96 V8 Miata vs 65 427 Cobra going 0 to 100 mph to 0.

Last week we had a sunny 45 degree day and feeling quite festive I spent my lunch break trying to beat the 1965 427 Cobra time going from 0 to 100 to 0.  If you remember from the Cobra post HERE Car and Driver clocked it at 14.8 seconds and test driver Ken Miles did it in 13.8.

As usual my attempt was made on a whim with no preparation at all. The trunk was full of stuff and I have no idea what the tire pressure was. Jenna still has whatever brake pads the prior owner put in it and by the 4th attempt the right front brake was giving off copious amounts of smoke.

Results in minute but first I have to give you the year end update. With highs in the 40s and snow in the forcast it's time to call it a season. Today (Nov 3) was the last trip to church in Jenna until mid April. I have plans for some winter work and I will probably post in late January but for now this is the end of an amazing year.  Remember what Jenna was like in January? 

It all started when #3 cylinder had 20 lbs of compression...:-(

March

April

May

June

July

AugustHonestly I still marvel at it and how far we have come! I thank you again for following along on this great adventure, I am truly blessed by your interest and support!
 

 

Sorry old friend but thanks for all you gave! Yes that is the Camaro... 


I wish you all joy through the holidays and in the coming year. If you go through something hard and wonder where God is remember the teacher always watches close but remains quiet during a test. Unless you raise your hand and ask for help that is! :-)


Now I invite you to turn up your speakers and click HERE to ride along from 0 to 100 to 0 again.  Enjoy!

Can the LS1 V8 Miata really be a daily driver?

I'll get to the question above but first what’s better than a V8 Miata?  3 of them! 

This is 1400 hp in 3 Miatas together at an autocross.

I rolled out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to make the trip to Minneapolis to meet the owners of these fine cars. 
It was fun to see their builds especially the green one because it was built by Flyin Miata.

It was a great day and fun to race with them. I made some new friends and we are already planning track days next year.

Oh and the results…

If you know autocross you know this is a huge spread and the game is 90% driver 10% car. So I just have less common sense then the other guys to know when to slow down!    

The next weekend I raised the car up about an inch and took my sweetie on a 5 day 30th anniversary get away to hit the north shore for some fall colors. 

One of the days we connected with the Miata club of Minnesota on their fall colors cruise.

 

Unfortunately it rained the whole day so I don’t have many photos but it was still fun to roll down the road with 30 other Miatas.The rest of the time we just enjoyed our time away in the north land together.  

We like light houses so we stayed in this one built in 1894,

 and visited a few more.  (this is split rock on lake superior)

Stats on the 5 day trip about half of which was top down :-)

No my sweetie was not in the car when the max speed was set but not by my doing.  The way God has wired me to protect, honor and serve my wife is far beyond my capability!  

So now that you are up to date I want to comment on the question many ask, can a conversion like this be a reliable daily driver?  Indeed.  I have driven her almost every day to work and lots of other trips racking up over 4500 miles since the conversion with no issues.  I do have the overheating on the track to deal with but for normal to spirited use she has proven to be a very capable and fun daily driver.  The gas mileage has averaged 23 mpg including the 4 autocrosses, which for a car this fast and fun to drive is very respectable.  The only real issue I have is the back tires wear much faster than the front ones do…

Well I’m pretty much going to close the adventure out for the year here. In a couple weeks Jenna will go into a shed that will soon be buried in snow.  Come April will be paint, cooling and charging the AC.  So until we visit again I pray this post finds you happy, healthy and not at all average!

Ref is Jeremiah 17:9 in that the only way to be un-average is to lay down our rights, surrender to Jesus, be transformed by the Spirit and be available to God to soar in the way he desires to use us. 

The V8 Miata Insurance Conundrum

For those of you considering building a V8 Miata I’d like to pass on some insurance info so you know what the trap it is going in.  For the rest of you who could care less about how to insure a high dollar non classic car you should skip this post.

In my research I came up with 3 kinds of full coverage available for a V8 Miata: 

Normal full coverage treats the car as a normal Miata using NADA or Kelly blue book to establish the value of the car and pays accordingly.

Stated value I tell the company what I want to insure the car for and they write the policy for that amount.  In the event of a claim I have to prove that it’s worth the amount of the claim and they have the option to agree with me or not.

Agreed value I prove to the company now what the car is worth and they agree to that number.  In the event of a claim they have already agreed to the value of the car and pay accordingly.

 

So with that back ground let’s shop for insurance for a 1996 V8 Miata that would cost around $18,000 to replace.

Normal full insurance on my Progressive multi car policy is 93 bucks for 6 months. If totaled they would take the book value of a normal 96 Miata with 170,000 miles on it and probably pay me around $3000 for it.  However most policies will cover aftermarket parts like custom wheels and trailer hitches up to a certain value and for me that is $5000. Better but still $10,000 short of covering a total loss. Also if totaled they don’t have to let me buy the car back so the potential is there to have to deny the payout or loose the car. 

Stated value insurance of $18,000 on my Progressive multi car policy costs $622 for 6 months and has no driving restrictions on it. Besides the staggering cost there are a few other drawbacks to this. Notice the asterisk comment on the bill.

The problem is they decide what the "Actual Cash Value" of the car is and since I have no receipt for the Camaro parts it would likely be a battle to get them to agree to my numbers. Also they will depreciate value of the receipts I do have from when it was built.  Like normal full insurance they don’t have to let me buy the car back but if they did with the bigger the payout they would want more for it.  In a nutshell it’s a gamble and they hold all the cards... 

For most companies a 1996 is much too new for agreed value insurance.  Even if they would insure it none of them would allow me to drive it to work every day like I do.  The one company I did find that would insure a 96 would not allow the car to be driven for any use that my normal daily driver could be used for.  So the car could only be used car shows and cruises with no driving it to work, the store or church.  And of course timed events and track days are out of the question… Just to know the number I did get a quote and the price is $310 for 6 months to never use the car.

So the options are:

A: Meaningless full coverage at $93
B: Expensive crap shoot at $622
C: Garage queen at $310
D: No full coverage liability at $51

I wanted to let you know about this nasty little rock and hard place situation because I did not research insurance well before I built the car and I really should have.  Not that it would have kept me from building the car mind you…

The V8 Miata does it all from track warrior to every day hauler...

I had a most interesting weekend playin with Jenna!  It started with a call Friday morning to play that night with a band I have never heard or worked with before.

You'd think going live with a completely unknown band would be enough to make the night interesting, but I had been pondering how to fit my drums in the car for sometime and I decided today is the day!  

It was a very enjoyable night and the ride home with the stars overhead was stunning!

Before I got home I had a removable luggage rack/ tire carrier whose supports will double as wing mounts designed in my mind! ;-)

Saturday morning it was off to autox with her. I wish I could say it went as well as the gig did but 2 minor issues resulted in major oil leaks that kept me from racing.  The good news is they were cheap to fix and not related to the conversion. The bad news is I need to fire my mechanic!  

Long story short there will never be another trip to the track without checking that the drain plug is tight!

Side note- there was a Camaro built for Good Guys events there. About half the car was carbon fiber and it had a built LS7 in it that sounded amazing.   

I wasn't planning on racing Sunday but since I missed Saturday I decided to duck out of church and hit the track. Sunday was much better and I got all my runs in with no problems.

                                                                                         Photo by CMatson Photography. Click for his FB page

I did have a couple issues though. It was jacket weather and cloudy out but the temp gauge still went from 195 to 215 on course. It came down right away but no way would the cooling system handle the track on a hot day. The other thing was the alternator quit charging. The power wire from the dash quit sending it juice but the charge light did not come on. 

Photo by CMatson

I ran a new wire to the alternator last night and I'm not sure if I am going to put a new radiator and volt gauge in this fall or wait till the spring but I will post on my efforts.  

  Photo by CMatson

You'd think I’d be the fastest Miata there but I’m not. A friend of mine who is an excellent driver runs a 4 cyl NC on race rubber and is always faster than me. It’s a drivers game so I guess I need to fire my driver too! 


It’s interesting that in my little town no body pays any attention to the car. There is not another Miata around so nobody knows what the car is much less that it shouldn't sound like it does. But at the autox it’s a whole other world. I finally got to the point I just leave the hood up because people kept asking to see it!

Photo by CMatson

Next race is the 28th and quite a long drive to get to so I am hoping for no problems.  I'm really excited about it because there will be 2 other V8 Miatas there duking it out!
I pray this post finds you happy, healthy and loving large! 

Time well waisted - Stripes!

I was having kind of a cruddy day on Saturday so with the DIY back window job finished I decided to do something frivolous and fun. The other option was the honey do list that so it came to pass I laid out some stripes..;-) 

First up was more vents in the hood for more air flow and painting the back side of it.

I tried 3 shades of gold and 1 of silver but they all looked fake and plastic to me.  So I thought I would try subtle with this bronze color.  Yeah because there is so much that is subtle about this car! 

I think they look a little green and blotchy because there are so many other colors under it.

You can click on any photo and it will get bigger, except this one...

  

Oh and I took the baffle out of the cut out pipe. Since it has stripes now I felt it needed to be louder.  And it is!

Don’t even think of getting in my way!

The new gas station in town has some bright lights that was fun to play with.

 

 The new shorter air box

I'm still not sure on the color yet but I like the size and shape so this will give me an idea of how it will look when I paint it for real.

I don't go anywhere without my proudly worn USS Bataan hat!

 

In Him is life, and that life is the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:4-5

Autocross this weekend Lord willing.  Have a GREAT week!!