@distraxi said in Smoke ‘Em while you’ve got ‘Em, folks:

The end of the IC engine has begun for realz.

Audi, and therefore most of VAG, have announced they’re no longer developing new IC engines.

Just wait until everyone realizes that their VW electric cars lied and have been secretly using gas all along.

Ouch sorry.

Also sorry for this: Looks like it couldn't handle the... pressure.

Big black arrows, where the cars actually stretched to.
Small black arrow, where the organizers probably figured it would stretch to.
Yellow arrow, the MSF motorcycle class that ended up in the middle of the event.

This morning was the first Cars & Coffee in the Bay Area in quite a while. It was put on by my friends at VALT. The pent up demand for C&C was huge. Thankfully, they picked a place with almost infinite expansion potential: The USS Hornet in Alameda. It also provides a really incredible backdrop for some of the photos.

I got there at 8:15 and it was already packed. The event started at 9am...

The volume of the cars was just incredible and the variety was stunning. LS swapped 944, all generations of Supra, 20+ R35 GT-Rs, 1st generation GT-R, R32, R33, and R34 GT-Rs, old American Muscle, new American Muscle, 356 speedsters, all manner of 911s from a 1st gen up to a GT3RS, a Delorean, a KITT replica, two Lamborghini Diablos, a Pagani Huayra, various Ferraris, a Geo Metro LSI convertible, a Miatas (of course), Mustang Mach-E, Ford GT (old AND new), and Lucid Motors showed off their new prototype for the first time. Peets Coffee was there as a sponsor handing out free coffee and the CEO was out greeting people.

The event was absolutely off it's nuts. A billion dollars worth of cars in one place. Sometimes $1M car parked next to a $5k car. That's one of the great things about Northern CA car culture. It's not about one-upping people, it's about having a car that speaks to your personal uniqueness.

I didn't take a ton of photos, but here are a few -

This is the CEO of Peet's Interceptor:

How about a Golf with a Toureg V6?

Lucid Prototype

It's a thing!

Mmmmmm GT

Puppies were out.

So were 356's.

And Diablo VTs

And cool old Military stuff:

KITT!

When you need to tow a Hummer, what do you buy?

Back in October 2020, I made the decision to swap out the tired motor on my 1991 Miata. The car has done almost 213k miles on it's original motor. 199k of those belonged to it's original owner, Sally, who bought the car brand new in 1990. She lived just about 3 miles away in Point Richmond in Richmond, CA. Amazingly, in the three decades that this car has been around, it's never been registered outside of Richmond.

Sally was a really good first owner. She did regular maintenance - spark plugs, timing belts, coolant flushes, oil changes, air filters, fuel filters - all like clockwork. When she sold me the car, she handed over almost 2 inches of paper stuffed in a manila folder. If I'm ever wondering if something's been done, it's right there in the receipts.

Unfortunately, Sally needed a double hip replacement and getting in and out of the car was getting problematic. She walked with a cane and instead had been driving a small SUV from a family member. She listed the car on Craiglist in 2017 for a "nice price". She didn't just get an email from me, she got a flood of emails from people all around. The car, as she told me, had to go "to the right person". She had a list of questions for each buyer. Some were too young and she expressed concern about a young person having such a small car with not a lot of safety equipment. Some people weren't mechanically minded or didn't have the means to fix it and she didn't want to see it end up in a scrap yard. After agreeing to meet me, I grabbed cash from the bank and ran as fast I could to meet her.

The car was perfect for what I wanted. My plan, unknown to Sally, was turn the car into an Exocet. The body dings, worn out clutch, sad suspension, bald tires, and oil leaks weren't a big issue. I did zero haggling, handed her the cash, signed the title, and promptly handed the keys to my friend Abhijeet who was proficient at limping a car with a failing clutch.

Watch out for this guy, he's mean.

We got the car home and I started analyzing my purchase. It had LOTS of issues. The clutch was absolutely knackered, the suspension was clunking all over the place, the top was in tough shape, and I don't think it had been washed since 1995. But it was complete and completely rust free. Even with all of its problems, it still drove like a Miata. Smiles from ear to ear.

I did the clutch on it, replaced the brakes (upgrades to 1.8 brakes), bushings, control arms, sway bars, wheels, and tires. All that work took place in my garage. Still planning on making it an Exocet once I got all the mechanics sorted. In the process, my roommate and I, who worked at the same business at the time, began commuting together in the car.

That's when an annoying thing happened. I fell in love with driving the Miata. I couldn't bring myself to rip apart Sally's car. One night, browsing Craigslist, I found a project Exocet for sale in San Jose. I drove down, bought it, and shipped it up to Richmond. Well, damn, looks like I have both! Most people here know that I've got both, so now you know why.

This last summer, thanks to COVID, I had plenty of time to completely redo the car's interor. I went so far as to take the dash out and rebuild most of the broken tabs in it. I also reupholstered the seats (next time, I'll pay a professional because that's a PITA), deleted the center console, put new carpet in, wired up headrest speakers, upgraded the rest of the sound system with an amplifier, added LRB speed door panels (with a custom door pad that I designed myself), had custom speaker surrounds made from CNC'd aluminum, and made a number of other small cosmetic upgrades.

The Miata has been an excellent car. It was my daily for the last 3 years (supplanting my Lancer Ralliart and certainly not replaced by my F-Type R). Unfortunately, I'd been feeling like the car was missing more than a few of it's ponies. It didn't have many to begin with (112hp in 1991) so losing a few wasn't great. I did a compression test and things came out pretty badly. To make matters worse, testing the #4 cylinder was complicated by the fact that a previous mechanic had stripped the threads on #4's spark plug and inserted a threaded insert.

So October rolled around and I finally made the call: new motor time. I looked at a ton of options. Everything from freshly remanufactured motors from various suppliers (terrible reviews) to K-Swaps. I did what anyone would do an made a spreadsheet.

Ultimately, I decided to go with a JDM 1.8 from a 2003 Miata. Other options, like rebuilding the 1.6 to my OCD specification ($9k) or a K24Z3 ($10k), were more expensive than my projection of around $5k for a low mile NB2 motor.

This motor was delivered in November. Why in February am I still not done? Eh, life and ECU's. As you may have read, my saga with VividRacing derailed the ECU process and lead to a severe disinterest in the project. I've since gotten some steam back though.

My process for this project has been fairly meticulous. Every time I touch a bolt, I take a picture, add arrows, give it a number, and put any parts taken off in a number plastic bag. That way, I minimize losing items and maximize my ability to go back and pick the project back up later.

Bit by bit, I've been picking my way through the engine. Replacing seals, water pump, gaskets, and anything that might some day leak or rust.

I even went so far as painting the coolant overflow tank.

I also painted up the headers, the 01+ US intake manifold, and the valve cover.

One of the odd things about this project has been having to piece it together. There are a lot of great guides online about what parts you'll need, but it's full of decision trees. The US 01+ manifold means a 99-00 fuel rail if you use the 90-93 throttle body. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had to clearance the manifold and pinched the first fuel rail that I put on. Woops.

Today I started on the throttle body - which is a major difference on NB Miatas. The location of the throttle body on the NB motor is slightly different, so to use the NA6 throttle body, I'll be using the FlyinMiata spacer. That required drilling and tapping two new holes in the manifold (using the adapter as a guide while it sits on the existing studs, then once tapped, removing the two studs. There's also a spot milled out on the NB intake that you should fill with epoxy or JB Weld to smooth things out, so I took care of that as well and sanded it off tonight once dry. Tomorrow or monday, I'll take the 1.6 throttle body off the 1.6 motor (which is still in the Miata with almost everything disconnected except the drive shaft and engine mounts), and put it on the adapter. Following that, I'll be putting a BMW throttle position sensor to convert this to 0-5V signal for Megasquirt instead of a simple "idle, not idle" that the NA6 ECU uses.

There's still along way to go on this project. I'll do my best to write more updates. I'll also be cleaning up the rest of the engine bay, putting some non-dented panels on, and getting the car resprayed once everything is done mechanically. After that, it's time for a roll bar and some chassis bracing.

In case you want to catch up:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Work and allergies slowed down this project significantly but I'm back in action (thanks to a certain steroidal allergy med). I've been doing a little at a time over the last few weeks and finally made significant progress this weekend.

First off, I got the AC and PS mounted to the new motor (still outside of the car). Both were easier said than done since the new motor didn't have an AC bracket. That meant pulling my old one off, scraping off gunk, treating it, and cleaning up the bolts as well. One thing about Japan is that it gets weather, so this new motor, while somewhat fresh, is still a bit of a fighter. The power steering bracket has this odd design where a press-fit sleeve overlaps a bolt. Problem is, mine was corroded in place. Much hammering later, it moved enough to get the bolt out. I used the one off my old motor because it was in better shape (after much cleaning).

So after getting those on, I got the belts on and tensioned. Getting closer!

Now here's where Japan seems to strike again. Most of the coolant fittings on the car are in great shape. Except for one. This is the rear of the motor and runs to the oil cooler.

There were quite a few suggestions and while welding on a new barb was potentially possible, the angle would have been tough. I instead opted to try and find an NPT thread that I could cut into it. I was able to get a 1/16 NPT thread cutter to fit on there (after also trying a 1/8 and realizing that NPT dimensions are weird AF).

Today, I did less on the motor and turned my attention to the engine bay. At some point in the past, the brake master must have let go. The brake fluid was likely not cleaned up quickly because the damaged paint was left to turn into damaged metal. I gave it a metal brush, a scotchbrite, a wire wheel, and another scotchbrite, and a clean, and a metal prep, and rust conversion, and 2 layers of primer, and a few layers of paint.

I also installed a new cat!

I don't have it, but I bet the military would be proud of this clearance that I now have for my swaybar. In case you missed it, here's the TLDR: I put a 1.8 into my 1.6 Miata. The A/C compressor touched the sway bar. No, I want A/C so I needed to fix it.

My solution is these nifty Billet Aluminum Spacers. Okay, that's just marketing speak for me chopping down 1.25 inch thick aluminum bar into 100x75mm chunks, mounting them with recessed bolts into the mounts, tapping new sway bar bolts into them, and bingo - sway bar is up.

For anyone interested in the process:

My heavy duty mounts were already on the car and taking them off wasn't going to be an option. They are a bitch to get on/off. So I hit them with some silicone lube and then a layer of paint and slapped a piece of paper on them. That gave me the templates I needed.

I scanned the painted paper into my computer.

I made a 3D printable guide and printed them in ABS.

I don't have pictures of the rest, but here it is:

• cut aluminum bar to 100x75x(1.25in)
• drilled all 6 holes using my 3d printed guides to keep me straight
• used a countersink bit to cut down the 4 outer holes
• use an m8 tap to tap threads on the center 2 holes
• mounted up to car
• then mounted swaybay to the spacer

On Friday March 13th of 2020, I grabbed my F-Type and headed North for Driving While Awesome’s Coastal Range Rally. Like most hand-built British cars, it didn’t finish. A bolt, which happened to be a strange Torx head bolt, came loose in the front chassis bracing. I limped the car 3 hours home, swapped keys for my 1991 Miata, and headed straight back North to where the rest of the 70+ rally goers were staying in the small town of Ukiah, CA.

We had three incredible days driving some of the best roads California has to offer and enjoying each other’s company. Fist bumps, swapping keys, riding in each other’s cars, packing into a restaurant for endless laughs, and blissfully unaware of the fear gripping the world around us. In a lot of ways, it was car person’s last supper of a pre-pandemic world.

When we returned on Sunday March 15th, we came back to a different world. The very next day, “California Issues Directive to Fight COVID-19” was posted to gov.ca.gov. Air travel stopped, car travel stopped, having any sort of social event even close to our rally was over for the next two weeks. Just kidding.


Two Weeks to Flatten the Curve, Week 39

In a normal year, I would simply get a plane ticket and fly to Massachusetts for Christmas but this year had been awful. I’d gone nowhere. In the previous 3 years, I averaged 3 trips to Europe and 2 domestic trips per year. Facing the prospect of crowded holiday travel with 8-10 hours of masked up panicky people on the way out and 8-10 hours of masked up panicky people on the way back, I made a call: time use some of that travel bug and do it the old-fashioned way – in a car.


Cross Country in a Miata – Just Kidding, Again

My plan was to take my 1991 Miata and swap the tires mid-way for all-seasons. I had just finished a really nice interior and the car is very comfortable. The only problem was the very tired engine with 213k miles. In November, I purchased a 2003 motor to swap in. No problem, right? Wrong. Not only did some of the parts not arrive in time (I’m looking at you, Vivid Racing) but I got sick. Not COVID-19 sick, but vertigo sick. I have a history of vertigo and won’t go into it here but let’s just say you can’t pull a drive shaft off a car if you can’t look up without your eyes twitching rapidly.


Jaguar, the Gentleman’s Miata

I made the last-minute call to take my F-Type. It’s 2015 R Coupe. I bought it February of 2020 with just 14k miles on it. 2015 was the only year that the R was available in RWD, making it a slam dunk collectability when you combine it with those gorgeous curves courtesy of Ian Callum.

Now this choice presented a few of important problems:

1. The F-Type has less usable cargo capacity
2. I would be putting a ton of miles on a low mile car
3. I had recently made a very expensive investment into Continental ExtremeContact Sport tires for it. Those are extreme performance summer tires. So yes, the obvious choice for “is it going to snow or not?” terrain.
   
   I managed to get creative with my packing. I used all the space in the rear hatch and drove with the passenger seat and passenger footwell packed with my belongings and gifts. As for the mileage concern, how often are you going to get the opportunity to take 550hp supercharged V8 sports car cross-country? If the entire economy failed tomorrow, I lost my job, and never had another chance – I would forever kick myself. I will address the 3rd issue shortly. Or rather, I won’t and that becomes a problem.
   
   
   Who Wants to See the Trip Tic?!
   
   My plan, which actually worked quite well, was to take the Southern route via Interstate 10 through Texas. My brother lives in San Antonio and I would get to see his new apartment on my way through town. Aside from there being almost zero public restrooms open in the state of California, I made it there without much of an issue. I will say this for San Antonio, the River Walk is gorgeous. It’s a weird little European feature in the heart of Texas. Who knew?
   
   Departing
   
   
   Returning
   
   
   
   Important Car Modifications
   
   It didn’t take me long to realize that the F-Type has a critical flaw for my 5ft 6in frame. I’m no Doug Demuro. The seats are absolute torture for my body. Every crease in the wrong spot. It’s as if the seat was designed with only people with tall torso’s in mind.
   
   $2.97 at Walmart fixed my problem. That’s the price of a bog-standard pillow.
   
   With the pillow-mod in place, the car was once again complete and comfortable.
   
   
   AirBNB or Hotel?
   
   I’d like to take a moment to address what the nighttime travel experience was like. Obviously, if you drive 12+ hours in an F-Type, you can’t just throw the seat back and fall asleep. For one, the seat doesn’t do that. For two, I don’t do that.
   
   If you’re into AirBNB for the personal interaction, you can forget it. I stayed in “Entire Place” accommodations only and never saw an owner. Everything was typical – done through the app for check-in and check-out. AirBNB has some updated cleaning policies. Every place I stayed was not only sparkling clean, but had tons of white space in the bookings. With almost no one traveling, you have your choice of places to stay. Better yet, since I was working on part of my cross-country journey, I could request very early check-in without issue. Many days, I was in the car before 6am and got to my next city just as my west coast colleagues came online.
   
   I also stayed in hotels, exclusively Hiltons. They have a fun “freshness seal” places on all the hotel room doors after they have been cleaned. It’s 100% psychological, but also kind of fun to crack the seal on a hotel room. They also take other steps like cleaning the tv remote and putting it in a plastic wrapper so you know that it’s been cleaned. If you’re a clean freak, Hilton might be your jam right now. Their Android app not only allows you to book, but it also lets you check-in and unlock your door. You don’t need to touch a dirty key or even talk to a dirty human. I actually hope they keep this going forward because it’s rad.
   
   
   Keep Your Foot in It
   The F-Type is a really good sports car. I don’t think people say this enough. There’s a perception that this car is Grand Tourer (GT), which it can be, but I having hustled it on CA backroads numerous times, I can say that it’s just as much fun (and with more theater) as any 911. It’s incredibly capable.
   
   Having said that, the GT aspects shine on the open highway. If you put your foot in it, it’s ready to go. You want to double the speed limit? Funny thing, the car wants to double the speed limit too!
   
   This of course, leads to my single largest complaint about US drivers: they are braindead. When I’m driving, like many enthusiasts, I’m constantly checking my mirrors. That includes my rear view and especially my rear view when I’m in the passing lane. I can say, with absolute certainty, that most people plunk themselves in the left lane without looking behind them. I as approach their bumper, see as their hands gesture off the wheel in explanation of whatever riveting topic they’re engaged in. The coffee mug gracefully goes from cupholder to face and back. They adjust the radio or check their hair. The one thing they don’t do is look at the F-Type closing in on them in their rearview mirror.
   
   This is where the F-Type’s secret weapon comes in: the exhaust.
   
   PopopopopPpoppOpopopopPOp.
   
   “That was an odd sound” thinks the braindead zombie in a Subaru Forester. “It sounded like it came from behind me! I wonder if I have a mirror to see back there?”
   
   In 75% of circumstance, the exhaust (which unfortunately only works when you’re close enough after already having had to brake) lights up enough neurons to get someone to move back to the right.
   
   In one confusing circumstance, I closed on a gentleman driving in the left-hand lane with not another car in sight. After letting me past, he immediately got back in the left-hand lane as if the right was lava.
   
   
   Johnny Law
   
   Less than a week after I got back from my trip, my dad got a speeding ticket in New York. Thankfully, despite the discussion before my trip about how many I’d get, I can safely say that the total was zero. I chalk this up to two key pieces of technology: a radar detector and Google/Waze.
   
   The police I came across fell into 3 categories: driving with their radar turned on, driving with their radar in instant-on (basically a button they have to push), and stopped using a radar or laser gun.
   
   For the speed traps, Google Maps was key. It got well more than half of them. For the police on the prowl, the radar detector was great. In a few circumstances, I was able to spot them first and get myself slowed before they hit their instant-on. It was always a chuckle to see that detector go off as I got down to exactly the speed limit. Not today, Johnny Law!
   
   
   Tennessee & The Mountain
   
   Having spent a night in Birmingham, I decided a good leg would be Birmingham, AL to Ashville, NC. By driving North through Chattanooga, I could take the road through Nantahala National Forest (home to the world-famous Dragon). Unfortunately, this did not go well. Just 20 miles up Cherohala Skyway from Tellico Plains, I started to see snow on the ground. Then it was a little snow on the road where the trees blocked the sun from melting it. Then, in a matter of moments, it was the entire road. I put the car in snow mode, which dulls out the throttle significantly and makes the traction control aggressive.
   
   The temperature outside was actually about 48 degrees F. That’s actually well within the temperature range of my tires. However, what’s not in range of my tires was that the snow was just a thin layer over a dense half inch of ice.
   
   When I reached a steep grade, the car started to slow down. Traction control did its best to prevent slippage but that just exacerbated the lack of propulsion.
   
   20mph…15mph…10mph….5mph…nothing.
   
   
   
   
   As I was losing speed, I could see that the road only got steeper. This wasn’t going to happen. I would have to turn around. That is, of course, if the car and conditions would let me do that. I tried for a 3-point turn and the car slid sideways. The banking in the road wanting to pull me towards a guard rail. After a couple tries, I made the call to try and back the car down instead. I came within an inch of the guardrail.
   
   On my way down, backwards, I passed a family in their van. On their all-season tires, they had actually stopped short of me. The vans driver remarked about amazing it was that I got my car farther than his. Skill, my friend!
   
   The F-Type really isn’t the ideal car for backing down a mountain. Not only does it have almost no rear visibility, its wide hips make it awkward to ensure that you’re pointing the right-wrong direction.
   
   
   Live to Fight Another Day
   
   Unscathed by the tactical retreat from the mountain, I pressed on. Wanting to pull the Band-Aid off all at once, I drove from Asheville, NC to MA in one day. However, a brief line of snow squalls preceded me to New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Behind that line of storms was a cold front. Around 4pm, as I crossed the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the temperature dropped to about 34 degrees.
   
   The pavement was soaking wet. Within moments of the car’s outside temperature reading hitting 34, I felt the tires tense up like a pill bug that senses danger. They were hard as rocks. Every imperfection was coming through the wheel and in addition to hydroplaning on a tenth inch of standing water, the tires tramlined over everything. When I say everything, I mean everything. Every lane change was a butt-puckering moment as the tires lurched the car on the painted lines. The rear of the car danced as the staggered width tires each touched the lines at a different time. This was sketchy.
   
   I made it to my parents’ house at 6pm that and parked the car for the rest of my visit.
   
   
   NOPEklahoma City
   
   On the trip back, I decided to take less stops. Having been gone nearly 3 weeks, it was time to just get back. On night 1 of the return, I stopped in Knoxville. Instead of taking Interstate 10, I would take Interstate 40 instead to shave a couple hundred miles off the trip.
   
   I got up the next morning with Amarillo, TX in mind. I started out very early and did my best to keep my foot in the throttle but I ran into rain before I was even out of Tennessee. Having to keep it slow to stay on the road, I didn’t make the greatest time. I had a choice to make.
   
   The rain was going to turn into freezing rain that evening. With the car’s temperature sensor reading 33F in Oklahoma, I could try to press through and risk hitting frozen pavement (we know that goes with this car) or I could stop in Oklahoma City and leave later in the day the next day (hoping for a quick melt). With some prodding from my mother, I chose the latter.
   This was a mistake.
   
   I woke up in the morning to find more than 5 inches of snow had fallen in OKC. Nearly an entire year’s worth of snowfall for the city had happened in one single storm. The roads were a complete mess. My checkout was noon so I stuck around for a bit before getting antsy. Every minute in that hotel room that morning was a reminder that I should have stuck it out the next 150 miles to get past the snow/ice line on that storm.
   
   When I did get on the road, the highway looked fined at first. Then, suddenly, it didn’t. The 3 westbound lanes were no longer plowed and just a single lane with 1 tire’s worth of pavement showing was available. This went on for about 100 miles. My F-Type and the myriad of truckers brave enough to be out there weaved our way around the highway (sometimes using the break down lane if that was the clear pavement) to get through it. I counted 9 vehicles off the road including two 18-wheelers.
   
   
   Son-of-a-----
   
   Somewhere in New Mexico, a rock hit my windshield. It didn’t appear to do any damage so I didn’t think much of it. Unfortunately, by the time I got to Arizona, an 8-inch crack had developed from the passenger side A-pillar towards the center.
   
   Quotes are currently in the $800-1200 range and seeing as I live in the Bay Area where car break-ins are frequent, glass isn’t covered by insurance policies. I’ll be out-of-pocket on that.
   
   
   Key Learnings:

• Strangely enough, Doug Demuro also took a JLR product from CA -> MA -> CA and also suffered a broken windshield. However, I got much better fuel economy despite averaging a similar speed

• The seat in the F-Type is for tall people only

• The power of the car is intoxicating

• Every state has its own version of terrible drivers (seriously, driver training is needed)

• Extreme performance summer tires are for dry and warm pavement

• The Miata would have also been fun

• The Southern route is kind of boring

• Beaumont, TX is the pits

• New Orleans Beignets are delicious

• Tennessee has great driving roads and I must return someday

• It snows in OKC

• The F-Type R Coupe gets really solid highway fuel economy

• 7th and 8th gear are actually useful highway gears with 500ft-lb of torque
  
  
  The Numbers:

• Total distance: 7400 miles exactly

• Days traveled outgoing: 7 nights

• Days traveled returning: 3 nights

• Average speed traveled: 75 mph

• Fuel economy: 21.4 mpg

• Total fuel cost: $1,313

• Total hoteling cost: $1,418

• Total food cost: $192

• 2 oil changes, filter, and vacuum pump: $298

• Windshield replacement: $800-1200

• Approx. $4000 total trip cost not considered: brake use, tire use, car cleaning / detailing
  
  
  An F-Type in it's natural habitat.
  
  
  When You're The Only Fuel for 100 Miles
  
  
  A deserted French Quarter
  
  
  Trouble Foreshadowed
  
  
  Taken 5 Minutes Before Hitting Snow in TN
  
  
  Cats Dislike Snow
  
  
  Ew, Get It Off!
  
  
  The 6 Lane Highway Got Much Worse Than This*
  

@danny-korecki said in What is the USA's Nurburgring?:

What do you think is the USA's closest equivalent to the Nurburgring? A track that a USA track rat has to try once for the bucket list.

Laguna Seca? VIR? Road America? Something else? What do you think?

Hot take: America's ring is the Cannonball.

Hear me out:

• Looks dangerous, is dangerous, but taken seriously with few ill effects
• Obsessed over times
• A measure of endurance
• Both public roads
• Any vehicle is "allowed"

The obvious difference is that the ring is legal*. Asterisk'd because if the ring were invented today, it would almost certainly be illegal.

So there you have it - America's Nurburging is the Cannonball run.

The saga continues with the 1.8 swap. Apparently, this is now a full blown restoration.

I keep hitting points where I pull a bolt, see some surface rust, and restore the bolt. Speaking of bolts, I really want to just have everything bolted together on the motor so when I finally yank the old one out, I just start turn around and crane the new one in. In some cases, that means buying some new bolts - including transmission bellhousing bolts. On the plus side - almost all bolts are available new from Mazda (even Miata hardtops are available new - NCY1-R1-81XN-98) but you've got to know the part number. I spent the better part of this morning looking over parts diagrams (which is somewhat useless given you're cross-referencing a bolt that has been used in 25 different cars in 30 different ways) and scouring internet forums.

I'm putting this here in case anyone ever comes across the post looking for Mazda Miata Transmission Bellhousing Bolt Part Numbers:

2x: M12 x 75mm with 40mm shank - Part# 9979-61-275
6x: M20 x 60mm with 20mm shank - Part# 9979-61-260
3x: M10 x 55mm with 20mm shank - Part# 9979-61-055 (starter bolts)

Okay, more bolt talk! I put the new flywheel on last week without issue, but ran into trouble with the clutch - or more specifically, the pressure plate. Somewhere along the way, the bolts that came with or were supposed to come with the flywheel went missing. I don't remember ever seeing them, but it's a big project so who knows. For some reason, the Trackdog Racing folks decided to use a different thread pitch (1.25 instead of 1.0) on their flywheel. So the $50 in OEM bolts that I bought will sit in my collection. I went down to Ace Hardware and found some good quality class 10.9 bolts to replace the missing ones. Props to Ace - their bolt room is the antithesis to Home Depot.

If you thought I was all good, you'd be wrong. The Exedy pressure plate, while it lined up perfectly with the TDR flywheel, didn't fit over the alignment dowels. I ended up having to take a drill bit to the pressure plate to just slightly open those up. I'm still a bit troubled over this.

In the end, however, it all finally went together. Right up to the point where I realized that the buying the start motor for an NB Miata would save me about 3lbs and the potential headache of replacing the starter if the old NA starter conked out and that the A/C compressor that I ordered didn't come with a clutch. So this morning I ended up with a sizable rockauto order. I ordered a NB starter, A/C clutch, other various A/C replacements, and a radiator. Honestly, I could re-use my NA6 radiator. But why risk it? It's old, beat up, and the plastic is looking a little brittle. Might as well spend the $75 for a new one.

I know, I know. Miata people are going "BUY A 3INCH RADIATOR FROM BLAH BLAH BLAH". Look, that's an easy upgrade to do later. This isn't a track car. It's a daily / canyon carver.

That's it for now. Here's a picture of some gloves that I ordered 2 months ago that finally came (screw all the people price gouging PPE). I bought these from what is probably the only hardware store in the US that hasn't raised their prices on gloves. I do a good job of re-using when I can but when you're scraping road grime off into order to find a bolt, you're happy to have them.

In case you want to catch up:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

This weekend is probably the weekend for the engine to physically go into the car. In the last few weeks, I've plugged away at some little items"

• Clutch master replaced
• Clutch slave replaced
• Clutch line replaced (stainless braided, and not a moment too soon)
• Brake master replaced
• Brake booster replaced
• ECU put into place in passenger footwell
• Hole drilled, grommet installed, vacuum line run to ECU
• Unexpected rust repair
• Finally capped off the EGR
• Restored and installed exhaust header heat shield

I ran into a somewhat major issue a few days ago: I never actually figured out how I'm getting spark to this engine.

Here's a picture of someone else's NA Miata engine bay. Trace the spark plug wires to the coil pack at the back of the engine.

Now here's an NB Miata engine bay. Notice something different? It has an entirely different spark system.

My options were:

1. Use the stock NB system.

• Cons: Requires hacking up the NA6 wiring harness, buy more parts, lose tachometer until I do some weird signal conversion from the ECU
• Pros: Clean looking, stock looking

2. Buy a coil-on-plug system.

• Cons: Expensive (in the end, around $500), need to do weird signal conversion for a working tachometer, requires hacking up wiring harness, 3-5 week lead time on parts
• Pros: Looks cool, strong spark, non-wasted spark, set up for big power down the road

3. Use the stock NA6 coil pack.

• Cons: It's a big ugly/inelegant, coil pack doesn't fit/mount due to VVT changes to 1.8 motors, wires are incorrect length if I move the coil pack, 01-05 spark plug holes are narrower than 90-93 so plug wire boots require modification
• Pros: Lowest cost, fastest to do, stock wiring

As much as I would love to have done Option 2, I decided on Option 3. Interestingly, previous choices lead to Option 3 being viable. Two major reasons: 1) I deleted EGR from the new motor (my car never had provisions for it anyways) and 2) I relocated my washer bottle.

"Fits" doesn't mean "works" though. Putting the coil pack in the place where the EGR components used to go required custom-making a bracket. I actually already had a special bracket for holding the coils themselves that came in the FlyinMiata conversion kit. That bracket is specific to 94-97 engines so it's accurate to say that I needed a bracket for my bracket. I trimmed the bottom off the FlyinMiata bracket.

I started out designing my bracket bracket in CAD... Cardboard Aided Drafting.

I then transferred the pattern to some 16ga sheet metal.

I then cut it out and welded the tab that needed to be welded. The smaller tab was able to be bent with a vice and BFH (big F-ing hammer). My weld looks terrible but penetration was fine.

I painted it black to match and keep it from rusting, mounted up the coil pack. Everything here is black so it's a bit tough to see, but the fitment turned out really nice.

I need to 3d print some plug wire management. If the wires look a little long, it's because they belong to a 95 Mazda Protege - which uses a 1.8 BP motor (same as the Miata) in the FWD configuration. The Miata plug wires were too long. However, given that these plug wires are for the earlier motor, I had to trim the boots with an exacto knife to get the seals to fit in the plug holes. Hopefully they still seal okay.

That's the brake booster hose that goes up past the coil pack. It seems like everything will fit okay. Anyways, that's the update for now.

We're getting a little bit of it up here too. I'm expecting fires soon, unfortunately. All those areas in the single digit humidity levels will be 90-100+ degrees.

@poor_sh Black light should work fine.

@poor_sh UV flashlights are sweet. I have a high power one for leak searching. UV dye lights up like a funhouse when you hit it with a UV flashlight. Fun fact: you can also use that light for curing UV resin. I found out when I accidently dripped resin onto my skin when I had the flashlight in my hand. Did I mention that UV cured resin heats up instantly under UV light? Ow.

I'm liking your ideas. The Water Inlet Pipe O-Ring is close enough to the exhaust that it could be your culprit. I had to replaced mine twice on the Exocet before I got it to seal correctly.

@fintail I would run on a platform of being the last CA governor and submitting paperwork to break the state up into more manageable chunks.

@fintail @davesaddiction said in Boris:

@nickhasanexocet @fintail

Said he'd run for CA governor and then thought better of it.

On 31 January 2021, Palihapitiya tweeted that he supported cutting the capital gains tax rate to 0% if stocks are held for over 5 years.

Not sure about helping the richest Americans pay even less tax...

But 80% tax in the first year? Interesting concept.

The 0.1% can hold for longer, no problem.

I agree with his approach here. You get what you incentivize. That said, this tweet is really only half of what he preaches and it's important to the above tweet to get both parts. Normal people lack two things that keep them from growing their wealth: the singular lifetime event that gets them to the point where they have margin to leverage and the understanding that long term behavior is a driver of future success. His whole "platform" (it's really a collection of reasonable ideas) is to create more opportunities for people to jump multiple classes, creative incentives for people who are rich to create more opportunities, kill off attempts by government/industry to pull up the ladder, improve education, and improve healthcare.

The problem is that as things stand, the guy would have to give up control of his business empire to do anything political and his business run on him. It's not like Walmart where you can just swap CEOs like no-big-deal.

@thejwt Alternatively, I'd recommend any of the Akasio cameras if you don't mind that their microphones are kind of hit or miss. 95% of the way to a gopro at 1/3 of the price.

From 0:45 onwards, this was shot this on two Akasio Brave 6 Plus ($80) cameras with image stabilization turned on (that's the side to side motion of the camera if you notice that):

From 0:00 to 0:45, it was shot on a Go Pro Hero 3 and 4 (both top of the range models at the time). The Akasio cameras are superior in almost every way to the Hero 4. The only letdown is the microphone. They sell an external mic for it that is worth every penny.

Obviously I did a bit of editing and color correction, but I'm generally happy with the cameras. They are also compatible with most of the gopro accessories (mounts, etc).

@fintail said in Boris:

@nickhasanexocet I like to think UK/USA/Canada have at least a little unity anyway.

Still better than it was a year ago. They all have little idea how actual working people live, but when it comes to leadership, I don't want someone who is actually a regular person, I want someone who is smarter than a regular person, and smarter than me. We certainly didn't have that in the last go-round, rather, we had random internet guy.

The leader we need is Chamath Palihapitiya.

In case you want to catch up:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Unofficial Part 6 - Engine Is In
Part 7 - New Diff, Who Dis
Unofficial Part 8 - Military Clearance

When last we left our dastardly Miata owner, he had a sizable chunk of work left to do. Wiring VVT, cam sensor, and crank sensor, plumbing in power steering, A/C, and the new radiator, adapting the fuel systems, and putting the new differential in.

Well, you can check off all of those except the differential. That's a work in progress.

This weekend was a bit odd. My plan was to get a ton done on Saturday, go to cars and coffee on Sunday, then wrench the latter half of the day. What instead happened is that I had to work a little bit on Saturday and another 4 or so hours on Sunday (plus get up at 6am) so wrenching was sporadic. I usually don't end up having to do too much weekend work, but this was a special occasion as our company had a story go live in the Wall Street Journal this morning (we do AI for wildfires) and I head up marketing. It ran at 9am EST so I was up at 545am PST clicking refresh over and over.

Anyways, the engine bay is looking much cleaner with everything wired and in place.

With all the wiring done, I was thinking I would just mount up the downpipe and drop in my wideband sensor. No dice - I did a stupid and welded the bung about 100 degrees out from where it needed to be. So I had to take off, cap it off, trim some heat shield, drill it, weld in a new bung, clearance the firewall a bit with a hammer (wideband is super tall), and reinstall the downpipe.

I was able to power up the wideband and verify that it's happy. Yay.

I moved onto some left over tasks while my various differential bits sat in PB Blaster.
For example: I discovered that I need to get a bit of vacuum hose (90 degrees).

And I discovered why my windshield squirt always had such low pressure.

I also passed a milestone: reinstalling the hood. I had been lifting it off and setting it aside each day to work on the car. I also installed a nifty hood strut so I no longer need to get annoyed by the stupid hood prop. This one is nice because it's out of the way - though you need to be careful to close the hood using the driver's side so as not to damage anything. There's only one strut - not two.

I face a bit of a dilemma regarding the air filter. I could and should find an NA8 box and modify it to look stock. For now though, I 3D printed a little adapter to adapt a cone filter. I'll have you know that this is now the most obviously illegal thing about the car. California forbids cone filters because the air is isn't Prius enough or something if taken through a cone shape. In all seriousness, this state is dumb and the reason is that cone filters are too cheap to go through the costly CARB certification process for every damn vehicle.

Anyways, that's all I can remember for now. If I'm lucky, I'll get to configure megasquirt and attempt to start the car this week / pray that my timing is correct. No bad progress today on 4 hours of sleep. Oh, and I need to find a way to support that cone filter and heat shield it a bit from the exhaust.

@ctsenvy Looks fun. The game engine is looking a little dated which probably means the next motorsports game will get an all-new engine.

@davesaddiction I don't think Europe has the backbone to stand up to China. Like usual, we're going to have to do it for them.