For a quick overview video of the process start to finish CLICK ME.

For the detailed story starting at the beginning CLICK ME.

You can click on any photo in the blog to make it bigger.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Trip report: V8 Miatas invade The Mitty!

This event started last Thanksgiving when a bunch of us cylinder over achievers from V8miata.net decided we need to get together.

As the idea took shape The Mitty quickly bubbled to the first choice of venues.  The Mitty is a historic racing weekend at Road Atlanta with 350 race cars of every type you can imagine mostly from the 60s and 70s.



The event also features complete access to the paddock which was worth the trip in itself!

So now we had a plan but being over achievers we needed a goal.  The most V8 Miatas ever in one place was 13 so the challenge was before us. 
Dare we shoot to double that?

As things unfolded Flyin’ Miata got wind of what we were doing and stepped up to sponsor the event with tee shirts, a car corral and a half dozen laps on Road Atlanta.  How does one begin to say Thank you to that?
PLEASE SUPPORT FLYIN' MIATA!

 
Now I need to back up to my annual trip to Omaha with my son at Christmas for a sec.  Due to me being very dumb I put the car in the ditch so for me prep on the car for the Mitty run started weeks before the event.

The good news is no real damage was done and I was driving.  The bad news is my preparations ended in disaster a few hours before I was to leave.  I have not dropped a car in 25 years of wrenching but sure enough Jenna slipped off the jack and destroyed a tie rod end.

So it’s 10pm on the night before a 3000 mile trip with no chance of finding a tie rod end for a Miata within 100 miles of me.   No worries this is Road Kill after all so I whipped up a very micky mouse splint, did a quick alignment and was in bed by 1am.

I rolled out in the morning just as planned.
The top came down by Missouri and pretty much never went back up!
My first stop on the tour was at a fellow V8 guy that is just getting started on his build.  We set his hard top on Jenna just to see what it looks like but I’ll not be owning one any time soon. 
I left him the same smile everyone has the first time they drive a V8 Miata
Day 2 on to the Peach tree state
I stayed with a fellow V8er that built his car at the same time I did.  He lives way up in the hills of North Georgia so we did some rock crawling with her. 
 
Shannon is a great guy (and cook) and we stayed up way too late catching up.  
 
The MPG for the first half of the trip would have been 28 had it not been for that white C6 vette.  They always think I am all rice and no spice…

Friday was on to the Mitty and wow what a day it was! 
 

Friday evening was the track time and while they tried to keep us in line there may have been some, ahh, less restricted maneuvers occur on the backside corners and straight…
That is my friend Shannon in front of me. He has a beautiful car!
 
 
After the track time it was a picnic hosted by V8 Roadsters in their vendor both and as you might expect no one talked about the weather!
Saturday it rained pretty hard in the morning so lots of car clubs did not show up and several of our guys did not either.  I was pulled so hard to the track I doubt I could have taken much more visiting anyway so I’ll summarize the day with 2 minutes from my favorite race and the assurance that the rest of the events were no less epic.
Saturday Night was dinner hosted by MX5 Atlanta and Sunday morning my Son and I rolled out to the tail of the dragon.  
Another 2 minute video if you are interested in seeing that.
From there it was off to my CMS friend Tom with a little detour on the way.  Nothing like the smell of fresh donor car in the morning!

My friend Tom is a great guy and so nearly my twin it’s uncanny.  We both play drums in bands and are in to the same kind of music.  We both love sim racing, autocross and historic racing.  And we both are tinkerers that are just as happy to work on a car as to drive one.  Oh and the car of choice is of course the Miata!

Miatas tend to consume alignment bolts if you drive them hard and the new set on my bench didn’t make it to the car before the trip and sure enough one of them moved on the dragon.  So Monday morning a quick tire rotate and field alignment in a parking lot started my day.
From there it was just road tripping home with a stop or 2 along the way to see the sights.  

As the sun set over Iowa I felt the need for a pick me up and what better than a…
I made it home around mid-night and the stats are the trip are:
About 2000 of that 2800 miles was with the top down.  (The top speed was from a track event last summer not the trip)

The thing I always enjoy about traveling in a cartoon character of a car is so many people ask about it.   LeeRoy in the Illinois rest stop is restoring a vintage dragster and asked about the hood latches.  Mike in the Mazda 3 in Kentucky said he would buy my gas if I gave him a ride.   The guy in Missouri said he has an LS1 swapped RX7 he started for the first time over the weekend.  By God’s grace I have no sense of time so I don’t notice or care when a 15 minute gas stop turns into a 45 minute visit.  

All in all it was an absolutely delightful trip that I hope to repeat next year.

So did we meet the challenge of 26 V8 Miatas at Mitty?  Well yours truly was as in charge as anyone is for such things was having too much fun to remember to count so we are not sure.  But there was no shortage of horse power in that parking lot!






















 
LFX V6 car using the aluminum 323hp VVT V6 and 6 speed from the latest Camaro.



LSA 6.2L / 556HP supercharged Exocet



LS3 V8 Exocet