Davemk1

I might be up for coming down from Bozeman and running a day with a few folks. FWIW our SCCA club just posted it's schedule for the upcoming season. If you are close and want to run we'd love to have you. Date Host club event location April 18-19 Helena (tri-region) Helena May 3rd Ice Gardens Bozeman May 10th Helena (Missoula) Helena May 30-31 EVO & Autocross Helena June 7th Helena (Missoula) Helena June 13th MSU Bozeman June 20-21 Helena (Bozeman) Helena July 11th(12?) MSU Bozeman July 25(26?) MSU Bozeman August 1-2 Helena Divisional Helena August 15-16 Top Gun Helena Helena August 30 Ice Gardens Bozeman September 20th Ice Gardens Bozeman If you are in the area in July we are running two events right in town at Montana State University. A fun lot with a good turnout of about 30-40 folks driving all kinds of stuff. Figure a minimum of 6 runs. All the best, Dave

FWIW the three photos I posted were taken by me in Bozeman MT during spring and summer of 2008. If they are useful for the calendar please feel free to take them Dave

Did someone say snow? Very late spring 2008. Dave http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1289198864_DSC_7713.jpghttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/488695037_DSC_7732.jpg

My 1999 Birkin S3 on one of my favorite roads near my home this past summer. It was a very good summer. Dave http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/743544550_DSC_0141.jpg

I found a 10" Momo suede wheel on eBay a few years back for pretty cheap and it works very well. The thing I like about it is that it has no dish which in effect gives a longer reach and more arm room. A good thing considering I'm 6'5". The suede is a bit slick at times without gloves but has never been an issue on the street. I always use a suede glove when autocrossing and the tow together work very well. So if you want to fine tune your reach consider if the wheel is flat or has dish and how much dish. Dave

I work out of my garage and it gets plenty cold here and I heat with a wood pellet stove. I can heat all day everyday during very cold weather and use two bags of pellets. A bag of pellets cost about $4 here. It' makes nice radiant heat and is very quiet. I need to talk on the phone a good bit from the garage and a gas forced air heater would just be too loud to have a business call. I don't regret my purchase at all. Dave

Hard for any "real" driver not too. I enjoyed the article too. Dave

My Birkin is in a storage unit waiting for spring. I'll get it out a few times over the winter when the roads are clear and it's above 25* but otherwise it will be put away until late March. Today would not be considered a good Seven day - the high here was -11* F. Top or no top....... that's a bit chilly. My Mini with it's full climate control worked well today though. Dave

My Birkin just went into storage for the winter so I won't be doing anything until spring. Once spring comes I'll bring the car home and pull the head off the Zetec and have it milled to raise the compression and when it goes back together I'll put in higher lift cams and adjustable cam gears. Should be good for bumping the HP from the 150ish I have now to about 175 with a good bump in low end torque. I hope it makes me more competitive with the high HP DM autocross folks. Until spring it's ski season and MINI driving. Dave

They are pretty easy to make..... if you want advice let me know. dave

It may not be a Seven but it sure is all weather 4 season fun for a Montanan like myself. It's a 2004 Cooper S that I found in Cody Wy with only 7500 miles on it. Absolutely like new and a very fair price. Any other Seveners have Minis? Dave http://www.usa7s.net/ASPNETFORUM/upload/722592887_DSC_1297.jpg

What a pretty car.... enjoy the drive! Dave

Good Morning, Man it is dark now in the morning..... this time change deal is for the birds. I'm afraid that my previous remarks weren't taken at face value. Some good folks have pointed out the obvious that certain things, like schools, are paid for with local taxes. I think most of us know this and if you read my previous post you notice that no where did I single out federal tax or national government. I'm talking about taxes in general - local all the way to federal taxes. Taxes in general. All the politicians I know of from the guy running for the local school board to the presidential candidates are telling us the same thing....... we can have it all and we/you shouldn't have to pay for it. Sounds like entitlement to me. My point, if weakly made, was that we want our government(s) to provide certain services and yet the representatives of those governments all tell us we shouldn't have to pay. My basic understanding of economics and checkbook balancing tells me that this doesn't ad up. We have a very local issue here in Bozeman MT. Bozeman is growing very quickly and our infrastructure isn't keeping up. We have a serious lack of jail cells. There are many folks that are being sent home after repeat offenses because the jails are over crowded and the local public is very upset. Yet, time after time, "we" have voted to not pay more taxes that would allow for a bigger jail to deal with serious criminals. So we have more and more repeat offenses and higher crime rates and the public is outraged. "Someone" should have to pay for it but it shouldn't be me! A "not in my backyard" kind of thing. I know Bozeman isn't alone with this type of thing and that it's going on in lots of places yet we the public sit placidly in front of the TV and nod with approval every time we are told that it shouldn't be us that has to pay. I feel this will be an issue until we voters as a group mature enough to look at the big picture and realize that it is "our" problem and that we all have to pay for these things that we feel are valuable. Whether it well paid teachers or properly cared for Vets all that money comes from taxes that we need to pay. I know I'm not telling anyone anything that they don't already know. I just wanted to let folks know that I'm not as ignorant that some might think I am. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and please exercise your right to vote and do so with full and deep thought. All the best, Dave

Here's one thing that I just don't get........... all candidates like to talk about reducing our taxes. What's not to love with that? But they seem to feel that there is a disconnect with the fact that taxes are used to pay for the services that we need to keep our world working. I know that is the most basic thing but it seems that both the candidates and the populace don't get the connection between the tax we pay and the quality of the public services we have. I personally have no issue with the amount of tax that I pay and I'd willingly pay a good bit more IF the money was used properly and efficiently. I would love to see roads with wider shoulders so I could ride my bike without taking my life in my hands when the soccer mom in the Escalade buzzes by on her cell phone. I'd love to hear that school teachers are getting rich and that the pay was high enough to attract the best there is into the teaching profession. I'd love to know that the folk out there who need medical care who can't afford it wouldn't have to show up at the ER to get routine care and then not being able to pay the bill. And most of all I'd LOVE to hear that EVERY single military vet would have the very best medical (physical and mental) health care that money can buy and that they would be able to attend the best schools that money can buy when it comes time for them to rejoin civilian society. How anyone could disagree with the basic premise above I don't know and the only way we can achieve these noble goals is to spend money raised by taxes. So whenever I hear that folks will get huge tax cuts all I hear is that the teacher will be underpaid and the Vet will continue to get shitty health care. So until the conversation switches over to how we can waste less tax money on crap all I hear is more "someone should pay for that and it shouldn't me" entitled it's all about me BS. We ALL need to pay....... if that's socialism I'm cool with that. I think of it as money well spent as it's invested in our future and as a basic humanitarian obligation. dave

I have a spare in a can velcroed to the inside of the boot. Dave

If it's just chilly - say down to 35* I use the side curtains and a warm coat, hat and gloves. If it's colder than that or if it is threatening rain I use the full top on my Birkin. I do a lot of out of town autocross events that I drive to and they always seem to let out at that time in the afternoon when there are thunderstorms forming. So I have the top with me when I get far away from home. It's saved me more than once. Hail really hurts! My top was made locally by an auto top and seat guy and he modeled it after my stock Birkin top. I needed a new one made to deal with the tall roll bar I made. It takes a few minutes to erect if it's sunny and forever it it's raining Overall I like it and it keeps me dry but I like driving without it best. Dave http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1762733796_DSC_3839.jpg

When looking at it from the front is the water pump pulley pretty much in the center of the motor or is it offset to the side. The early Zetecs (ZX1) have a centered pulley and the later versions are offset as I recall. dave

I don't have the link any longer but I'm pretty sure if you Google "Spec clutch" you'll find it. Dave

Living in Montana means cold for much of the year. I really like driving my Seven in the cold and use it routinely down into the 20's. I put on a down jacket and use the side curtains and I'm a happy camper. I love the feel of the cold air on my face and it's so quiet and crisp. I wouldn't change a thing. dave

My car runs an early Zetec and I found both the alloy flywheel and undersize pulley on eBay. The flywheel is a Fidanza and fits perfectly. The undersize pulley was also found on eBay and I honestly forget the brand but it was some company that made them for lots of different applications. It was not expensive and the quality looks very good. I have had no overheating issues with the smaller pulley. The car tends to run cold (by the gauge at least) so I thought it would be OK. In the end I notice no difference at all. I suspect that if anything the thermostat opens a bit sooner or further but the engine runs at the same temperature. If I were doing this over again I would have also used an alloy pressure plate. I'm using a stock Ford stamped steel thing and could have saved another 5 pounds or so with a Spec brand alloy pressure plate. But like usual I was (and still am) on a budget and the extra $500 was out of reach at the time I was doing the work. But next time the engine comes out an alloy pressure plate will go in. I hope that helps. dave

Hey, I pulled a good bit of weight of my Birkin this year in the places where you get the double bang for the buck if you will. .......... rotating weight. I installed an aluminum flywheel (10 pounds lighter than stock) and an aluminum undersize crank pulley (2 pounds lighter than the stock Ford part). So between these two thing I pulled of 12 pounds of engine speed rotating weight. So not only did it remove 12 pounds from the car but 12 pounds that needs to go from 1000 rpm's to 7000 rpms as quickly as possible. It made a huge difference in throttle response and acceleration. I also moved from the stock Birkin wheels to a set of Team Dynamics wheels which are 3 pounds lighter each for a total savings of 12 pounds of wheel speed rotating weight. Not as good as engine speed stuff but good nonetheless. Lastly I also ditched the stock full length 2" Birkin exhaust system and replaced it with a side exit 2.5" system. It removed another 8 pounds and freed up 10hp do to it's better breathing. It no longer runs out of steam at 500 rpms but pulls hard until it hits the limiter at 7200. So what I've learned is take the weight off the stuff that performs a double duty of you can and get as much benefit as you can from your time and money. The responsiveness and feel of the car are greatly improved and it's a joy to drive hard and just wants to rev. Sure it will help if you put in a light battery or something like that but not as much as a light flywheel........ unless of course you spin your battery at 6000 rpms. my 2 cents. dave

Unfortunately the website doesn't give a total cost number. The list the deposit as being $1000 but I could not find a total anywhere. I asked a stunningly beautiful woman who was shinning her Ferrari the awkward "how much does this cost?" question and she said her husband cut the checks but she thought it was about $2500 per person. I could see doing that as a once in a lifetime vacation thing. The catch might be that they only allow cars from 1971 or before and my 1999 Birkin certainly is not. I don't know if they consider the replica thing as valid or not. It appeared that all the cars there were non-replicas (including the alloy bodied Cobra) but I'm not the expert. I only saw the absolute beginning of the event but it had a very nice relaxed feel and folks weren't too anal about your getting too close the cars. It looked like fun. dave

I don't know much (enough) about it but it really looks like fun. It starts here in Bozeman and heads North to northern Montana and through Glacier park and then back down to Bozeman. It's 5 days of driving and staying at top notch places with 5 star food and is a fund raiser for charity. They gathered this afternoon at the Bozeman Hilton and they leave tomorrow. I had to drive over in my Birkin and take a look. The ironic thing to me was that I pulled up in the Birkin and parked a bit away from the "fancy" cars. I got out of my car and the owner of an Iso Grifo went over to my car and started checking it out. A few minutes later he was still there so I went and lightly teased him saying that with all this exotica he was looking at my Birkin? He said I had the coolest car there and he hoped I was going on the rally so we might swap cars for a leg of the drive. Very nice. Here's a few photos of my two favorites from today. I'm toying with the idea of doing it next year in my Seven. That would be good fun. Dave http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/339526908_DSC_0727.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1873946595_DSC_0732.jpg

My two cents - Buy it and drive the crap out of it and see what you want to change. Make the changes over the winter and bring out the new improved version come spring. Instant gratification and long term fun. dave

As much fun as the real high HP cars might be I hope folks don't get the feeling that one needs big HP to have fun or to be competitive in motor-sport. I drive a Birkin with a pretty stock Zetec that is putting out 136 hp at the wheels. Small numbers I know. At the same time it's a ball as the power is so controllable and easy to modulate. Yesterday I did an autocross event in Helena with a very open course. The vast majority of the course was in 3rd gear with my foot to the floor. There were 75 mph lane changes and slaloms and a top speed of more than 80mph. Mine was the quickest street car there and the only thing that beat it was a F-Mod Red Devil. Also there was a very good driver in a hopped up ZO6 on R compound tires that I managed to put over 3 seconds on on a roughly 80 second course. His 500+ hp did a great job of letting him lay down some serious black streaks but in the end proved slower than my little low HP car despite his HP/weight ratio being much better than mine. I say it's all good and whatever makes you happy you should do. If you want 500 hp in a car why not. But you don't NEED that much power to get the job done and in some cases the HP can make it more difficult to get the most out of a car. One can have too much of a good thing IMO. Have fun, dave