slomove

Just bought tickets for Saturday. We will probably stay Friday night in Santa Cruz on our way back home from a short NorCal tour (TBD). Is anybody there with a tin-top? We will have our luggage with us and don't want to leave it out open in the corral.

If you watched some of the 50's B-movies you would know that the next phase is your skin starting to go green and acting in a strange fashion. Like that -->

The CEO pay is only a facet (although a pretty bad one) of a wealth and power distribution trend that has been going on for the last 30 or so years. People and organizations with serious money (earned, inherited or from investments) have the opportunity nowadays to invest in public policy, be it through lobbying, PACs, or media power. Actually, they don't have to bribe anymore: the politicians compete for their attention (I just heard that most politicians spend more time peddling than legislating). That allows these people a) to stack the rules to siphon off most of the wealth created by increased productivity (see CEO pay), b) pay lower taxes than what they paid for the last 50 years c) watch the government spend over their reduced means with a smile or encourage it d) make up for the shortfall by loaning the government money they siphoned off and that was not taxed, e) getting income from the loans, paid by other folk's taxes, f) repeat. Naah, that does not happen in a democracy, just joking.......:jester:

Probably belongs into the neighboring forum section. But that is one result of the "Small Government" craze coupled with stupidity. We are surely going to cut our taxes until we resemble Somalia.

This is my Emerald ignition map for a Zetec ZX1 with ITB, stage 2 cams and 10.6 compression. But unlike the fueling maps I did not change much from the original Emerald ignition maps. Has been working well for the last 5 or 6 years. I am nnot sure if the advance numbers at high revs and low load make much sense but you don't really get there much and if so it is just engine braking.

I measured the pressure differential between engine and the top of the bonnet a while ago. It was something like 0.2 psi at freeway speed (IIRC) so I guess the louvers do help but most of the hot air from radiator, block and headers must escape below, through the tunnel and to the sides. Insulating and sealing helped but the real improvent was forward directed boat louvers in the bonnet side that direct a noticable fresh air flow into the footwell (via a kind of transfer box). At speed the air flow can be felt even wearing jeans and just flushes the heat out.

Hey Skip, not nice to make fun of my accent! :jester:

Thanks guys for trying to boost my motivation and thanks to Steve and Linda for the invite :cheers: Not sure about the trailer. If I can drive a nice highway (vs. Interstate) I would rather do the whole trip in the Seven, something like that. According to Google Maps it is only 4100 miles and can be done in 3 1/2 days :jester:

Well, if I take the time to drive up to these polar regions I would want to do the whole thing. Maybe I can convince my boss that my 60th birthday justifies a 3-4 week vacation :cooldude: I could take Hwy 395 all the way from SoCal up to the Canadian border and Hwy1 back down. Nice commute. BTW: what is the expected participation from the UK so far? Would be nice to meet some folks from USA2005 again.

:willy_nilly: I am really interested in this trip, since it is now in August and not September but the shipping cost is a bit steep. I don't think I can justify a total of $4k or more on top of air travel, hotels, gas etc. From the west coast it may be a little less but then we will surely not fill a truck. Overall that sounds like $7k for a 2 week trip. I might even consider driving up there and back but not sure if I can free up that much time. Looks like I got to pass on that tour.

I have that with my exhaust since I got the car. The slip fit gap is just a bit loose and you could see soot blowout and I had backfire. I tried squirting in the copper high temp silicone but turned out to be useless since it does not stick well to the soot covered and otherwise glazed surfaces. It blew out right away. Filling the entire gap was not an option for me since that would practically glue the two pieces together making disassembly very difficult (how would you get the headers off the engine?). I tried another few methods (e.g. a bandage from aluminum wire cloth covered with silicone) but all that did not last very long. The system that I use now for a few years is a 2" wide wrap of corrugated stainless steel sheet. You can find it in the home improvement store with a rubber liner and hose clamps to repair and join sewer pipes (just discard the rubber because it will not stand the temperature and if too big cut to size to go around the exhaust joint). The rippled surface allow to conform with different diameter tubing. I lined the inside of the corrugated steel with copper silicone and some fiberglass cloth and tightened it to both sides of the joint with a hose clamp. They call it "no-hub-coupling" http://s7.cdn.hardwareandtools.net/is/image/HardwareandTools/045734625341?wid=225&hei=225 This does not leak anymore, can be easily removed and lasted for over 5 years now. The silicone still degrades over time but can be easily re-coated.

Gustafson normally does not sell direct. But when I asked 2 or 3 years ago he still had some on the shelf with the mounting plate specified by MSI (Woody Harris) and he sold it to me anyway. So I would just ask for the Birkin/MSI version. Maybe he made more in the meantime. I am not aware that there are different versions for ZX1,2,3 but may be wrong.

That was my attempt to cross Breckenridge Mountain Road (southern Sierra Nevada) in April 2010. Was not too bad until the snow got about 3-4 inches deep with the snow drift in the background. It took some pushing and cursing of my wife to get us out of it. With chains we probably could have done it but the Toyo T1R are just not cut out to be snow tires But no collision risk, I suppose we were the only ones crazy enough to drive this road at the time. Temperature was above freezing, no heater needed. http://lh6.ggpht.com/_242PlvPtVpE/S8KJ8DjL65I/AAAAAAAABgg/0QOEOSx4nUI/s720/P1010825.JPG

Keep in mind the Birkin Motor mount changed about 2000. Older models like mine had the cylindrical rubber dampers with vulcanized end plates mounted vertically in a metal cup (is that what you mean with "shear"?). Yhey are really cheap from MSC. http://www1.mscdirect.com/ProductImages/6218731-11.jpg Newer Birkins have (I believe) rubber bushings on the engine mounts that are oriented horizontally. Not sure what is better or why they changed. But I had to replace them because the end plates came off after a couple of years.

For years I have used fiber reinforced hard rubber truck flaps from the auto store. They are big enough that one such truck flap makes two for a Seven. They can be cut to size with tin shears. However, I think they don't actually make much of a positive difference. Although my flaps go down to less than an inch above ground, they are somewhat flexible and the air flow lifts them up a bit. That allows small rocks to be ejected from the surface to slip under the flaps anyway and hit the rear wings and indirectly the cockpit. What is more annoying, some of the rocks that do get caught by the flaps tend to bounce around between tire and front wing and get ejected forward. Some of them make their way onto the bonnet or, once again into the cockpit. Since my wing stays broke on the last summer trip I have been driving for a few months without any front wings and I tend to believe I had fewer debris in the cockpit than any time before (hard to prove scientifically, though). Anyway, I have the wings back on now and the flaps are still attached. Probably too lazy to change anything..... Forgot to mention....they have a serious disadvantage anyway. It happened twice to me that while driving backward I hit a curb or a fist size rock at the side of my driveway. The flap was then clamped between the obstacle and the tire and dragged down the entire wing, bending the wing stay. So, be mindful of this when you use flaps or make sure the fasteners will disengage.

I was in the same situation for a few years before I became a citizen. But, not that much changed since. Yes, I can vote on who but I have no illusions that I can vote on how the taxes are spent. For that matter, I don't know how all of these guys can stand there with a straight face and promise to change this or fix that. As you can see over the last few years (or longer) the President may send the military somewhere or meekly suggest a Justice once a while but beyond that he is a slave of Congress. If they can convince the own camp their ideas are good it will surely be shot or watered down by the other side. And anything goes only if the corporate puppet masters and political pursers agree and the media lets it survive, anyway. As you can see, while I am a fiscally conservative Democrat, I have little hope this will be fixed anytime soon by either party. The folks who could change it depend on this system for their livelihood so why the heck would they change it? Oh well, "rant off"......

Looks like there are still folks here who take any campaigning politicians' speeches at face value (Romney, Obama or Gingrich or whoever). Come on, who can be that naive nowadays. What they say is rather calculated by statisticians and strategists evaluating the impact on elections or even polls. If anything these guys should be judged by their actions (or inaction) or at least if what they say is consistent with what they did. For that matter I don't have a problem with the maligned "flip-flopping" if that is based on real new information and events and not just to pander. Everything else would be stubborn stupid. But even more stupid is repeating such politician bullshit. While I despise the actually existing welfare deadbeats that should be cut off from the money tap, I agree with MoPho they are an insignificant part of the problem. But no politician that wants to keep the job will touch the big obvious ones. If we want to get rid of the debt we need to reduce medicare, social security and military expenses AND raise taxes (of course for the wealthy but I guess that will not suffice).

I have used long heavy duty hose clamps, 3 of them spaced 120 degrees and grabbing as many turns as possible. You could not compress a spring solid but enough to remove the shock (depending on your specific suspension). I did not snap one doing that but after using them 2 or 3 times the worm drives just don't work anymore. Is it safe? Don't know but worked for me.

Rosie and I may be there for Saturday. We can not come on your suggested return trip because we need to be back home on Sunday. But we will likely be driving around Oregon and Idaho (maybe western Montana) a week or two before the Monterey event. Kind of a more spontaneous Sevens micro-rally (one car only). But it will take another month or so to solidify the plans...

Piuma Road or what? When we retire in a couple of years we surely want to get out of SoCal but the mountain roads here can't be beat.

I got a Valley Odyssey brake controller. Cost about $90, and is fully electronic proportional that can be calibrated even when tilted. There are probably a dozen or more similar products around but that one works just fine.

I have this info.... M3101121AA Front Brake Discs VW Golf3 VR6 (Birkin machined) However, the old front calipers (before Outlaw 4-pot were installed) are supposed to be B5451355AA R/H Front Caliper VW GTI Golf 1985 onwards B5451356AA L/H Front Caliper VW GTI Golf 1985 onwards Not sure if that makes sense but I know the GTI calipers fit my '98 Birkin. But if your discs are just glazed, why not put them on a lathe and give a little refresh. Or put some really aggressive race pads on for a while, that will do the job ;-)

I found I can estimate the approximate alcohol content from my fuel gage. This is a capacitive sender in my fuel cell and the alcohol with a much higher dielectric constant results in an apparent higher level reading. I calibrated the fuel gage 8 years ago when alcohol was probably less here in California to show "full" when the tank was actually full. - Over the last few years the gage shows "full" when the tank is almost half empty indicating they increased the alcohol content quite a bit. - When we did our last trip to Wyoming and South Dakota, the gage displayed only 3/4 full when indeed the tank was full to the brim. I suppose they have pretty pure gas. I also noticed I got about 5-10% more highway reach from a tank in Wyoming than I get here in California. Oh well, this is more a matter of scientific interest...nothing I can do about it.

Oh well, maybe it is a European thing but as long as there is a dashed line and you can see oncoming traffic it is anyway legal and quite common. Overall, I don't think I found much more risky behavior than here. Except some bikers may be even more suicidal. I did the Furka Pass road from the video last June (in a rented lame Focus...) and racing downhill may not be the best way to enjoy the breathtaking scenery. But if it was my daily commute, I might Actually it reminded me somewhat of the Beartooth Highway.

Even if you are a DIY guy, buying a used car and driving a few months allows to to get a better feel for the mods you really need :rofl: If you want the complete DIY experience you can still strip the car down to the bones and start over, but saving a lot of cash.