#and reassembling it back into a new chassis only to find out the chassis i got doesnt have the keyboard light slot for the ribbon cable
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713-4th-ward-g · 5 days ago
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#maan it took me like 2 hours to take this dell laptop completely apart#and reassembling it back into a new chassis only to find out the chassis i got doesnt have the keyboard light slot for the ribbon cable#thats on me to not paying attention or taking apart my dell laptop to compare the parts#but in the end it works just as new#not only did i change out the chassis but i even put in a new screen 😭#i had to remove so many small screws all different sizes and positions#take the mother board and move it to the new chassis 😭#made a couple mistakes but nothing too serious#it was my first time doing this without any real guide ahahaha#bruh it was task no cap#but at least the laptop looks and feels completely new#next up is adding a 2nd ram stick#then figuring out how to remove this firecuda from this heatsink so i can move it jnto the laptop and run a virtual box#just for the chance i get a virus i can just delete the partition from the hard drive and not have to reset my whole laptop completely#then i could probably run some emulators for ps2 or 3 games#i needed this windows laptop for the off chance i need to use windows for certain applications and i can finally stop using my mac#to virtual machine windows on it to use windows taking up half of my ram cpu cores and storage LMAO#i now freed that up#next up is waiting for my soldering machine to get here so i can fix this ps5 controllers with halo affect analog sticks#which would mean never having to worry about stick drift any longer#i now patiently wait#personal#about me
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bearcina · 4 years ago
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Fallout OC Seven day SPECIAL: Day Five - Intelligence
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Welcome to day five- the ficlet is a little longer today.
Q&A 
What is your OC’s Intelligence stat without any modifiers, whether it’s perks, clothes or chems? It’s a solid 6. 
Can your OC read, write and do basic math? She can read, write and do basic arithmetic (enough to do the basic finances for New Vegas if Yes Man is down for updates.) She can write, but as the ghoulification sets in, she will eventually get out of doing a neat handwriting. Reading is alright, she has about 8th grade/late middle-school/early highschool comprehension. 
What was the basis of their education? Were they formally educated or did they have to learn as they went? She was taught the alphabet and numbers and some basic reading comprehension from her father, and her girlfriends usually would take the time to teach her how to write for her courier job. 
However, all sorts of coding was taught secondhand by Doctor 8 and Doctor O, the poor saints, so most of what she knows on that fronteir shows up when she’s on mentats- as thats how O and 8 took the time to teach her- it’s much easier when your student is close to your intelligence. 
Most of her writing and reading comprehension was played by ear, if she can get a few letters in the word out, she can figure out what the word is, and she can generally get the rest by context clues. Her handwriting, however, is piss poor. Don’t ask her to write anything other than numbers on a page. 
Do they favor brains over brawn? Only if she knows she couldn’t win in a fight. Usually, she goes in guns-blazing, but when she’s cornered without her trusty plasma defender, you can bet she’s already got a couple mentats in her. 
How good are they with technology? without mentats and specialty clothes, she can take apart things and put them back together- maybe do basic fixes. She definitely knows how to use her computer in her suite, but only about as much as getting into a word prossessor and making journal entries. 
What sort of modifiers (clothes, chems, perks, etc...) do they have? She can usually be found with Doctor Mobius’ Glasses (+2 for her Int up to 8) on, they were nearly identical to her perscription! (She also has his full outfit, the scrubs, gloves and glasses. It’s a favorite set if she’s doing gross things- keeps the guts and grease off her hands and clothes)
She does take two Intense Training into intelligence later on, definitely after the Second Battle, she needed the boost if she as going to be running the show alone for a while. 
And she often can be found with mentats, and a nosebleed, if she’s working hard at something for Yes Man. RobCo TermLink is a hard language, and she only knows the basics, after all. 
--
Ficlet
"You're… how smart, you say?" "About as smart as a jet junkie with a batch mixed with mentats." Elisavet shrugged, it was the closest thing to her intelligence anyways. She was devoted to finding her next fix, she still had a minor addiction to jet- the craving nagged at her brain often, but not enough to ruin her daily routine. "But, you know, since you're usually 'observing' my little scraps down in the basement- I can have my good thoughts." 
"You blew up---" yes Man blubbered, claws tinking together. "well, I don’t-" "I can hear it when you move the cameras." Elisavet chuckled. "You're not as smooth as you think, the cameras in the basement squeal." She sat down the screwdriver she was using. There was a giant securitron arm laid out in her lap. "How about that holotape? Learned your lesson yet, this is week three without your favorite chassis." "I'm-" Yes Man whined, obviously overly embarrassed. "I've, well, learned my lesson." "You better have- I've been stuck on a mentat high for the past four days- I don't know how you even managed to-" "I don’t have to explain, right-" "No, you don't. I get it, stupid things happen." Elisavet smiled, she loved teasing her favorite robot, but she knew there was a limit to teasing the poor thing could take. "I still… am baffled by this though- how did you get your arm stuck like that? And your software won't release it, either. I bet Doc O would be willing to help break down th-" "we do not bring up that robot here!" Yes Man huffed. He didn't like it when she talked about the other robots she had previously flirting with. "Hey! He was actually pretty brilliant sometimes-" She whined, she did get times where she missed the Think Tank- especially Doctor Dala… But that’s a store for another time. 
"No! You say he was always breaking things!" "Oh, but you haven't met little Muggy- he's like a tiny, tiny… angry… companion? Friend? Son? I don't know, it's complicated." She sighed, remembering her tiny securitron friend- which reminded her she had a few more mugs to drop off. His collection was filling up the extra space left where Think Tank was. "I don't care if you- wait- didn't you mention he was a tiny securitron-?" 
"Yeah! So small! His arms shoot soap bubbles and water instead of bullets and missiles! Very cute!" Elisavet picked her screwdriver back up, but it was knocked back down by a specific jealous securitron. "I thought I was-" Yes Man blubbered sadly. "I thought I was your favorite securitron!" "Of course you are- I wouldn't be doing this if you weren't." Elisavet smiled. "You forget how much time and mentats I dedicate to fixing you alone- especially this one silly chassis, because it's your favorite." She tried getting her screwdriver back, the mentats were finally starting to wear off, and she didn't want to crack open another pack yet- she already had a pretty bad nosebleed from the stuff. "I do need my rag though- this blood is getting a little-" "You're bleeding?!"  Yes Man wailed, panicking as he tried finding one of the many grease-soaked rags Elisavet had already used. "Why didn't you say you were bleeding-" "I'm not smart enough to do this without a boost, hon. You should know that by now- and you've been watching me for the past three weeks, I'm surprised you didn't notice how much I lost on Monday- my computer keyboard is-" "You got blood in your keyboard?!" Elisavet snickered as she continued on with his commentary. "Yes, there's now blood on my keyboard. I always start getting nosebleeds with how heavily I've been eating those mentats." She wiped the blood off her lips and neck. "I'm only so smart without a boost- I can't decipher that stupid code from House without the boost. Hard to tell head from tails with some of those words! I've got a wasteland education- and you can't help at all because you instantly crash when you try to view and edit core code like this. I'm just glad I can do the disassembly and reassembly without it."
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motergkarazoportas-blog · 5 years ago
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How to Replace the Main Gear at a Garage Door Opener
It is 6:00 AM and you are leaving for work. You press on the garage door opener wall button and listen to a subtle hum from your electric motor but the door failed to maneuver. In case your garage doors springs are intact chances are you garage door openers primary drive equipment has neglected. You can easily inspect your drive gears by simply clipping your garage door opener and taking away the metallic cover. The primary drive gear is made from a white plastic which normally will be your weak link in the opener. Several things can cause this equipment to fail. Some causes of wear are:
O Garage door out of equilibrium (Springs busted or in need of modification ) O Chain to tight a o Old age o Excessive use or higher cycle o Factory flaw or lack of grease at time of fabrication
Fixing the white gear is a very low cost, fast and simple do it yourself repair as long as you've got a few simple hand tools and then adhere to the safety measures. These gears are available online in various degrees of components.
Before you get started It's important for You to Have a record of the few Straightforward tools needed to accomplish this job: O Hammer o Half inch wrench or adjustable wrench or pliers o 3/8" Socket or Nut Driver o 1/4" Socket or Nut Driver o 5/16" Socket or Nut Driver o Flat Standard Screwdriver o 5/32" Punch or comparable
~WARNING ~ To prevent possible SERIOUS INJURY or perhaps DEATH out of electrocution, ALWAYS Disconnect the power cable out of your garage door from the outlet prior to proceeding with any repair or inspection.
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Step #1 Ensure your garage door opener is currently unplugged. This step insures that nobody inadvertently tries to close or open the garage door when you are working in it or you don't inadvertently activate the door while servicing it.
Step #2 Disconnect the doorway from the outside trolley by dragging on the red disconnect rope and manually close the door.
CAUTION The Garage door MUST be in the completely closed position during all repairs and inspection.
Assuring that your garage door will be closed will guarantee that your door will not fall or make any movement that would lead to injury or direct you. We recommend that when the door is closed that you clamp the door down using a vise clamp or grip above one of these rollers to stop the door from being opened from the outside.
Step #3 Slacken the series or straps tension by losing the pressure nut on the garage door opener trolley. Typically that is nut and may be adjusted with a 1/2" wrench.
Step #4 Remove the sprocket or belt pulley retainer cap. Usually this has a clip on the back if you press in it will release.
Step #5 I always recommend marking the position of the chain or belt to the sprocket prior to removing. This can easily be done with white out, tape or any other means. This step helps assure that your chain or belt gets reinstalled in the correct position and makes for quick and easy reference if needed later. Remove the chain or belt from the sprocket and then slide the inner trolley to the closed position until it engages the outer trolley. Place loose chain/belt on the end of the rail closest to the sprocket. I typically duct tape the chain to prevent it from falling to the floor and getting all twisted and dirty.
Step #6 It is now time to remove both end covers and the main housing. The end cover are each attached by three or four 1/4" head screws that may be removed using a 1/4" nut driver or socket. Be sure to unplug the wire to the circuit board.
Step #7 Remove the retaining clip and the drive gear for the limits. Also at this time remove the limit switch assembly by squeezing the sides just below the bracket by the drive gears. There is no need to disconnect the wires as it is OK to leave this limit assembly hang by the wires. Do not make any adjustments to the limit assembly screws, this will insure that there is minimal adjustment needed to the limits after you complete your repair and run your garage door opener.
Step #8 Now its time to remove the RPM sensor this can be easily done by unplugging the wire harness and remove the RPM sensor from the securing tabs.
Step #9 Disconnect the red, blue and white wires from the motor. It is important that you note where these wires go. The same color wires go to the same terminals on the capacitor red/red and blue/blue.
Step #10 Remove the four 5/16" hex head screw that hold the motor into the frame of this garage door opener. Make sure you place your hand below the motor prior to removing the last screw to stop the motor from falling. Slide the motor rolling off the drive shaft and set in a secure place. (Not on top of the ladder for obvious reasons).
Step #11 Remove the three hex head screws holding the sprocket assembly to the major chassis employing a 5/16" nut driver or socket. Now it is time to decide if you want to replace the main gear only or the entire sprocket or all chain drive models 1984 to present.
Step #12 Skip this step if you are replacing the entire gear and sprocket or pulley assembly. If you are going to replace the drive gear support the driveshaft on a block of wood and drive the lower roll pin/Tension pin out with a 5/32" punch. See photo example below.
Step #13 Remove and replace the worm gear. Generally it is not necessary to substitute the worm gear unless it shows signs of wear. Should you would like to replace this equipment eliminate the rotating collar with a 1/8" hex wrench. Please be sure to note the location of each of these components as you disassemble so you can re-install in proper order. When you receive your gear kit, you will find there are parts not used in your model this is because these kits are universal and work with many models of Sears, Craftsman, Wayne Dalton, Master Mechanic, Liftmaster, True Value and other brands of garage doors openers. Only replace the parts that are used on your garage door opener. Remove the 3 nuts that hold the motor to the frame and then remove the worm gear. Install the new worm gear making sure the roll pin is properly seated in the new gear. Re-install other components in reverse order. After you complete this assembly I recommend you lube the worm gear so you do not forget.
Step #14 Begin reassembly in reverse order. Be sure to thoroughly lube the main drive gear and that grease is on each and every tooth. Attach the gear and sprocket or pulley assembly to the main chassis with the three 5/16" screws. Install the assembled motor framework to the chassis with the four 5/16" head screws and reattach the red, blue and white wires; now install the limit assembly and the limit drive gear making sure they mesh properly. You can now install the RPM sensor and reconnect wires. Install the metal cover and end panels, be sure to plug in the circuit board and reconnect photo eye and push button wires.
Step #15 Reconnect the power cord to the opener and cycle the opener until the sprocket completes a complete clockwise cycle. The trolley must be in the fully down position before installing the chain. Now you can remove the tape from the rail and reinstall the chain. The chain and sprocket reference mark should be close to lining up. Tighten the chain so that the chain is 1/2" over the bottom of the rail at midpoint for"T" style rails and 1/4" for square tube rails. Secure the chain tightening lock nut.
WARNING Note when adjusting and testing your garage door motor it is important to make sure no one is in the path of the moving door.
CAUTION It is important to know when testing your garage door opener it is possible to over cycle the motor and have the motor temporarily overheat and stop operating. To prevent this try and not operate the door opener more than 10 cycles without giving it 5-10 minutes to cool off
Step #16 Now run the opener and test to see if the door opens to the correct position and closes to the correct position. If you need to make adjustments use the travel adjustments screws to make fine adjustments. I recommend only making slight adjustments 1/4 turn or less at a time. For reference one full turn of the screw equals approx 2" of travel on 1/2 and 1/4 HP versions and 3" on 3/4 HP models.
Step #17 Once you have your doors travel adjustment correct it is time to adjust the force. This is the pressure that it takes to assure your door opener will operate safely. The first step in this process is to check the down force. With the door open simply activate the garage door opener and when the door reaches the half way point grasp the door from the bottom and try and stop it. If the door is hard to stop or does not stop decrease the down force adjustment in small increments until it reverse upon reasonable force. If the door does not close and the light begins to blink increase the down force adjustment in small increments until you can check the reversal at half way. Adjusting the force does not guarantee that your operator will reverse on 1-1/2" object at the floor. To learn more about adjusting the change at the floor find out the owner's manual or call the manufacturer.
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stargategaragenewyork · 4 years ago
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How to Replace the Main Gear in a Garage Door Opener
It's 6:00 AM and you are leaving for work. You press the garage door opener wall button and hear a subtle hum from your electric motor but the door failed to move. If your garage doors springs are intact chances are you garage door openers main drive gear has failed. You can easily inspect your drive gears by unplugging your garage door opener and removing the metal cover. The main drive gear is made of a white plastic that typically is the weak link in the opener. Many things can cause this gear to fail. Some causes of wear are:
o Garage door out of balance (Springs broke or in need of adjustment)
o Chain to tight a
o Old age
o Excessive use or high cycle
o Factory defect or lack of grease at time of manufacture
Replacing the large white gear is a low cost, quick and easy do it yourself repair as long as you have a few simple hand tools and follow the safety precautions. These gears can be purchased online in a variety of levels of components.
Before you get started it is important for you to have a list of the few simple tools needed to accomplish this project:
o Hammer
o Half inch wrench or adjustable wrench or pliers
o 3/8" Socket or Nut Driver
o 1/4" Socket or Nut Driver
o 5/16" Socket or Nut Driver
o Flat Standard Screwdriver
o 5/32" Punch or similar
~WARNING ~
To prevent possible SERIOUS INJURY or even DEATH from electrocution, ALWAYS Disconnect the power cord from your garage door from the outlet before proceeding with any inspection or repair.
Step #1
Make sure your garage door opener is unplugged. This step insures that no one unintentionally attempts to open or close the garage door while you are working on it or you do not accidentally activate the door while servicing it.
Step #2
Disconnect the door from the outer trolley by manually pulling the red disconnect rope and manually close the garage door.
CAUTION
The Garage door MUST be in the fully closed position during all repairs and inspection.
Assuring that your garage door is closed will reassure that your door will not fall or make any movement that would cause injury or startle you. We recommend that once the door is closed that you clamp the door down using a vise grip or clamp above one of the rollers to prevent the door from being opened from the outside.
Step #3
Slacken the chain or belts tension by losing the tension nut on the garage door opener trolley. Typically this is nut and can be adjusted with a ½" wrench.
Step #4
Remove the sprocket or belt pulley retainer cap. Usually this has a clip on the back if you press in it will release.
Step #5
I always recommend marking the position of the chain or belt to the sprocket prior to removing. This can easily be done with white out, tape or any other means. This step helps assure that your chain or belt gets reinstalled in the correct position and makes for quick and easy reference if needed later. Remove the chain or belt from the sprocket and then slide the inner trolley to the closed position until it engages the outer trolley. Place loose chain/belt on the end of the rail closest to the sprocket. I typically duct tape the chain to prevent it from falling to the floor and getting all twisted and dirty.
Step #6
It is now time to remove both end covers and the main housing. The end cover are each attached by three or four ¼" head screws that can be removed with a ¼" nut driver or socket. Be sure to unplug the wire to the circuit board.
Step #7
Remove the retaining clip and the drive gear for the limits. Also at this time remove the limit switch assembly by squeezing the sides just below the bracket by the drive gears. There is no need to disconnect the wires as it is OK to leave this limit assembly hang by the wires. Do not make any adjustments to the limit assembly screws, this will insure that there is minimal adjustment needed to the limits after you complete your repair and run your garage door opener.
Step #8
Now its time to remove the RPM sensor this can be easily done by unplugging the wire harness and remove the RPM sensor from the securing tabs.
Step #9
Disconnect the red, blue and white wires from the motor. It is important that you note where these wires go. The same color wires go to the same terminals on the capacitor red/red and blue/blue.
Step #10
Remove the four 5/16" hex head screw's that hold the motor assembly to the frame of the garage door opener. Be sure to put your hand under the motor before removing the last screw to prevent the motor from falling. Slide the motor assembly off the drive shaft and place in a safe place. (Not on top of the ladder for obvious reasons).
Step #11
Remove the three hex head screws holding the sprocket assembly to the main chassis using a 5/16" nut driver or socket. Now it is time to decide if you want to replace the main gear only or the entire sprocket or all chain drive models 1984 to present.
Step #12
Skip this step if you are replacing the entire gear and sprocket or pulley assembly. If you are going to replace the drive gear support the driveshaft on a block of wood and drive the lower roll pin/Tension pin out with a 5/32" punch. See photo example below.
Step #13
Remove and replace the worm gear. In most cases it is not necessary to replace the worm gear unless it shows signs of wear. If you wish to replace this gear remove the shaft collar with a 1/8" hex wrench. Please be sure to note the location of each of these components as you disassemble so you can re-install in proper order. When you receive your gear kit, you will find there are parts not used in your model this is because these kits are universal and work with many models of Sears, Craftsman, Wayne Dalton, Master Mechanic, Liftmaster, True Value and other brands of garage doors openers. Only replace the parts that are used on your garage door opener. Remove the 3 nuts that hold the motor to the frame and then remove the worm gear. Install the new worm gear making sure the roll pin is properly seated in the new gear. Re-install other components in reverse order. After you complete this assembly I recommend you lube the worm gear so you do not forget.
Step #14
Begin reassembly in reverse order. Be sure to thoroughly lube the main drive gear and that grease is on each and every tooth. Attach the gear and sprocket or pulley assembly to the main chassis with the three 5/16" head screws. Install the assembled motor frame to the chassis with the four 5/16" head screws and reattach the red, blue and white wires; now install the limit assembly and the limit drive gear making sure they mesh properly. You can now install the RPM sensor and reconnect wires. Install the metal cover and end panels, be sure to plug in the circuit board and reconnect photo eye and push button wires.
Step #15
Reconnect the power cord to the opener and cycle the opener until the sprocket completes a complete clockwise cycle. The trolley must be in the fully down position before installing the chain. Now you can remove the tape from the rail and reinstall the chain. The chain and sprocket reference mark should be close to lining up. Tighten the chain so that the chain is ½" above the base of the rail at midpoint for "T" style rails and ¼" for square tube rails. Secure the chain tightening lock nut.
WARNING
Note when adjusting and testing your garage door motor it is important
to make sure no one is in the path of the moving door.
CAUTION
It is important to know when testing your garage door opener it is possible to over cycle the motor
and have the motor temporarily overheat and stop operating.
To prevent this try and not operate the door opener more than 10 cycles
without giving it 5-10 minutes to cool off
Step #16
Now run the opener and test to see if the door opens to the correct position and closes to the correct position. If you need to make adjustments use the travel adjustments screws to make fine adjustments. I recommend only making slight adjustments ¼ turn or less at a time. For reference one full turn of the screw equals approx 2" of travel on ½ and ¼ HP models and 3" on ¾ HP models.
Step #17
Once you have your doors travel adjustment correct it is time to adjust the force. This is the pressure that it takes to assure your door opener will operate safely. The first step in this process is to check the down force. With the door open simply activate the garage door opener and when the door reaches the half way point grasp the door from the bottom and try and stop it. If the door is hard to stop or does not stop decrease the down force adjustment in small increments until it reverse upon reasonable force. If the door does not close and the light begins to blink increase the down force adjustment in small increments until you can check the reversal at half way. Adjusting the force does not guarantee that your operator will reverse on 1-1/2" object at the floor. For more information on adjusting the reversal at the floor see your owner's manual or call the manufacturer.
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Garage Door repair manalapan
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tech-battery · 4 years ago
Text
Battle of the $350 laptops: Acer Swift 1 vs. Gateway Ryzen 3 3200U
We've been on the lookout for good but seriously cheap laptops for a while now. Acer's $650 Swift 3 is an excellent choice for budget laptops in the under-$700 range, but we've been really itching to find one in the almost nonexistent sub-$400 category. To that end, today we're looking at two of Walmart's finest—a $378 Acer Swift 1 and a $350 Gateway GWTN141-2. Both of these are serviceable if cheap laptops, but the Gateway, despite being the less expensive model, will be the clear winner for most people. It's more powerful, more repairable, more upgrade-able, and in our testing, a bit more reliable as well.
Acer Swift 1 SF114-32
Thankfully, the off-putting dingy yellow POST logo isn't in your face for long—the Swift 1 cold boots to the desktop in about 11 seconds.
We found the keyboard pretty unremarkable. It makes maximal use of the Swift 1's chassis, so it doesn't feel too cramped—but we already know some of you will hate the compressed arrow key layout.
DC barrel jack, full-size HDMI out, USB-C, 2x USB 3.0 type-A.
SD card slot, 3.5mm audio combo jack, USB 2.0 type-A, power and HDD LEDs, Kensington lock slot.
If you want to get into the Swift 1, you'll need a set of Torx bits. But there's no reason to bother, unless you're replacing the battery—or, we guess, the Wi-Fi—since everything else is soldered to the board.
Once you (very carefully, due to the thin aluminum side panels) lift off the back panel, there's not much to look at—no active cooling, and no sockets either, except for the Wi-Fi and one unpopulated, SATA-only M.2.
We didn't actually intend to test or review the Swift 1—we ordered a Walmart Motile 14, with a Ryzen 5 processor for only $350. But Walmart has an unfortunate tendency to just throw in any similar product when it runs low on stock, and the Swift 1 is what got sent in its place—with no notification, either by email or in our account at Walmart.com, and no paperwork in the box either.
There's only a 30-day return/exchange window on laptops at Walmart, but Things Came Up, and we didn't open the box until after that window had shut. Discovering that our Ryzen 5 laptop had magically turned into a Pentium Silver (roughly Celeron-class) laptop and there wasn't anything we could do about, it did not spark joy... but it is still an under-$400 laptop, and we're here to test and review cheap laptops, right?
Physically, the Swift 1 strongly resembles a lower-end Chromebook. It's not particularly lightweight, but it's quite slender, and its silver-skinned good looks are unassuming. On the plus side, it has a metallic chassis, not plastic; on the minus side, that chassis is extremely thin and very easily bent up. When we disassembled the Swift 1, despite being extremely careful and using a soft plastic spudger, we still bent the right side a little bit while getting the back panel off.
The best feature of the Swift 1 is its fast boot times—you can expect a cold boot to get to the Windows 10 desktop in around 11 seconds, including POST. Unfortunately, the high performance ends there—the Swift 1's Pentium Silver CPU, 4GiB RAM, and 64GB eMMC storage combine for a pretty lackluster experience.
Everything on the Swift 1—with the exception of the battery, the Wi-Fi chipset, and one unpopulated, SATA-only M.2 slot—is soldered on, unrepairable, and un-upgradeable. What you buy is what you get, and it works until it breaks.
Gateway GWTN141-2
We've got to give EVOO credit for one thing—they nailed the Gateway branding with that wallpaper.
We have a feeling some of you will be excited about that uncompressed arrow key layout.
The fingerprint reader on the Gateway is built into the touchpad—this was a new one on us. Note the dark square in the upper left.
Kensington lock slot, DC barrel jack, USB 3.0 Type-A, full-size HDMI out, USB Type-C.
SD card slot, 3.5mm audio combo jack, USB 3.0 Type-A.
Behold, a mystery panel! It looks pointless at first glance, but there's actually an M.2 slot under there at the top. I think I'd rather pull the whole back off than try to mess around in that tiny panel though.
The Gateway is very easy to disassemble; just Philips screws and pop things loose. The plastic chassis felt sturdy enough to survive quite a few disassemblings.
Looking a little closer, we see an active cooling system, an empty DDR4 DIMM slot, an occupied M.2 NVMe slot, an empty M.2 SATA slot, and an unfortunately soldered Realtek Wi-Fi chipset.
On the left, we see the currently empty M.2 slot, which is silkscreened as SATA only. By contrast, the occupied M.2 (with the C: drive in it) is silkscreened PCIE/SATA.
We went into testing the GWTN141-2 with a mixture of excitement and trepidation���on paper, a Ryzen 3200U system for $350 is a great deal. But in practice, we'd discovered that the new Gateway line is—like the horrid $140 EVOO EV-C-116-5—manufactured by Shenzhen Bmorn Technology and imported by EVOO. We're happy to say that the GWTN141-2 is not a repeat of the EV-C-116-5's story. The Gateway's Ryzen 3 3200U CPU was not limited by substandard thermals or factory underclocking, and it performs as you'd expect from looking at public leaderboards. The Gateway offers an even faster cold boot than the Swift—we timed it at eight seconds from power button to Windows desktop.
Continuing the Gateway's tale of "Hey! Not bad," the 128GB SSD might be an odd Chinese brand you've never heard of, but it's a real M.2 NVMe SSD which can be replaced or upgraded. Although the 4GiB RAM the system comes with is soldered to the board, there's an empty DIMM slot available. There's even an empty M.2 SATA-only slot, with an easy-access panel for that slot on the back.
The only real flies in the GWTN141-2's ointment are its cheap plastic chassis and its equally cheap Realtek 8821CE Wi-Fi.
The plastic used for the chassis is noticeably softer than you might expect for a laptop; it feels more like a kid's toy than a real computer, and it even felt slightly tacky to the touch on first unboxing. (Your mileage may vary, here—it bothered me, but the Spousal Opinion was "Whatever, it's fine.") On the plus side, the plastic chassis felt sturdy enough to survive plenty of disassembly and reassembly, unlike the Swift 1's razor-thin aluminum side panels.
The Realtek Wi-Fi is serviceable if slow under Windows, but it will cause severe headaches for anyone wanting to install Linux—and unlike most of the GWTN141-2's gear, it's soldered to the board and not replaceable.
Performance
Passmark CPU testing demonstrates just how much air there is between these four laptop models—the $650 Swift 3, the $350 Gateway and Swift 1, and the $140 EVOO.
We're not really used to seeing big differences between single-threaded Passmark scores. The near-doubling of Swift 1's score by the Gateway is worth sitting up and noticing.
Cinebench R20 tells roughly the same story Passmark did—namely, the Gateway's Ryzen 3 3200U is far more CPU than the Swift 1's Pentium Silver N5000.
Once again, we see big air between these laptop models, even on single-threaded tests. Notice the EVOO has dropped out of the race entirely at this point.
Geekbench 5, as usual, flattens the differences between CPUs noticeably more than either Passmark or Cinebench. We believe Passmark and Cinebench serve as far references for the difference between Gateway's Ryzen 3200U and Swift 1's Pentium Silver.
Geekbench 5 continues the trend of showing big air on single-threaded benchmarks between these laptops.
Gateway's "Netac" 128GB SSD isn't very impressive by NVMe standards, but it crushes Acer's soldered-on 64GB eMMC without breaking a sweat.
The stars of our show today are, of course, Acer's $378 Swift 1 SF114-32 and Gateway's $350 GWTN141-2. But for reference, we're throwing in a couple of spoilers—Acer's $650 Swift 3 SF314-42, and EVOO's unspeakable $140 EV-C-116-5 doorstop.
We think it's important to relate the Swift 1 and the Gateway not only to one another, but also to a "real laptop." We also think it's instructive to compare the Swift 1, in particular, to the EVOO—because the gap between the two underscores the fact that the Swift 1, though no match in performance for the Gateway, is—for the most part—a usable laptop.
With that said, we find it difficult to recommend the Swift 1 over the Gateway. Although the Gateway's older Ryzen 3 CPU is no match for this year's Renoirs, it's still no slouch—and it absolutely dominates the Swift 1's Pentium Silver N5000. Gaming workloads will bring the 3200U to its knees, but there was never a time we felt like rolling our eyes and saying "ugh" at the Gateway during normal desktop or Web-based use.
The Swift 1's Pentium Silver N5000 is an entirely different beast, designed for maximum electrical and thermal efficiency with everything else left to go hang. It's roughly half the speed of the 3200U in most tests—but it gets by with entirely passive cooling, and the battery life is frankly pretty crazy. In most use, the Swift 1 struck us as reasonably responsive—but unfortunately, it's not hard to find Web-based workloads in which it struggles.
Specifically, the Swift 1 choked badly on Facebook's new layout. Attempting to type a short paragraph about electrical connections resulted in text buffering—leaving us to watch as it "typed" itself out, character by laborious character, for another couple of minutes. To be fair, this is more about Facebook sucking than about the Swift 1—but also to be fair, a lot of people will expect to use Facebook on their new laptop.
We have to stress that the Gateway is absolutely no gaming laptop—it turns in a Time Spy score only a third of the Swift 3's, and the Swift 3 itself is only a budget laptop. But the Swift 1 can't even run the test.
The less-demanding Night Raid tells roughly the same story—the Gateway gets a third the Swift 3's score, while the Swift 1 fails to complete the test.
The differences between the Swift 1 and the Gateway are even more apparent in gaming tests, where the Gateway's scores aren't great, but the Swift 1's score is "I can't do this."
3DMark warned us "this system does not have enough VRAM and may not complete the test" on both systems, but the Gateway completed the tests fine (2 fps on Time Spy is "fine," right?), while the Swift 1 crashed out entirely within seconds of beginning either test.
If you want to run a game from 2010, you might do OK on the Gateway. On the Swift 1, we sincerely hope the only kind of gaming you want to do is interactive fiction.
Battery Life
Both laptops have good battery life, not-so-good stability. Using Event Viewer to find crash times got to be a regular thing.
Neither laptop successfully completed the PCMark 10 Modern Applications battery life test. What you're seeing from them isn't "time before shutdown" it's "time before crash."
Since both laptops crashed under PCMark 10's Modern Apps testing, we tried our go-to YouTube clip at 1080p in fullscreen. The Gateway delivered ten hours of playback—longer than the actual video clip!—but the Acer still crashed.
Trying to test our two ultrabudget laptops for battery life was a frustrating exercise, to say the least. The short version is they both offer excellent battery life—which you may not get all the way through before needing to reboot due to a crash.
Neither laptop lasted all the way through PCMark 10's Modern Office battery-life test. Both crashed well before the battery itself was exhausted. The Swift 1 did at least survive for slightly longer than the Swift 3's (successful) test run; but the Gateway couldn't make it much past four hours before suffering an application crash.
With no good data from the Modern Applications battery test, we tried falling back on something simpler—loading up the BBC's 10 Hours of Relaxing Oceanscapes on YouTube and playing it in full-screen at 1080p until the battery died.
The Acer Swift 1 failed this test as well. After crashing at 4 hours 20 minutes, it tumbled into a strange, half-brightness version of its POST screen. The Gateway, on the other hand, managed to play the clip for a solid six hours and forty-one minutes before shutting down at 5 percent battery.
Scoring this one decisively is a challenge. A sticker next to the touchpad on the Swift 1 boldly claims "up to 17 hours battery life"—we certainly weren't able to verify that figure, but to be fair, we can't really falsify it either. We found the Gateway's more-than-6.5-hour YouTube playtime stellar—but given that it, too, failed to complete PCMark 10 Modern Apps testing, we can't get too excited about it.
Neither laptop is likely to disappoint on the very specific grounds of battery life—but you should definitely save your work before going to bed.
Can it Linux?
The Swift 1 "just works" on Ubuntu 20.04—the only unclaimed device is the fingerprint reader.
The Gateway's Realtek Wi-Fi is a no-go on Ubuntu 20.04. It's possible to download and locally compile a driver from various sources on Github—but it'll break and need fiddling after kernel upgrades.
The Acer Swift 1 worked fine out of the box with Ubuntu 20.04. It lacked for nothing but a driver for the fingerprint reader, which most Linux users don't expect anyway.
The Gateway, unfortunately, should be considered a no-go for most Linux users—its Realtek 8821CE Wi-Fi does not have in-kernel support, and getting it working is a painful slog of finding a driver on someone's Github, downloading and building it locally, and waiting for it to break on the next kernel upgrade.
Extremely ambitious Linux users might be able to turn the Gateway into a good Linux system by putting a $20 Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 card—connected with an M key-to-A+E key converter—in the Gateway's empty M.2 slot. We can't guarantee that'll work, but if you try it, let us know how that goes!
Due to limited time, we did not battery test either system under Ubuntu.
Refurbished, or new?
Enlarge / The Ryzen 3 3200U in the Gateway is a better all-around CPU than anything we could find used for a similar price.
One of the more common refrains in the Ars comments when we test inexpensive laptops is "I can do better buying used!" In this under-$400 class, we don't believe that's actually the case. We went looking on Amazon and eBay for refurbished laptops under $400 and found five of the most common CPU models for those laptops. Then we used public Passmark leaderboards to compare those CPUs to what's in the Gateway and the Acer we reviewed today.
The first thing we'd like to point out is that, unless you've got a cousin looking to unload something fast, you aren't going to get a great refurbished laptop for $400 or less. We didn't find anything newer than Intel fifth-generation Core CPUs in this price bracket. That means a 6-year-old system. Worse, quite a lot of the systems in this bracket had second-generation i5 CPUs, marking them as a whopping 9 years old.
The best-performing CPU in our scavenged finds is an Intel Core i5-4300M. This 7-year-old M-series manages to outperform our sole fifth-generation part due to its whopping 37W TDP—it's configured for power, not efficiency, which in turn means poor battery life, especially if your refurb is still limping along on the OEM battery.
The Core i5-4300M handily outperforms the Swift 1's Pentium Silver N5000, but the Gateway's Ryzen 3 3200U beats it by 25 percent on multithreaded tests and about 15 percent on the single-threaded tests. Add in a new NVMe SSD versus whatever SATA garbage the refurbisher threw in for cheap, DDR4 RAM instead of DDR3, Vega 3 graphics versus HD Graphics 4600, and a one-year warranty versus typically 30 days, and the Gateway is obviously a far better deal.
Do you think we got this wrong? Hit us up in the comments—but please, keep it realistic. A single oddball sale you found in your local Facebook marketplace doesn't count; we're looking for readily available, refurbished laptops from dealers who can be found on Amazon, Newegg, or eBay.
Conclusions
We can't recommend Acer's Swift 1 SF114-32 for most users. Although it's handsome on the outside and boots quickly, it just doesn't offer enough muscle for some common workloads—such as Facebook's new and rather blecherous Web interface, which drowns the N5000 in more Javascript than it's ready to handle.
The Gateway GWTN141-2, on the other hand, is absolutely a credible laptop. It's certainly not a great laptop—we don't love the fact that it, like the Acer Swift, crashed out of the PCMark 10 battery test—but it's got enough muscle to make it through light workloads without complaint. It's even willing to take a stab at some older games if you want it to.
We tested the webcam on both laptops in three conditions: dim office lighting, harsh forelight with a studio flood, and harsh backlight with a studio flood. It would be difficult to tell one laptop from the other on the basis of webcam images; in both cases, all three (difficult) lighting conditions produced grainy, but acceptable images with clear facial features. You wouldn't mistake these for a mid-grade or better Logitech standalone, but you also wouldn't mistake them for the no-name garbage we had to settle for earlier this year to get kids online for school.
The speakers were similarly "it works, meh" on both systems—usable, but tinny. We definitely would not advise anyone to set any store in "tuned for THX" (as the Gateway proudly declares itself) anymore.
You should know what you're giving up by dropping down to this under-$400, ultrabudget laptop class—if you've got the extra $300 to spend, you get an enormous amount of additional performance, stability, and general quality out of an upgrade to Acer's Ryzen 7 4700U-powered Swift 3. But if you just don't have the extra money—or just don't want to spend it—the Gateway GWTN141-2 gets most jobs done just fine.
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doceasley3gun · 5 years ago
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Craig at Area419 told me something like “I’m pretty sure you’re not dumb enough to screw up a trigger install in your bolt gun” I was pleasantly surprised to find that he was RIGHT! New Triggertech Diamond installed in the bolt gun, and feels great. Also installed new Triggertech Diamond in my 20” LMT AR. 7-10 minutes install in the AR. It only took me about 2 hours to install in the bolt gun: -10 minutes figuring out how to remove the bolt -5 minutes backing screws out on the chassis -90 minutes searching for the gas tube, charging handle, buffer system, and adjustable gas block -15 minutes installing the trigger, reassembling, and putting the bolt back in There aren’t nearly as many moving parts on this thing. Who woulda guessed? 😉 https://www.instagram.com/p/B8flJPfJg_J/?igshid=301g9wrhq0v8
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How to Replace the Main Gear in a Garage Door Opener In San Lorenzo CA
It's 6:00 AM and you are leaving for work. You press the garage door opener wall button and hear a subtle hum from your electric motor but the door failed to move. If your garage doors springs are intact chances are you garage door openers main drive gear has failed. You can easily inspect your drive gears by unplugging your garage door opener and removing the metal cover. The main drive gear is made of a white plastic that typically is the weak link in the opener. Many things can cause this gear to fail. Some causes of wear are:
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o Garage door out of balance (Springs broke or in need of adjustment) o Chain to tight a o Old age o Excessive use or high cycle o Factory defect or lack of grease at time of manufacture
Replacing the large white gear is a low cost, quick and easy do it yourself repair as long as you have a few simple hand tools and follow the safety precautions. These gears can be purchased online in a variety of levels of components.
Before you get started it is important for you to have a list of the few simple tools needed to accomplish this project: o Hammer o Half inch wrench or adjustable wrench or pliers o 3/8" Socket or Nut Driver o 1/4" Socket or Nut Driver o 5/16" Socket or Nut Driver o Flat Standard Screwdriver o 5/32" Punch or similar
~WARNING ~ To prevent possible SERIOUS INJURY or even DEATH from electrocution, ALWAYS Disconnect the power cord from your garage door from the outlet before proceeding with any inspection or garage door repair.
Step #1 Make sure your garage door opener is unplugged. This step insures that no one unintentionally attempts to open or close the garage door while you are working on it or you do not accidentally activate the door while servicing it.
Step #2 Disconnect the door from the outer trolley by manually pulling the red disconnect rope and manually close the garage door.
CAUTION The Garage door MUST be in the fully closed position during all repairs and inspection.
Assuring that your garage door is closed will reassure that your door will not fall or make any movement that would cause injury or startle you. We recommend that once the door is closed that you clamp the door down using a vise grip or clamp above one of the rollers to prevent the door from being opened from the outside.
Step #3 Slacken the chain or belts tension by losing the tension nut on the garage door opener trolley. Typically this is nut and can be adjusted with a ½" wrench.
Step #4 Remove the sprocket or belt pulley retainer cap. Usually this has a clip on the back if you press in it will release.
Step #5 I always recommend marking the position of the chain or belt to the sprocket prior to removing. This can easily be done with white out, tape or any other means. This step helps assure that your chain or belt gets reinstalled in the correct position and makes for quick and easy reference if needed later. Remove the chain or belt from the sprocket and then slide the inner trolley to the closed position until it engages the outer trolley. Place loose chain/belt on the end of the rail closest to the sprocket. I typically duct tape the chain to prevent it from falling to the floor and getting all twisted and dirty.
Step #6 It is now time to remove both end covers and the main housing. The end cover are each attached by three or four ¼" head screws that can be removed with a ¼" nut driver or socket. Be sure to unplug the wire to the circuit board.
Step #7 Remove the retaining clip and the drive gear for the limits. Also at this time remove the limit switch assembly by squeezing the sides just below the bracket by the drive gears. There is no need to disconnect the wires as it is OK to leave this limit assembly hang by the wires. Do not make any adjustments to the limit assembly screws, this will insure that there is minimal adjustment needed to the limits after you complete your repair and run your garage door opener.
Step #8 Now its time to remove the RPM sensor this can be easily done by unplugging the wire harness and remove the RPM sensor from the securing tabs.
Step #9 Disconnect the red, blue and white wires from the motor. It is important that you note where these wires go. The same color wires go to the same terminals on the capacitor red/red and blue/blue.
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Step #10 Remove the four 5/16" hex head screw's that hold the motor assembly to the frame of the garage door opener. Be sure to put your hand under the motor before removing the last screw to prevent the motor from falling. Slide the motor assembly off the drive shaft and place in a safe place. (Not on top of the ladder for obvious reasons).
Step #11 Remove the three hex head screws holding the sprocket assembly to the main chassis using a 5/16" nut driver or socket. Now it is time to decide if you want to replace the main gear only or the entire sprocket or all chain drive models 1984 to present.
Step #12 Skip this step if you are replacing the entire gear and sprocket or pulley assembly. If you are going to replace the drive gear support the driveshaft on a block of wood and drive the lower roll pin/Tension pin out with a 5/32" punch. See photo example below.
Step #13 Remove and replace the worm gear. In most cases it is not necessary to replace the worm gear unless it shows signs of wear. If you wish to replace this gear remove the shaft collar with a 1/8" hex wrench. Please be sure to note the location of each of these components as you disassemble so you can re-install in proper order. When you receive your gear kit, you will find there are parts not used in your model this is because these kits are universal and work with many models of Sears, Craftsman, Wayne Dalton, Master Mechanic, Liftmaster, True Value and other brands of garage doors openers. Only replace the parts that are used on your garage door opener. Remove the 3 nuts that hold the motor to the frame and then remove the worm gear. Install the new worm gear making sure the roll pin is properly seated in the new gear. Re-install other components in reverse order. After you complete this assembly I recommend you lube the worm gear so you do not forget.
Step #14 Begin reassembly in reverse order. Be sure to thoroughly lube the main drive gear and that grease is on each and every tooth. Attach the gear and sprocket or pulley assembly to the main chassis with the three 5/16" head screws. Install the assembled motor frame to the chassis with the four 5/16" head screws and reattach the red, blue and white wires; now install the limit assembly and the limit drive gear making sure they mesh properly. You can now install the RPM sensor and reconnect wires. Install the metal cover and end panels, be sure to plug in the circuit board and reconnect photo eye and push button wires.
Step #15 Reconnect the power cord to the opener and cycle the opener until the sprocket completes a complete clockwise cycle. The trolley must be in the fully down position before installing the chain. Now you can remove the tape from the rail and reinstall the chain. The chain and sprocket reference mark should be close to lining up. Tighten the chain so that the chain is ½" above the base of the rail at midpoint for "T" style rails and ¼" for square tube rails. Secure the chain tightening lock nut.
WARNING Note when adjusting and testing your garage door motor it is important to make sure no one is in the path of the moving door.
CAUTION It is important to know when testing your garage door opener it is possible to over cycle the motor and have the motor temporarily overheat and stop operating. To prevent this try and not operate the door opener more than 10 cycles without giving it 5-10 minutes to cool off
Step #16 Now run the opener and test to see if the door opens to the correct position and closes to the correct position. If you need to make adjustments use the travel adjustments screws to make fine adjustments. I recommend only making slight adjustments ¼ turn or less at a time. For reference one full turn of the screw equals approx 2" of travel on ½ and ¼ HP models and 3" on ¾ HP models.
Step #17 Once you have your doors travel adjustment correct it is time to adjust the force. This is the pressure that it takes to assure your door opener will operate safely. The first step in this process is to check the down force. With the door open simply activate the garage door opener and when the door reaches the half way point grasp the door from the bottom and try and stop it. If the door is hard to stop or does not stop decrease the down force adjustment in small increments until it reverse upon reasonable force. If the door does not close and the light begins to blink increase the down force adjustment in small increments until you can check the reversal at half way. Adjusting the force does not guarantee that your operator will reverse on 1-1/2" object at the floor. For more information on adjusting the reversal at the floor see your owner's manual or call the manufacturer.
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deekssteve911 · 5 years ago
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Classic Performance Engineering - shifting up a gear ...
It’s been a while since the last blog; that’s for sure. So much has happened, where to start? Well, let’s deal with the facts: we’ve lost 2019 from a racing perspective. And this is how it happened ...
Cue early 2019 - Haz, Mandela and I set sail for Belgium to collect and shakedown the ‘SC’. The Viking invested hundreds and hundreds of hours throughout 2018 building her, and I sunk in, (further), tens of thousands of ££, between us we imagined, (prayed), we would have a weapon with which to attack the front end of the ‘70′s Roadsports grid. Despite our best efforts, we were wrong.
Zolder’s historic Grand Prix circuit in Belgium was the venue for the 'SC’ to break cover - with an ambitious plan to test at Donington Park on RMA’s test day the day after. That would be quite a schedule, even for a professional ‘works’ team. For us it was a continent too far.
We were on the back foot from the moment we arrived, due to my kamikaze planning when it came to ferry schedules; it was a sleepy ‘Drakar Kapp’ squad who loaded the car on the morning of the Zolder test, and the late start inspired us to shoot for just the, (very expensive), PM test session.
The car ran, but, understandably, this was it’s first time bursting into life since the rebuild - there were issues. Brakes, gears, misfire - to summarise. The track is very fast, and ‘old school’ impressive - not that I really learnt it, I had my hands full of shaking down the 9-1-1. And I didn't do an especially great job.
From a driving perspective, I could’ve displayed more intelligence - the Viking instructed me, (strictly), to ‘take it steady’ - and for reason’s better known to anyone but me, I didn't. On the very first lap out I couldn't get the car slowed down enough - or get the correct gear hooked up for the chicane, and, unbelievably, I was rotating. Genius. And I did it several more times during the ten laps or so we ran. I probably don't have the intelligence to be a racing driver. As I was slewing backwards, I certainly began to ponder that possibility...
It was damn tricky - the brake pedal was rock hard, but with zero feel until the brakes locked, (the recommended master cylinder - calliper ratio was suspect), plus gears refused to select cleanly, the ‘loaded’ gate would attempt to engage 2nd from 5th, instead of 4th, and the car gradually spluttered to a stop, (unbeknown to us, the brand new fuel pump was failing). All normal-ish things that happen when you’ve just fully rebuilt a car from scratch. But when she did run ... the ‘SC’ felt pretty racey - very impressive.
Dwell on the positives - the fact the ‘SC’ ran AT ALL - and the balance from the chassis with the ‘KW’ suspension, it felt ‘tight’, and well sorted - straight out of the box. Experience - and subsequent brainstorming - now suggested we needed a dyno-run before the first track outing - expecting the 911 to run cleanly with zero issues was, singularly, unrealistic. Lesson learnt.
In the end, the fuel pump finished us completely for the day - the Viking valiantly went on a mission to find one and fit it, to keep us on course for the Donington test the day after. About 3.30-4 this was replaced, and the team loaded and made fast tracks for the 10PM Calais ferry. Which we subsequently missed ...
Night drive from the port was hard going, and a, by now, grizzled - and sleep-deprived - team assembled in the AM for the ‘sprint’ up to Donington Park. Once again, we managed ten or so laps before the misfire ended play, tho’ the impact of the brake and gear issues meant I SHOULD really have parked the car after Zolder. It’s never a good move to let your hunger to drive overrule the engineering realities. Nevertheless the couple of occasions when I did manage to select 4th for the Old Hairpin showed a glimpse of what this race car can be in the future - damn fast.
It’s taken me a while to take this reality check - I’m not planning on even entering another race until this car is fully sorted and lapping competitively, it’s the way I would’ve done it during my ‘modern’ career, and its the way I’m going to do it going forward in my ‘classic’ ‘career’, (sic). I owe this to the Viking, my team and myself. 
Exhausted, to a man, we trailered the car to its new home at ‘Classic Performance Engineering’ where it - and I - have lived ever since.
But that is only part of the 2019 story. We don't give up that easy ...
To address the gearbox issues, we elected to source a ‘new’ SC gearbox - not, these days, an easy thing to do. Firstly there aren't any, and secondly the few that are out there, now cost a fortune. Thousands. For a crappy converted VW beetle box. That is ‘classic’ racing for you. We honed in on one in Belgium, I paid, and Stef., pulled out all the stops, fettled it, and brought it to England the day before a planned Silverstone test day. And this is where our season kind of unravelled for the second time. In splitting the engine and box, we drained the oil into a pan at ‘CPE’, and our collective blood ran cold. Pearlescent oil. Not good - disastrous, in-fact. We had reassembled and run the fresh engine for 20 laps with the same oil coolers and lines that had been fitted when the motor had suffered that catastrophic blow up in 2017. It simply hadn't occurred to us in the maelstrom of trying to get the car finished - that is the truth of our current situation. We took the crime scene evidence into CPE’s engine shop for the CPE ‘engine-meister’ ‘Mick’ to practice CPR on the oil filter. It was filled with shrapnel. Game’s up boys - she has to come apart again.
No Silverstone test, no money left to rebuild, no immediate prospects of anything. The drive back to Heathrow to drop the Viking off was long and hard, to find a future - or humour - in all of this was difficult, to say the least. But we will.
Classic Performance Engineering had been brilliant up to this point with their unstinting support, but here we moved the relationship up a gear. I stepped in to host the ‘Sunday Scrambles’, and CPE transported the motor back to Stef. in Belgium.
Which is where it has been ever since, the long-suffering Viking has steadily been going through the rebuild process - again - and I have been earning the ££ to pay for the parts. And now the engine is ready to be collected and returned to the race team shop, CPE are going to step in and fit it, and our team plan is to get out testing before the 2019 season comes to a close. In preparation for the season of our racing lives, 2020.
From a ‘working’ point of view, after a slow start, it has actually turned into an epic year for me - take the racing tour out of the equation and I have no complaints. I’ve been training the Nissan Nismo Performance dealers in the art of the 2019 GT-R, delivering ‘Present to Win’ for the Henry Ford Academy, then  Master Trainer for the new Nissan Juke launch, presenting the Goodwood Member’s Meeting for Woodham Mortimer, the Silverstone F1 Grand Prix for Corinthian Sports and the Silverstone Classic for Goose. Brilliant shows and projects. But I want to race, that is why I work. To race.
Back to the HSCC schedule - we do have, of course, the ‘longblock’ engine, Well ... ‘did’ ... in the true spirit of this programme so far, the guy who sold it to me turned out to be just another conman - we sent the engine to my friend Phil Hindley’s crack ‘Tech9′ team to be stripped - and it is shite, scrap. It would never have run. Bastard. Karma will catch up with you.
It is interesting to me - I managed seventeen years of ‘modern’ racing pretty much without once been taken for a ride - in classic racing so far, I’ve experienced little else. Well, that is until I met Stef. the Viking, and Classic Performance Engineering, my luck’s just changed - and massively for the better.
CPE are the team I would’ve like to have assembled myself; fantastic guys, professional, knowledgable - and very helpful. They are the next part of this story - without the Viking, we wouldn't have got this far. Stef. and I have to work with people of this quality - and that is exactly what we are going to do moving forward.
In-fact, it is THE ONLY way forward - after five/six years of attempting to get the project finished, and ‘race-ready’, it’s now time to move things up a gear.
Lots of decisions to take, lot’s of money to find for 2020 - but it’s crystal clear to me now. It has to happen in 2020. That is MY key decision. I have to firmly ‘time limit’ this programme, for all kinds of reasons - principally I will never again be as fit and hungry again as I am today. That’s just physiology. 
Plus, none of us know how long we have left on the planet.
That is purely reality - and I know it.
2020 - you are my year.
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moddersinc · 6 years ago
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Fractal Design Meshify S2 Black Tempered Glass Edition
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Fractal is launching the new version of the Meshify case line which is all about airflow, the Fractal Design Meshify S2. Fractal tends to build a more subdued case. Lacking from Fractal's line up are RGB LED-laden chassis. Don't get me wrong, there's a time and a place for RGB LEDs. Fractal has taken lessons learned from their other lines and has incorporated those features in the Meshify S2. With airflow over aesthetics being the priority for the series, it is easy to see why it is quite popular with enthusiasts and overclockers alike. The Meshify takes what was good about the original design and attempts to improve on it.   Technical Specifications Meshify S2 Black Tempered Glass Edition Model Name FD-CA-MESH-S2-BKO-TGL Front Panel Color Black Dimensions (mm) L538 x W233 x H455mm Material Steel, Metal Mesh, ABS, Tempered Glass M/B Type EATX (up to 285mm wide), ATX, mATX, ITX Front Ports 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C 2 x USB 3.0 Audio I/O Drive Bays 5.25″ 0 3.5″ 2 (Convertible to 2.5″ bay) 2.5″ 5 (2 x Converted from 3.5” bays) Expansion Slots 7 + 2 vertical Fan Slots Front 3 x 120/140mm (2 x Dynamic X2 GP-14 included) Rear 1 x 120/140mm (1 x Dynamic X2 GP-14 included) Top 3 x 120/140mm Bottom 2 x 120/140mm Radiator Support Front 120/240/360mm Rear 120mm Top 120/240/360mm 140/280/420mm (max 35 mm MB component height) Bottom 120/240mm 140/280mm PSU max length 300mm Maximum Compatibility VGA Card Length: Max 440mm with front fans mounted CPU Cooler Height (From M/B to side panel): 185mm Cable routing space 23mm   Packaging The Meshify S2 ships in a thick cardboard box. On the front of the box is a line art depiction of the case as well as the color indicator. Black and White are available at launch. On the rear, an exploded view is available. The sides of the box list the additional features. Internally, the Meshify S2 is protected from damage during shipping as it is capped with large pieces of Styrofoam. A thin plastic bag covers the case underneath the Styrofoam to protect the case's finish from scuffs and scrapes.
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The installation kit is tucked away in one of the 3.5" drive bays on the back of the case. Fractal includes enough screws, zip ties, hard drive dampeners, and other accessories to get your system installed in the case. A user guide and warranty instructions are also included. A Closer Look At The Meshify S2 The most prominent feature on the "business" side of the case is the tempered glass panel. The sample that I received has a light tint to it making the interior of the case clearly visible. From the factory, the glass, as well as a handful of other parts, are covered with a light plastic film that gives a satisfying feeling when removed.
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The front of the case features the Meshify's signature angular mesh panel. The panel can be removed to clean the foam behind it. To remove the mesh panel, you'll need to reach under the lip of the front bezel and press upwards on the catch that releases the mesh panel. There is a layer of foam behind the mesh with acts to absorb sound as well as trap dust, although I'm not sure trapping dust was intended. Either way, it is easy to take off, clean, and reassemble. The front of the case can support a 360mm radiator with a maximum width of 147mm. Moving up to the top of the Meshify, you'll find the front panel I/O as well as the power and reset buttons. The front I/O include two USB 3.1 Gen-2 ports, a single USB type C, and 3.5mm audio jacks for headphones and microphone.
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The top of the Meshify is, well, mesh. This mesh panel pops up by using a button on the rear of the case to release the plastic catches. The panel can be removed to get easy access to the cooling bracket underneath. The cooling bracket is removable as well. This allows you to install radiators or fans outside of the case and grants easy access to the top of the motherboard. Once the components are in place on the bracket, simply secure it back in place. The top cooling bracket also features a dedicated fill port allowing you to fill your loop without opening the side panels of the case.
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On the rear of the case, the power supply is mounted at the bottom of the case. An adapter is included to aid in the installation. 7 horizontal expansion slots, as well as two verticle slots, are available for use. A single 120mm fan is also present on the rear of the case.
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Taking a look at the bottom of the case, a removable full-length dust filter held in place by four brackets between the case feet. The chrome plastic case feet have thin rubber pads to keep the Meshify S2 from sliding around the desk. Internally, the Meshify S2 is wide open. Front to back, the case measures 465mm without the front fans installed and 440mm with. The motherboard tray features a large cutout that gives access to the back of the CPU socket when installing a backplate for CPU coolers. The front section of the case features verticle slots, these are the reservoir mounts. Fractal as also included reservoir brackets to aid in mounting.  Rubber grommets are in place at each opening where wires would pass from the component area of the case to the backside of the motherboard tray. Fractal includes three of their Dynamic X2 GP-14 140mm fans. These fans push air at 68.4 CFM at a sound level of 18.9 dBA.
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  A full-length power supply shroud runs from the font to the back of the case. Not only does this allow you to hide wires and preserve a clean looking case, but the shroud also provides alternate mounting locations for 2.5" drives as well as serves as the mounting location for the vertical GPU mount. For those that prefer large reservoirs, the front panel of the shroud can be removed.   Looking at the top of the case, you can see the removable cooling bracket. This bracket supports a 420mm radiator with a maximum thickness of 35mm
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A Closer Look Continued The backside of the motherboard tray features two 2.5" mounting locations and three 3.5" drive cages. Access to the power supply connectors is provided by a cutout that runs roughly 1/2 the length of the case.
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The two 2.5" drive mounts can be removed from the back of the motherboard tray and mounted to the top of the power supply shroud.  The three 3.5" drive trays are completely removable when not in use. The design allows them to mount behind the reservoir with little to no interference. The drive trays will also accept 2.5" drives as well. In order to help tidy up cabling, Fractal as included a SATA power extension for 3.5"/2.5" drives installed in these locations.
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  The Nexus+ PWM fan hub is mounted to the backside of the motherboard tray. The input for the hub comes from the motherboard's PWM header and is powered by a SATA connector. The hub can support three PWM fans as well as six 3-pin fans.
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  To get the installation started, I chose to start with the power supply. Simply remove the mounting bracket from the back of the case, screw it to the power supply and slide it into place.
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  Next up I installed the motherboard. All was well and good until I installed the CPU cooler. The cooler I chose to use for this build is EKWB's Predator AIO. The cooler uses 120mm fans, however, as I attempted to install the cooler more towards the center line of the case, the motherboards VRM heatsinks prevented this. Thankfully there are multiple mounting points for 120mm and 140mm fans and radiators.
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The rest of the installation went smoothly. Cable routing was made a bit easier as there is ample space behind the motherboard tray. I did find my self wanting longer fan cables to route to the PWM hub, however, an extension fixes this issue.  The back side of the case features two velcro strips to help secure cables. Fractal included plenty of zip tie locations, 14 as a matter of fact, to help manage the cables.
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The front side of the case came out pretty clean as well. I chose to use the vertical mount GPU as well as mounted the SSD to the power supply shroud.
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  Conclusion and Final Thoughts Putting together a system inside the Meshify S2 was fairly painless. As I mentioned before, I did find myself wanting a little longer cables to the front fans from the Nexus PWM fan hub. An extension did solve this issue and would allow most of the cables to run as a single bundle. That is except for the USB Type-C cable. Depending on the location on your motherboard, it may be a challenge. The pass-through for the motherboard tray and the power supply shroud do a lot to help hide wires and keep things nice and tidy. There's plenty of space for me to get my meat hooks in and out of the case without too much of a challenge. No sharp edges exist inside as I was able to put our system together unscathed.
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The cooling performance of the Fractal Design Meshify S2 was perfectly acceptable. I've spent a bit of time with the case over the last couple of weeks and the stock i7-8700K didn't see temperatures in excess of 60°C and the Nvidia RTX 2080TI reached 78°C during heavy gaming sessions. Even during those sessions, the fans were still quiet. The Nexus+ PWM Fan hub was connected to the motherboards CPU_OPT fan header and set to normal in the BIOS. Good airflow through the case helped keep fan noise and temperatures in check. The Fractal Design Meshify S2 shares its core with another Fractal Design, the Define S2. And why not? Is this bad. For me, I say no. If the design works, then use it. By using the same core, Fractal can produce the cases at a lower cost in both design time and manufacturing. The differences between the two series, the Define series caters to aesthetics more so than airflow whereas the Meshify's focus is on airflow. Granted, in my opinion, the Meshify S2 with its angular front panel looks just as good. I personally have used the Define S2 and like it just fine. Each has their own place. The MSRP for the tempered glass versions will run you $149.99 and the non-glass version will set you back $139.99.       Read the full article
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sarcasticgaypotato · 8 years ago
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For some reason I imagine GLaDOS being like a big hammock that Chell takes naps on, while GLaDdy rocks her to sleep and maybe sings softly. And sometimes if she wants Chell close to her, GLaDOS will just scoop her up and plop her down on her back but won't say anything out of embarrassment (cuz she has to be the indifferent stoic one of the two 💪😤) Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiic?
(( Really proud with how this one came out! Loved the request! ))Chell learned a lot of things in her time spent at Aperture. How to remove bullets with nothing but your bare hands and a broken pencil, how to annoy god-like AIs by finding paint and drawing all over the walls, and how to solve puzzles that would leave most humans stumped or dead.But by far the most interesting- and least practical for any normal person- skill she had learned in the facility was how to be affectionate with a 5-ton robot that hangs off the ceiling.
GLaDOS was a giant creature, towering over Chell easily, and made movements more akin to a large serpent than a human.  Not to mention she was rather bulky, and didn’t physically resemble a human in the slightest.That didn’t change Chell’s love for the robot- something that had taken years to develop, despite their uneasy beginnings, though it did make day to day shows of that love a bit unusual.Chell had proved herself to be fully capable of speech in the time they spent together, being a selective mute rather than having it as something she was born with, but her physical ability to speak didn’t mean she did it often.On occasion she’d speak up if it was important or if she wasn’t sure how to get it across without words, but even then it was few words, and far between.So her professing her love for the central core through long, thought out speeches wasn’t happening.And while she certainly did her best to give GLaDOS small kisses on the side of her faceplate, the action had to be a quick, chaste peck, as anything else was awkward and difficult to execute on both sides.Sure, these were pleasant, but it wasn’t enough.  Aperture was a lonely place, and physical closeness was something desired on both sides, even if neither of them spoke up about it directly.The question of what else they could do lingering in their minds for awhile, a few months at the very least. Until Chell figured something out, admittedly, on accident.She had been fussing around with her Portal gun in GLaDOS’s chamber- tweaking it a little, as she felt that the trigger had been a little loose lately and intended to tighten it- unwilling to have GLaDOS let the reassembly machine fix it or make her a new one- when she accidentally shot a portal on the ceiling.  She had been about to move it, when she noticed the positioning of it.  Directly above GLaDOS’s back, which was curved downwards as always.Most people would probably look at this situation and think to themselves that moving the portal and going about their day was a far better idea than whatever Chell was planning, but Chell was far from being ‘most people.’So naturally she shot a portal on the wall she had been sitting next to, stepped through it, and landed directly on her robotic companion, who had been far too distracted doing science to pay attention to what her human had been up to.However, this definitely caught her attention.“WHAT THE-”The robot let out a shrill shriek of surprise, instantly jerking up, and nearly shaking Chell off her, had the human not grabbed onto whatever part of the core that she could reach and held on for dear life.  A silent chuckle rose in her throat, and she couldn’t help smiling.  She knew GLaDOS wasn’t angry. Surprised, clearly, but Chell knew what the AI was like when she was angry, and this wasn’t it.“What on earth are you doing?! My chassis is not a playground!”GLaDOS vainly seemed to be trying to turn her head around to face the girl, though she was failing miserably. She had thankfully slowed her movements though, proving that despite her comment, she wasn’t actively trying to remove the girl.  If she wanted to do that, Chell would be on the floor right now.Slowly, Chell inched forward, moving closer to GLaDOS’s head, finding a small nook in the core’s body that looked almost like a seat.  So of course, she settled down with little hesitation.  It was a bit awkward at first, trying to find a spot where she wasn’t sitting on anything too important, but eventually found a rather comfy position that felt almost like a hammock. A big, very warm hammock.A small sigh of contentment escaped her throat, and she purposely nuzzled her companion, making sure to get across that she was quite happy with her newfound spot, as was silently asking if GLaDOS would allow this, or if she found it too irksome to deal with.  Chell wouldn’t want to cause her partner discomfort of course, even if it was only in jest.  They had spent far too much time building up trust when it came to not harming each other, Chell didn’t want to damage that with a silly thing.To her relief, GLaDOS let out an over exaggerated sigh- despite not needing to breathe, making the sound only for show and completely pointless- turning a camera to look at Chell properly.“…Fine. If lying up there makes you happy, then by all means, get comfortable. Live up there for all I care, just don’t start sweating on me.”That comment, though fully drenched in GLaDOS’s trademark sarcasm, was a very good indicator to Chell that her partner wasn’t just doing this out of the sheer kindness of her heart. While the core wasn’t very good at expressing these things through words, Chell was certain that the AI was seeking the same closeness that Chell was, and might agree with her that this, no matter how crazy of an idea it had originally seemed to be, might actually be a good fit for them.And from that day on, this became their new normal.Granted, they had found some easier ways to go about it, such as having GLaDOS lower her body to the ground and allow Chell to climb up instead of having her rely on portals, as that method could result in injury on either side, should Chell land badly.Chell would simply walk up to the core and give her a few gentle taps on the side of her chassis, and GLaDOS would allow her to climb up.The girl found it was a nice place to sit if she simply wanted to brainstorm, or even watch whatever it is GLaDOS was doing on her monitors.  But what it was truly fantastic for, was taking naps.Her eyes would start to droop and she’d begin to yawn, and within minutes GLaDOS could catch on to her exhaustion, and quickly adjust to make herself better suited as a cuddling companion/sleeping spot.  She’d make sure to avoid any sudden movements, quieted herself down and avoided yelling at the co-op bots-no matter how infuriating they could be- and if Chell caught her in a good mood, she’d occasionally take it upon herself to aid the girl in a peaceful rest.A gentle sway of her body back and forth, a slow, calm rocking that was paired wonderfully with the quiet ‘hum’ of the core’s processors and warmth of her body. It wasn’t the most conventional method of helping someone to fall asleep, but it was effective. For Chell at least.And while this was especially rare, Chell had gotten the AI to sing for her.  Only a few times, as GLaDOS was often too busy to pause what she was doing to think of a melody, but it wasn’t completely impossible.
In particular, Chell noted that the core seemed to be more inclined to sing if she noticed that her human was having trouble falling asleep. Whether it was due to a restless mind, or, more commonly, she had been previously woken due to a nightmare of some kind, and found it difficult or unsettling to fall back asleep.When this happened, GLaDOS would spend about a minute or two in complete silence, trying to think of a melody to sing or hum, before starting off softly, letting the sound of her songs hang in the air for a few beginning notes, as if asking Chell to try and get comfortable while the core attempted to lull her to sleep.The best times were when the AI combined both this, and the slow sway and rocking of her body, resulting in one of the most gentle actions Chell had ever seen come from such a massive, powerful creature.It was always nice to see GLaDOS’s usual forms of affection- which often came in the form of compliments disguised as insults or attempts at recreating Chell’s favored foods-, but there was something about this that was just… comforting. And as it turned out, GLaDOS had taken to it quite nicely as well, as after awhile, she started instigating these little cuddle sessions on her own.Chell had just been sitting elsewhere in the chamber, when seemingly out of nowhere, she felt one of GLaDOS’s claws grab her around the waist. It as loose enough not to hurt, but tight enough to keep her from falling.The former test subject couldn’t help the small noise of surprise that had escaped her as a result of this, surprised to suddenly be in the air.It didn’t last long, as within a few seconds, Chell found herself placed onto GLaDOS’s back without a single word from the AI.  In fact, the core seemed to be trying her very hardest to appear busy, and like she hadn’t done anything at all, almost like she was… embarrassed.That earned a small smirk from Chell, who scooted a little closer to the robot’s head, running her hand over it in a gentle caress.If the AI wanted some affection, all she needed to do was ask.  Though to be fair, neither of them were very good at expressing what they wanted, they often just stumbled into it, one way or another.
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s3mag · 4 years ago
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Make Something that Makes Something
I wish that, going into 2020, we had more people who set out to inspire… and less people who signed-up to influence. To influence is a self-serving interest… building one’s own ego first & foremost. To inspire is much more selfless, pure, & impactful. 
Therefore, influencer is not a word I’ll ever take seriously, and you shouldn’t either but I guess that’s your choice. Just because it’s somehow become a tolerated term DOES NOT make it fly. On the contrary, it shows a glaring problem with 21st-century digi-boy society. One that we’re just sweeping under the rug here. And that is: We’re not even self-conscious about our self-centeredness anymore. This social media era is diseased with ego & relentless self-promotion. And I promise if you’re led by your ego, you’ll end up unfulfilled, burnt-out, and resentful. 
 Look guys – we play with cars… it’s pretty trivial/superficial stuff. We’re not exactly changing the world here. BUT to contradict that… if we use our tools wisely, we can ABSOLUTELY connect with people, find the common ground, gain perspectives, and inspire one another. For those of us who really get it, we know there’s so much more to car culture than what’s on the surface. REAL car culture is a nucleus, and a lot of universally positive things circle that nucleus. Creativity, innovation, leadership, guidance, friendship… the list goes on & on. For us, car culture means camaraderie. It teaches discipline, and perseverance. It’s the way we express ourselves, and add our splash of color to the world. It’s our rebellion from normalcy & sensibility. And it’s therapy. 
  With this E30 M3, Cory Rowan was able to translate his love for cars into something bigger than himself. At this point in my life, that’s like… the ultimate win. He came up with the concept of Honest Assembly. And under that name, he put a team of college students under the leadership of auto-industry professionals & mentors. The lead sponsor/believer in the project was CRC Industries. And the goal, was SEMA’s Battle of the Builders 2018. That’s what they were working & competing for. Ravi from CSF Cooling (one of the mentors) volunteered to put the car in his booth at The Sema Show, front & center. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these students. And to double-down, Cory’s wife is a doctor, so being close to his heart, the entire project would operate under the umbrella of raising awareness & support for the Morgan Adams Foundation – a children’s cancer charity. 
  The M3 had belonged to Cory for a while before this idea ever sparked. He’d been holding onto the car since it’s a real E30 M3… and E30 M3 values are going up up & awaaaay. But it’d just been sitting in storage. It didn’t run. It was in ‘ok’ shape, but kind of forgotten. But – it was a great platform for the task at hand. 
The plan was to keep it fairly period-correct & pay homage to the essence of the early M3s. But as the Honest Assembly project started to get legs & Battle of the Builders became officially ‘on’… everyone involved knew they were gonna have to pull a rabbit or 2 out of their hats to capture eyes at an event like SEMA. 
Ravi from CSF also happens to be a BMW guy & a little bit of a BMW purist. Ravi & Cory both STILL felt it was crucial to NOT bastardize the factory M3 styling too much. Meaning – they didn’t want to cut up the OEM M3 widebody, just to tack on some trendy fiberglass suuuper widebody just because it’s the SEMA thing to do. But SEMA is all about the aftermarket after all. 
550hp/560tq F80 M3 engine (S55B30) and 6-speed transmission – First swap of its kind in the world.
Sooooo they decided to use their wild card under the hood, and Cory bought a wrecked F80 (2014-2018) M3 at auction, strictly for the motor-swap. The F80 runs BMW’s S55 engine: A twin-turbo, inline-6 making 444hp. To put BMW’s modern technology into the analog E30 chassis, was going to cause major pains in all the asses, respectfully. No easy feat. And no one had done it. Buuuut between the capable team of mentors on this project… they had the networks & know-how to theoretically get it done. And… it was gonna put these students straight in the deep water lol. If they could pull this off, everything else would be easy. Here’s how it went down: 
  Timeline
  Disassembly:
12/2017 – We disassemble & categorize every part, nut, and bolt on the donor E30 M3.
  2/2018 – Body work on the E30 M3 begins with Cars Remember When.
  2/2018 – F80 M3 bought at auction, & complete disassembly of that car.
  3/2018 – E30 M3 goes to bare metal.
  3/2018 – 325E test car arrives & is torn down. This car acts as the template for the transplant.
  4/2018 – Initial S55 engine fitment in the 325E.
  5/2018 – Students travel across country to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia to work with mentors from CRC Industries, BimmerWorld, and Motion Control Suspension.
  6-9/2018 – Fabrication & electronics to make the S55 engine run.
  9/2018 – The S55 engine runs for the first time inside the E30 325E. The team is elated!
  Reassembly:
9/2018 – The E30 M3 returns, and the mad rush begins. SEMA is 6 weeks out. The drivetrain has to be transplanted along with a full reassembly. Any sense of a normal life ends for the next month.
  10/28-29/2018 – The M3 is as close to finished as it’s been, and the chassis transition & drivetrain transplant are complete. While working on the car at each fuel stop, the drive through the night from Denver to Las Vegas begins.
  SEMA:
10/29/2018 – The car arrives at SEMA minutes before the first round of judging for the Battle of The Builders. The car is complete, but totally untested. At this point, the team is simply relieved to make it to Las Vegas. They’re exhausted. The honor to be judged for the BOTB is a monumental achievement.
  10/30/2018 – Tuesday, the first official day of SEMA. The car is dramatically displayed in CSF Radiator’s booth. To our surprise, the car is announced as a Top 40 SEMA BOTB finalist. The car ran in testing, but not in its final configuration. Everyone knows that a running car is required to move forward in the competition. This kicks off the fury of late-night testing. Some basic issues are found & resolved thanks to help from local BMW shop, Sin City BMW. There would be a slight sense of relief if an electrical issue hadn’t reared its ugly head while servicing the clutch.
  10/31/2018 – The Honest team makes their way to the lunchtime Top 12 announcement of the Battle of The Builders in the SEMA Grand Lobby. It is a Hollywood style affair on a lit stage with TV cameras and SEMA executives. Our team was announced as a Top 3 finalist in class. Moving to the next stage of competition means that our car has to drive across the SEMA floor and onto a TV stage for thousands of spectators no later than Friday at 8am. The celebratory atmosphere quickly fades & was replaced with the anxiety of prepping the car. There would be no sleep for the next 44 hours.
  10/31 – 11/1/2018 – A strict rule of SEMA is: No running cars inside the building. That means the team can’t confirm if the car actually runs. So every sensor and connection is physically checked by the team with help from Ryan of BimmerSpeed, and ECU communication to each connection is remotely confirmed by the tuner, Mike at BPM Sport.
Non-stop work continues through Wednesday & Thursday night as new issues surrounding the wiring migration from the ’85 to the ’88 are discovered. The team is given a deadline of 9pm on Thursday by the contest organizers.
  9pm rolls by and the car only sputters. The deflated team is visited by many of the other Top 12 contestants. Maybe it’s seeing the words of encouragement from other builders in the Top 12, or maybe the show organizers just realize how hard we’ve worked to get this far, but we somehow get a second chance. The producer of the television show covering the contest, Bud Brutsman, extends our deadline to 8am.
  One more all nighter for the Honest team seemed to be a strange gift, but we were grateful. Reinforcements were brought in again from BPM Sport and BimmerSpeed to help diagnose the issue.
  11/2/2018 – It’s 6:30am and only a handful of the team are still awake. The first crowds of show employees and presenters start arriving for the day. There is no choice but to fire-up the car & pray. A few stumbles & it fires! Immediately an announcement is made over the PA system, “No SEMA cars are allowed to be started in the convention center.” …but it didn’t matter. It was showtime!
  The car never makes the cut for Top 4 of the show. But that doesn’t seem to matter to a group of young builders and the mentors supporting them. In 11 months, the team had gone from average enthusiasts looking for junkyard parts to modify their daily drivers… to being in front of thousands of fans on television. All week, show visitors & industry icons stopped by the booth to meet the young team behind the car. The feeling when you’re mentioned in the same breath as your heroes was more than any member of the team could prepare for.
  And ladies & gentlemen – this is how we inspire! 
Think about the lives this car has touched, and the ripple-effect it will have. College students – who’s career paths & careers goals have been shaped, molded, and honed-in. These kids have found confidence, experience, and an insane surge of motivation to pursue their passions. Industry professionals & mentors – who were able to pass down what they know & who they know… and pay it forward to the next generation. Being able to give back like that, is a huge measure of success in my book. Children unfairly having to fight cancer at such an innocent age… are gonna beat it one day soon. They may be part of the first generation that never drives a gas-powered car. But their lives were touched because we did. 
  You say cars are superficial… materialistic. Maybe. But I’m not. And I don’t think the culture is either. 
You can say that baseball is just a game. Or that music is just a poem with noise. But for people who’s lives have been touched by these things… they’re so much more then the sum of their parts. 
The point is: It’s about shared mindsets… and shared character. It’s not about a car. You & I?? We speak through cars – yeah. Others?? they speak through baseball. Or music. Or whatever. And we speak to each other! We hear each other across demographics, and over the chatter. Maybe Cory’s Honest Assembly speaks to someone reading this mag who plays baseball. And that guy gets inspired to do something similar within his sport. And a musician catches wind of that in the stands… and is inspired to write a song. A song that comes through the speakers and hits someone who works at a bank, and inspires him/her to get creative & do more for their local community. And its current pace, social media is pushing us. Pushing us to become more & more dependent on likes, subscribers, and followers. Push back. 
  Engine / Drivetrain
550hp/560tq F80 M3 engine (S55B30) and 6-speed transmission – First swap of its kind in the world.
Custom coding & performance tuning from BPM Sport
6 F80 coolers & pumps with custom plumbing, 4 fans, and controllers
CSF charge cooler & heat exchanger
Differential machined for 4 clutches, custom ramp angles, and a 3.38 ratio from Diffsonline @diffsonline
Stainless steel oval exhaust from Ouroboros Fabrication
  Chassis
Chassis consulting & components from BimmerWorld, professional BMW race team & parts manufacturer/supplier founded while racing an E30 M3
Extensive chassis reinforcements 
Bare metal nut and bolt restoration with parts and consulting from James Clay of BimmerWorld and BimmerWorld Racing
Bodywork performed by nationally award-winning team at Cars Remember When
Fabrication consulting by VW factory backed Project Baja and Flaherty’s Fabrication 
Carbon fiber spoiler and Gurney flap
  Wheels / Brakes / Suspension
F80 M3 ABS (converted to 4-channel) 
F80 brake master cylinder/booster (modified pedal box)
AP Racing Radi-Cal calipers designed for the F80 from Essex Parts Services 
Motion Control Suspension (MCS) 3-way remote dampers and true rear coilovers 
Custom subframes
Tubular suspension with custom geometry from SLR Speed 
Forgeline centerlock wheels with offsets to accommodate customized suspension & brake components
  Interior:
Cardinal red napa interior
Napa black leather-wrapped dash, steering wheel, console, and pillars
New plastic, rubber throughout
Students:
Justin Bruch
Parker Brown
Reece Cochran
Isaac Gesundheit
Peter Golledge
Zach Lagarenne (lead student builder)
  Mentors:
Dori Ahart – CRC Industries (lead believer and sponsor)
Geoff Barrett – BMW CCA (supporting mentor)
Mike Benvo – BPM Sport (tuning and coding)
Nate Bourgeois – Ouroboros Fabrication (exhaust)
James Clay – BimmerWorld (lead project tech advisor and parts sourcing)
Fox Chung – BMW CCA (supporting mentor)
Dean Coccaro – Zendex Tool and GoJak (made our 1.5-car garage into actual usable space)
Ravi Dolwani – CSF Radiators (SEMA booth, cooling, and PR)
Dan Fitzgerald – Diffsonline (custom differential)
Erin Flaherty – Flaherty’s Fine Fabrication (oil pan and general awesome mentor)
Wyatt Gilbert – Motion Control Suspension (suspension consulting)
Jeff Jegelewicz – Cover Craft (developed custom cover)
Ryan Lindsley – BimmerSpeed (gets team out of jambs)
Sam Lopez – Gorilla Wraps (livery install)
Josh McGuckin – Gates and Project Baja (fabrication mentor)
Brian McGuire – Yardr.co (“make it work” mentor)
Alex McCulloch – Glen Shelly Auto Brokers (vintage BMW nut)
Jeff Ritter – Essex Brakes / AP Racing (brake tech consultant)
Cory Rowan – VisFire Creative (designer and project manager)
Steve Schardt – Forgeline Wheels (wheel fitment and design)
Scott Skrjanc – Lincoln Electric (welding supplies)
Andy Wall and Scott Morton – Cars Remember When Restoration (body restoration)
  Post SEMA:
The Honest Assembly team is expanding. They moved out of the home garage, and into a real shop more well-suited for the mentorship concept & technical builds. Some of the 1st-round students who are still in school will stay onboard, and new students will join them. The core focus of partnering student enthusiasts with industry mentors remains the same.
  An improved version of the S55 powered E30 M3 will now be offered as a turnkey restoration service. Several industry mentors and a few students from the original build team focused efforts since SEMA to refine the car. The was car town down for a full overhaul of wiring, suspension, and fitment. The prototype chassis has gone from an already highly technical motor swap to a comprehensive package with proprietary suspension, cooling, chassis reinforcements, ABS, and numerous modernized features hiding under the E30 M3’s skin. The team now considers it the most technically advanced E30 M3 in the world while still maintaining the core ethos that made the E30 M3 legendary. The cars will be built using the team’s original formula of pairing young enthusiasts full of fresh ideas, with seasoned industry professionals that made the team’s first build so successful.
Text by Wooley     Photos by Brian McGee
"With this E30 M3, Cory Rowan was able to translate his love for cars into something bigger than himself. At this point in my life, that’s like… the ultimate win. He came up with the concept of Honest Assembly. And under that name, he put a team of college students under the leadership of auto-industry professionals & mentors. The lead sponsor/believer in the project was CRC Industries. And the goal, was SEMA’s Battle of the Builders 2018. That’s what they were working & competing for. Ravi from CSF Cooling (one of the mentors) volunteered to put the car in his booth at The Sema Show, front & center. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these students. And to double-down, Cory’s wife is a doctor, so being close to his heart, the entire project would operate under the umbrella of raising awareness & support for the Morgan Adams Foundation - a children’s cancer charity. " Make Something that Makes Something I wish that, going into 2020, we had more people who set out to…
0 notes
sidpah · 6 years ago
Text
The American Dream
Tunneling through bright sawdust. Bright yellow in what should have been lightless and airless. From all around me I could hear a voice speaking gibberish, yelling gibberish and I was flying up to meet the voice, embedded in soft hot chips of wood. Ideas that I was packed in a crate being shipped to someone as their grand prize kept skirting the edges of my thoughts… Doors opened and flowers whizzed by out of focus… I was drunk in the front seat of a stranger’s car, in the passenger side, car careening along miles of dark overpass; reflectors like pinball lights tracing my way through the murk with no one in the driver’s seat. No one in the back, just me in a runaway silver ball inhaling pine dust… That voice familiar, soothing even in its distress. The voice of a mother shouting to turn that shit off and come to dinner; the helpless yelping of a dog being eaten by wild coyotes... I know that voice, those eyes, that fragrance of burning sage... These things don’t happen to me… I’m always the one in control... I’m always the one in control... But not lately. I used to blame the drugs. But how can any of us stand being sober anymore? Sober things no longer happen to me. I’m a victim of brass bells pounding and ringing, worn like a fedora on a stalking mass of black clay. I’m a victim of angry throats and the neglect of trespassing death… I’m not in America but I hate it all the same. My breath isn’t cool minty enough. I don’t love Jesus enough. I’m not sculpted out of lard and arrogance. I don’t yell. I’m not confrontational. I’m just a ping-pong ball, a marble roulette ball, a steel ball winding its way through a labyrinth at the hands of an omnipotent fool... Why are balls always getting kicked or thrown or smacked or dropped or paddled or beaten back and forth? I’m not American because I don’t find it funny enough. No, that’s not the reason. The reason is that this ersatz nation has no name. It’s a mirage. A composite of all cities ever seen, all movies ever watched, all books ever skimmed, all tombs ever guarded… I wasn’t made American though I grew within America’s paranoid walls. Conceived in an American womb, born into this parallel country. Born into this car still careening under tons and tons of smoldering sawdust… I don’t understand how it’s still moving or how I’m still breathing, or why I haven’t crashed yet. It’s inevitable. When the revolving doors of expensive boutiques spin without pedestrians metamorphosing into shoppers and without shoppers revolving into poverty-stricken kings and queens, I know something’s wrong. But it’s a subtle kind of wrong. Like the automatic paper towel dispenser in a bathroom whirring to life, its small red eye glowing even when your back is turned and no one’s walked in front of it… The subtle kind of wrong that makes you know what hackles are when they stand up on the back of your neck... A crowd of women walking in the sun dressed in dark trench coats carrying huge black British umbrellas above their heads... A car swerving through traffic with nobody behind the wheel... A television that turns itself on in the middle of the night running snuff films that’ve never been shot... Watching that television as you murder your sleeping sister, an outsider filming the whole scene... You never saw the cameraman, never felt his three glass eyes... Only now you realize what you’ve done or haven’t done, but watching that blood flow down your arm both of you laugh: the TV you and the couch you. Not being torn apart by that manic lust makes you laugh... Wondering where those last five hours went and why you can’t remember the first eight years of your life… Those things are subtle. Not at all like the grand mal seizure you experience watching the child who’s been selling newspapers on the corner of Hudson and Main for as long as you can remember, suddenly disappear, taking with him the rest of the block, turning the whole metropolitan hub vacant, a black hole in the morning daylight that becomes the edge of the world that chains of commuters evaporate into… Cars, trucks, buses all topple over the abyss. Bicyclists pedal rapidly, heads stretched out low like a new breed of long-necked herbivore, focused only feet before thin spinning tires on guard against pebbles and fresh roadkill… They must watch that front tire dissolve as it touches the space where cracked concrete ends, where it continued only a few pumps earlier. They must wonder where their handlebars went, and where their hands and wrists went. And their eyes are gone before the rest of their body so the rear wheel is the last to wonder what happened to the world just before it too is vaporized and maybe reassembled somewhere new… And I’m drawn to that spot but made to watch it in the rearview as I speed in the opposite direction still buckled into the wrong seat to make a decision... Not knowing if something is going to reach out at me from the sewer grate or whether the busy city street beneath the grinding chassis will drop out too… It’s not that I’m worried or that I care so much if it does. It’s just that I’d like to see it coming. I’ve waited so long in anticipation of that moment, I think it’s only fair I get to cherish it when it finally arrives…
0 notes
jonathanbelloblog · 6 years ago
Text
How Aston Martin Is Using Modern Technology to Improve Its Oldest Cars
At Aston Martin, the pace of development, partnerships, and new models is perhaps more feverish than at any time in the company’s century-plus-long history. Much credit for the renaissance must be given to Andy Palmer, who was hired as CEO in 2014 at a time when the supercar maker’s engines and cars were all aging and growing more uncompetitive by the moment. But a trio of exciting new models have hit the streets recently in the DB11, new Vantage, and DBS Superleggera, development of electrified powertrains has been prioritized, and the firm will launch its first-ever SUV within the next couple of years. With all of this being front of mind, it was somewhat surprising to receive an invite to go behind the scenes of its Aston Martin’s Heritage division.
We started our visit to Aston HQ in the production facility for the DB4 GT continuation cars, alongside the president of Heritage, Paul Spires. The facility is located in a screened-off area of the Newport Pagnell dealership, and at the time of our visit housed three DB4 GTs that were undergoing final preparations before being readied for shipment to their lucky owners. Here, Spires is in his element, reeling off factoids and figures about the DB4 program.
For example, each of the 25 planned chassis takes around 4,500 man-hours to complete, as each is hand-assembled by a team of highly skilled engineers and craftspeople. The cars have a base price of approximately $2 million, however each of them—and they’re all spoken for—end up costing in the region of $2.5 million once the customers have their say regarding various customizations and options. Just four DB4 GTs will remain in the U.K., with the rest headed overseas, the vast majority to the United States. According to Spires, “The DB4 GT continuation is a perfect demonstration of the capabilities we have here at Works, and a testament to the timeless appeal of Aston Martin’s illustrious classics.”
The Past-Present Paradox
It’s not all nostalgia and heritage preservation, though, as the team employed some of the most modern and high-tech techniques in executing the DB4 GT project. Body-panel schematics were difficult to come by in the Aston archives, so vintage cars were 3D-scanned to provide templates. Engine blueprints were similarly scarce, so the team had to reverse-engineer a new design from an existing example.
To do this, they put the finest example of an original DB4 engine they could find through an X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT) machine. Essentially the same technique as when a human is CT-scanned in a hospital to achieve a medical diagnosis, this 3D X-ray procedure gives a non-invasive look at the internal structure of a given sample. To illustrate what sort of images this can produce, we got our hands on a scale-model DB4 and used a CT scanner to reproduce the process performed on the engine.
When a conventional X-ray is performed to diagnose a broken bone, it produces a single image called a radiograph. However, as can be seen here, a CT scan ‘stacks’ these images sequentially to build a 3D representation. The primary difference is that, in a hospital, the person lies down and the machine orbits around them; in Aston’s case, the machine was stationary and the sample was rotated. This allows for better resolution and less blurring due to sample movement.
During scanning, the team found that there were some areas for improvement, and Spires was palpably excited as he shared some of the things uncovered by the scans. For example, one of the oil channels cast into the original engine using a cord—it was pulled out after casting—was revealed to have poor flow optimization and possible blockages. Spired also explained that the original engine had a persistent oil leak issue around a tapped connection on the side of the block. The CT scans showed the underlying cause; during its initial manufacture, the hole was drilled and tapped too deep, and breached an oil cavity. Discovering these issues allowed the team to fully optimize the new engine.
Restoring the Classics
Those not lucky enough to be selected to receive one of the 25 DB4 GTs can still have any existing Aston Martin fully restored through the Heritage-approved restoration program, albeit at an eye-watering cost. The process is thorough, of course, and any restoration project is fully stripped to a bare chassis and examined for integrity. Any corrosion issues are rectified using period-correct techniques, and the car is then reassembled from the ground up, including paint, brightwork, the interior, and more. Dotted around the factory are cars at every stage of the process. A freshly arrived DB6 has been stripped to bare metal; a Lagonda is midway through; and a second DB6 is finished and gleaming in baby blue paint, ready for delivery back to its owner in France.
The factory takes the term “heritage” to the extreme. Everything from chassis welding and forming body panels to painting and finishing is done in-house at Newport-Pagnell. New DB4 GT front ends are beaten from sheetmetal around original wooden forms that have been in the company for generations, and these same traditional panel-beating techniques are used to restore other customer cars. Any forms showing their age are replaced with new forms made from—you guessed it—a 3D scan of the original.
A Taste of the Past
Seeing all these wonderful classics would have been the ultimate tease if we could only look and not touch. Luckily, Spires and his team had a drive planned and the chosen cars were very special indeed. First up: a 1971 DB6 MK2 with a price tag of around $800,000. Never before have I been so nervous to drive somebody else’s car.
Within yards, I realized that I needn’t have worried. The DB6 is remarkably easy to drive, and surprisingly potent for such an old car. The thin, wooden steering wheel is a definite throwback, and you can’t help but beam with joy as you move it back and forth to keep your trajectory true. The speedometer needle bounces around between plus or minus 10 mph from your true velocity, and the cabin is filled with the familiar scents of oil and fuel. All of these factors create a most endearing and exciting automotive experience, and the DB6 is tactile, pleasant, and incredibly special to drive.
After the DB6 comes a 1987 V8 Vantage X-pack. Being 16 years the DB6’s junior, the Vantage produces far more power, making it a different beast to pilot. The transmission is still manual, but this time with a dogleg box as can be found in the previous-generation V12 Vantage S.
The V8 Vantage exudes ’80s charm with its deep shag carpets and purple-ish piping on the cream leather seats. However, the main selling point of this car lies under the hood. The naturally aspirated V-8 pulls hard and sings as I stir through the gears. It’s the first time that I’ve driven a dogleg ’box, and I’m pleased to say that it’s remarkably intuitive. You seldom need to use the first ratio when driving on back roads, so having second gear at the top and third directly below just makes sense.
The Grand Opening
The cars that I drove were to take center stage at the formal launch of Aston’s new London showroom. Once just a brand and lifestyle shop in the high-end Mayfair district, the location was overhauled to be entirely Heritage focused. The showroom has room for two classic cars inside, but ‘my’ classics were parked on the street outside next to a current Vantage.
With a handpicked selection of prominent buyers and brand supporters congregating behind the expansive glass storefront, Palmer emerged from the crowd to give a keynote. His emphasis is surprisingly grounded, and relates to new talent and the passing on of period skills and craftwork. The entire event makes it clear that the brand appreciates its history as much as it is excited for what is to come.
On the heels of the initial DB4 GT program, Spires and the team have already started building the 25-unit run of DB5 Goldfinger edition cars. They will certainly be equally sought after, and serve as further proof that well-heeled customers don’t just want the latest and fastest hypercars, they also want characterful classics. For these buyers, Aston Martin Heritage is ready and willing to serve.
IFTTT
0 notes
jesusvasser · 6 years ago
Text
How Aston Martin Is Using Modern Technology to Improve Its Oldest Cars
At Aston Martin, the pace of development, partnerships, and new models is perhaps more feverish than at any time in the company’s century-plus-long history. Much credit for the renaissance must be given to Andy Palmer, who was hired as CEO in 2014 at a time when the supercar maker’s engines and cars were all aging and growing more uncompetitive by the moment. But a trio of exciting new models have hit the streets recently in the DB11, new Vantage, and DBS Superleggera, development of electrified powertrains has been prioritized, and the firm will launch its first-ever SUV within the next couple of years. With all of this being front of mind, it was somewhat surprising to receive an invite to go behind the scenes of its Aston Martin’s Heritage division.
We started our visit to Aston HQ in the production facility for the DB4 GT continuation cars, alongside the president of Heritage, Paul Spires. The facility is located in a screened-off area of the Newport Pagnell dealership, and at the time of our visit housed three DB4 GTs that were undergoing final preparations before being readied for shipment to their lucky owners. Here, Spires is in his element, reeling off factoids and figures about the DB4 program.
For example, each of the 25 planned chassis takes around 4,500 man-hours to complete, as each is hand-assembled by a team of highly skilled engineers and craftspeople. The cars have a base price of approximately $2 million, however each of them—and they’re all spoken for—end up costing in the region of $2.5 million once the customers have their say regarding various customizations and options. Just four DB4 GTs will remain in the U.K., with the rest headed overseas, the vast majority to the United States. According to Spires, “The DB4 GT continuation is a perfect demonstration of the capabilities we have here at Works, and a testament to the timeless appeal of Aston Martin’s illustrious classics.”
The Past-Present Paradox
It’s not all nostalgia and heritage preservation, though, as the team employed some of the most modern and high-tech techniques in executing the DB4 GT project. Body-panel schematics were difficult to come by in the Aston archives, so vintage cars were 3D-scanned to provide templates. Engine blueprints were similarly scarce, so the team had to reverse-engineer a new design from an existing example.
To do this, they put the finest example of an original DB4 engine they could find through an X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT) machine. Essentially the same technique as when a human is CT-scanned in a hospital to achieve a medical diagnosis, this 3D X-ray procedure gives a non-invasive look at the internal structure of a given sample. To illustrate what sort of images this can produce, we got our hands on a scale-model DB4 and used a CT scanner to reproduce the process performed on the engine.
When a conventional X-ray is performed to diagnose a broken bone, it produces a single image called a radiograph. However, as can be seen here, a CT scan ‘stacks’ these images sequentially to build a 3D representation. The primary difference is that, in a hospital, the person lies down and the machine orbits around them; in Aston’s case, the machine was stationary and the sample was rotated. This allows for better resolution and less blurring due to sample movement.
During scanning, the team found that there were some areas for improvement, and Spires was palpably excited as he shared some of the things uncovered by the scans. For example, one of the oil channels cast into the original engine using a cord—it was pulled out after casting—was revealed to have poor flow optimization and possible blockages. Spired also explained that the original engine had a persistent oil leak issue around a tapped connection on the side of the block. The CT scans showed the underlying cause; during its initial manufacture, the hole was drilled and tapped too deep, and breached an oil cavity. Discovering these issues allowed the team to fully optimize the new engine.
Restoring the Classics
Those not lucky enough to be selected to receive one of the 25 DB4 GTs can still have any existing Aston Martin fully restored through the Heritage-approved restoration program, albeit at an eye-watering cost. The process is thorough, of course, and any restoration project is fully stripped to a bare chassis and examined for integrity. Any corrosion issues are rectified using period-correct techniques, and the car is then reassembled from the ground up, including paint, brightwork, the interior, and more. Dotted around the factory are cars at every stage of the process. A freshly arrived DB6 has been stripped to bare metal; a Lagonda is midway through; and a second DB6 is finished and gleaming in baby blue paint, ready for delivery back to its owner in France.
The factory takes the term “heritage” to the extreme. Everything from chassis welding and forming body panels to painting and finishing is done in-house at Newport-Pagnell. New DB4 GT front ends are beaten from sheetmetal around original wooden forms that have been in the company for generations, and these same traditional panel-beating techniques are used to restore other customer cars. Any forms showing their age are replaced with new forms made from—you guessed it—a 3D scan of the original.
A Taste of the Past
Seeing all these wonderful classics would have been the ultimate tease if we could only look and not touch. Luckily, Spires and his team had a drive planned and the chosen cars were very special indeed. First up: a 1971 DB6 MK2 with a price tag of around $800,000. Never before have I been so nervous to drive somebody else’s car.
Within yards, I realized that I needn’t have worried. The DB6 is remarkably easy to drive, and surprisingly potent for such an old car. The thin, wooden steering wheel is a definite throwback, and you can’t help but beam with joy as you move it back and forth to keep your trajectory true. The speedometer needle bounces around between plus or minus 10 mph from your true velocity, and the cabin is filled with the familiar scents of oil and fuel. All of these factors create a most endearing and exciting automotive experience, and the DB6 is tactile, pleasant, and incredibly special to drive.
After the DB6 comes a 1987 V8 Vantage X-pack. Being 16 years the DB6’s junior, the Vantage produces far more power, making it a different beast to pilot. The transmission is still manual, but this time with a dogleg box as can be found in the previous-generation V12 Vantage S.
The V8 Vantage exudes ’80s charm with its deep shag carpets and purple-ish piping on the cream leather seats. However, the main selling point of this car lies under the hood. The naturally aspirated V-8 pulls hard and sings as I stir through the gears. It’s the first time that I’ve driven a dogleg ’box, and I’m pleased to say that it’s remarkably intuitive. You seldom need to use the first ratio when driving on back roads, so having second gear at the top and third directly below just makes sense.
The Grand Opening
The cars that I drove were to take center stage at the formal launch of Aston’s new London showroom. Once just a brand and lifestyle shop in the high-end Mayfair district, the location was overhauled to be entirely Heritage focused. The showroom has room for two classic cars inside, but ‘my’ classics were parked on the street outside next to a current Vantage.
With a handpicked selection of prominent buyers and brand supporters congregating behind the expansive glass storefront, Palmer emerged from the crowd to give a keynote. His emphasis is surprisingly grounded, and relates to new talent and the passing on of period skills and craftwork. The entire event makes it clear that the brand appreciates its history as much as it is excited for what is to come.
On the heels of the initial DB4 GT program, Spires and the team have already started building the 25-unit run of DB5 Goldfinger edition cars. They will certainly be equally sought after, and serve as further proof that well-heeled customers don’t just want the latest and fastest hypercars, they also want characterful classics. For these buyers, Aston Martin Heritage is ready and willing to serve.
IFTTT
0 notes
itsworn · 6 years ago
Text
Adam Towne’s 1956 Ford F-100 Roush 588R
One day while sitting at his excavation business in New Hampshire, Adam Towne had a customer enter interested over a forklift that was for sale and offered a partial trade. A few handshakes later and Adam not only had a very old truck on the lot amongst the sea of work trucks but now owned his first soon-to-be hot rod, a 1956 Ford F-100! Adam decided to do the trade because the truck already looked pretty good and having never seen one up close was excited over the big fenders and back window for an added appeal to the existing body lines that housed a Chevy 350 transplanted underhood.
It wasn’t long before Adam realized that the Dodge front suspension put the motor at an angle with the steering box. So the truck was put in the garage for disassembly to allow a Mustang II front clip to be installed and at this point it was decided to put a Ford Motor back in. This required the firewall to be modified, to which they discovered the cab was in pretty rough shape, as he and his helping hand discovered a lot of pre-existing patches. So one thing led to another on the build as they dove in …
Adam Towne and his wife enjoy driving the F-100 now that the suspension is dialed in, increasing the fun time with the reliability of this new daily driven truck.
Adam decided to find another cab; using the Internet was the best way to get started versus repairing the old one. Eventually he found one in Kansas, which ended up being an entire titled truck, making it the perfect donor for the project. Adam set up to retrieve the parts truck and started taking it apart as soon as it was unloaded. Next was meeting with a seller from Arizona at the F-100 Nationals held in Knoxville, Tennessee, to pick up a good set of doors. While walking around the event Adam located and brought back a new complete bed. The parts continued to trickle in as the F-100 became a 12-year “project to completion,” with the build being off and on for periods of time. Seeing an ad in Hot Rod magazine four years later for a new F-100 TCI Engineering chassis with all the steering and suspension, including a Currie 9-inch rearend, had him set on starting over with a new foundation. Adam was able to use a stock 460 for mockup, especially since he planned to go the big-block route, so the new chassis was the perfect choice to move forward.
Once the truck was ready a complete turnkey Roush 588R with Cobra Jet heads was ordered. The Roush had an Edelbrock intake and Holly carb setup that went through a dyno before shipping out to Adam. One of biggest challenges would be getting the steering to work as needed, as they tried to find headers to fit with the TCI Engineering steering shaft. But with trial and error custom-built headers by Sanderson met the requirements. Then getting a radiator to fit was next on the agenda, to which was custom built by Be Cool.
Lowrey’s Auto Restoration took Adam’s roller and proceeded to shave the side louvers and moved the front fenders forward 2 inches to center the wheel, keeping the changes subtle.
With the motor mocked up it was time to prep the rest of the truck by finishing off the firewall and floor while also shaving the cowl vents for a smoother look. Having it so close to being completed Adam’s wife pushed him to find someone to finish the project so they could enjoy it. This brought Adam to Lowrey’s Auto Restoration’s doorstep, being somewhat nearby so he could stop in on the build periodically. So six years after receiving the chassis the entire mocked-up roller was moved to its new home. Lowrey began to finish up the last little bit of fabrication plus shaving the side louvers and moving the front fenders forward 2 inches to center the wheel. Lowery also made the rear bumper forks to match the ones seen and inspired from a Chip Foose build. They also clipped the front framehorns to pull the front bumper in and modified the sides so it looked like it wrapped around the truck. The F-100 was then taken apart once again for paint and then prepared for reassembly.
Lowrey installed many of the parts Adam had already acquired, such as the Billet Specialties steering wheel, Vintage Air system, power windows, ididit steering column with shifter, Dakota Digital gauges, and so on, while having the upholstery done through the shop. The Ford had some custom American Racing knock-off wheels installed to complete the build. It was great to see his vision of having a hot rod come together but still keeping some attributes traditional accented with a few exterior body changes to make people look twice to see what’s different.
A Roush 588R with cobra jets was installed using an Edelbrock intake as the heart of the project. This was a must-have under the hood for Adam!
The primary goal was not to have a show truck but a reliable daily driver that would be fun on the backroads of New Hampshire. This meant during the typical shakedown things needed to be further dialed in per any serious build. During this time Adam met Eli of Traditional Speed and Custom who resided just down the street and lent his expertise in adjusting the ride height, change of bushings, and spring rate requirements to help the F-100 ride and handle better. While there Eli also addressed some electrical changes in the interior, tuned the motor, fixed a broken rocker arm stud, and even buffed the paint, taking the whole truck to another level in appearance.
Now that the kinks are worked out Adam and his wife enjoyed the truck for well over a year as it handled and braked like a Corvette with some nice get up and go power. It didn’t last long however before Adam started thinking about a John Kaase box 429 engine build using an eight-stack EFI system to get more power underhood!
The interior was kept simple yet elegant in black and chrome with many of the modern conveniences to make the F-100 a comfortable driver yet with a traditional touch.
Facts & Figures
CHASSIS Frame: TCI Engineering Rearend / Ratio: TCI Engineering Currie 9-inch Posi / 3.23 Rear Suspension: Four-link Rear Brakes: Wilwood Front Suspension: TCI coilover Front Brakes: Wilwood Steering Box: TCI rack-and-Pinion Front Wheels: American Racing Shelby 18×8 knockoffs Rear Wheels: American Racing Shelby 18×10 knockoffs Front Tires: Nitto 245/45-18 Rear Tires: Nitto 295/45-18 Gas Tank: Aluminum fuel tank
DRIVETRAIN Engine: Blueprinted Roush 588R that is stroked Heads: Ford Cobra Jet Valve Covers: Roush Manifold / Induction: Edelbrock / Holley 850 Ignition: MSD Headers: Sanderson Exhaust / Mufflers: Flowmaster Transmission: TCI C6 Shifter: ididit Inc.
BODY Style: Truck Modifications: Shaved cowl vents and side louvers. Moved front fenders forward 2 inches to center on wheels. Hood: Original Grille: Original Bodywork and Paint by: Lowrey Auto Restorations Paint Type / Color: Axalta/Black Headlights / Taillights: Stock / 1940 Ford reproduction Outside Mirrors: Billet Specialties Bumpers: Custom-built by Lowrey Auto Restorations, taillights in rear bumper and front into fenders
INTERIOR Dashboard: Stock dash filled in Gauges : Dakota Digital Air Conditioning: Vintage Air Stereo: None Steering Wheel: Billet Specialties Steering Column: ididit I. Seats: Glide Upholstery by: Lowrey Auto Restorations Material / Color: Leather / Black
The post Adam Towne’s 1956 Ford F-100 Roush 588R appeared first on Hot Rod Network.
from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/adam-townes-1956-ford-f-100-roush-588r/ via IFTTT
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loveminimag · 7 years ago
Text
Historics @ Brooklands Auction Preview - March 3
Three Minis and variants up for sale this weekend at Historics @ Brooklands. Lot 294 - 1960 Austin Mini Seven Super Deluxe Lot Number     294 Registration     285 JYB Chassis Number     AA25742246 Engine Number     8AM-U-H30416 Odometer reading     32,836 miles Estimate     No Reserve This delightful Austin Seven was registered in October 1960 and can be considered as one of the most original examples on the market today. A large amount of this cars history has been written about in the November 2006 edition of Mini World. This vehicle resided in a family garage for 14 years until Mini Club member, Ron Procter, purchased the car for a mere £1,400 with a view to restoring it having appreciated its remarkable time warp condition. The Mini had been scruffily sprayed yellow but he could see past that and upon purchase began a full nut and bolt restoration. The strip down to the bare shell confirmed that it was in near perfect condition with only a rear valance and front panel needing to be replaced. It also became apparent that the 848cc A-Series engine was the original unit. The Mini was returned to its original colour of Speedwell Blue and with the engine stripped and rebuilt to take unleaded petrol, the reassembly began. The vendor states that 95% of the components used were those fitted to the car when it left the factory. The 1959 and early 1960 Mini's had the smaller rear window and no recess around front and rear windows as does this example that also boasts the original glass. The seats and trim that are so often perishable were perfectly serviceable and thus original, with the exception of the door cards that were recently replaced with Newton examples. The carpet unfortunately did need to be replaced. This is considered to be a remarkable example of an original 1960 Mini. Presented with an MoT test certificate valid until January 2019 with no advisories and a history file including photographs of the restoration. Showing just 32,836 miles from new the question could simply be where else would you find one quite like this. Offered without reserve we are certain that this will be popular with collectors and enthusiast alike. Our hope is that its originality can be preserved for many years to come. https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2018-03-03/cars/ref-103-1960-austin-mini-seven-super-deluxe/
Lot 260 - 1967 Mini Moke Lot Number     260 Registration     OLF 427E Chassis Number     A/AB1952419 Engine Number     8ACUH4601 Odometer reading     57,428 miles Estimate     £13,000 - £16,000 The Mini Moke is a vehicle based on the Mini and designed for the British Motor Corporation (BMC) by Sir Alec Issigonis. The name comes from ‘Mini’- the car with which the Moke shares many parts - and ‘Moke’, which is an archaic dialect term for donkey. The initial design was a prototype for a light military vehicle in the style of the American Jeep, but its small wheels and low ground clearance made it impractical as an off-road vehicle. It was subsequently offered in a civilian version as a low-cost, easily maintained utility vehicle. The Moke finally achieved success as a beach buggy, becoming a popular 'cult' vehicle in the Seychelles, Australia, the United States and many tropical resorts in the Caribbean. Now equally collectable as the Willys Jeep and Land Rover, a Moke offers fun in abundance whether popping to the shops or a trip along a coastal road in the sun. Originally registered on 25th April 1967, this Mini Moke has only had two previous keepers throughout its 50 years on the road. The current vendor had her restored approximately four years ago and as such this Mini presents in very good order. The 998cc engine runs well, the gearbox is smooth in operation and we are advised she drives with no known faults. Finished in yellow, this is a pretty looking Moke and comes fitted with spotlights, Minilite wheels, front and rear nudge bars and also a full set of wet weather equipment. Parts are in plentiful supply for these vehicles and maintenance should be within the capability of any mechanically minded owner. Supplied with a V5C registration document and a full year's MoT test certificate together with a collection of MoT’s and a history folder, this genuine, iconic and desirable Mini is offered for sale at a realistic estimate given the age, condition and low ownership. https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2018-03-03/cars/ref-13-1967-mini-moke/
Lot 220 - 1995 Rover Mini SPi Cooper Supercharged Lot Number     220 Registration     M474 XBG Chassis Number     SAXXNNAYCBD098808 Engine Number     12A2EJ02304576 Odometer reading     72,833 miles Estimate     £12,000 - £17,000 This 1995 Rover Mini started life innocently enough as a standard Cooper, but well known Mini owner and enthusiast George Harris was on the lookout for a new project. He had recently created a well-known and widely publicised twin Hayabusa engine powered Mini in 2015. He purchased the car from a fellow Mini Club member and his initial plans were to simply back date the more modern Rover Mini, these plans soon went out the window when his friend purchased a Singer built Porsche and George fell in love with it. George did not have the funds for a Singer but he was inspired to construct his Mini with a similar philosophy, in his own words "a classic hot-rod, 911 inspired Mini". As a 60's period racer was the intended style, George fitted Mk. I rear lights and cut the lip off the bonnet of a Mk. I grille, however, much of the work was outsourced to OSC Bodyworks in Chessington, they fitted the Heritage panels. The Mini was finished in flame red with an Old English White roof. Once painted, the shell was sent to Wood and Pickett for sub-frames and a new running gear, which included Cooper S front disc assembly that allowed for the race style Rose Petal wheels with Hi-Los and Gaz dampers. The original 1275 SPi engine is far from standard; it was bored out to 1293cc and fully rebuilt, including a supercharger kit from VmaxScart and Webber carburettor, this culminated in an estimated power output in the region of 140bhp, which looks fantastic and sounds amazing. The interior is where the 911 had the clearest influence on George; Cobra GT bucket seats were installed with matching rear trim and the dash wrapped in the same material. The Race Tech harnesses were another nod to the Singer Porsche, as was the six point roll cage. There were numerous other enhancements and they are detailed in Mini Magazine, August 2017, a copy of this can be found in the cars history file. This is a fully bespoke and unique Mini. The engine is still being run in and as such the full potential is yet to be realised, but it will be a lot of fun finding out the limits of this little Cooper. Accompanying this Mini is a new MoT test certificate and a good history file, including invoices and receipts. You would be hard pushed to find something as well built, entertaining and at such an attractive estimate as this little Mini.  https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2018-03-03/cars/ref-114-1995-rover-mini-spi-cooper-supercharged/ via Blogger http://ift.tt/2oKZYi2
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