[DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale

[Charles Engles]

Dear Terry,

 

                     ...and from what I can tell there should be a goodly
supply of dead and malfunctioning Diablo main engine computers for you to
experiment on in order to help them keep their Diablos on the road.

 

 

                                    Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles

 

 

 

From: Himes, Terry (397C) [mailto:terry.himes at jpl.nasa.gov] 
Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 4:17 PM
To: Charles Engles; detomaso at poca.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale

 

Hmmm?   Gets me thinking that about part-time career opportunity.  Something
that might fund the next

Pantera upgrade I've been wanting.  New brakes.   Hmmm?   Lambo owers ==
$$$.

 

 

Terry W. Himes

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Deep Impact Sequence Team Lead

Deep Impact Spacecraft Engineer

Phone: (818) 393-6261

Cell:     (818) 653-8213

Fax:     (818) 393-3147

thimes at jpl.nasa.gov

 

 

From: Charles Engles <cengles at cox.net>
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:31:58 -0500
To: <detomaso at poca.com>
Subject: [DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale

 

Dear Forum,

 

 

 

                  A true story follows.  

 

 

                 A friend of mine owns a Lamborghini Diablo.  He has owned

it for several years and was driving it on a backroad when it lost power.

He came home on a roll back.  He thought  it was a bad oxygen sensor.

Further home diagnostics seem to show that it is the main engine computer

and that accounts  half of the V12 cylinders missing in action.

 

 

                When that diagnosis came up, he thought, "This is bad."   A

call to our nearest Lambo dealer and service center in Dallas-Ft. Worth gave

him an unpleasant earful.  It seems that they have a Diablo with the same

problem.  It has been in their shop for *several* months.   They have

plugged three new computers into it and untold man-hours and still haven't

solved the problem.   They were able to obtain the few remaining factory NOS

engine computers.   Lambo does not make them any more.  It appears that

there is no source for a new Diablo engine computer.

 

 

                Further research showed that there are apparently two guys

in the U.S. with the ability to understand the computer circuitry and code

who can actually work on a sick computer rather than just replace it.  One

fellow is in Ohio and the other is on the West Coast.   He'll have to put

the Diablo on a transport and send it to one of them and hope they can fix

it.

 

 

                The plan that occurred to me: pull the offending and

uncooperative Diablo computer and install something more user friendly---has

already been done by other Diablo owners.  Some have converted to a Motec

system that is supposed to cost about $20k..!

 

 

                After the onset of this major headache, he said that he was

reminded of something that Bob Smith  (  www.bobsmithcoachworks.com ) said

years ago when we were touring his fabulous Ferrari and Exotic Restoration

Shop in Texas.   Someone in the group asked about newer Ferraris and sports

cars in the post carburetor  era.   Bob said, "They're throwaway cars."

Cold and succinct.    My friend said that in his current situation, he is

afraid that Bob was right.

 

 

                I hope he gets it fixed, but it does make me appreciate my

Panteras even more.

 

 

 

                                Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles

 

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