New Birkin-First impressions

[Kitcat]

Well, after buying a used '09 Birkin for its Duratec power and reliability and towing it back from Virgina Beach I was eager to jump in and do a comparo w/my Caterham.

 

First, seats are good substitute for water boarding. "We will keep you strapped in until you confess!". Also they are slippery and huge so they shove me up into the steering wheel, even with the seat all the way back. So the seats are gong, the sooner the better.

 

Instruments: the steering wheel obscures 50% of the very small tach. Guess I will shift using the ear tach. Horn, not as loud as the turn signal indicator (really). So it has to go.

 

Pedals: hard to reach tho they are adjustable so that may help.

 

Mirrors: much better than the Caterham.

 

Seat belts: junk, more for show than track use. They will be replaced.

 

Power: wow!

 

Sound: not bad, but it's no X-flow.

 

Handling:excellent, it seems equal to the Caterham.

 

Structure: There seem to be more triangulation in the chassis than w/the Caterham.

 

Looks: both are show stoppers. No photos to post yet but the car is in the red/silver stripe livery of what I think is the 45th anniversary Caterham. If you are desperate, go to Texas Motor Works website as it is there as representing a finished Birkin (It was their first Duratec).

 

Reliability: I got 3 miles today before it broke down. And unlike my X-Flow, wh/didn't break down for 1K miles, this thing is impossible to trouble shoot standing at the roadside. So the wrecker is coming as I type this. Sigh, not a good start....

Edited August 19, 2011 by Kitcat

[yellowss7]

That's not a good start Mike :ack:. Troubleshooting should be similar though. Fuel? Spark, Air. Anything Loose? Anything broken? Unless your ECU map is crap.

 

What are the symptoms?

 

Congrats BTW. :cheers: Now I'll only see the rear view of you briefly on the track.

 

Tom

[bball7754]

Mike - I think you've angered the Crossflow gods. Some type of sacrifice may be in order....

 

Seriously, though, congrats on the purchase, and will be interested to read more comparisons.

 

Steve

[Croc]

Hi Mike - congratulations on your purchase. If it you have the first duratec birkin Dick contructed then I saw this car during its build a few years back when I was there.

 

Interesting comparison between the two. I will suggest that the Birkin will be as reliable as your seven once you finish the fettling process. Dick is not the best for this process. I know your pain - my first runs in all 3 of my sevens were interrupted by mechanical snafus. In the meantime AAA is your friend.

 

Re the obscured tacho can I recommend that you get a set of shift lights on top of or just underneath the scuttle. I rely on my shift lights for the same difficulty sighting reason. Omex have some nicely discreet ones.

 

For seats you may not be aware but the Caterham ones fit pretty well if you have a spare set of tillets running around. I explored this when I was investigating an IRS Birkin.

 

You may want to join the mirrorsforsevens bulk buy and get rid of the caravan towing mirrors that you look to have installed.

 

So what is the final spec for this car?

 

I look forward to passing it on the track. :jester:

[Kitcat]

Thzx Guys. I think BBall is on to something:).

 

Tom suggested car is just out of gas. Mite be tho gauge shows 1/4 tank. If it is tho, add inaccurate gas gauge to issues car has.

 

I do like its large, stout roll-over bar.

 

It purportedly made 215 hp at rear wheels when tuned by Abbacus. Sure feels like it. Has a Raceline oil pan, water rail, stage 2 cams, Jenvey throttle bodies, Haltec engine mgt, ,ceramic coated headers, IRS, wide track, LSD, Gazz adjustable shocks, adj perches, braided brake lines, annular clutch, 5 sp T9 trans, Wildwood calipers, Ultima battery. All in all, a pretty trick car (when it runs).

 

As to comparo, it feels a lot like the '78 (short cockpit) Caterham of Craig Chima's that I drove a few months ago. Not nearly as comfortable a driving position as my '97 Cat. Can an uncomfortable driver turn fast track times? We shall see. (Croc: it IS on:! My straight line driving skills have suddenly improved).

Edited August 19, 2011 by Kitcat

[JohnCh]

Great spec Mike. Is it a 2.3L?

 

I agree with BBall’s assessment. I too was a victim of powerful Crossflow mojo when I switched to a Duratec. In fact, I didn’t even make it around the block on my first drive. However, after making an oil offering to the Crossflow gods by spreading some Redline on the bottom of the Duratec sump and pouring a bit on the garage floor, the car has been very reliable. Might be worth a shot...

 

-John

[turboeric]

Tom suggested car is just out of gas. Mite be tho gauge shows 1/4 tank. If it is tho, add inaccurate gas gauge to issues car has.

A friend and I spent half a day in the pouring rain by the side of the road troubleshooting a Dodge truck that was out of gas, while the gas gauge showed 1/3 tank. Tank had a big dent in it that prevented the float from going below 1/3! :ack: Miserable day.

[Kitcat]

The car had 742 miles on it when I got it, ater 2 1/2 years. I asked the previous owner what the redline was and if engine mgt had a rev limiter and he said he had no idea, he'd never gotten close to redline:). So maybe the car was so shocked or stunned when I floored it that it just shut down?

 

The engine compartment is pristine. The prev owner spent abt $1.5k on cosmetic changes there (it IS nice!). He pointed out his system for keeping any oil overflow off the engine. I thot abt my X-flow wh/frequently blows oil all over the engine bay and driver/passenger as well if we have not been behaving:). So John, maybe I need to dump some sacrificial, high ZDDP oil, all over the perfectly maintained engine bay, as kind of a se7en christening?

Edited August 19, 2011 by Kitcat

[S1Steve]

Hi Mike,

I am not sure if a Birkin has one, ( Superformance does), fuel shut off switch under the dash. I read you put your foot in it. I can trip mine if I shift from 1st to 2nd way up in the rev range.

Something you may want to look for .

Enjoy it !!!!!

 

Steve

[Kitcat]

Good idea Steve. I was thrashing it back and forth thru some extreme twisties and my knees were banging around as a result and I thot they mite have hit something under the dash, but cldnt see anything obvious.

 

BTW John, it's a 2.0 liter Duratec, not the 2.3 version.

[S1Steve]

Mike,

Mine is a little metal box with a black button in the middle. If you have one and

 

tripped it, just push the black button and re-set it. Mine is tucked up under the

 

dash on the co-pilot side. Go grab a beer and a flash light....

 

Maybe a fellow Birkin owner can give you more details, or call Dick..

 

Hope you get it sorted soon Mike.

[Kitcat]

Previous owner says no fuel cut off. I still feel its something basic (dumb). My mechanic says he's stacked up til Monday so hopefully I'll hear then.

[yellowss7]

Mike, can you describe what happened? Was it running and just die? Sputtered to a stop? Did you turn it off and then try to restart? Did you stall it?

 

Give us some hints.

 

Tom

[Kitcat]

Fiercely carving a set of zig zag turns on a one way park road, 20-25 mph maybe, max lateral loads, and car stops running, just as if I turned it off. I tried jiggling ignition switch, popping clutch to bump start as I slowly rolled to a stop, etc. I first thot I had accidentally bumped the key into off position, since that's what it felt like. No splutter, no nothin, except a dead engine. After stopping car, it cranked just fine.It has a nice big powerful Optima battery. But it never fired up, or even spluttered. I tried restarting every 5 minutes for 20 minutes, thinking it was flooded or something. Prior owner says never had it happen and has run gas down to way below where it was today.

 

The only "uh-oh" was I cld feel my knees bushing against the pile of wires and connectors just behind the dash when engine died stopped and I thot I had maybe knocked a connector loose. But saw nothin obvious when I looked.

Edited August 19, 2011 by Kitcat

[KiwiBirkin]

Sorry to hear about the troubles with the new Birkin Kitkat. 742 miles isn't really enough miles for the old owner to even give the car a full shake down and full service after its build there could be a loose bolt somewhere holding a earth strap or anything like that causing issues. Just thought I would let you know my Birkin VDO fuel gauge seems to read pretty accurate in use, at least the fuel tank is easy to get too and pull out to check the sender is working right though.

 

Hope it's all sorted soon looking forward to seeing pictures the IRS Birkin models are awesome the rear end was designed by the ARROWS racing team engineers for Birkin which is a interesting fact I found out a little while ago.

 

Good luck

[yellowss7]

Mike, could you hear the fuel pump priming as you turned the key to the on position?

 

Do you have an Inertial cut off switch that shuts down the fuel pump?

 

Tom

[wemtd]

Congrat's Mike!

I thought you were switching to one of Dicks supercharged Duratec's.

You can download the Haltech software off the web to check your ECU setup for rev limiter etc once she's back on the road.

 

paul

[Boxologist]

Mike, could you hear the fuel pump priming as you turned the key to the on position?

 

Do you have an Inertial cut off switch that shuts down the fuel pump?

 

Tom

 

My thoughts. I'm actually suspecting a failed fuel pump as the culprit. jump right to the deep end.

[WestTexasS2K]

Fuel pump might have come off the pickup tube if you were sloshing the fuel back and forth.

[Kitcat]

Brief chat w/my tech guy today. Doesn't plan to get into the problem seriously til Monday. But did a quick look and saw battery terminals were not tightened-he cld spin the nuts by hand. So he snugged them up. And saw a fuse had blown (perhaps as a result of intermittent battery connection), so replaced that. Car still won't start tho.

 

I drove the Cat today: automotive perfection (ok, it was annoying that the breather tube pulled out and lost it's grommet and was spraying oil mist).

 

My goal is to get the Birk to the Cat's level of comfort and feel. My garage now has both cars and I am having the seats swapped out and my RA1s swapped over to the Birkin, getting it aligned and, hopefully running. I have a track day at W-Glen in 2 weeks so that's my deadline. I'd love to take both cars and do an on-track comparo, but reality intrudes.