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The Goat's Birkin Under Construction


scannon

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You might remember The Goat from his posts on selling his Elise (or was it an Exige?) and buying a Birkin kit.

 

We are not too distant neighbors and I stopped by today to have a look at his progress and took some pictures. With his permission I am posting them here for your viewing pleasure.

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The pictures don't show it well but the carbon fiber transmission tunnel is work of art.

 

The engine is a Duratec with hot cams. Want to elaborate on the engine Goat?

 

I'd be up for a gathering of Se7ens here in Colorado. We have some fantastic roads here. I could see a week of making a loop around western Colorado hitting many scenic and twisty passes, none of them twice. Maybe even a track day at our new local track. The question is, will the East Coast contingent be up for that long a trip to get here and back? Maybe we could do this to coincide with Alaskossie's trip to California and beyone.

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It sure would be nice to give the PX the hot exhaust to deal with. Not, it is best, that I deal with it. I sure would like to have the engine, CF & IRS as a starting point!

 

When I park my 7 I try to stay by it till it cools or I hang a sign HOT EXHAUST so people don't get hurt.

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks, all. Sorry I have been out of touch for a bit. I just moved to Incline Village, NV and switched jobs, so have been a bit distracted.

 

The engine is the spec that Dick has put together for the new Birkins. 2.0L Duratec with stage 2 crower cams, individual throttle bodies, the birkin headers and exhaust, raceline aluminum oil pan, and electric water pump. Dick found a cache of nearly unused engines. Mine will also have a lightened crank pulley on it. Thanks to Skip with his help in getting the pulley bolt off.

 

CO has some great mountain roads. But I thought I should show off the drive that is literally out my back door and between me and Reno (where any kind of civilization is):

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=808+carano+court,+89451&daddr=18650+Mount+Rose+Highway,+Reno,+NV+89511+(Galena+Creek+Park)&hl=en&geocode=FeQCVwIdPpLZ-Cnb21JKHHCZgDFod5HtA0GTQg%3BCUSG4A4mIswEFa2LWAId9yTb-CGFHzgmmS6lhylxtIf9cmyZgDFrM2Cwuw3vhQ&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=39.30708,-119.907427&sspn=0.150889,0.308647&ie=UTF8&ll=39.309863,-119.890366&spn=0.150883,0.308647&z=12

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Goat,

 

Sorry to hear that you are moving away from Colorado -- it would have been fun to see our "cousin" Sevens side by side, since you are using the same basic Duratec power plant that I am, and your color scheme (silver and carbon fiber) is just like mine (except that I painted the nose cone silver). And my Seven was in Greeley, and now is in Thornton, just down the road from you.

 

Best of luck in the new home for your Seven -- your commute to Reno looks great!

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Well, the car isn't finished yet, and it is still in CO. Here are the latest pictures from about a month ago.

 

I have left the car in the capable hands of Tom Carlin in Gypsum. Maybe before I drive it out to Tahoe using backroads, we can meet up. I will be running down to Erie to check out the house we left there and show some others the car.

IMG_2981.jpg

IMG_2983.jpg

IMG_3001.jpg

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Do you have a manufacturers name for the headlights and turn signals? They look good but also functional enough to have a DOT rating.

Anybody else have a manufacturer's site for something like these that has a DOT stamp. Thanks.

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Do you have a manufacturers name for the headlights and turn signals? They look good but also functional enough to have a DOT rating.

Anybody else have a manufacturer's site for something like these that has a DOT stamp. Thanks.

 

jimrankin here is what I have on my car and they work fine and are not that expensive. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Chrome-Dietz-Type-Headlights,2948.html

They also have turn signals if you search their site.

Hope this helps.

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Goat,

Thanks for the recent photos. I'll be in Colorado from March 20-28, and my car should be road-ready by that time, so maybe we can get together.

 

Nice-looking Raceline oil pan!

 

Whose yellow Seven (Birkin?) is that in the background? Tom Carlin's? Another Colorado Seven?

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Do you have a manufacturers name for the headlights and turn signals? They look good but also functional enough to have a DOT rating.

Anybody else have a manufacturer's site for something like these that has a DOT stamp. Thanks.

 

The turn signals are the cheapies that came in the Birkin kit. simple drill through the headlight upright to mount. I can't imagine they are more than a few dollars each in the market. I don't know the headlamp manufacturer, but one of my first "upgrades" will be to replace those large ones with some smaller non-chrome (black) ones.

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Goat,

Thanks for the recent photos. I'll be in Colorado from March 20-28, and my car should be road-ready by that time, so maybe we can get together.

 

Nice-looking Raceline oil pan!

 

Whose yellow Seven (Birkin?) is that in the background? Tom Carlin's? Another Colorado Seven?

 

That is Tom's personal car. I think it was the first completed Duratec Birkin.

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Got a reply back from Speedway. None of their headlights are DOT approved but said I might be able to buy a sealed beam unit from them and change out the "light" in it to a stock sealed beam replacement light with a DOT on the lens. No DOT on the turn signals either.

Going to have to go a little deeper in my web search I guess. Thanks for the link anyway.

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Got a reply back from Speedway. None of their headlights are DOT approved but said I might be able to buy a sealed beam unit from them and change out the "light" in it to a stock sealed beam replacement light with a DOT on the lens. No DOT on the turn signals either.

 

My Birkin failed the light inspection when I first took it to the DMV. I ended up having to replace the tri-bar headlights with regular DOT approved sealed beam units. I also replaced the turn signal lenses (just the lense covers) with Harley-Davidson lenses that fit on the Birkin supplied base with minor modification. I had to elongate the mounting holes slightly and put an o-ring (borrowed from an oil filter) between the lense and base to get it to fit properly. The grey ring is the base. Here's a photo:

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