Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Kart Week 4 Report

Pre Race View From the Rear!


The Eagles sang about "Life in the Fast Lane", so at first I was going to title this post "Life in the Slow Lane"as a tribute to their late member Glen Frey, but, whatever, never mind.


Week four saw a smaller turnout of only five drivers in the Tidewater Sports Car Club Winter Kart Series on February 16th, so while that's less folks having fun, it also means more points for me in last place! If you want to endure the entire eight minute race video, check it out at this link on Facebook, and make sure you're watching in HD:  Kart Race 4


Safety: Helmet and Neck Pad for Karts

Look for updated points totals on the results page soon!

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Old Dominion Region SCCA Autocross 2016 Schedule!

Pungo Pavement Patiently Pauses
NMS-North located in Virginia Beach is happy to see that NMS-South is into the final stages of rebuilding the Miata motor in South Carolina. Up north here, we have two announcements to make.

1-For the FIAT fans out there, I'm happy to say that I'm now an on-line moderator for the FIAT 500 USA Forum at FIAT500 FORUM LINK. This is not an official FIAT website, just a bunch of fans talking about our favorite Italian cars. If you are interested in the current FIAT cars or older classic FIATs, check it out.

2-The Old Dominion Region of the Sports Car Club of America has posted their 2016 autocross schedule on their website (see the ODR link on the right of this page). As one of two clubs that hold monthly events, it's great to be living here by the Atlantic on the Chesapeake Bay and having plenty of chances to autocross locally!

Miatas Mostly Motor Merrily

The ODR folks have a regular schedule of running their events on the first Sunday of the month, so for those of us that are usually in the area on holidays, well, what better way to have fun around the 4th of July or Labor Day than to include some driving?

Karts Keep Kangaroos Corralled 

ODR events are  held at the former Pungo airfield, located in friendly Pungo Virginia, basically just in the country on the edge of Virginia Beach. Remember that it's a bit hard to find if you've never been there, so if you can find Pungo Pizza, then you're really close, because access to the site is about a hundred yards north, just look for the gate on a dirt road in a break in the trees!

All Abarths Are Awesome!

Last year I ran in three of their events, so in 2016 I hope to be able to do more! Here's the schedule so far:

Timing Takes Tiny Thousandths Tirelessly
April 3
     
May 1

June 5

July 3

August 7

September 4

October 2

November 6









Saturday, February 13, 2016

Miata Engine Build - Day 2

Moving on, Jason was able to get the cylinder head and oil pan on the motor. In the next post I'll be working with Kyle on getting the remaining accessories (intake manifold, timing belt/pulleys, clutch/flywheel assembly) attached and see how soon we can get the transmission bolted back up and ready to load into the car this weekend.
Just a few more things to bolt on before we fire it up.
 While I didn't do any hands on building today, I did spend a lot of time with the parts washer and bead blaster to clean almost 18 years of dirty, oily gunk off of the remaining parts.  Below are the water neck that houses the thermostat and a support brace for the intake manifold after their cleaning.
These aluminum pieces look pretty spiffy and new when they're clean.