KiwiBirkin

Very nice looks like a real quality build there.

Do you have any pictures Southwind ??

The front shocks have 294mm set between the eys on my Birkin so thats ok there then. Southwind do you know which way you turn the little screw on the bottom of the shocks to set it up stiffer/softer as I dont know ?? I put a scew driver in there and could only get 1 click counter clockwise before no more turns but counted about 18 clicks clockwise before I stopped turning it as it seemed to keep going and it didnt want to mess with it untill I knew what was what. Cheers

Hi im looking for advice from Birkin owners who still have the orignal Spax shocks on there car on how they have them setup for road use, I only use my Birkin on the road but it seems a rather stiff ride on bumpy roads. I have my tyres set to 20psi for both the front and rear. Also I would like to know where to set the springs too, the bottom A arms have a slight fall away from the body to the tyre, I have been told the A arms should be level with the ground ?? Cheers Kiwibirkin

Ah yes Croc the Keas still causing trouble for the unsuppecting tourist I remeber my first year in NZ (1998) and went sking for the day to the closest local ski field (Mt Hutt 1.5 hrs away from Christchurch) I had a car with a vinyl roof well after a day up the ski fiels these pesky mountain parrots had turned the cars roof into dredlocks and tore most of the rubber window seals out. JohnCH, it seems so compared to other countrys we do have quite good prices on sevens, the roads are good but can be poorly maintained on some of the more intresting roads, the scenery is really quite awsome here but its not hard to find awsome scenery in other countries either. The people are friendly in NZ and there are only 4.5million of us in a country the size of the UK.

It was a lovely day here in Canterbury New Zealand so Grace and I (thats my Birkins name) went for a blat around the Christchurch port hills road, this road follows the top of the hills that surround Christchurch and is a very twisty & narrow road just perfect for sevens, we stopped for a photo shoot

Love the colour, you have a very nice car coming your way.

Yes Skip Im very pleased with it, now it sounds how I thought a lotus would sound with a 1600 xflow, the noise level up to 4000rpm is fine then after that it gets a real nice growl So far the wife hasnt complained to me about it all and tells me its not giving off as much heat as the old system either.

Well the exhuast is finished and on the car, im pretty pleased with the look and the diffrence it made to the car, the final touch was to spray the heat shield with gun metal gray paint as it was looking tatty, next year ill rplace it with a S/S heat shield with BIRKIN laser cut into the side.

I think it stands for District Vehicel Licensing Authority

Ah cheers Skip It wasnt too hard really as im a sheetmetal worker and had all the tools need to make one, all they really are is a round tube with either a straight through pipe packed with fiber glass or S/S wool or a pipe that runs through but gets offset a few times to make the exhaust quiter and then packed wiyj S/S wool again . I would have liked to make one fully from S/S but where i work now we dont use S/S so I couldnt get my hands on any.

ON my factory built Birkin there were 2 numbers that I used to get Birkin to id the vehical as a factory built one The first number was stamped into the chassis box section on the passenger side at the top of the footwell in the engine bay and looked like this AE9BIRKINT1AB1194 The second number was stamped on the aluminum above the first number MA1 96 3376 3 I emailed both those numbers to Birkin and they supplied me info on my car. I belive that they stamp diffrent numbers for cars that are send out to be built up by people to cars they factory complete. Cheers KiwiBirkin

Well I made the new exhaust today and fitted it up tonight at work, I made a 450mm dia x 550mm long muffler with a chamberd system as i have to get the noise level down to 94db to pass the 6 monthly car checks here called a WOF (Warrent Of Fitness) I made it 2 1/2" in let and out let as suggested. Next thing is im getting the system from the front flange painted at work in a paint called sermatel (spelling could be wrong) which is heat resistant paint we use on aircraft engines in the hot areas, then Im haveing made a S/S heat sheild to 3/4 wrap the exhaust from the flange to the end of the muffler and im having Birkin laser cut in to it. Drove the car home from work and first thing I noticed is the nice sound the 1600 xflow now makes and there is lots more power down low and the flat spot i had on the low end power has gone away, in all a much better sounding car with more power. I have included some pics of tonights effort at work, I fabricated every thing my self and fitted it up, its still a work in progress and is about 50% complete, ill post another pic when its painted. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1607982858_DSCF0004.JPG http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1524107229_DSCF0002.JPG

Cheers for the info guys. Kitkat the link you posted it helped out a lot and told me the tyres were made in 1996 which is the same year as my Birkin so as Slomove suggested its what they sold the Birkin with. Anyway ill get them replaced over winter with some better tyres. Cheers KiwiBirkin

Hi Ian7 The car will only be used for street use and you have been help full really ill stick with 2 1/2" all the way through.

Im in the middle of pulling my orignal Birkin exhuast apart to build a new one that will be a side pipe exit and not out the rear, the 4 headers come out into a 4 into 1 that ends with a 2 1/2" flange, im getting a S/S muffler built and would like to know if I should stay with 2 1/2" pipe all the way to the side mount exit or should I reduce it down to 2". The car is running a 1600x flow with twin weber 40s, I dont know if any work has been done to modify the engine when it was installed by Birkin at the factory in 1996. Cheers KiwiBirkin

I had them checked out today by the local tyre shop here and they say the compound is fine and they still have life in them, they seem to think there around 5-6 years old, ill keep them on for now untill I winter the car up and then change them over winter to some thing better.

I just purchased a Birkin 6 weeks ago and it came with 195/50 R15 82V fronts and 205/50 R15 86V rears tyres which are Goodyear Eagle GTAs I have searched the net for these tyres to find out what there use is as they dont have a normal road tyre tread pattern, I belive they may be tarmac rally which would figure as the car dealer I purchased the car from specializes in importing rally parts into New Zealand. Anyone able to shed some light on what these tyres are, I have included a pic of the tread pattern below Cheers KiwiBirkin http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/2037239800_tyer 001.JPG

Ok ill take a shot here now I have put some posts on the forum. Expat Uk now in New Zealand since 1988 with a 4 year stint back in the UK 2001-2005. Served my time as a sheetmetal tradesman in the UK and continued in the trade in NZ mostly working on S/S stuff for the dairy/beer/wine industry in NZ, took a break and went back to the UK where both me and my partner ended up working for Airbus UK on the A380 project which was a fantastic place to work and had a great time back in the UK, back to NZ in 2005 and now working for Pratt & Whitney here in Christchurch at a JT8D and V2500 engine repair shop. My love affair with the Lotus 7 started when I was 16 when my mums friend took me for a spin in his series 3 Lotus, from then on I said one day I will own one and now i do, the plan in the last 2 years was to own one when I was 50 and my wife gave me the go ahead so I had 5 years to figure out what i wanted (im now 45) as it happens a good friend of mine was told he had a throat cancer in Nov 2008 and had it removed and is recovering well which is great, this turn of events changed our outlook on life and we decided to get one now as you just dont know whats going to happen too you in the future. So I started looking around at what was in NZ and found we have 3 companys makeing Lotus 7 replicas here and all are built to a very high standard Fraser 7 Genrally regarded as the best kit in NZ and built to a very high standard and are setup to the same dimensions as a Lotus 7 series 3, a turn key car on the road will cost you NZ $40k with a 2L toyota motor and full leather fit out in the cockpit, second hand cars go for around NZ $20-35K depending on spec and year. McGreagor Motor Sport The next best built cars in NZ they are a bit bigger than a normal Lotus 7 because they tend to build cars with Rover 3500 V8s in them. Leitch Motorsport Another good Lotus 7 built to close dimensions as a series 3 lotus, these cars are also sold in the US So those were the choices with a Fraser being what I was after, after looking around I saw a Birkin on Trademe (NZs version of Ebay) and did some research and found them to be a popular car around the world and also that they had a good history of building cars so I took it for a test drive and had a mechanic mate check it all out and decided it was a good buy at NZ $14k, it need a bit of TLC and the rear aluminum panel needs replacing which will be done in winter, I have cleaned the car up a bit since owning it (6 weeks) and plane to do more work over the coming winter, at the moment im haveing to much fun driving it around some of the great roads we have in NZ So thats my story and now im here Cheers KiwiBirkin

The car came with a 320mm Mountney wheel which has a larger hub center than what Momo has, I have all ready had the hub turned down and re drilled for the new 285mm Momo wheel I purchased last week and its on the car and fits fine and has given me about 120mm clearance from the bottom of my wheel to my legs which has made the car better to drive. BTW I also fitted a qiuck release unit to the new momo as well. The reason im asking what the Birkin shaft is from is because when I removed the hub I notice that some of the splines on the hub looked worn and I was looking to replace it with a new hub thats all.

Cheers for the welcome. There are some great roads over here thats for sure, the pictures were taken at a little town called Akaroa which has one of the best driving roads in Canterbury (the area of New New Zealand I live in) and its very popular with the biker boys for runs over from Christchurch for a coffee and then back again. Here is a link for google maps for Akaroa Akaroa, New Zealand

Hi all I have just joined this forum which I found by working through google hits looking for sites with info about Birkins. Im not in the USA but in New Zealand but have found some great info here on these forums and decided it was well worth joining them as there was alot of help here and you all seemed so freindly. Anyway info on the car from me and what has been supplied to me by Birkin in SA I have just purchased a 1996 Birkin 7 which was fully built by Birkin at there factory and then exported to Japan and sold by a dealer there in 1997, I have been told there were 2 owners in Japan and then the car was put up on Ebay (Nov 2008 )and a car sales yard here in Christchurch New Zealand imported it in and put it up for sale on New Zealands version of Ebay called Trademe. I purchased the car for NZ $14K after doing some research into the car and what a Birkin was and decided it was a good buy. We have 3 Lotus 7 replicas built in NZ called the Fraser 7, Liech 7 & McGregor 7 all cost NZ $40K new and kits start at NZ $15k so it was a good price I feel. The car is running as a unmodified Birkin with a 1600 Xflow motor 2x weber 40s and type 9 gearbox, it was a bit untidy when i purchased it but then it was 10 years old and had 20000 Kms on the clock, I have a plan to tidy it up over our winter but for now im just enjoying driving the car. Cheers KiwiBirkin

Hi all im new here and would like to ask if any body knows what boss kit you need to buy to fit a Birkin (1996) steering wheel shaft, I need to get a new boss to fit a momo wheel to my car. Cheers KiwiBirkin