Ernest Ford - 52 this year - and spent the last 30 or so years as an IT support technician working first on NCR equipment - the old Century mid range systems, and moving forward in to the IBM PC and compatibles as those hit the market. Over the years I have also worked on IBM's AS/400 mid range line, Eaton Powerware's UPS line and a fair amount of Cisco gear. For the last decade I have been running my own small business providing third party warranty support on Dell & HP/Compaq.
On the automotive side - I've been wrenching on the stuff before I had a driver's license, starting out with the older British Leyland/Morris/Austin vehicles - classic Mini, Mokes, Marinas all with the A-series engines and switched to Suzuki after that - I currently have two, a 93 Swift and a 98 Grand Vitara - with the GV being my first EFI vehicle.
It's been my nature to fiddle with electronics every step of the way, so from an IT support background to a vehicle with a computer under the dash - it's sort of a logical progression in wanting to be able to connect to the ECU and see what it's doing.
I am not yet ready for the fancy tricks, flashing firmware, etc. - at least not on my daily driver - I get to play with that sort of stuff on another vehicle - a 13B engined, tube-framed RX7 belonging to one of our local racers. Within the last year we have migrated that from downdraught Weber to EFI first with an ElectroMotive Tec2 and more recently the Autronic SM4.
The car runs pretty well and currently holds the lap record at our local circuit, and last weekend, set a new record for 2WD cars over on the neighboring island of Barbados.
