夜勤: NightShift

[Nyaa]

I'd be headed to the Raleigh area

[— kung fu jesus —]

You know VIR is ~an hour from Raleigh.

[— kung fu jesus —]

There are some decent roads on the north side of Raleigh and out near the VA border, north of Hillsboro. Deal's Gap is about 5 hours from RDU, Wilmington is 1.5.

It was easier to turbo my Miata in NC because there isn't any smog testing during annual inspections.

The RDU crowd might be able to convince you to hang onto your car.

[TNRooster3]

There are some good twisty roads north of Durham and both north and south of Greensboro, plus you are 3 hours from Boone NC and can run THE SNAKE.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Oh, and you can ditch the front plate too.

[Nyaa]

That's why I'm planning to hang onto it until I get out there. The change of scenery, and ability to actually do some driving could really breath some life into myself and the car

[— kung fu jesus —]

I lived in NC twice. I have fond memories driving mine up and down the coast from the Outer Banks to Savannah, many trips to the mountains, and weekend trips to Atlanta to see friends. The southeast is very Miata friendly.

[Nyaa]

Well. I did some thinking, and I guess I'm in this car for the long haul. Until I finish school at least. At it's worst it's cheap reliable transportation.

I guess this would be a post where I lay out my pans for the car, and show you a bunch of pictures of cars I find inspiring, but that's a little hard to do! There are a lot of things I like about a lot of cars, but it's hard for me to show a picture of one and say "I dig this cars vibe" when there are things I could nitpick about it. And it's hard to lay out specific plans when I don't have some grand master scheme!

If I had to pick one car that I think is close to where I might head though, It would be Sho's roadster, seen here doing cool 185 cup stuff:



Again, his car isn't a perfect representation of where I want to go with mine. But through it's various iterations I've always jived with it really hard.
(And speaking of the 185 cup, is there anywhere I could get some infortmation on it's regulations and the cars that run in it and junk? What I've seen of it is really interesting and I would love to learn and see more, especially since it might start giving me some ideas for a direction I want to take my car in.)

So this is still a journey without a map, but I'm sticking with it and I'm going to find my way. I've still got to figure out what coilovers to get, that's high on my list of things to do.
I just ordered some cool parts that will let me do something I've wanted to do to this car since I got it too, so hopefully we'll be seeing an update on that this month!

[Nyaa]

So, I came out of work today to find my front bumper a little worse for wear



Looking at it, I'm assuming someone scraped against me in the parking lot. If you look under the indicator you can see a black mark, so I'm assuming some truck or SUV just drove a bit close and scrubbed its tire and wheel across me.
Also: check out the POs awesome job a drilling the license plate directly into the bumper.

Now, I'll be the first to admit my paint and body aren't in the most amazing shape, but this has me really bugged about it. I've been wanting to swap the front bumper and fix the body for a while, so I guess that'll be coming up soon.
But do you guys advice on the front of paint / body restoration? I don't expect this to be show car quality or anything. But it'd be nice to not have hail damage or scrape marks all over

[Nyaa]

I haven't had an update here in a long time because, well I haven't done much to my car.

But earlier this week I was awoken in the middle of the night by what sounded like a quiet car wreck. I peaked out of my kitchen window to see what was happening, and was amazed at what was unfolding before my eyes. My little Miata was being torn apart, pieces of it flying off, and the metal sounds becoming unbearably loud. What emerged from the little car was wholly unexpected...



None of that actually happened of course. Rather, the Miata ended up showing me more of the side of it I never wanted to acknowledge. In my over-excitement to buy the car in the first place I blinded myself to the fact that it wasn't the best example out there, and I certainly didn't pay a price for it that was in sync with that fact. With my move from home impending, I just wasn't feeling confident taking that car on a 1500+ mile road trip, and having it reliably shuttle me around everyday. The opportunity came up to sell it to a friend who, and just happened to line up with this RX-8 coming up for sale.

I've wanted one of these since I was 15. I've wanted a rotary for just as long, I've always had a fascination with the power plant. In fact, I has a hairs width from buying an FB before I got the Miata. The only thing that kept me from it really was my unfamiliarity with carbs. But when this car just happened to show up when I had decided it may be best to move on from Miatas for the time, and had a fat stack of service records, and low miles, AND a very reasonable price; I jumped through the window while it was still open.

So now I am the happy owner of a 2010 RX-8 Sport! I don't have many pictures right now because the town has been in a steady drizzle for the past few days, and probably will for a few more. But I'll take some nice ones soon. And I'm not planning on leaving MR either. Turns out the one major RX-8 forum is populated mainly by jerks, so I can't really see myself there. It isn't close to the inviting place I've found here. So, I'll be making a new thread here to just kind of keep journal of my life with a rotary engine sports car. There will inevitably be some build going on with it, but really I want to document how it is to live with. It's a totally new experience for me, and I couldn't be more excited for it.

[RustRat]

I will ask what I have asked other people who went from a Miata to the RX8: do you like it? I've heard the RX8 is faster, but the Miata is more fun to drive. Also, start a build thread, please!


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[Nyaa]

I love it! It absolutely is faster, but not crazy fast. I feel like the car and my driving ability are on par. I could absolutely push it right to the edge of my comfort zone. So far it's been as fun to drive. Different for sure, but just as fun. I've heard that the NC and RX-8 share a platform, or something to that extent. I'm not sure how true that is but it really does feel like a bigger Miata. It's a great fun car.

And as soon as the weather clears up and I can snap some okay pictures I'll start a new thread for it