rzempel

You're probably getting tired of hearing this, but it was another red letter day. Yesterday, after a few missed connections, we were briefly visited by Jack McCornack and his maximum mileage car "Max." It was after sunset but we stood around in the dark parking lot admiring Jack's ingenuity. That is a totally awesome effort. If you haven't, you may want to read about it over on http://www.kineticvehicles.com. Ultimately, Jack had to leave and we had to go to bed. Jack treated us to a 32 horsepower burning rubber shift change as he drove off...and we nearly fell down laughing. This morning, after the best sleep we've had so far, Jack joined us for breakfast adn regaled us with just a few of his amazing experiences. These tours really are all about the people you meet, and Jack is an amazing guy that I'm glad I met (along with all the rest of you guys on the tour, so leave me alone--you know what I mean). After breakfast, we said farewell to Jack and set off ourselves. We drove through more superlative mountain roads. We briefly stopped in Sturgis, where preparations are already underway for "The Rally"--the only way everyone within 50 miles refers to the mass immigration of motorcycles to Sturgis in August. The vendor tents and beer stands were being built, but nothing compelled us to stay, so we didn't. We returned to the Black Hills scenic byways. I struggled with the decision whether to concentrate on driving or look at the spectacular scenery in Spearfish Canyon. All too soon, we left the hills and canyons, and entered the gently rolling grasslands. They have a stark beauty of their own. Miles rolled by until, a few miles outside of Sundance, Gert noticed that yesterday's Baja 1000 off-road race had broken his front fender bracket. We all stopped, and Gert designed a brilliant repair using a box of hose clamps. In Sundance, we had lunch and unsuccessfully attempted to find a welder. From there, we quickly closed the distance to Devils Tower National Monument--the nation's first, according to the propaganda in the visitor's center. Gert and Rosie hiked around the monument in the heat (and discovered that there isn't any water anywhere), while Kelly and I went to the junk store to get ice cream. Once we had completed our individual quests, we drove the short distance to Hulett, where I sit now. This evening, the plan is to grab some beer at the local biker bar and then pizza at one of the two local pizza places. Until next time....

It was a great week, and a fantastic time getting to know all the guys, so it was with a bit of sadness that we bid adieu to Herb yesterday morning and Stewart and Catherine, Steve and Linda, Bob, and Derek this morning. Gert, Dion, Bill, Tom and Skip (in the Miata), and I made an early escape from Custer. We knew the day was predicted to be hot, so we wanted to get as far into it as we could before the sweltering began. We took a last run through Custer State Park, along now familiar roads. Once out of the park, we quickly descended into the South Dakota Grasslands. We sped through undulating countryside until we reached the western edge of teh Badlands. Our itinerary had us cross to the east just south of the badlands, but as it turned out, the road was 20 miles of gravel. We conferred and decided to take a 100 mile detour rather than drive over the gravel road. You've probably guessed the punchline, but we ended up driving over more than 20 miles of worse dirt road allegedly being repaired. At the end of the deeply rutted goat trail of a road, we stopped to gas up in Pine Ridge on the Oglala Lakota Reservation. There was a distinctly Stephen King feeling about that place so we didn't linger. Eventually, we made it back to the Badlands National Park where we stopped for lunch. The tourist center was air conditioned and we didn't want to leave but eventually we forced ourselves outside and on the way. It was about 105F there. It was a bit uncomfortable but in true Sevener fashion, we pressed on along the Badlands Loop. Ther scenery was actually spectacular, but after enough of it, I was ready for more air conditioning. Leaving the park, we drove to Wall, SD, home of the world famous Wall Drugstore. I was particularly interested on their "free ice water" which they've offered since the great dust bowl migration. I doubt any of those migrants were any more thankful for that water than I was. it was still 105 out, and my air-conditioning didn't seem to be working. Once again, we pried ourselves back out into the heat--this time it wasn't so hard because of the thousands of people inside. There didn't seem to be enough road traffic to support the number of people inside, so I left wondering how they do that. Back on the road, we jumped on the interstate and picked up some speed until Rapid City. At that point, we turned off and after an interminable trip through town we were back in the Black Hills. The temp was, thankfully, lower (maybe 95 or so), and we had a nice meander through the hills to Deadwood. Pur Motel is just outside the old city center, and I'm sitting here with the air conditioner blowing on me full blast. It feels so good, that I might not even go out to dinner. I wonder if the liquor store down the street will deliver...? Until next time....

I had a Boxster with a Cayman-esque removable hard top. Great car, but I ultimately sold it as terminally boring as compared to my Birkin.

This morning was magnificent. Together, w e performed a Symphonie Fantastique in the local mountains. The combined ribbons The further we went, the of the Iron mountain Road, Needles Highway and Old Hill City Road provided the score directing tone and tempo. We started early...before the Corvette crowd had finished their frapp' 'cappucinos and decaf latte's. The sun was low, the shadows long, an the dew still on the grass. There was virtually no traffic as we attacked the Iron Mountain Highway. Our engines sang happily as we seemingly ignored physics flying low around the turns. Our Seven's voices rising and lowering in halleluias of joy. Their tones ranging from gravvely Satchmo growl, pulling out of unexpectedly slow corners, to a soprano wail powering through fast sweepers. Crescendo followed crescendo, building to a heavenly chorus. The angelic tenor voices of our Sevens were accompanied by symcopated basso profundo of passing Harleys. Occasional piccolo duet of song birds. Cattle guards providing drum-roll percussion background. The tenor voices joined in the tunnels, creating a song so magnificetly sublime that Pavorati would weep from joy on hearing it. All too soon, we returned to the Motel. As we shut off our engines, the lingering memory of the magnificent melody seemed to echo through the sudden stillness. Until next time....

Thanks for the photos Stewart. My camera battery died, and I neglected to bring the charger. Today was another fun day. The day started early, with Bob standing at the S&B Auto Parts counter bad fuel pump in hand. Nothing in the catalog matched, and none of the numbers on the pump matched anything in the computer. Finally, after examining and rejecting several potential pumps, some internet searching on the old iPhone found the right pump,,,which just happened to be sitting on the shelf. Which I think is amazing, since the original pump came out of the commonly available (cough, cough) Buick Grand National Turbo. It was his lucky day. Bob started reinstalling his new pump as the rest of us took off for a repeat of the Needles Highway. This time, we drove in the reverse direction, and had fairly light traffic. That made it even better. Just about the only hiccough was towards the end of the highway when several Corvettes came up the road the other way. It was nice to be in a narrow car, since those guys had no idea where their wheels were, and they refused to find the edge of the road. Sheesh. There are about 400 of those plastic fantastics in the Black hills right now, there's some sort of national rally not far away. So far, it appears that C5s are most represented followed closely by C6 and only a few C4 and earlier cars. many of the drivers have expressed interest in our cars, and one C6 Z-06 owner admitted that he would really rather own a Seven! Following Needles, we played tourist at Mount Rushmore. As always, it's an inspirational sight. It did appear, though, that there were more people in the gift shop than actually looking at the memorial.... Bob rejoined at Mt Rushmore, and we scooted off to Keysotne for lunch. It seemed a good time to eat something other than deep-fried whatever or burgers, so we parked at one end of town and walked to the mexican restaurant at the other end. What a horrible tourist trap that town is. The food was unremarkable. After lunch, we returned to our cars only for me to discover that I had a flat tire. Close inspection failed to reveal any obvious reason for the flat, so Dion used his "Air Buddy" (or something like that--it's a little rechargeable hand held tire air pump,,,pretty cool if you ask me,) to put a few pounds in my tire. When I had enough, I drove around the corner to a gas station that had an air hose. As I fought the hose's non-functioning chuck, I discovered that it was my valve stem that was leaking. I managed to get a few more pounds of air into the tire and seal it with a metal valve stem cap borrowed from Stweart. We lit out again, and traversed some very beautiful, very twisty, and very hot roads. It was, nonetheless, supremely enjoyable--except for my under-inflated front tire that was doing really bad things to my steering. I was luck to be able to get within 2 or 3 degrees of where I was aiming, and the tire trammeled on imperfections like a steam engine on steel rails. We crossed the Iron Mountain Highway, with its famous pig Tail Bridges. I've never before seen, or driven, curves greater than 360 degrees. It was a blast. Except, of course, for the flat tire. And the RVs. I cannot believe that people were actually stupid enough to tow huge trailers on that highway. There are plenty of straightish highways to get wherever they want to go to drop the trailer and return with just the tow vehicle. Idiots. In any event, we soon found ourselves on one of those straightish highways towards Custer and our now traditional Happy Hour across the street. Even though I had been placed protectively in the center of the line, once we hit that highway, everyone zoomed past as if to say, 'screw him, it's happy hour time...." Until next time....

Last night, as it turned out, most of us didn't make it to Happy Hour. As everyone returned either from the days drive, or in my case from the welder, we were met by a couple who had driven 400 miles to see our Sevens. "Dallas" is a beef rancher from far north South Dakota, and has decided that it is time that he have some fun in his life. Cobras initially caught his attention as being light and powerful, but he felt that something was missing (handling) until he discovered the existence of Sevens. Dallas subsequently learned of this tour on the USA7 site, and packed his wife along for a visit. After just one evening, his wife "Sonja" was ready to write a check for any one of our cars if we wanted to sell. We finally wandered out of the parking lot and all had pizza together. Today, we all headed off reasonably early, heading for the 1880 RailRoad and the roads north of Cody. We had previously decided that the train ride itself would probably be a waste of money and time, so we just stopped to look at the stuff in the yard and watch the steam train leave. It was interesting, but I'm glad we didn't go on a train...we came here to drive. The train left on-time, at 10:00, so we jumped in our cars and left. The weather was gorgeous--blue skies accented with little puffy clouds. It was a bit on the warm side, but otherwise absolutely perfect driving weather. As we left the tourist train station, we turned onto the Old Hill City Road. What an amazing road. That twisting ribbon of asphalt twisted and turned around the hidden hills and valleys. Along the way, I learned a lesson important enough to share...sometimes, it is prudent to give up the best line through a corner in order to keep your right tires out of wet cow pattys when you have a passenger on board. My wife was a good sport, and told me that she was glad her mouth was closed when I showered her with fresh wet green dung. We met the herd that defiled this wonderful road a sort distance later. Fortunately, they made way for us so we could continue. Not long after that, Bob's car coasted to a stop. This time, it wasn't so simple as a coil wire. it appears that his fuel pump has called it quits. Bill returned him to the Motel so he could get his trailer and retrieve his car. While det ails were being worked out,Skip had a bad fall and was packed off to a local emergency room (it turned out that he wasn't as badly injured as we first thought...just a lot of blood from a cut on his arm, but he was still banged up a bit. With nothing else to do but wait for Bob and Skip, we decided to have lunch at the Sugar Shack diner, which advertised the "Biggest and Best Burgers int he Black Hills." Incredibly, they were right. Their burgers were delicious, and huge. Burgers consumed, and alll of us feeling sleepy in the warm afternoon, we sat and chatted until, simultaneously from opposite directions, Bob and Skip returned. Bob quickly loaded his car onto the trailer and returned to commence repairs, and Skip rejoined the parade in his Miata. From there, we decided to drive across the Needles Highway--except for Stuart and Steve whose car was running roughly and needed some attention from a local tuner. Stuart and Steve left our company as we turned off towards the Needles State Park. I haven't any idea if you're familiar with the Needles Highway, but since a few minutes after our arrival in Custer nearly every motorcycle rider we've met has asked if we've been on that highway yet. It is a very special road. There are dozens of incredibly tight turns stacked on top of each other. At the top, there are some really fun little tunnels to drive through. It would've been awesome if only there weren't so many other cars on the road. As it was, we got full runs around a few turns, enough to tease us with the road's potential. At the top, we had to stop for quite awhile as a tour bus squeezed through the tunnel that was mere inches wider than the bus. That driver is an idiot. Even with the traffic, it was a fun road but too soon it was ended. Gert had another interesting looking road on his GPS that turned out to be dirt. He and Dion continued, but Herb, Derick, and I opted to stay clean and return to Custer via paved surfaces, We returned to the motel, and Dallas came out to visit with us again. I took him for a ride, as did Bill, Dion, and Herb. I'm fairly certain that he has the bug and will own a Seven pretty soon. In any event, we all went to Happy Hour across the street followed by dinner and had a terrific time with conversation and humor. I expect that someone has some incriminating photos of Steve and his interesting desert. All is quiet now, with small mumurs of conversation from the few still out enjoying the cool evening. As for me, I think it's about time to go inside. Until next time....

We had a change of plans today, so if you're following the itinerary, you should know that we didn't. We had some weather concerns--the weather guessers agreed that we faced a 40% chance of rain today, clearing by tomorrow with warm & sunny conditions for the rest of the week. The consensus seemed to be that we would be best served by trading today with our "laundry and no-drive day later in the week." As it turned out, we just couldn't sit around...but, I'll get back to that in a moment. Yesterday, when I left off, I was watching paint (or, rather, RTV) dry. That was agonizing. Everyone else [we've been joined by Stewart, Steve, Tom, Skip, Bob, Derick, Catherine, and Linda.] drove away to see the Crazy Horse Monument. I have been assured that I only missed a waste of money--everything worth seeing is visible before you have to pay the steep entrance fee. They eventually returned, and we all went off to happy hour across the street. Two dollar draft beers seem destined to become a tradition as long as we're here in Custer! Today, we rose to foggy and drizzly conditions. In the roads, the locals appear to use stream rounded pebbles for the concrete aggregate. As a result, the roads are like ice-skating rinks when they are wet. That's not very good for driving, so we spent the monring having a leisurely breakfast and wandering up and down the main street of Custer. At about 10:30, I think we had all had enough resting and we'd become restive. At about five minutes to 11:00, the word came around that we'd be leaving for a drive if anyone was interested. I don't think I've seen nine Sevens warmed up and ready to go so quickly. At 11:00, we were on the road towards Wind Cave National Park. At 11:05, Bob sifted into third gear and immediately lost all power and oil pressure. He coasted to the shoulder, followed by several others. The bonnet was quickly off, and several of us gathered to help. As he described the symptoms, I spied the loose coil wires. Bob's car had apparently tried to emulate Herb's car, hoping that it, too, might be treated to a neon red paint job.... The offending plug was re-attached and we were again on the way. As an aside, during the stop, Kelly (with me) kept Rosie (with Gert) appraised of the situation via texting. That's a great way to keep the front and back of a caravan together as long as there's cell service. We drove south a few miles through the beautiful Black Hills until we reached Wind Cave National Park. In case you haven't read the tourist propaganda, Wind Cave is the fifth longest cave in the world, and contains 95% of the world's box work mineral formations. I asked our young Park Ranger guide if this cave had any blind cave zombies, but sadly the answer was no. After the cave tour, we drove on to Hot Springs for lunch. After we parked, Catherine somehow managed to chat up a local woman who said she owned a local cafe with a great menu and offered everyone free beer. That settled the question of which establishment to choose. Unfortunately, I had a pending appointment with a welder in Custer to repair my broken exhaust bracket so I had to skip both lunch and the free beer. As I write this, I see that it's half way through happy hour and the entourage hasn't yet returned. If they're not here soon, I may have to go across the street by myself. Until next time....

Just a short note for now: Today, we had a short drive with plans to visit Jewel Cave and Crazy horse with a run up to the air museum outside of Rapid City after we checked into our motel. Things went a little sideways for me when we stopped to fill up before we bagan today's short drive. Dion noticed something leaking from my car, and I discovered that I was losing coolant from my thermostat housing. Every day, so far--except for today because we had such a short distance to go, I checked oil and coolant. I think my car decided to demonstrate that it felt neglected today. I was ready to stay and fix it in Newcastle, but let myself be convinced that prudence should win out. I rolled my car into Skip's trailer while Tom drove the Miata into Custer. Ohhhh the shame of it. In town, the local auto parts guy was, thankfully, not tied to his computer to find parts. We chose a couple of potentially suitable gaskets and I went to work. It doesn't take too long to replace a faulty thermostat gasket, but now I'm stuck waiting for the RTV I coated it with to dry. Meanwhile everyone else seems to have gone off together for a drive. Until next time....

Thanks for the encouragement. I'll do what I can to keep the commentary coming.

Another great touring day is in the bag. Yesterday, I left off as I went off to dinner and with a broken exhaust mount to repair. I asked the girl a the motel desk if there were any hardware stores in town which might possibly be open. I described what I needed--perforated metal pipe hanging strap, she relayed it to her husband who happened to be on the phone and in the neighboring 'big city' of Riverton. He assured her, and she assured me that he had exactly what I needed. So I went to dinner with the guys. We chose the "Happy BBQ." Mostly because it appeared to be the only place in town that was open for business. Unfortunately even though the BBQ was Happy, the waitress wasn't. We had a great time anyway, and the food was pretty good, and the company was fabulous. After dinner, I returned to the motel compound, and was greeted by a tall guy waving something int he air, "Which one of you has the broken car? I have the tape." I identified myself as the ailing party, and "Tom" proudly handed me a roll of teflon pipe thread tape. Hmmmmm, this wasn't going as planned. I explained the situation to Tom, who as it turned out is a former US Marine who left the service after two tours in Iraq...apparently none the less for the wear, except possibly the unfortunate addiction Methamphetamine which was quickly destroying his teeth. No matter. Tom, like all tweekers had a stash of "stuff" in the basement. Tom happily went off to rummage through his stuff and shortly returned with a 8 inch diameter band clamp. We wound it around the frame and exhaust pipe, and I crossed my fingers and hoped it would hold until I can get a proper repair. We shall see. In any event, we were all anxious to get started in the morning, as today was scheduled as a long day of driving. About 30 minutes in, and about 30 miles into the middle of nowhere, Herb's car decided it was tired and didn't want to run any more. Great. Herb pulled over, followed by Bill and I. And, curiously, abut ten minutes later, by our new friend Tom the Tweeker. A quick diagnosis found that one of Herb's coil signal wires was broken, so we rigged a temporary patch and continued into the next town where we stopped at the local auto parts store. We were puzzling out the best repair given the limited selection of parts in the store when, fortunately, one of those grizzled old (not really..he was only 70 or so) guys that used to inhabit all parts joints looked on and said, "I got what you need...you need a coupla these special connectors from my box of stuff." Or, word to that effect. with the special connectors in hand, repairs were completed in short order and we were on our way again. And almost immediately ran into several miles of road construction. Or deconstruction. Or something. It was miles of dirt road, in any case. Once through that, we seemed to fly to the mountains. As we drove up into the mountains, and straight into one of those situations that exist only to suck the joy out of life, we came up to 1) a doofus who wouldn't let anyone pass. Really. When Dion tried to pass in a two lane passing zone, that idiot actually tried to cut him off. There wasn't much time to hurl invectives, though. Another mile or two brought all uf is, including mister considerate, to a near halt behind a giant earth mover being towed through the hills. It was absolute agony. Finally, we each managed to sneak past by using our superior power to weight ratios. I had the smug enjoyment, just before I made my run, of watching Mr. courteous try and fail to accelerate to pass. His POS just didn't have any go left at that altitude. I resisted giving him a special salute as I passed. The road after that was glorious. All the traffic in our direction was still behind the monster machine, and there was nearly none coming the other direction. There were trees, meadows, deer, flowers, snow...all that stuff. No, I didn't take any pictures, I was busy driving. You'll have to go yourself. Too soon, the mountains werre behind us, and we had a long slog through the grassland. the grassland is beautiful enough, but unfortunately, the roads are awfully straight. We had lunch in Buffalo and continued on our way, knowing that we were waaaaay behind schedule. As we left Buffalo, we had the first real rain; though Gert at the front had only wet asphalt from rain that stoppe as he approached, and I at the end got big wet raindrops falling on my head. It only lasted five or six minutes, so there was no reason to put the top up. On and on, through the grass we went watching the super cells dump huge volumes of rain not far from us. We, fortunately avoided any of it. We did get a bit of high wind, and at one point one of Gerts windows blew out of the frame. It was quickly recovered, and we ultimately found our stop at Newcastle. Tom and Skip were waiting for us at the Motel. We all enjoyed a nice dinner together, and I think we're pretty much done for the day. Our numbers have grown, and I'm sure the adventure will as well. Until next time....

Alright guys, day one is nearly in the bag. We're done driving, and I have a cold brew in front of me. All that remains is a nice dinner to cap a (nearly) terrific day [more later]. We pulled out of Jackson early, about 9:00. The sun wasn't quite done warming the air, but it was still very comfortable. I didn't have many hopes as we joined the parade of rented Harleys and Motorhomes on the highway out of town. There was an unending stream of traffic that all turned into Teton National Park with us. At the little guard shack where they fleece the tourists (have you seen the prices to go into a National Park these days?) I was ready with my magic pass, but Gert said something to the ranger ("these aren't the droids you're looking for...") and he waved us through without payment. Amazing. That place really is amazing. No words or photos can really do it justice. The Grand Teton are simply incredible. We drove through the park, and once we left, there was astonishingly enough, no more traffic. Apparently all those cars, RVs, and motorcycles were stuck in the park's honey trap. We buzzed up and over the mountains, descended into the Wyoming grasslands, and hit a wall of heat. Let me tell you, cooling systems were fully tested today. In Shoshoni (yes, they spelled it wrong), it was 96. We lunched in a quaint little "owboy cafe' in Dubois, walked along the town's quaint little boardwalk shops, and looked into the quaint general store. That was enough quaintness for the day. So, we left. Into more heat. Oh yes, should I also mentin the wind along the aptly named " Wind River?" Probably not. I will admit, it wasn't all heat and wind today. There were some gorgeous scenery as well. Particularly as we got closer to Thermopolis. There was a simply stunning canyon to enjoy. I slowed down so that I could read the signs along the way pointing out the Cretaceous (600 million yuear old) rocks, and a few million year younger ones, too. We arrived in Thermopolis--if you guessed that the Thermo part of it's name means it's hot, you're right--so we stopped at the Dinosaur Museum. I had no idea, but this is apparently the number one rated dinosaur museum in the entire country. It looked like a bunch of old bones, to me, though. 'Might have been sour grapes, though...as we arrived, I heard a huge noise under my car, and on inspection I found my exhaust hanger bracket is broken (this is the "nearly" referred to above). Now I'm in a small dying town in the middle of nowhere with a broken car and no stores or shops open because it's Sunday. I guess I'd better wrap up and go find a way to fix my car. Until next time....

I'm sitting here in Jackson, sipping freshly brewed coffee and watching as the sun begins to warm the valley. It hasn't quite reached me, yet. But, that's OK, nobody else is up yet anyway and I love this early morning stillness. We had a very nice pre-tour day yesterday. I left Park City early, and on the advice of a local took Highway 89 into Jackson--it goes through rather than around the mountains. I expected everyone else would take the more direct route, so imagine my surprise when, while stopped on top of the Salt Creek pass for photos, Gert and Rosie pulled up. After a short chat, we both left. I poked and dawdled and stopped in almost every town of substance (and some of none), but still arrived in Jackson by 2:30. My wife had flown into Jackson Hole, and she was at the Ranch Inn with news that Gert and Rosie had unloaded their gear and were parking the trailer at their friend's house. In short order, Bill arrived, followed by Herb and Dion. Once all the trailers were parked we gathered for a nice dinner at the Snake River Brewery, joined by Gert's friends Burt and Teresa (I hope I got that right). Today we have a nice run to Thermopolis. When she saw our intended route, Teresa opined that we, "sure aren't taking a very efficient way to get there." Really? Imagine that! Well, my coffee is getting cool, and the sun has reached the center of town, so I'm off until later. I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of the tourers, and missing everyone else. Until later....

Yes, Park City. I'll be leaving early because I don't care to hang around hotels. but, I'll be dawdling along so you may catch up with me anyway. And gert is trailering until Jackson.

I've been following your build for some time now, and I am really looking forward to seeing Max. And meeting you, too. :-)

I'm at the Holiday Inn Express, and will probably roll out around 8. I think Gert is here, too, but staying in the Best Western around the corner. When I got to Provo, the traffic was so bad (probably because of the construction) I turned north on the 189. What a great decision. I had forgotten how beautiful Provo Canyon is.

I'm well on the way...left LA this morning, and I'm sitting in Park City now. Only 250 miles to go. At about 600 miles, I realized the Birkin is now more comfortable to drive on long trips than most of my other cars. Who would've thunk? Along the way, I'm tickled by the number of folks in Utah that are taking pictures of my car. At home, too many guys are too cool for school and would never do that. It's really fun to see the enthusiasm among younger kids for these cars--and it bodes well for the future of Se7en variants.

I find the cell phone screen too small to be especially useful while driving--I prefer to look at the map, rather than listen to the whiny bitch tell me to make the first available U-turn when I decide to go around an obstacle instead of through it. Depending on why I'm using the GPS, I sometimes use my 7" tablet PC with internal GPS chip set. That's big enough to see enough surrounding roads to keep my happy, and I can run a topo map program when I go off-road in my Jeep.

I expect to be passing through SLC on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Typically, I haven't made any firm plans for Friday night, but I'm vaguely planning to stop somewhere in the Provo/Orem/SLC area for the night. Automoda...are you coming on the tour?

It sounds like they think they are in a big city, or something. Just brainstorming...are there any Hay and Feed, or Ranch Supply places in town? One of those might have a spare corner you can park a trailer in.

How about long term parking at the Jackson Hole airport?

IIRC, Stan (Soareyes) had UltraShield Spec-Miata seats in his Birkin. Very comfortable and supportive. I believe he had to cut away all or part of the side wings to fit, though, and re-sew the covers.

I don't know of any BECs in LA/Orange County, but I'd be happy to give you a ride in my Zetec powered Birkin. Also, FYI, there's a dealer in Newport Beach who has a Miata engined Birkin for $19,000, with the advantage that it's already in CA and already registered.

That's really nice work--it makes me want a toy like that. :-) It sounds like you should get the CNC Shark Touch Probe so you can digitize a 3D model yourself. http://www.nextwaveautomation.com/CNCShark_Touch_Probe.aspx

I recently bought a pair of Merrell "Barefoot True Glove" shoes for the gym, but I find they are perfect for driving (Birkin S3 and 11.5 EEE feet). There is no sole overhang, etc. I see that Merrell offer a leather version so you don't always need to look as though you're on the way to work out. http://www.merrell.com/US/en/Barefoot_Collection

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess Pinto engine. Which, as I recall was a great starting point for building good power. If the price is right, this could be a great project.