Hello everyone,

I'm Dennis, I currently live in Yakima but I'm moving to Bellingham for school in 3 weeks! My goal is to finish a degree in mechanical engineering but I'm starting from scratch so I'm a ways away from that.

I've been trying to figure out what car I was going to get for a project. I went through a Datsun 510 obsession to maybe an Ae86, 240sx, late 80's 200sx, even thought of going back to my high school days and build a Honda (that didn't last long) until I started looking at Miatas. And once I got over the stigma (that didn't take long either) and looked at the numbers, cost, and the availability of clean starter cars it was a no brainer.

My ultimate goal for the car I don't have yet (my wife thinks I'm crazy) is to have something completely streetable that can handle a track day maybe once a month at most, and some autocross races. I'm thinking a small turbo (200hp max) with most of the money going toward suspension and sustainability.

So that's me in a nutshell, I know once I do get a car it will be a very slow moving project because as a lot of you know it is very hard to justify to your wife that you need to spend $500 on a radiator to replace the perfectly good one that resides in the car, or $1100 on a suspension package. In any case I'm glad to be apart of this community, if anyone is from the Yakima, or Bellingham area send me a message.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome.

I'm wrapping up my 300 levels in ME...and my only advise is to never doubt that you can do it, and never stop putting in every bit of effort, even when it seems in waste.


Miatas are a great platform...and there are lots of budget options. If you're looking to go turbo and do it right it's hard to get much under $2k though. When I actually had my car like I wanted (suspension, brakes, radiator, ECU, turbo, rollbar, wheels) I was about $5k into it...and still wasn't content.

Set your goals from the outset, then read read and read some more until you find the best way to get there. Don't stray from that...see it through part by part, and don't end up suffering "part-out agony."

 

Yeah as far as turbos go I'll probably end up doing the voodoo II with the smaller turbo option but do most of the peripherals first (radiator, clutch, dif, cat back,) and I'll definitely be doing the suspension before that.

I'm pretty excited about studying ME. My career decision process has looked a lot like deciding on a car, there is something new each week and I revert back to previous option 5 times but it's nice now to have a definite path.

Where are you studying ME?

 

Why the smaller turbo? The 2560 spools fine even on wastegate boost, although it is a little slow after 3rd gear. I'm hoping the mbc will wake the car up. I was actually considering upgrading to the 3071, but things would have snowballed from there.

 

Haha, I understand the snowball effect. I've only been researching potential set-ups for about a week so this is good info, I'm sure I'll go through 500 different options before I actually decide on something.