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!