Hi JagtechOhio,

How about IRL = CART with Crapwagons?

Mike

 

Just a fan, but a pretty interested one after the last few races: Sonoma on Sunday was another really competitive show. Alot of the old school fans pine for more oval races, but road racing in a series that runs basically "spec" cars really highlights the skill levels and different driving styles of the competitors. I have learned alot from watching this year, left foot trail braking is one example.

 

I worked for Honda in their F1 engine development dept as a project manager in the 80's, that's right, those 1.5 liter twin turbo buzz bombs developing 1300 HP in qualifying trim, designed to last 5 laps, LOL. Then I was the parts and service director for a company that owned 19 new car franchises of which one happened to be Jaguar. Did that for 15 years at the same company. Now I am involved in a company that manufactures a real time OBD reader that sends codes over the web coupled with a GPS unit. So dealers can get codes and actually reset minor ones over the web without the customer having to come in the service drive. This allows the dealer to take a proactive approach to contacting their customers when the ole "check engine" light comes on.

 

Hey Waz,

Thanks for that, cool resume! I can hardly imagine what the dyno room must have sounded like. I guess you didn't need remote engine diagnostics back then, you could just walk around the track and pick up the pieces?

The system you're working on now sounds very beneficial. Let's hope it also provides pinpoint location for the nearest service facility...let me know if you're making a list!

Here's a relevant question, pertaining to your Jaguar parts background: Is there a specific exclusion that limits Dealer parts purchases through aftermarket sources?

__________________________________________________ ___________________

Least favorite saying: "We didn't have time to do it right, but we found the time to do it twice". Carrol Smith

 

There wasn't back then and it was really up to the dealer to decide what parts to use. Obviously for warranty and liablity issues many times factory parts were the only way to go. It was much easier to inventory and reorder factory parts. However, I did not use factory oil filters in many cases, and with Jaguars I kept many a customer happy by offering frozen brake rotors and non-Jaguar brake pads and what petroleum products we used were up to us. It just so happens that Castrol gave us the best deal. (It did bother me when I saw Syntec cheaper at some retail stores from time to time than our cost).

 

Why the continued bashing??? I have thought we have moved beyond the immature name calling by now It's just a screen name and you are the only person who seems to have a problem with it... For the record, yes it is a Subaru specific reference. I was involved in the Subaru community for a long time. I have been a huge WRC fan for most of my life and of my fellow countryman Petter Solberg who drove for Subaru for 7+years and earned a WRC title in 2003 for them, not to mention Colin Mcrae who won multiple WRC championships. Your wrong if you think we are the graphic wrapped, huge stereo with tacky *** car crowd. Most of us are rally fans and appreciate what the company has done for motorsports over the years.

If you want to bag on Subarus that's fine... If you can't bring yourself to appreciate the European engineering influences, the company's rally heritage and the WRX/STI being one of the best bang for buck vehicles on the market today then your just misinformed. Or your just the typical person who stereotypes an entire audience who drive these cars as "little ricer boy's" because of some damn movie or think we are into the same scene as the Honda crowd. For the most part, it's the same people as you who stereotype Jaguar's as being an "old man's car." when it's quite the opposite since a lot of people here including myself are 25 years of age and under.

I don't know any other community that would come out in record numbers to mourn a great driver and a great person. This says a lot about how much you don't know:

Wow, Colin McRae tribute parade from nearly 1,100 Subaru Imprezas (photo)

2 09 2008 Unbelievable, a convoy of an estimated 1100 Subaru Imprezas cars stretching 30 miles troop in formation from McRae’s home on Saturday August 30, 2008, in honor of the late Colin McRae. Nine hours and 30 miles later, the party inwards at Prodrive’s headquarters in Banbury, having been cheered along the way by thousands of fans who stood on every unfilled motorway conduit on direct.


On Sunday morning, the convoy re-convened at Prodrive’s headquarters before being led up the M40 by Colin McRae’s unique 1996 Impreza meeting car. In a right finish to the episode, an indicator almost half a mile long and made up of 1086 Subaru’s spelled out COLIN MCRAE along with the Scottish Saltire in a new officer Guinness World Record – smashing the preceding facts by more than 800 cars. The cars then ruined a support Guinness World Record, previously detained by the Mitsubishi Lancer Register, by creating the largest parade of cars as they left the Prodrive adversity footstep.
It is estimated that the affair has raised near $80,000 for the McRae charities.

 

Initial Man:

Good for you and your little blue hose.

 

Other non-factory items we regularly stocked and sold; batteries, bulbs floor mats and other accessories.

Someone mentioned serpentine belts. We used factory belts. It was our experience they seemed to last longer and were more consistent. What I mean by that is that the overall length of the two edges were more consistent. Some aftermarket belts we found varied a lot. The belt creeping towards the inside or outside of the pulleye wasn't really the pulleys being out of alignment but the belt itself. We would remove a new Goodyear belt let's say that would ride on one edge of the pulleys and replace it with a factory belt and it would ride nice and try on the pulleys. So in many instances it's the belt itself.

 

hey Waz,

Thanks for that insight. Most Dealers never sell non-Jag sourced parts, so I was wondering if that was dictated by policy or indifference.

I think the guy with the belt problem actually has a pulley problem, I'm sure he'll report back so we will see the final outcome. The original idler and tensioner pulley on his engine were plastic: when the bearing would sieze, it would burn the pulley off. The supercession was to a Fomoco idler pulley that was steel and had shoulders on it...but the factory belt would not lay flat on the pulley between the shoulders, they were too narrow.

The first one I got, I swore it was wrong. Two different dealer sources sent me the same thing during '07-'08, it was like somebody went crawling through the shelves at Ford until they found it and said "Here, send them this one. It oughtta work".

Now the idler pulley has been superceded again to a smooth steel wheel, same as the pulley on the tensioner assembly. The directive as I have been told is to replace both, along with the later NCA2211DA (slightly longer) belt. But I agree with you about the belt issue in general, I always use factory belts whenever possible for ease of fitment and reliability. Same is true for an awful lot of other components, I have lots of stories about suspension parts.

 

Your Dad just about grossed you on the deal. If I was going to build a lump, I'd buy one broken for $1000-$1500 and start turning it into the Camaro of your dreams.

Have fun with it, they're nice cars when maintained to perform as they were designed.