The Sports Car Thread

One of the reviews I read about the Vega was that "Any car that starts rusting on the showroom floor redefines depreciation"
I did some work on a car about 8 years old from Wisconsin once, Slid the jack under the front frame and proceeded to jack through the frame. I was checking for a brake fluid leak, coming from a rusted through brake line. Decided not to work on it after all that. It was towed away, probably should have torched it to keep it off road
The early unibody cars did not survive salt very well,
 
Yeah WI is really bad when it comes to salting the roads. If 5lbs /mile is sufficient they use 50lbs. It's tragic and Lake Michigan is where most of it is headed. Just tragic.
 
800 miles in I just wasn't happy with power and throttle response under 4000 rpm. At 115 hp/100 ft-lbs torque this 1.6 liter Miata is the least powerful of the four generations and needs revs to accelerate briskly but something wasn't right in the low and mid range. It started and idled perfectly and felt like it ran like it should over 4000 rpm but felt flat when I floored it under that. Pulling out of corners in second or third at 2500-3500 rpm was underwhelming. 20 mph to 60 elapsed time took a calendar to measure. It was nothing like the memory of going up through the gears of my 1999 Miata. A Japanese car specialist here went through the fuel delivery system and fiddled with the air flow meter to fatten the mixture which helped some but something still wasn't right. He mumbled about a next step of pulling the ECU out and sending it to a guy that still works on 80's 90's FI electronics.

I still have a timing light from my 40 year back air-cooled VW days so I dug it out then read the factory service manual. I found the ignition timing 6 degrees retarded from factory recommended spec 10 degrees BTDC. I set the timing to enthusiast recommended 12 degrees BTDC and went for a drive. First WOT in second the rpms bounced off the 7200 rpm rev limiter! Completely different throttle response at all rpms from idle to redline. I am far, far from a Miata tuning expert but what a good feeling to fix a simple problem with old school tech. I followed up with the Japanese specialist shop owner and he said somewhat sheepishly "your timing light is older than both of my techs."
 
sam_8730-jpg.371886


Damn! That is one shiny car. Sharp lookin' tool
 
Y’all got a lot of Miata’s Those things are sure hard to crawl in but a lot of fun to drive/play around in. I got this 2013 last February and I’ve put 21,000 miles on it since then.

It's a plain Jane base Miata with a lowly 5 speed manual transmission. Sure is fun to use that clutch and go around the corners. Tires grip better in the corners and curves than I can handle.


IMG_6487.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Needs a roof and a couple of those up and down thingys, but this thing always come through for me when I have to work on the Jeep, we hammer it pretty good, the tremec five speed and [whatever clutch, never even looked at it in twenty years] starting to feel the second gear engagement teeth are fairing about as badly as they did in the jeep but oh well, maybe it's just me... or her :unsure: In any event, haven't had it out yet so will see
I bought this car when you could get them for about twelve, I paid almost twenty and was councelled by ICBC that I was overpaying for the car, and that I should consider, no regrets, I could have sold this car for about twelve when I first bought it, and as low as five, now, it's going for about eight in bad shape, and more so there it is; they're like, well, they're like _____ , if you're not in love with them... [edit] I wanted a Miata, but [apparently] you couldn't squash two rotten kids in the back, I said, it's got a trunk? I don't get the problem?




IMG_9455.jpg
 
I had a red 1990 Miata. Be sure and keep the drains behind the doors free. May want to spray some Fluid Film up there. I loved Miata.net. Now I have an 05 SC430. And I just threw away my timing light in a garage clean out! I advanced it to 12 degrees like they recommended on Miata net.
 
Last edited:
jspringator said:
I had a red 1990 Miata. Be sure and keep the drains behind the doors free. May want to spray some Fluid Film up there. I loved Miata.net. Now I have an 05 SC430. And I just threw away my timing light in a garage clean out! I advanced it to 12 degrees like they recommended on Miata net.
Click to expand...
Good advice - we got it up on a lift as part of the pre purchase inspection and the drains were on the list. I joined Miata.net in 2016 when we got the '99 10AE. It's still the same clunky software but priceless information!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom