Automoda

I want the glass. WIth that I can put together a bad-ass custom car.

I didnt know you had been hurt so seriously. I hoped it was essentialy superficial. Hope it heals well. Shoulders are real contraptions.

Lotus is done. It sounds like some of those 'business experts' got their hands on the company. You know-- the guys you remember from the dot-com days who could bring a kid's web page to IPO for 50 million bucks? I like the looks of the blue car. Sort of a mix of an Elise and a Pantera.

I have Toyo RA1s too plus custom wheels and I built my own stronger brackets for the front fenders. Moved the fender out from the tire slightly and away from the car a touch. With fenders that hug the tire like a Birkin has, you'll probably end up fiddling with the brackets if you want to put anything special on.

My Birkin's wiring is gorgeous. Its a 2003. Earlier models had the bird nest wiring. But these days it is just as pretty as you could make it yourself. Its not like Birkin doesn't improve things year-to-year. Honestly I'm not sure there are many parts on my 03 that are identical to my friend's 01. If I were to get an old Birkin, I'd just figure in the price of a new wiring harness. No big deal-- I'm sure there are off the shelf items that hot-rodders use that'd work fine. These are simple cars afterall.

Sounds like a nice car. So nice I'd love to know "how low the cost" of the locost?

I swear. Your neighborhood looks like its right out of where I grew up in Utah. Other than the funny style of street light and the right-hand-drive, my guess on location would be on the wrong side of the planet.

Best 95$ you'll spend on a seven. I love mine. I drove a friend's car-- same as mine in most respects. Boy did I miss that mirror!

I've always thought the space shuttle was a stupid idea. We could have launched a dozen capsule style craft for the same cost as each shuttle launch. I bet there'd be no fatalities. And I bet we'd still have a space program going strong to this day. Capsules make sense. They're just not as sexy.

I just got back from a little tuning cruise. First of all my ignition table was mostly nonsense (I think). Really I dont know how to make one but I went in and tried to smooth it a bit and increase the advance in the lower load, higher RPM area where the car seems to backfire (2000-3000 RPM with low throttle). It started raining so I had to quit before I could test my final tweaks but here's what I've been up to: Spark table http://herb.linkrealms.com/lotus/spark%203.gif The thing with this table is that while the car is running it has a pointer showing where you're sitting in the table. The pointer zips around as you rev it, but I dont see a lot of sense to it. The pointer goes up and sits along the top row when at idle, and the second you give it gas it starts up from the bottom. Confusing. http://herb.linkrealms.com/lotus/afr%201.gif I havent messed with the air-fuel ratio yet. I'm sure I need to. http://herb.linkrealms.com/lotus/ve%201.gif VE table -- it hasnt had time to auto-tune since I modified the spark, but here it is. Ok! Opinions welcome on this stuff. Time for me to learn how it all works. BTW my innovative wideband is showing crazy readings much of the time. Popping lean then rich. I've got the smoothing set to 90ms (default was 60) but it must not be enough. I'll experiment, but right now I have no idea how it can auto-tune with the bouncy signal. Its probably caused by the individual TBs or something. I dont think I have any intake leaks or exhaust leaks etc.

Hey. I've got the ZX3 with a MSII running it, and its running pretty well in my Birkin. I'm getting 28mpg roughly, and it is quite drivable. I've got the Jenvey TBs, but otherwise it is an internallly stock engine. I'm using a registered Tuner Studio MS, though initially it was set up using Megatune. I'm working on solving the bad backfires I'm getting when I let off the gas and it is being dragged down in RPM-- like when I'm driving some windy roads and I let off the throttle as a way to slow down rather than the brakes. BANG pop pop bang pop. I'm only now beginning to screw around with my settings, and trying to learn the whole engine tuning art. Frankly my ignition chart looked insane, so I'm going to head out and try a new one I made. But until I get some experience with this and go to a dyno, I'm really just experimenting. Plus there are a lot of base settings that are Greek to me. I was wondering if anyone has a similar setup and if so, could I get a look at your tune? I know most people with the ZX3 are using Emeralds, but I figured I'd ask around anyhow.

Guys, I made the pictures-thread we had discussed. http://usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?p=56287#post56287 May the uploads begin... at least for the folks who are home. I know those hotel connections are slow and people tend to get tired after a long day.... http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Tetons_Wide.jpg

http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Tunnel.jpg This picture is a failure. But it is artistic so it stays. http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Mirror.jpg What I didn't know at the moment I took this picture is that several of the drivers and passengers were trying to get the taste of cow pie out of their mouths. I shit you not! http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Cows.jpg http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Pie.jpg

The Black Hills had awesome roads. http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Winding_Road.jpg http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Forest_Drive.jpg 1975 Twin Cam Caterham. I love that car, so it gets 2 pics. http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/75_TwinCam.jpg 5MPH means we can do it at 15, right? http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/75_TwinCam2.jpg

Somewhere around the middle of Wyoming: http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Plateau.jpg This super-cell was out-run by some super-sevens. http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Super_Cell.jpg This hail ball fell the week before we arrived in Custer. The campground manager saved it in his refrigerator. He invited me to drive onto his porch if more came! http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Hail_Ball.jpg I was the only one camping. The worst weather we had was just some Seattle style mist falling from the fog. I think we were in the clouds up in the Black Hills that night. http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Rainy_Camp.jpg

We all have a lot of pictures and we decided that it would be best to post them in a new thread, since the main thread has grown so large. We also didnt want to make the main thread too bandwidth heavy to browse. The main thread should remain the main chronicle of the tour, so dont skip reading ) http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Tetons_Wide.jpg http://herb.linkrealms.com/tour_for_web/Crazy_Horse.jpg

Made it home safe and sound. Not even a wrong turn. But the head wind ruined my milage.

Oh, you guys are in Park City or something. I wont be rolling out till later. I'd have to get up mighty early to catch up with you guys, and I still need to pick up a qt of royal purple and get some more minutes for my trac phone. So I'll see ya in Jackson. I've got a KOA to set up at 15 miles out of Jackson before I head to the hotel Saturday evening. See ya there... if I'm presentable. I wouldnt want to be seen with bugs on the windshield or anything.

Hey rzempel. I'm in between SLC and Provo. I'm leaving tomorrow too. Where are you staying and when are you leaving tomorrow?

Yeah, thats how you make techno music. You have about 5 tracks that are shorter than the next. Set them to loop and launch them. The 5 small tracks make a 6 minute song with variation to spare.

Notice his tail is straight up at first, then laying broken, limp, and dangling by a tendon after the car passes over. He felt it.

Yeah I'm on the tour. Automoda=Herb. I'm kinda going seat-of-the-pants though. I'm going to end up using the KOA to keep my costs down and since I never booked anything in advance. But thats fine. I'll hang with everyone when the hangin's good at the official hotels. I'm looking forward to this. Just got the limited slip installed and fixed up a few other things on the car. Nearly ready. My plan is to take off from Salt Lake on Friday after lunch most likely. I'm not going to do the whole tour-- But I'm not quite sure what day I'll break off yet. I've got something on the 21st I need to go to so sometime before that. I'll probably stay for the black hills part and when everyone heads toward MT I'll head back to SLC. I'm afraid Lee wont make it. Unfortunately he has a family outing that clashes with the tour, on top of his job being very... dynamic at this time. Too hard to predict, and he travels a lot. So he's going to have to skip this time.

Is anyone passing through SLC on the way up? If so it might be fun to join up. As for the parking, I'd be willing to bet you could ask the average rancher and offer 50$ for the whole trip and when it came time to pay, after having chatted a while, they'd send you off for free.

Hopefully the winding mountain roads dont have 8 feet of snow on them. Here in UT we're at about 400% snow pack, and some spots have 1200%. Many camp grounds normally open are still covered in deep snow. I'm imagining a lot of muddy spots with water trickling across the road at the very least. Does anyone have any info about the condition of the route's higher elevations?

To boil it down, I'm fundamentally against anyone or any group of people (governments, unions) staking a claim to my lifespan (labor == money). Whether its a union, your boss saying it has to go to charity for fairness' sake, and even income taxes on money earned by my own sweat. Its just slavery with a disguise. This outsourcing would not be a problem if the US stuck to the tariff plan that they were originally using to fund government instead of making us work till July to cover our tax burdon (And they're still running a balanced budget). Free trade with 2$ per day countries is not going to work and they know it. 3rd world wages will go up and ours will go down. We'll probably meet at 20$ per day. Then we can have free trade. Yay! But thats what we get for becoming "consumers" instead of pitchfork and torch carrying citizens. Yet it sure is nice to get a 50$ bicycle at walmart... but hurry, its 500$ soon ;o)