[DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale
LS
lashdeep at yahoo.com
Sat Jun 15 22:28:52 EDT 2013
Detomasos don't handle.
Ferraris are twitchy.
Diablo computers die.
I love the internet!
A good Lambo shop can rebuild a computer for a few hundred $$$ *IF* they fail.
It doesn't happen that often.
LS
central
wines-spirits est 1934
625 e street nw
washington, dc 20004
centralwines.com
facebook.com/CentralLiquors
202-737-2800
________________________________
From: Charles Engles <cengles at cox.net>
To: "'Himes, Terry (397C)'" <terry.himes at jpl.nasa.gov>; detomaso at poca.com
Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 9:42 PM
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale
Dear Terry,
...and from what I can tell there should be a goodly
supply of dead and malfunctioning Diablo main engine computers for you to
experiment on in order to help them keep their Diablos on the road.
Warmest regards, Chuck Engles
From: Himes, Terry (397C) [mailto:terry.himes at jpl.nasa.gov]
Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 4:17 PM
To: Charles Engles; detomaso at poca.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale
Hmmm? Gets me thinking that about part-time career opportunity. Something
that might fund the next
Pantera upgrade I've been wanting. New brakes. Hmmm? Lambo owers ==
$$$.
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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