The Curious Incident of the Miata n the Daytime

Over winter break I went for a drive with a friend of mine who drives a black '97 miata. We were on a lovely back road passing through a small town when a car pulled out in front of the motorcycle in front of me. The motorcycle stopped, I stopped, my friend (distracted by a Ferrari on the side of the road) didn't. He hit me with a glancing blow doing somewhere between 30 and 40 mph. The blow connected his front pass area with my rear driver area. His front bumper, pass fender, headlight, and turn signal were all destroyed. The damage to my car was worse. The driver side frame rail was bent partially, and the back end was twisted. The airbag didn't deploy thankfully, but the miata had to be towed.

I took it to a good shop that rebuilds exotics. The staff thought I was crazy not to simply buy another miata. But given the amount of blood, sweat and tears that have gone into building my miata I have no intention of abandoning her. To repair the damage the rear section of the frame rail had to be replaced, the rear quarter panel had to be pulled into shape, and the entire frame was checked. Then the paint work was done. All in all the miata was about $200 from being totaled.

The car was finished last week and test driven by an expert, then examined on a lift by an master mechanic and racer. Having passed both of these tests I am going to pick up the car and drive it north.

Miata Have Done List

Since I picked up the car in May, I have done or replaced these things:

Full Polish (three stages)
New tires
New clutch
New plugs
New plug wires
New fuel filter
New oil filter
New tie rods
New tie rod ends
New steering rack boots
New AGX shocks
New rear brake calipers
New SS brake lines
New glovebox latch
New transmission oil
New differential oil
New ashtray
New floor mats
New Robbins cloth top
New left front turn signal
New headlights
New radiator hoses
New thermostat
New coolant
6 Custom alignments (finally found my perfect one)
New Hawk pads
New porterfield pads (better pads)
New clutch fluid
New brake fluid
New well nuts for luggage rack
New Robbins cloth tonneau
New swaybar endlinks
New shock boots
New bump stops
New throwout bearing
New pilot bearing
New pressure plate
New air filter
Many oil changes and filters
New front wheel bearings

I didn't take the car to a shop for any of this work, except the top.

Religion

Under no circumstances will I capitalize god. This is ridiculous, it places a positive value/importance on judeo-christian religious practices. If I must discuss the personalities of schizophrenic imaginary friends, then I think Thor is far more interesting and likable. It just denotes a weakness of mind to need to believe in omnipotent imaginary friends to make sense of the world. The only trouble is that the overwhelming majority of people express signs of this weakness. Furthermore most people seem to find it satisfying to reject reason in their pursuit of their imaginary friends. If a small portion population started talking about schizophrenic imaginary friends without the cloak of tradition, then we would collectively deem them neurotic or borderline psychotic. Yet if a large number of people hate each other over differences between their imaginary friends it is considered to be unassailable religious diversity. Why is religious illogical unquestionable. Why is belief considered a good thing? It is just mystical unreasonable assertions veiled in the cloak of tradition!

Miata

I now own a Sports Car!
1994 Miata

Read While You Drive!

I simply find it amazing that this is even offered, let alone from amazon. In any event this is too funny to skip.

Vehicle Performance

Recently I drove about 700 miles in one day in a fully loaded (at least 2000lbs of stuff) Volvo XC90. The xc90 is a model 2004, has a 4 speed geartronix manumaticl, a straight six engine and somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 lbft of torque. On the drive I drove across 199 to grants pass. 199 is actually a nice road near the coast and has excellent corners for setting up a rhythm. The problem is that a loaded xc90 with a 4 speed is not a MiniS or anything even resembling a sports car. Never the less, when I was beset by a Camero I decided to play a little, by simply maintaining the speed limit through the corners I managed to walk away from a Camero in an SUV. The trick was loading up the suspension in advance of the corner. I would track out in the opposite direction of the corner and then flick in to the corner in advance so as to transfer the suspended load to the outside before initiating the turn in earnest. Also, all actions and adjustments had to be extremely fluid because the car tended to develop a rocking motion with the slightest jerk of the wheel. Surprisingly the manumatic worked well, although I was only shifting between 2nd and 3rd, using the cutoff speed of 55mphish, of course down shifting while the suspension was loaded and the tires' traction maxed out would be folly. I fully realize that without my experiences in racing schools I would have been in trouble, and had the Camero driver had any clue about how to drive he would easily outclassed my xc90. It was a fun little adventure.

A Road Trip

Running flat out straight north.