[Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the November 2006 issue of Grassroots Motorsports.]
Building a car from scratch—from the wheels up—is not for the faint of heart. Still, some people relish the challenge. They find inspiration in that blank sheet of paper. To them, there’s nothing better than saying “to hell with the rules” and bolting together whatever parts …
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kb58
SuperDork
8/4/22 12:42 p.m.
Thank you, and the highlight of my Kimini ownership was seeing her on the front cover of GRM. Today, Kimini is alive and well with its current owner, in Texas. After selling Kimini, the funds went into creating Midlana, a mid-engine "Seven", which will be on BaT in a few weeks.
A huge thank you to GRM for the honor!
te72
HalfDork
8/5/22 3:06 p.m.
In reply to kb58 :
Kurt, you're making the motoring world a more interesting place. If I had the time to devote to the craft, I'd only hope to be able to do the same. Seeing how long it took to build Kimini does help put my Supra project in perspective, and I appreciate that.
http://godsavetheclown.com/
The Clown's RWD Minissan was pretty good too.
racerfink said:
http://godsavetheclown.com/
The Clown's RWD Minissan was pretty good too.
What ever happend to Mike Guido? Havent seen him on here in years.
Loved following both Kimini and Midlana builds, cant wait to see whats next.
Last I talked with him was when I stayed at his house during Hurricane Irma. Gave up book of false faces about a year and a half ago, so I don't know if he still runs his Mini USA parts business.
kb58
SuperDork
8/5/22 4:10 p.m.
te72 said:
In reply to kb58 :
Kurt, you're making the motoring world a more interesting place. If I had the time to devote to the craft, I'd only hope to be able to do the same. Seeing how long it took to build Kimini does help put my Supra project in perspective, and I appreciate that.
A sincere thank you. I feel that if the books accomplish anything, it's to show that it really can be done. One Midlana currently in construction is a father-son team. That meant a lot to me.
te72
HalfDork
8/6/22 1:10 a.m.
In reply to kb58 :
Oh I'm an example of what can be done with time, patience, prayer, the best tools a young man can afford on a ramen budget, and the desire to see a dream come to fruition. Between the Supra, the Exocet, and the ramp truck I'm currently constructing... yeah. I've been blessed. 20 years ago I think is when I cross threaded a spark plug install on my first car trying to "tune it up" haha. I've come a ways. =P
Leaving documentation to help those who want to follow your trail? That's excellent. I make the occasional video, more for posterity's sake than anything. Showing the mudane side of it would take HOURS to document. Days, likely. I'm more likely to just put that time into you know, building other stuff.
kb58
UltraDork
6/27/24 2:33 p.m.
Nice to see this pop back up :)
As mentioned above, after building Kimini, it was on to Midlana (see sig) and it has since been sold as well, now residing in Memphis TN. Unlike Kimini however, it hasn't done much. In short, the new owners have a lot of play cars, so Midlana sat for a while. When they went to start it, the battery was nearly dead, and unbeknownst to me or the buyer, the AEM Infinity ECU has a bug - where if you do the above, it bricks itself! Since that time, I don't believe the car has been driven. It seems like every six months or so, the new owner contacts me, asking for help, typically with less than a week before some event they want to run it in... We did basic troubleshooting, ending with learning about the "brick function" of the AEM. The fix seemed easy, return the ECU to the manufacturer for reflashing, only...
Turns out that after I sold Midlana, Holley purchased AEM and decided to stop production of the above ECU. Presto, just like that, no support, no repairs, and no new units. Fortunately I know a tuner who deals with this ECU and he said "I know a guy" who can reflash the ECUs. From here the story gets all fuzzy regarding whether they ever sent the ECU to anyone, or just didn't want to deal with it at the time, push Midlana aside, and drive something else, only to come back to it six months later. Maybe they got it working, maybe not, or maybe I'll get a call offering to sell it back to me, cheap...
I seem to be off topic, again.
