Hey all, been lurking around for a while and decided to introduce myself. My name is Hector so the screename is no coincidence. I bought a Miata in April 2011 as I needed something other than my work truck to drive when Im not working. The misses has her own plush ride so I picked up this completely impractical car to do some more impractical things: mod it up for autocrossing until I hit SSM.

So far I've needed to do some repairs as the car has 160K miles but have found repairing it very reasonable in cost and labor. Changed the valve cover gasket, timing belt and tensioners, cam and crank seals, water pump, t-stat, radiator, clutch master and slave.

I finally got around to putting some fun items on the car recently. TRMotorsports C1M? 15x7.5 wheels and Hankook RS3 225 tires which replaced 17's that were all bent and causing the 65mph vibration. Man was I happy when that went away. I also bought some used Konis and GC coil overs from a forum member, Gotpsi? thanks man!, that replaced the stock and original shocks with RB springs that did nothing but make the car skate over bumps. Imagine adding much stiffer damping and springs rates 4x that of stock and having a more comfortable ride? Thats how bad it was.

So Im happy with the car for now which is a good thing cuz Im broke for a while. When the money rolls in again I hope to add some giddiup. Will do the STS autox thing then probably go with a VVT engine and jump to CSP before adding the hairdrier and bumping to SSM. At least thats the plan for now. Would love to get back to driving something with some power. Last autox car I drove was a friends ASP Z06 and that was a blast and Im betting this car will be more fun than that... as long as I keep the revs above 3500 im guessing! Thanks for reading and hope to not get banned!

 

welcome to the forum. im in west palm. post up pics

 

Welcome to the site hector

Make sure to check out MTs picture gallery here
CLICK TO CHECK IT OUT - RATE PICTURES

 

Pics? Well this thing aint no beauty queen but when its clean and the sun hits it in the right spot it almost looks nice! Hope to get some action pics when I go autoxing next weekend in Ft Myers. For now check it out before the shocks and springs were replaced. The rear sits at the same height as the front now. Im thinking about going a little lower, 1/2" all around to end up at 12" ride height.

 

Yo wat up playa, flawda reprazent

 

Welcome to this wonderful place!

 

Looks like you're going in the right direction, keep it up. Have fun in ft myers, that's a pretty fast course they setup there from what I remember.

 

Thanks for the welcome guys! I am definitely enjoying the car so far. Got to attend the water getting in the trunk though. Sucks having to put mold and mildew remover on your car. Also, thanks for having such a great resource. I first came on here with no clue as to how popular and how powerful these little cars can be. I still have a lot to learn but at least now I dont feel so clueless. Its been quite a transition to this car since its the first car Ive tried to build that doesnt have 300 ft/lbs of torque at just above idle!

And thanks to my Florida peeps for "keeping it real". I'll try not to tarnish our rep here although it seems like thats already been done. No matter, people just jealous cuz we get to play with our cars year round. Yup, sure is nice to be autoxing in winter. That is, on a course that isnt covered in ice or snow as I know some of you northeners have ice races!

Choke, it'll be nice to drive this thing like Im running from the cops on some sticky tires finally. Ft. Myers is fast and long and their run/work order lets you actually get some adjustments done between runs so that should help me figure something out if the car is totally screwy from scratch. Also, there are going to be a couple of SSM Miatas there so that should be a bit of a learning experience for me. Dont know if they are turbo or supercharged or to what extent they are modded but it will be educational to finally see something in person instead of pictures.

Thanks again guys!

 

Welcome, hector. Check out the Miata Gallery and post up some pics!

 

The Florida rep is nearly gone at this stage. It's bad enough to where the only thing left to do is make it worse, lol.

Regarding weather; It's 77 degrees in the keys right now. I am loving it. I'm sure it's just as nice up in your area.

 

Well I'll try not to make it worse. No doubt we have too many idiots in this state but hopefully they arent all on this forum!

And yeah its nice outside. Just got home and going to throw some meat on the barbie and chill out by the deck and get my buzz on. Got to get me boat so I can take advantage of my ocean access home. Damn Miata is going to put a dent in that budget, though! LOL

Hey you ever been to the Bay Bottom Crawl over on Sugarloaf Key? Never made it out myself; kinda pussied out about it. Dont want to be one of the marsh casualties.

 

I've been a active member of the EVSCC for the last 6 years. I've done every race multiple times.

I'll tell you this...nothing and I mean NOTHING is scarier than the Bay Bottom Crawl.

If you're ever interested in coming down for a race just let me know. I have a huge garage (airplane hangar, actually) and I let people chill out there before and after races to work on their cars or just shoot the breeze.

 

Thanks for the offer and I will take you up on it. Im doing the state race at Ft. Myers and the one after that there in Dec. There is a race here In Dec in Homestead which is probaslby as far for you as it is for me but Ill be in Argentina visiting the wifeys family. Oh well, hope to get out to the keys soon and check you out.