Reply To: Y.A.M. (Yet Another Miata) …

[Cameron Albea]

#467

Miata…. M for Misery 🙂

I figured i’d update this with a bit of results from the last Day Series. Basically, i had a fantastic result overall, but it coulda been better, and i wish i had gotten more than 2 runs in. Ultimately, i only got 2 runs in, because the clutch started making HORRIBLE noises after the first run… I think i may have broken a spring on the disk.

My first run was slideways as could be, and my second run was run in 1st gear for the whole thing… i hadn’t planned on doing that, but when i launched, it made worse noises, so i decided to just not shift, and finish the course out because i didn’t want to shift and risk hurting the clutch more… Run #2 wound up being faster than my sideways first run though, so that was cool/unexpected. Just shows how bad spinning tires and ‘drifting’ can be to your time on an autocross course… It IS marvelous fun though… lol!

At the lunch break i went ahead and decided to try to limp the car home… that way if something did fail on the trip, at least i wouldn’t have been having to deal with it at night time. Thankfully though, the car made it home. I only had to use the flutch a couple times at some key stop lights, but i rev-matched and clutchless shifted most of the journey.

This is basically where the REAL adventure begins… i talked to 2 different places about getting the clutch swapped… the first place is a “racing friendly” shop, and these guys were a referral from someone who i thought would send me to the right place. Well it would have been the right place if i felt like getting REAMED… these guys were marking the clutch price up literally double what i could buy the clutch for retail online… and the labor rate was about double what it should be… and this was the “hookup deal” apparently… SMH. so much for friend of a friend at THOSE places. sigh.

The second place i talked to is a small one-guy shop where i was referred to by a good friend and neighbor who is also into sports cars heavily… this guy is treating me right on the deal thankfully, and is very knowledgeable on Mazdas, so i’m happy about that… Once i have a chance to deal with him and get the car done, i’ll broadcast the shop name) although i do have to supply the clutch since he doesn’t have a good line on the OEM setup i need for the STR rules apparently, or not ‘timely’… The big issue, is i’m not sure it’ll be done by Wednesday night… But i’m crossing my fingers. The biggest issue i have is getting my car to him, and i don’t know many people around these here parts, so i haven’t been able to find a ride/someone to follow me over to drop it off, and i found out my AAA membership had expired (woulda been GREAT to find out when i was on the road back from Franklin… hahaha!). I’m heading out of town for the weekend, so the fastest i can get it there would be Monday morning when my wife would be able to pick me up from his shop.

So… it’ll get fixed… but i may be rolling in my Transit Connect minivan for the Night Series… it would actually be quite fun 🙂 It has a very low center of gravity, and handles decent with nice steering… so it’d be fun to see how it actually does… And it is a 1.6L Turbo engine and the transmission has ‘Sport Mode’… so how bad could it be 😛

Aaaaaaanyway. The life and times of a Miata autocrosser… woohoo!