 Birkin on BringATrailer about a month ago. I've been lusting after a Lotus 7 replica for almost 10 years now. I bought my first Miata about 5 years ago (for $200!) to build one, but after determining I didn't have the time, my friends and I turned it into a crapcan race car and ran it in Chump Car and 24 Hours of Lemons. The plan has always been to build one, but that hasn't stopped me from trolling the internet looking at the ones for sale. When the Birkin came up on BringATrailer, I was talking to a friend about it. I'm not sure I'd ever spend that much money on a car, but it looked pretty sweet. He offered to split the car with me and after some discussions about logistics, we agreed we could work it out. So we bid and won... After waiting about a month, the truck showed up last Sunday. Very exciting. I figured I would chronicle my ownership experiences here. We unloaded it and looked it over. Overall, it's fairly cleanly built. We drove it around for a bit, taking a bunch of the neighborhood kids for rides around the block and then went on ~30 mile drive. The car is pretty quick and rides better than I expected. It's easy to drive over 50% or under like 1%, but very sensitive to throttle changes. We noticed a few things that we're digging into now: the oil pressure gauge only reads about 30-35psi once warmed up when driving around over 2500rpm. i'm hoping it's just the gauge because there is another gauge on the accusump. we shut the accusump off mid-drive and that gauge read either 60 or 80psi when we checked it (it's in the front grille). we just put one of my spare gauges and senders in it to verify, but haven't fired it back up yet. many exhaust leaks - every exhaust gasket was blown out. the manifold gasket, the gasket between the collector and cat, and even the slip joints at the collector were leaking. Easy fix, we ordered some new gaskets and are planning on trying some "Muffler and Tailpipe Putty" or just some copper RTV on the slip joint for now. the car runs insanely rich. i think this is contributing to how difficult the car is to drive at part throttle. you can smell the gas and see black soot on many things around the exhaust outlet. the plugs are also black and were very wet when we pulled them (pic below). there is no wideband O2 giving feedback to the ECU, so I assume it's running of the base map in the tune. we pulled a spare wideband I had laying around and are installing it (once we fix all the exhaust leaks). the ECU is a Specialist Components Typhoon. There is a serial cable dangling out of it. I bought a serial to USB adapter and will see if I can access the tune with that. Anyways, the car is sitting for now while we wait for some parts. Progress will be slow over the next month - I am close to finishing a Factory Five Cobra build for my Dad. We're trying to do the Hot Rod Power Tour in June and need to have the car on the road by then. I'm looking forward to interacting with the community here.

Hah, my max going in was $24k, plus the $1k fee and $2k for enclosed transport. I went over by a little bit, but think it will be worth it. It helps that I am sharing the car with a friend, so we each get like 80% of the benefit for 50% of the cost.

Thanks for all the supportive comments. Tom - I am sure we will be in touch once I get the car. Mike - The event in NJ sounds fun. I will have to see how it fits into my schedule as it gets a bit closer.

Thanks, Croc. I am the buyer. I just registered, I figure I'll be visiting this site a lot more frequently now rich - I'm located outside Richmond, VA. About 2 hours from VIR, where the car will be spending plenty of time. A close friend and I will be sharing the car. It'll primarily be used for track days, though I'm sure I'll drive it on the street every now and then.