Hello Again

Sorry for the long delay since the last post. Been traveling, tore ligaments off the bone in my left knee, rehabbing the knee, family stuff etc.

Also met friends with similar cars in the North Georgia mountains for a week of driving the wonderful roads of N. Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Unfortunately it rained most days but we still got to spend time with good friends, had several great meals and lots of good car talk. Also got in about 1 1/2 days of great driving.

Denise and I have discovered a great hilly, twisty, curvy road in Michigan that Car and Driver Magazine has written about. It took us a while to figure out the route but it makes a great day of driving to go there, drive several laps, have a nice dinner and then return home.

I've also continued to work on the car. The most recent projects were replacing the front brake rotors and pads. The pads were not nearly worn out but they were very abrasive to the rotors and the rotors had worn relatively thin. The new pads have been much friendlier to the new rotors. :)  Front to rear brake bias also needed to be adjusted because the new pads are not quite as sticky as the old pads.

UGGS also has new rear tires.

The latest project was to install a toothed wheel that DP provided on the transaxle's right inboard CV joint along with the associated wiring and GM inductive pickup.  After proper coding of both the GM VCM (engine control computer) and the MOTEC digital dashboard, I've been able to improve the accuracy of my speedometer and odometer. Previously the mileage and speed inputs depended on GPS logging from the MOTEC.  GPS is great unless you drive under tree cover or under highway underpasses...

Now that the VCM knows exactly how far and fast the car is going, I'll be able to set up the VCM to shut off the fuel injectors when at speed and zero throttle. In addition the VCM will be able to turn off the cooling fans if the engine is hot and forward speed is over i.e. 30 mph. Both functions will slightly improve fuel mileage.

Total mileage on the car now is a little over 11,000.

Next week I plan to visit the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis. Hopefully I'll get a new posting up before too long.