Sanity has prevailed, I didn't buy a Caterham, got something sensible with a warranty instead

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

It wasn't an impulse buy as I had the preorder in even before I started looking at Caterhams. Given my car history, my wife has been encouraging me to have a car with a warranty and she really liked the ND (and the Alfa 4C, but the ND is more sensible and more cheap).

The current plan is to keep it long term (assuming the ergonomics work for me) and once we're out of warranty, turn it into more of a hoonmobile with help from Keith & friends. Downside of this plan is that we have to keep the MR2 for a few years longer - I could've sold it if we bought a Caterham.

The distinction is that the 996 probably won't even see an autocross (ok, maybe one or two), whereas the ND will have track experience in 3-4 years. I've always wanted another 911 after I sold my C3.2 in the UK and now that I warmed enough to the 996, that may be it until I can afford another C3.2...

All that said, thanks for reminding me that I do need another motorcycle. Anybody want to buy a nice condition ZRX1200? Decrepit owner has trouble with the knee angle on the bike.

I read the title of this and thought "Epic Fail" - then I read the post and saw you got a new answer and thought, "oh, well that's cool."

How come the decrepit owner isn't offering up the BMW in his profile?

And now to be the desenter but... You could have had a Caterham!?!?! I would have gone for that even if I had to go back to the days of ramen noodles and Tostinos pizza to get it.

octavious wrote: How come the decrepit owner isn't offering up the BMW in his profile?

The R100RS? That may actually be for sale sooner or later, once I got it running again. That's not going to be cheap though, as it's got a Krauser 4V motor in it. As in, 4V per cylinder, not in total and not counting the tire valves either.

Not to mention that I can actually ride that one, even though the weight on my wrists isn't helping. The Kawa has a completely wrong knee angle for me despite lowered footpegs.

octavious wrote: And now to be the desenter but... You could have had a Caterham!?!?! I would have gone for that even if I had to go back to the days of ramen noodles and Tostinos pizza to get it.

I hear you. I'm still thinking of one (actually, I'm toying with the idea of bringing back a Westfield or a Fisher Fury from the UK next time I go there), but the main reason apart from really liking the ND was that the nearest mechanic who'd work on a Caterham and doesn't awfully look like me is 220 miles away. I've done that with the Evo and it sucks.

Finally got around to registering the Miata after the dealer dropped it off last Thursday.

Y'all can laugh at me, I've so far only put about 15 miles on it (test drive and to the DMV and back). It's going in for paint protection film tomorrow with the same people who did the Evo and then I may actually dare to drive it.

Congratulations.

bravenrace wrote: Soooo, do these new Miata's come in any other color???

No. ALL miatas are red. If you see one in another color, it's just a repainted red one.

Ours is red, but they forgot the color coat and left it in primer.

Damn you keith. I'm trying hard not to say berkeley it all and sell everything and move to western Colorado and pictures like that don't help.

Goodwin had theirs out at the BMWCCA autocross last weekend. It did really well. They already have some brakes on it and some lowering springs but no coil overs yet. But they are working with two companies on those.

http://sdbmwcca.org/autocross/results/2015-08-02

They had 16x7 wheels with proxes RR's on the car I think nothing too crazy lots of body roll but was still quick.

Congrats on your car I think you will love it. And I can't wait to see what Keith, Goodwin, and the other guys do for this car.

Congrats!

FM has already been posting links to tasty parts on Facebook. I'm trying my best to ignore the posts for right now...

So, here is a question for Keith: Since the aftermarket is such a critical part of some car's success in the market, do the manufacturers ever give some after-market suppliers a heads up on what is going to be required for making the parts? Case in point, the actual dimensions and specifications for the factory springs?

Or maybe its more fun and the aftermarket guys have to cloak and dagger it to get the information out of the engineers?

Just seems that if springs are already on their way to market, someone had some inside info.

This thread is not helping me keep from pulling the trigger on something with a warranty... Especially a new answer.... GRRR

Other manufacturers may be different. We're a Miata shop, so we've only dealt with Mazda.

Mazda gives us basically no assistance. Any claims you see from other Miata aftermarket shops should be taken with a whole bunch of salt. SEMA was the biggest help with a measuring party, but it was a thousand miles too far away for us. The biggest help we got was permission to pick up our non-Launch Edition car at the very first opportunity after the LEs had been shipped, and they let us pick it up in San Diego even before it had been PDI'd. The car got here on Wednesday, and it spent Thursday and Friday doing about 150 laps of our track. With some alignment tweaks and tires, I knocked 3.5 seconds off the lap times and beat all but six of our customers

We do have a four wheel brake kit available for the car already, and I've got our car on high performance FOX coilovers. Lots of spring rate and much less body roll - and it'll deal well with a rowdy back road. I haven't track tested that setup yet.

I did get one tidbit about the factory springs from a friend who works at Mazda, but that's it. Nothing I could work with beforehand. I had to measure the springs myself. There was a measuring day put on by SEMA a month or so ago, that's where the early spring sets probably came from. Of course, that also tells you how much actual testing was done on those springs before this point!

They eventually going to offer a hard top version, right?

Officially, no comment. But there are some suspicious looking plates on the back that could cover mounting points for a removable unit.

bmw88rider wrote: Damn you keith. I'm trying hard not to say berkeley it all and sell everything and move to western Colorado and pictures like that don't help.

I can vouch that the road he's on is quite good.

NOHOME wrote: So, here is a question for Keith: Since the aftermarket is such a critical part of some car's success in the market, do the manufacturers ever give some after-market suppliers a heads up on what is going to be required for making the parts? Case in point, the actual dimensions and specifications for the factory springs? Or maybe its more fun and the aftermarket guys have to cloak and dagger it to get the information out of the engineers? Just seems that if springs are already on their way to market, someone had some inside info.

Ford works with Steeda/etc on Mustang parts and the like. They get CAD drawings, etc.

Swank Force One wrote:

bmw88rider wrote: Damn you keith. I'm trying hard not to say berkeley it all and sell everything and move to western Colorado and pictures like that don't help.

I can vouch that the road he's on is quite good.

That's not even the good part! It's just the pretty part that you climb up to get to the good stuff. I don't think we told you about that one.

The designer for Shelby has told me they don't get any help either, but I have my doubts about that. Heck, Ford will send anyone a dimensioned drawing of their crate engines. I don't even know where to start to get that for a Mazda mill.

Nice! Feeling so much jealousy right now

Keith Tanner wrote:

Swank Force One wrote:

bmw88rider wrote: Damn you keith. I'm trying hard not to say berkeley it all and sell everything and move to western Colorado and pictures like that don't help.

I can vouch that the road he's on is quite good.

That's not even the good part! It's just the pretty part that you climb up to get to the good stuff. I don't think we told you about that one. The designer for Shelby has told me they don't get any help either, but I have my doubts about that. Heck, Ford will send anyone a dimensioned drawing of their crate engines. I don't even know where to start to get that for a Mazda mill.

I think you guys drew out the whole loop for me. Or at least a loop of some sort. I remember it being a little "drifty" the first time i was there with the old and hard R28s that were still on the MSM.

Tons of fun! I prefer the roads in the Smokies a little, but the environment being drastically different makes your roads a bit surreal which i like.

I need to work on driver heat management enough that i can take the current project out there for your Summer Camp or something.

Heck, Ford will send anyone a dimensioned drawing of their crate engines.

And who do I contact to get my hands on this drawing?

It's as easy as could be.

Go to the catalog page for the engine in question on fordracing.com (example). There's a chat button on the page. Click that, and type "can you provide a dimensioned drawing so I can make sure it fits?". They'll send one to you in an email.