2010 Orange County Choppers Mazda Meet

This year Orange County Chopper again hosted their annual Mazda meet and we were there.  Great turn out again with lots of cool cars to see.  Here is a slideshow of some of the sights.

Project Miata update #4

Still enjoying the hell out of my 1994 Miata that I picked up about a year and a half ago.  I've been adding things to it here and there to make it better to drive and look at.  Recently, I picked up a used set of rims and tires to compliment the lowered stance of the car on it's new suspension and to improve the handling over the mismatched set of tires on the OEM rims.

The wheels are lightweight (11.8lbs each) Konig Minuz and measure 15x6.5.  Mounted on them is a lightly used set of Dunlop Direzza DZ101 tires in 205/50/15.  The ride has been transformed and is so much smoother than with the old tires.  The handling is also improved though I've yet to really test it.  The best part of it was that they were less than half the price of buying new.  Sweet!

Here's a couple of pictures of the car with it's new shoes.  You can also see the Miata R Package front lip I installed last year.

Stealthy.

2009 Orange County Choppers Mazda Meet

This weekend was the second year that Orange County Choppers was nice enough to host an all Mazda meet at their amazing new location in Newburg, NY. My son and I spent the day there yesterday and we had a fun time. The initial weather forecast didn't look too good at first but the day wound up being really nice. Turnout was great and there were some really nice cars. Paul Jr. and Mike from OCC both showed up and signed some autographs. Fun day.

Here is a slideshow of my pics. Clicking on the slideshow will bring you to the full album.

Project Miata update #3

Haven't posted much about the Miata in a while. With the weather being so nice here in the Northeast, finally, I've been enjoying the car. I got my issue with the rear suspension nut resolved and I've just been driving. What a fun car.

The car passed NJ State inspection this weekend with no problems. Whew! Was a bit anxious about this since the car has over 136,000 miles on it and what looks to be the original exhaust and catalytic converter. Big relief.

I also took the car for an alignment which was an ordeal. Went to a local Firestone Service Center since there is noting better in my area. They, of course, wouldn't do any custom numbers on the alignment but later in the day they called and said they couldn't get it to the stock specs either. Then they finally looked at my custom numbers but couldn't hit the camber number on that. Nothing looks bent and they agreed saying that the car is just too low with the new suspension. As far as I know that shouldn't make a difference with the Miata but whatever. Of course, they gave me no discount and I paid for a half-assed alignment. I'll have to find a good racing shop to do my alignment from now on. Not too concerned since the tires I have are crap. Once I replace them and, hopefully, the rims I'll get a good alignment.

I'm waiting on some new stuff for the car. My wife ordered something Miata related for my birthday but I don't know what it is yet. Possibly one of the many books available for Miata enthusiasts. I also treated myself to an R-Package front lip spoiler from RSpeed. Couldn't pass up the price they were offering as part of a group buy. Still waiting for delivery on that.

Also getting psyched for an all Mazda meet at the world famous Orange County Choppers. Hopefully the weather this weekend is nice. There are almost 200 cars and 300 people signed up for the weekend meet.

Project Miata update #2

Suspension parts are ordered. Those of you who know Miatas have certainly heard of Flyin Miata. They are one of the top Miata specialists in the country. Their business consists of manufacturing and selling all kinds of parts to make Miatas go fast and handle great. So it's no surprise that I've looked to them to supply my suspension setup. I've ordered their Stage 1 suspension kit which consists of lowering springs of their own design along with some Tokico Illumina adjustable shocks. Everything I've heard about this suspension says that it is a great street/occasional track setup.

I didn't stop there though. I also ordered a set of mounts and bumpstops from another Miata suspension specialist, Fat Cat Motorsports. I ordered their custom mount and bumpstop kit for the Tokico shocks. This kit uses second generation(NB) Miata shock mounts modified to fit the first generation(NA) cars. This allows for more suspension travel and better ride when lowered.

Hopefully, I'll be getting all these parts over the next couple of weeks and I'll get them installed as soon as possible.

Project Miata update #1

Time for a new suspension. I wasn't quite expecting to have to do anything to the suspension on this car since it came with a set of Koni Sport shocks and Ground Control coilovers already installed. I thought I was set on that front. Well, I was wrong. After driving the car around a few times I noticed that the suspension was bottoming out over larger dips. It is well know that Miatas, especially first generation models, have limited suspension travel at stock height which only gets worse when you lower the car. Mine however, is not very low so I decided to investigate.

Changing bumpstops is a common upgrade on Miatas to soften up some crashing suspension bottoming out. Miatas rely on their bumpstops more than most cars as they are designed as a supplement to the springs due to the limited suspension travel. I figured maybe I needed to step up to some better progressive bumpstops so that was my first area of investigation. Unfortunately for me, I discovered that there were no bumpstops at all. Bad news which only got worse.

While is was under there looking, I also noticed that the Ground Control coilovers were not installed correctly. After searching around on the net and miata forums, I found out how they should be installed and set out to disassemble the suspension in an attempt to determine if I could re-assemble everything correctly. Sadly, that is out of the question. The reason the Ground Control coilovers were installed wrong was because they were missing some parts. There is supposed to be a metal collar within the threaded Ground Control sleeve which sits on the c-clip that normally supports the lower spring perch on the Konis. Well that was not there which explains why the coilover sleeves were installed with the Koni spring perch still in place. The Koni shocks were also not in the greatest shape so I assume that this was a budget suspension install cobbled together from some used parts. Mostly, it's garbage and unsafe.

So, because of this, most of my Saturday was spent ripping out the front suspension. After using close to an entire can of PB Blaster and a big breaker bar I was able to get everything out in a few hours using this method where you disconnect the spindle from the lower control arm via a tongue that inserts into the lower control arm. This allows you to remove everything without having to worry about separating ball joints. There is also the long bolt method that also allows removal without disconnecting ball joints. I didn't use the long bolt method because I didn't happen to have a 21mm socket but both seem to work equally well.

So that's where it sits now. The car is on jack stands in the garage waiting for me to decide what suspension setup to get. Prices for good setups range from around $600 to about $1000 depending on what you want. I'll make my decision in the next couple of days and get to work on it. My only consolation is that it has snowed here in NJ the last two weekends so I wouldn't have been able to drive the car anyway. I just want to get it done in time for the warm weather. I'll keep you posted.

New year - new car

Happy new year. Well, after many years of complaining to my wife that even though I love cars, I've never owned one that I really wanted, I now have one that I set out to buy because I wanted it. Usually practicality or finances won out in the decision process involved in buying a car but not this time. This car was bought to be a weekend toy I can tinker with and have some fun. It isn't needed for daily driving or family duties just pure enjoyment.

What is it, you ask? It's a very nicely maintained 1994 Mazda Miata. It's anything but practical but it will be a lot of fun. First off, no I'm not gay. Anyone who thinks that the Miata is a hairdresser's car is severely misinformed and has never driven one. Not only are Miata's one of the most affordable rear wheel drive sports cars available but they are well balanced, easy to maintain, incredibly reliable and a hell of a lot of fun. They dominate autocross classes and even have their own race series in both SCCA and NASA.



My particular example has over 136,000 miles and still runs like new. The body is good and the interior and top are in great shape. My plans are to make it into a capable weekend driver with some autocross and maybe track events sprinkled in. There are tons of aftermarket parts available for the Miata so it shouldn't be very hard to make it into a nice little package. Check back for more on my project Miata.