Automoda

....or whether they want to adopt laws that afford their workers the right to join a union or not. The only alternative is to build a regulatory Berlin Wall around their borders to keep their businesses from leaving. Well, I'm not sure a state can do a thing to stop a company from moving out. The original purpose of the interstate commerce clause was to prevent states from limiting free movement of trade between the states. (It has been abused to a diabolical level with black=white interpretations over the years). Considering that big business in America owns the government, I expect the union complaint to be squashed. (In China, the government owns big business. I wonder which is worse). Also the right-to-work states will eventually gang up on the union states at a Federal level. Quite honestly the idea that I'd be forced to join some union (which may or may not even benefit me) by LAW pisses me off in an almost unlimited way. Government needs to stop impinging on people's pursuit of happiness. (Being free to pursue whatever line of work you want is what that phrase means). Remember that guy that flew a plane into the IRS? He did it because it was against the law to be a private contractor programmer in his state. He was pissed off in an unlimited way.

My dad had an MGA and he loved it. Despite its mechanical simplicity. I wish it hadn't been T-boned long before I was born ( BTW I dont think this list is about which car is fastest through a corner. Its about which car feels best. With some considering price, others considering pure fun-- price be damned. Lotus certainly represents well!

I keep getting caught by little rain showers. You think you can sneak off to lunch in the 7 and the weather changes just like >snap

I've always wanted one! SWEEEEEET!

I'm jealous! 6WD and unstoppable. You'll be waved right through the checkpoints.

Sweet! I'd love to know the big secrets... engine, company that built it, how long the kit took to complete, and of course, how much did it cost! Have you driven it to its limits yet?

Yes. 3 cheers for the UK and the Magic Roundabout. After about your fifth pass through it you'd have your tires warmed up and you could really have some fun. http://i.imgur.com/Nj9zn.jpg

You'll notice that a lot of the wrecks are caused by people burning out while turning at at intersection and also while driving over-powered cars. The drivers predict in their heads what the move will look like-- A drift around the corner, then it catches and they launch a little then back off, having now impressed the crowds. Of course what happens is that when they start to lose it, they back off very suddenly and it catches and their front wheels are now in the 'drift' position instead of forward, so they whiplash the other direction and it all goes to hell from there. In short, these people have never actually tried this maneuver before and have no idea what a bad idea it is. Honestly I think it'd take quite a bit of practice to pull that one off. You'd have to be one with the car and know how to be ever-so-subtle with the throttle and know how to recover from the edge. You dont get that skill if you've been driving your Ferrari to a show or a fancy restaurant once per month in nice weather.

Well if I had to choose between that and something like a nice 1984 Civic to drive around and do chores in, why not the Dutton? Plus with a little fiberglass fiddling, I think it could be made more seven-like. I mean, I've wondered-- if I lost my Birkin and somehow insurance didnt buy me a new one... considering I cant afford a direct replacement, I may have to settle for something really old or less Lotus. But I'd do it. I will just never be happy with a boring car again. I'd rather drive a nice VW Bug than a nice Camary. Luxury (and reliability) is meaningless to me now.

Interesting rollbar. Is that paint or is that leather covered? I havent seen that before... I kinda like it. Wouldnt it be awesome to have a personal track like that on your own land? I wonder what it'd cost. Get rid of the stumps though.

Watching that bird fly through the forest, your realize it has extremely good hard-wired software for that exact purpose. So have you wondered what would be possible with a car if it had artificial intelligence which had control over it's 'body'. The ability to adjust the wheels caster, camber, stance, etc as if it were muscle. With feedback sensors all over it so it could feel the road and feel the air and could practice and learn. A car like that could beat any driver without trying. With all the gizmos people put on cars these days I wonder how long it'll be before we see the first attempt at this.

Now that is one fantastic piece of fabrication. Bravo! I'd love to see how it is done. Ok so I have a question: Which part of the shaft is the danger? It looks like if it blew the front U-joint it'd do more damage (if it hit the ground and bounced back up). Seems like the framework at the back of the seats would prevent damage to the driver from a blown U-joint at the diff. Is this the case--the front is the problem? So I have an idea: Why try to stop it with brute force like that? Why not get some nice steel cable with sturdy loop-ends or crimped connectors on each end and bolt it to the frame so that it loops up over the shaft? Its the ultimate in easy to remove and cable is not going to break when it is beat with a metal stick. Seems like it'd be lighter, too. You'd just need to weld on a nice mounting for the bolts. You might have some damage to the tunnel but it wont take your leg off.

I bet it would be cheaper just to use a real 7.

Its awesome! I need to pay attention to getting my Birkin sorted and tuned up.

Just like GM became a bank that sometimes built a car or two on the side, HD became a financing company... that built bikes to finance... which probably allowed them to charge more for them than they would have otherwise. But have you seen their current line-up? Bah. Boring. My prediction is this: Harley will be purchased, just as a brand-name, within two years. Just like the once-king Schwinn was bought by Huffy. Perhaps by Tata from India or something. But they WILL be liquidated unless the government breaks the 400 year old rules of finance like they did for GM bond holders.

Call me crazy, but the next kit I'd like to build is a Lancia Stratos (modernized/upgraded). A rally car has a lot of fun potential... No need to rent time on a track to let the car do its thing. Here in Utah we have more than a few miles of wide open dirt roads to fly around. Currently I'm restoring an old Europa for a friend. It had been crashed 3 times and repaired while it was a race car. Its one of the European early models with the curved fenders. We've widened and flared (in a tasteful way that Lotus should have done) the fenders and we're adjusting some body lines here and there to try to rescue some good looks out of the car. He's got a 7 too, so the Europa will be his chilly weather (fall/spring, not winter) fun car, like the Stratos would be for me (if I can ever get around to it).

I'll put together something in the "Members Rides" section in the next couple of weeks and include a bunch of pictures and the story of my woes painting car parts in a shed..

Last drive of the year I think. 70 degree day. Tomorrow is a long string of 40s with snow. I decided to drive the 100 mile stretch around the lake. It was an awesome drive with some great scenes on the back roads. 100 yards from home, a neighbor's dog ran out and hit my car right by the exhaust collector (Yeah I dont know what his plans were, but he's lucky a 7 stops as fast as it does-- that back wheel sticking out would go right over him if I were moving). So it was almost event-free. I did the final for-storage wash and bug removal. The fuel is stabilized. In spring it gets a Limited Slip and correct rear springs and a few other improvements. Till then I guess I'll have to get used to my 'regular' car. http://herb.linkrealms.com/Rally%20for%20Ron%20-%20Sept%202010%201.jpg Till next year.

If someone made a kit for that for 15K+5K in power-train I'd go for it. Its amazing some of the douches in the comments on that article-- Complaining that its too retro. Do they even make anything today that I'd want to buy for under 45K? I might like a Miata for a daily driver I guess. But, while a superb car, it doesnt stand out in a parking lot, have any unique quirks in its styling, push any limits. And then the fact is the Miata was meant to be mildly retro anyhow. So ... whats the cutting edge these days that 24 year old guys dream of getting? Oh yes. Subaru and Mazda factory rally cars/ricers. Great cars for sure! But yawn. I mean seriously. If they bring their RX8 to a car show in 40 years, it wont gather a crowd unless it has a flux capacitor and a Mr. Fusion sitting in the back seat. That morgan on the other hand will stay valuable and be much more fun to drive for all time-- as long as we have paved roads.

The problem with those gears though, is that the leverage is variable from moment to moment so the power transfer will be inconsistent. Its the same way with the universal joint-- it causes pulsations as the angles change. Thats why CV (thus the word constant velocity) joints are so much smoother. If you really used that stuff on something, it'd probably be for an art car featured at Burning Man.

Put a cell phone vibration thing in your seat. Then you can feel the turn signal.

That was AWESOME

I have a brother with a kit helicopter called a mosquito. He's done a lot of the same kind of research and web-forum reading that we do with our kit cars. A while ago he mentioned to me that anodizing was a very very bad idea if your aluminum part is stressed, vibrated, or serves a critical function. I had no idea. I asked him if he'd find the article about the subject and he sent me this link: http://www.experimentalhelo.com/Anodizing&Fatigue.pdf It seems that cleaning agents involved in anodizing also hurt the metal's strength. It makes me wonder, because normally I spray aluminum with etching primer to make paint stick to it-- normal automotive filler-primers generally are not rated for spraying directly on aluminum. Other than the skin, I dont think I have any aluminum on my car that is painted, so no worries. But I thought you guys would be interested.

I've seen that Larry Ellison car in person. It was even up on a lift. It left me wondering... Is a car frame built from dozens of very strong small parts bolted together really better than a frame made of a few nicely welded and artfully bent pieces of tubing? Do I really want suspension that is carved out of a block of aluminum? I always thought that you were supposed to use mild steel to prevent total failure in a wreck. And really, is there anything that you'd actually want to make out of CNC aluminum on a seven? I've seen some really nice stuff for the front 'torque box' suspension-hanging area made by the Aussie Clubman guys... but honestly I dont think I could add too much more lightness if I owned a CNC machine. You know the old saying, "When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail". Well, "If you have 10 CNC machines, everything looks like it should be CNC machined aluminum". When it comes to the aluminum body, I certainly WOULD like to replace the fiberglass parts of my Birkin with aluminum. If I had access to a shop like that, I'd be going nuts and probably making something like a mix between the Cobra and the Se7en-- Open wheeled and light like the Se7en but with sexy lines like the Cobra. Then I'd go broke because it wouldn't be pure bred and nobody'd want it... Ah well, no danger of it ever happening.

I've been to the factory. Its about 30 miles from me and they have an 'open house' in the spring. It is essentially a bunch of CNC machines and tooling in one area, and assembly zones in another area. Out back there are stacks of aluminum bodies which I suppose are shipped from the old mig factory in Poland. There are a bunch that drive around here which you'll see most any Sunday and usually there's one at the larger car shows. I'd love a chance to ride in one. Pulled up next to a 427 fiberglass Cobra last Saturday at a light on a road thats nearly an interstate. All clear in front of us. I guess he didnt know where the noisy pedal was. Ended up with just me and a bullet bike going at it--lame. When I look at the interior of the Cobra, I'm shocked by how roomy it is. You could be 300 lbs and fit nicely in those big buckets. They're cool cars, but around here they're common and if I had one I'd end up just driving the Seven around most of the time.