168 replies to this topic

[Daviewonder]

I heard he only signed up for the Justin Bieber thread.

[adam_93rio]

i think some people who have posted on here should be apologising.

welcome to the forum, looks forward to hearing more

[Jean the mini]

David we have countless questions that the yellow bible answered for most of use,for this we are eternally gratefull but please let us welcome you

[E.L.M.O]

To explain a little further, I spoke with David last night for around an hour. It was a very interesting chat and I didn't read his messages on here as being rude really.

He had emailed someone off here to ask for a phone number, but it appears that somewhere along the lines the emails got missed, filtered as junk, or whatever else. Either way, it's all sorted now.

So, watch this space!

Fair enough. Maybe rude is a little too strong a word... I think he was coming across a little "short" if that makes sense?
Hey ho sure it will all work out.

[PhilipGCaldwell]

Wowsers!David Vizard!The Yellow Bible is the best book I have ever read, infact when me and my girlfriend played 'Mr and Mrs' at a friends party a few months back my girl was asked "what is Phil's favourite book" and she answered "How to tune the A series engine" which of course was correct

WE'RE NOT WORTHY

[mk1leg]

David we have countless questions that the yellow bible answered for most of use,for this we are eternally gratefull but please let us welcome you

For us older folk its the blue bible..................

[mab01uk]

"DV will be the Star Guest for Mountune Race Engines at this premier motor sport show in England. He will be at the Mountune booth most of the time and will be more than happy to sign books for those who care to bring them along."
http://www.davidvizardseminars.com/

Venue: Autosports Show, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, England. to be held in 12-15th January 2012.
http://www.autosportinternational.com/

More about David Mountain and Mountune Race Engines here.

Edited by mab01uk, 09 December 2011 - 07:17 PM.

[The Matt]

He certainly will.

David will also be carrying out a tuning seminar in Swansea during September next year. TMF will be running a charity prize draw to offer 4 tickets to 4 different TMF members for the seminar too.

As I said, watch this space, we're organising a lot behind the scenes at the moment.

[mab01uk]

More interesting info on Mini A-Series tuning posted from Dave Vizard on Pistonheads:

http://www.track-day...eal mini power?

http://www.pistonhea...0mph&mid=290748

[feeenix14]

Wow. King ding-a-ling of the mini world !!!

I will definitely be watching this space !!

[TA2DMAC]

Welcome. I'm new to the mini world and have heard nothing but great things about you. Still working on trying to get a copy of your book here in the U.S. looki.g forward to sharing your knowledge.

[mattw92]

Dave Vizard?

[David Vizard]

Well - now I have a few moments, let me start by saying thanks for all the welcomes extended to me. And on the point of sounding 'short' I have to say that's a new one. Remember I get paid by the word (except when posting!) My concern when I got no response was that the opportunity to do what I initially wanted to would have been long gone if I had just assumed that no response meant no one cared about what I wanted to say. That subsequently proved not to be the case so here it is:-

I am going to be on the Mountune Racing stand(booth) at the Birmingham Autosports show this Jan 12th-15th. I would love to spend some time talking to fellow mini enthusiasts. Even though I have not owned a mini since 1973(although I have raced one as recently as 2002) I still rate it as my #1 fun car along with a 427 King Cobra. If you have any books you want signing then bring them along and I will see what I can do. If you want something special for a present or for yourself I can not only sign it but put in a special dedication. For this however I have to take an order and ship it out of my place in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But back to Mini's. Here in Charlotte there are a few mini's but for the most part I don't get to hang out with the owners because my time is used up attending to whatever is required of me by publishers wanting stuff on V8's. On top of that I have a 15 year old daughter who is hell bent on being a professional race driver. She has been driving since the age of 8 in a full size car. This year she started drag racing (a supercharged 450 hp at the wheels Chevy truck among other things) and showed well enough to get picked up for a drive in the #2 car of a two car team. She also has earned a tryout in a 900 HP rear engined Gas Dragster that will run about 200 mph in the lights on the quarter mile. Trying to get this kid into a position of being a professional race car driver is a lot more strenuous that putting your kids through college. With all this going on I don't get my mini fix as often as I would like. Hopefully swapping tales here will go someway to alleviate that.


On the point of my Swansea seminar. the plan here is to make this as Mini owner friendly as possible without undermining my seminar teams mode of earning a living. At $500 plus it does sound expensive but consider this. If someone offered you the opportunity to learn off every single dyno run I have ever made and said it will cost you 0.1 of a cent (1 cent per 10 runs) you would probably think that is a real deal as it's almost a give away. But the truth here is that I passed my 500,000th dyno pull some years back. Let me ask a question here - have you ever thought how much it costs to do a run on even a Mini engine (and they don't eat up fuel and dyno parts like a 2000 hp V8) Just do a little in the way of calculations and even if you underestimate by a big margin you will see that 500,000 dyno pulls comes to a whole lot of cash. Also I had over a 1/3 of a million dollars tied up in my California dyno facility mostly for the benefit of readers of my articles and books. Show me another writer who goes to those lengths to bring the reader the real story.

As of now I, and my event manager Mike Lane, are working with this forums staff to get a better seminar deal for mini owners. Why do I feel the need for this? Simple - over the years mini owners have treated me very well. I have had the red carpet rolled out for me all over the world. I have met mini owners of almost every nationality and been made to feel very welcome. I felt that what I did for mini owners was appreciated greatly. That's something I never got from the factory. Indeed I often felt they thought of me as a pain in the rear. Pity - there was so much I could have done for them - but that's life.

I do these seminars all over the world including my home town University here in Charlotte. Among US race fans Charlotte is known as 'race car city USA' as there are so many top echelon race teams located here. To give you an example there are about a hundred chassis dyno's within 30 miles of my house. and Lord knows how many engine dyno's. Most of the race stuff, as you would imagine, is connected to V8 power plants. With so many top professionals about you might be surprised that this little old Brit (Wave the Union Jack) is filling an auditorium of the USA's top professional race car engineers. At the last Seminar I did here in Charlotte one of the top engineers on the team that has just won 5 NASCAR championships in a row said to me at the first break (2 hours into an 18 hour seminar) - the money I spent for me and my guys has already paid off'. Why? Because I delivered tens of thousand of dollars worth tech right now for just $500. By the way at the time these guys estimated they spent $100,000 per hp gained in their engine program.

One of the things that I so often get a sense of is that so many people know me as a tech guy but have little or no idea who I am as an actual person. On top of that most people seem to think they have a realistic handle on what my working life is like and that, for the most part, must be among the most erroneous assumptions on the face of the planet. I was talking to one well known UK editor a few months ago and he was actually shocked at how my life style differed so radically between him and his associate writers compared to me. The big difference that caused such a radical variation in life's events was the fact that, unlike most writers, I am an engineer first and foremost. Having a comprehensive engine test facility of my own is also unique among tech automotive writers. All this leads down avenues you could not even begin to imagine. I have insider stories that would range, for most folk, from shear abject terror to 'who the hell would have thought that' to extremely heart warming experiences. If I had not been a writer myself I suspect I would have had tons of editorial written about me but it appears that my popularity as a writer actually puts off other writers making me the subject of editorial. Sure it has happened but not that often. At the end of the day it's my fans that show that what I do is largely appreciated. So with that I want to thank all of you who have, over the best part of 45 years, shown me the support I need to carry on. Thanks to all and I hope you all have a merry Xmas and a fortune filled 2012.

David Vizard

Edited by David Vizard, 23 December 2011 - 12:47 AM.

[1994alex]

Welcome to TMF.
Not going to lie here but i wish that i was in your daughters position.
If i can i will try to come to the seminar
Alex

Note to self get a copy of the yellow bible

[ministar]

Wow, very impressed you took the time to post. I did wonder why you lived out in the states, but with the V8 industry there and over a hundred chassis dyno's within a 30 mile radius is only a dream for the UK, and can understand why.

Again thanks, and look forward to hearing more from you.