[DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale

[dave londry]

Curiosity is doing the bad thing here.
If anybody can lay hands on a dead one, I'd certainly take it apart.
(and then maybe get sane and tuck it away in pile #523)
dave

On 15/06/2013 7:59 PM, Boyd Casey wrote:
> I don't find it hard to believe that a Lamborghini dealer can fix the ECU
> of a Diabblo, in fact I thought it was hard to believe that in this day and
> age with people making custom chips to over come performance limitations
> built in by the manufacturers and all the tuners thart work on electronic
> efi. The part I refuse to believe is that you can get anything done at a
> Lamborghini  shop for a few hundred bucks! Come on, who are you trying to
> kid?
> Boyd
>
> On Saturday, June 15, 2013, LS wrote:
>
>> 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 $$$ *IF* they
>> fail.
>>
>> It doesn't happen that often.
>>
>> LS
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> central
>> wines-spirits   est 1934
>>
>>
>> 625 e street nw
>>
>> washington, dc 20004
>>
>> centralwines.com
>>
>>
>> facebook.com/CentralLiquors
>>
>>
>> 202-737-2800
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>   From: Charles Engles <cengles at cox.net <javascript:;>>
>> To: "'Himes, Terry (397C)'" <terry.himes at jpl.nasa.gov <javascript:;>>;
>> detomaso at poca.com <javascript:;>
>> Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 9:42 PM
>> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale
>>
>>
>> Dear Terry,
>>
>>
>>
>>                       ...and from what I can tell there should be a goodly
>> supply of dead and malfunctioning Diablo main engine computers for you to
>> experiment on in order to help them keep their Diablos on the road.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>                                      Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: Himes, Terry (397C) [mailto:terry.himes at jpl.nasa.gov]
>> Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 4:17 PM
>> To: Charles Engles; detomaso at poca.com
>> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale
>>
>>
>>
>> Hmmm?   Gets me thinking that about part-time career opportunity.
>> Something
>> that might fund the next
>>
>> Pantera upgrade I've been wanting.  New brakes.   Hmmm?   Lambo owers ==
>> $$$.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 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.
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