This morning, I pulled my dusty black Miata out of the corner of the garage, where it has sat for the past few months. Like one of those E36 M3ty car based reality shows, I have assigned myself a completely meaningless and arbitrary deadline of two weeks to get it ready for track duty.
Admittedly, it's already half way there. About a year and a half ago, I began transforming it from a 51,000 mile stocker into a dual purpose street / autocross toy. I put about 300 miles on it in this configuration and then rolled it back into the corner. I just couldn't get comfortable with the seat and rollbar. Also, after having a caged Miata in the past, the cowl shake was driving me nuts.
Screw dual purpose.
I messed around with it a bit at the beginning of the year, removing and selling the rollbar. The brakes, suspension, and exhaust are done, all the fluids are fresh and it has FM subframes installed.
I need to remove the soft top assembly, add the bolt in cage, mount a race seat and harness, remove the A/C, install some gauges, and probably more stuff that I'm overlooking. The carpet and radio will most likely stay. Plus, during this time, I also need to work 96 hours, travel to Pennsylvania for the Porsche swap meet, celebrate Easter with the in-laws, swear at Atlanta Craigslist, take care of the lawn and spend some quality time with the berkeleying loved ones.
Also, I'll be working alone and have decided to leave all the shop manuals on the shelf, so I won't waste valuable work time reading safety warnings.
If I were smarter, I would probably take the time to replace the cars 15 year old original timing belt with the new one in my basement that I bought for the car eight years ago. Of course, that one is most likely dry rotted by now, too.
See you in two weeks.
