“Oh, hold on Fred, my car is telling me something… oh it’s telling me that I’m on the phone. OH SHIT I JUST RAN A RED LIGH….[screech, crash]”

So, we are going to help the distracted driver by distracting them some more?

Maybe there’s a future for me there….

Now I just need to pass an inspection. That’s going to be the hardest part. Although, I read up on it, and you can get a free re-test within 15 days of failing.

So:

• Horn
• Tires
• Emissions

Fixing the horn will only require some steering wheel components. The steering wheel was trashed when I bought the car. As for the tires, I can swap some 350Z wheels and tires on it just to pass. The ones on it right now are horrid.

The emissions will be the cheapest and easiest, but time consuming. I just have to tune it right.

I’m going to try and stop by the Z parts place to pick up the horn components, as well as a brake light switch for “launch control”. I have a clutch switch, but it’s normally closed. I need a switch to be normally open until the clutch is pressed. So, after testing out the cruise control, clutch, and brake light switch, the brake light one is the only one that’s normally closed.

Launch control, you ask?

Speaking of random, I was (am) attempting to make my own version of the MegaLogViewer for Megasquirt. In this attempt, I happened to notice that my Z31 cranks at 280-325 or so RPM. This is not a big deal, it’s just that I have my MS box set to interpret anything at 300 RPM or below as “cranking”. It applies a whole different fuel factor to the engine when cranking versus running, which is 301 and up RPM.

So, this could explain why my car is hard to start sometimes. One of these days, when I’m not busy studying (which consists of mostly me running errands and otherwise not studying), I will up the cranking RPM to 350 or so and see if I can finally get some positive feedback from modifying the cranking pulsewidths. Before now I was pretty much shooting in the dark, with some settings working some of the time.

Here’s a screenshot of my program so far. It’s in C#, and it’s horridly put together right now. All it does as of now is load files (up to a million records long, anyway), parse the data in to memory, and draw unscaled graphs of the first x records. Where x is the pixel size of that picturebox control you see there (the actual graph):

MSLog Preview

The ticker control at the bottom is eventually going to “scroll” the graph. Right now it does do something, it scales itself according to whatever file is loaded (thus, however many records are loaded), but I’ve yet to implement the scrolling feature.

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.

In other news, the SES light on the Pathfinder went out, after staying on for a couple months. A self-fixing car! Now I just need to get it inspected before it comes back on again. Damned OBD-II trash.

I installed a cheap (really cheap: $10) boost controller and cranked up my Z31 to 10psi. Now it halls balls. Next step is a surety bond and then registration. Then the track.

That’s a T3/T04E, and a 38mm Tial wastegate, 4-bolt to V-band adapter, dump pipe, and some extra flanges, and some flanges and stuff (not pictured).

The turbo is .63 hot side, stage 3 wheel. Cold side is 50 trim. Very, very similar to my old turbo on my 84AE Z31, but it’s a slightly more efficient trim, that flows less, and ball bearing.

Now I just need to buy and build an engine. Simple.

But, alas, it’s not. So far, my options are a mechanic’s lean, or a bonded title. I’ve opted to try for a bonded title. This makes me nervous, but I don’t think the specified “owner”, who’s from another state, will care. Plus, it’s way passed the statute of limitations, so I doubt I’ll have any trouble.

Also, I’ve tried to locate and contact both the person listed on the title and the person to whom the title was signed over. No luck. Even my keen Googling couldn’t turn up any current information.

Hopefully, within the next few months, I’ll be able to drive this thing on the streets… legally.

From the Galveston County Daily News:

The owner of one of the world’s fastest production automobiles accidentally drove his fine-tuned, French-built car into a saltwater lagoon Wednesday.

Sigh. I’ve heard some unconfirmed news that the driver was apprehended due to some allegations of fraud… but that may not be so.

Really. A Veyron, the hyper car of hyper cars.

Sign the petition to rename the Lagoon: “Bugatti Lagooni”

So we can forever remember this horrible tragedy.