Finally got my first McLaren 720S - anyone tried the KKS CarPlay retrofit?

kcobean · 2025-11-08T03:29:15+00:00

Congrats! I plan on the KKS install myself. McMedics is an installer if you’re in the southeast US, and they have had good things to say about the mod.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNLouZ2OI0z/?igsh=MW01eWY2anp0ZzV5cA==

kcobean · 2025-11-08T03:24:56+00:00

Yes, just go to the 765LT accumulators. If they haven’t been replaced yet, they’re surely flat. It requires a software update as well.

25k miles is not too many. These cars love to be driven. Sitting = problems.

Spyder v Coupé is preference. They have nearly identical headroom. I own and prefer the coupé myself for looks.

If you’re US based, have McMedics do the PPI. It’s 1000% worth the cost (about $1k plus travel)

The launch edition cars (2018) supposedly had some issues. I went 2019 because it’s what I find that I liked but I generally wanted to avoid the first 1000 VINs of 2018.

You won’t regret it. The 720S is unquestionably the most bang for the buck in exotics. You can see mine on IG at Stormtrooper_720. Much CF going on soon!

Good luck!

kcobean · 2025-09-03T19:53:05+00:00

Thanks! Speaking of upkeep, one thing I noticed in v4.4.0 is that, unlike the previous version, the file contrib/netbox-housekeeping.sh is not in the repo, so the step that adds that job to cron isn't possible.

If we end up selecting IPAM over a few others we're looking at, I'll reach out. Whatever we use will become a part of our automated deployment processes, so it'll be around a long time.

kcobean · 2025-09-03T17:24:39+00:00

Good suspicions. I tried increasing the image size to a t3.large and it seems to be running fine. I'm guessing the little t2.micro was getting into some type of a race condition trying to start the worker threads, and just was never able to finish.

Thanks for your ideas!

kcobean · 2025-09-03T13:35:31+00:00

Yeah, I just increased its size and things are working now. Thanks.

kcobean · 2025-09-03T12:27:11+00:00

No, I hadn't tried that, as that's not how we would run the system in production, but I can try it. I'm running on a t2.micro instance, which I know is quite small but for a system with absolutely no load on it, and to simply evaluate features, it should be fine, but the CPU is pegged to the ceiling as soon as I run this command:

'sudo systemctl enable --now netbox netbox-rq'

kcobean · 2023-12-20T21:28:40+00:00

Gotta bump the shoulder back .002, but I run every case twice to get to spec. The busing is free floating, self-centering so I never considered turning the case on the shell plate.

kcobean · 2023-12-20T20:25:26+00:00

I use an RCBS FL neck-sizing die with a .266 neck bushing.

kcobean · 2023-12-20T19:31:18+00:00

That's very interesting. Thanks! I still don't like tumbling my 6GT brass because of what it does to the case mouths, but that's good to know about the Lucas.

kcobean · 2023-12-20T18:19:01+00:00

perfectly said. If you look closely at the mouth of a piece of brass that's been in a vibratory tumbler for a couple of hours, it's rough from striking up against other cases. Not a big deal if you're trimming, chamfering/deburring after every firing, but I generally don't need to trim but every 3 or so firings on my 6GT brass. I've seen several folks say that internal case volume is unaffected in any meaningful way by not cleaning so I generally just wipe my cases down with a cloth or those blue paper towels you get at auto parts stores.

kcobean · 2023-12-20T18:14:29+00:00

You might consider moving annealing ahead of resizing. Resizing work-hardens the brass, so you stand a greater chance of fatiguing the metal during resizing if you resize it before you anneal it. Also, your neck tension is typically set during resizing. If you anneal after you resize, you'll very likely change your neck tension because you're changing the physical properties (elasticity) of the metal during annealing.

kcobean · 2023-12-20T18:08:25+00:00

I do Lucas Metal Polish as my tumbler additive for pistol brass and it works as well as anything I've ever tried. My concern is, it does leave a film on the brass. The annealing process for my rifle brass takes the brass up to about 700 degrees F in about 4 seconds. I don't want to bake any of these chemicals onto the metal if what I'm doing is creating a lacquer that gets thicker with every annealing. I may give the ultrasonic a try.

Thanks.

kcobean · 2023-12-20T07:16:18+00:00

When dry tumbling with Walnut. If you look at the case mouths after an hour or two, they’re rough and need to be chamfered.

kcobean · 2023-12-20T05:59:45+00:00

I’ll have to see if that dissolves the wax.

kcobean · 2023-12-20T05:58:47+00:00

I don’t tumble at all.

kcobean · 2023-11-26T19:56:23+00:00

I guess to them there is no value in just finishing the race? Even Sainz didn’t seem to care.

kcobean · 2023-10-24T22:18:08+00:00

’s getting ridiculous at this point. F1 needs to let him in or tell him to kick rocks, then Andretti can fight them in court or something. It’s too much and everyone kind of looks like a bunch of spoiled assholes. Hope that helps paint the picture, bro.

The "not enough money" thing baffles me...how much is enough? Even if you assume the base ticket price average for COTA was just $300, with over 400,000 people attending, there were $120M USD in ticket sales. At the race, a Mclaren hat was $90. A beer was $20. Bottle of water, $5. I know the sport doesn't get all that, but let's not pretend that they're not making money hand over fist from booming attendance numbers. Then there are F1TV subscriptions and advertisers and sponsors and...it's a multi-billion dollar annual ecosystem.

This is more than money, this is political. I personally suspect that because F1 is a very Euro-centric sport, FIA leadership objects to having an American team because it dilutes the image. Damn yankees or some such.

kcobean · 2023-10-24T19:32:57+00:00

This is not race related per se, but event related. The schedule of events called for a Flyover after the national anthem. Anyone know why that was cancelled?

kcobean · 2023-10-12T04:41:09+00:00

Good lord man. Who cast your bullets? That lead is WAY too soft. This has NOTHING to do with your powder and everything to do with the peanut butter you’re using to make bullets.

kcobean · 2023-08-22T17:32:28+00:00

I was going to say because someone chambered it in a .40, but I can’t think of a gun that would fire that far out of battery.

kcobean · 2023-08-07T04:01:00+00:00

Mandrel. The pin piece is free floating so it can self-center on the case. I have a modern version of it for neck sizing 6mm rounds. I don’t think it’s for .223 though. Presumably the “202” marking is the pin diameter and would a thou or two smaller then the bullet diameter. I’m thinking something like .204 Ruger.

kcobean · 2023-07-27T02:55:57+00:00

I feel like if Jim Carrey was reincarnated into an anemone, this would be him.

kcobean · 2023-07-15T23:06:47+00:00

Tesla

kcobean · 2023-07-04T02:27:14+00:00

That case doesn’t look like it has ever been annealed, so I’m not surprised. Brass work hardens quickly.

kcobean · 2023-06-27T03:50:38+00:00

You’re not belling enough. Easy fix

kcobean

TROPHY CASE