Houston, We Have A Weekend!

(April marks two years since NMS first participated in autocross, so the photos here cover the last two years)

Can you find the SUPER UNIQUE sign?

Just a quick note to highlight that it's the weekend, so for NMS-South that means roll-bar purchase, and installation of various auto parts over the weekend! Stay tuned for an update in the near future as Brian gears up for autocross the following weekend, and some High Performance Driver Education at Carolina Motorsports Park in May.

2004 MazdaSpeed Miata, replaced with a 99 Miata

Farther north at NMS-North, the FIAT will take to autocross action in the second points event on Sunday, which might inspire a car wash on Saturday, along with checking tires, fluids, etc. The local Tidewaters Sports Car Club has confirmed that they will host a one day Evolution Performance Driving School for autocross, so I will be planning to sign up for that one when the registration opens on Sunday.

Stickers. Every sticker is worth 10 horsepower!

The rest of the weekend will likely involve following the racing action from Bahrain with Formula 1, with qualifying on at 11am eastern, and the race Sunday morning. The Indy car series moves on to Long Beach for some more races, and surely it will be better than the rain-yellowflag-rain-yellowflag dance they had last weekend down in New Orleans.

Autocross at Michelin Proving Grounds, Laurens South Carolina

Today's historical note is that on this date in 1964, the Ford Mustang was first introduced at the New York World's Fair! Yep, 51 years of Mustang is a good thing, and I can say that driving our families used 66 Mustang when I was in high school was pretty fun, and the 04 Mustang that I had before the FIAT was a nice little pile of 260 horsepower too!


Autocross at Darlington Speedway, Darlington South Carolina

Whatever you are doing this weekend, be safe, drive safe, and have fun!

NMS paddock with deluxe canopy and seating!

Have I Over-Powered the Miata???

If stickers add more horsepower, than this post is all about POWER!  This past weekend I did some vinyl work on the Miata while waiting for more parts to arrive before this coming weekend's major maintenance session.  A while back someone asked if I would black out the A-pillar (windshield frame) when I did the Mazdaspeed's graphics.  At the time I wasn't too keen on the idea, but since then it's grown on me as I've seen more cars, like the Club Sport edition of the last year of the third generation Miata.

Grabbed some blue electrical tape laying around to mark off the first cut without permanently damaging the vinyl.

I started off with a 36"x60" sheet of gloss black 3M vinyl (the good stuff).  I used some window cleaner to get the big bug chunks off the glass and wiped down the painted surface I was about to apply the vinyl to.  I could have prepped the surface even better, but it was only going to get so good on this car.

Big sheet of extra vinyl left for more decals!

I placed it on the windshield, mapped out a rough cut to remove the material over the windshield for re-use but left enough room for error around the frame before using painters' tape to keep it in place.

Almost done, lots of spare bits laying around, but beats prepping and cleaning up from spray paint!

Starting on the passenger side, I carefully peeled away the backing and started applying it to the painted area and worked my way around, smoothing it with a small squeegee as I went.  I cut away big areas of excess with scissors and then followed up with an razor blade to get the final cut.

Top down. Looks like a nice fresh coat of paint, but as easy and mess-free as a sticker!

As I worked around I realized that the vinyl was stretching and laying not quite how I intended, even with the excess amount of vinyl available.  I made a seam right at the center of the top of the windshield and had to make a couple of small patches by the time I got to the bottom of the driver's side frame.  Looks good enough from 10 feet!

The black frame helps blend in with the black soft top when up.  Hoping to add a black hard top to the car for track days.

At the supreme risk of over-powering the tiny car, I've got a boat-load of stickers from all of the different suppliers that I've been ordering parts from for the car.  The exponential power increase from these decals alone is frightening, so careful attention will need to be placed on where to locate all of these. I've got a few more local places I'm hoping to add.  Brace yourselves.

Racing Beat, 5x Racing, 949 Racing, SCCA, Mazda / Mazdaspeed, Good-Win Racing, and a couple fun ones. Hoping to add Panic Motorsports and Pro Auto soon.

Williamsburg VA British Car Club Euro Auto Show Highlights!

Well sports fans, if you hit our Nixon Motor Sports Flickr website link over on the right, you can see all 93 photos from this morning's cool Euro car show sponsored by the Williamsburg British Car Club!  The Flickr website is a great FREE photo hosting site, and you can see these photos there, so to give you a sample of the variety, here are just a few of my favorites below.

I love seeing cars in person that I've only read about, and cars I've never even heard of too!  At this show we had some cool wheels from Britain, France, Italy, and Germany, as well as one lonely Saab from Sweden, although I didn't get a shot of the Saab 93. 

From England: Lotus? Got a couple. MG and Triumph? Tons! Jaguars and Aston Martins? Yes and Yes!

How about Germany? JAH! Eine Porsche 911, BMW Z3 und Zed Vier! Prost!

Italia? Si, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo!

Here we go...

Love this Lotus!

Nothing says HAPPY like a "Bugeye" Sprite!
 

Morgan

Two Alfa Romeos! Mamma Mia!

Ferrari 328, surprise! It's in Red!

Peugeot 208 GTI. Nice!

Citroen 2CV. Bon Jour!

Z3 and Z4 from BMW

New Jaguar F-type!

This Spitfire owner really showed their colors with the flag under the hood!