Spring 2023 Update: I Quit Miatas

For the few dozen of you who subscribe to the blog, let me update you on some of the things that have been happening in my life, and how that’s going to affect this site and future content.

I bought a Veloster N for what I thought were pretty good and mature reasons. I took the car to Watkins Glen for Grid Life, but I didn’t really get a chance to open it up in the monsoon conditions. An NC Miata would have been a better choice (if you don’t get that joke, it’s a boat reference).

Then I drove the VN out to Detroit to see my buddy Chris Gailey, and in preparation for that, I built a bunch of aero parts for testing. No plan survives the enemy, and my Veloster didn’t survive one lap.

I accelerated out of T2 at Waterford and heard a loud noise, which then got louder, kind of like an exhaust gasket getting blown out. I’d recently replaced the straight pipe with OEM, so I thought maybe this was a gasket issue. But then the car lost power, and then died as I entered the pits.

We took off the undertray and found oil; it didn’t look good. A warning came up on the screen, I touched that, and it called Hyundai service. They said they’d pick up the car and take it to the Hyundai dealership, Glassman Hyundai in Southfield.

While waiting for the tow truck driver to arrive (high as a kite), I let Chris’s son have my track day. The good folks at Summer Track Days allowed Griffin to drive in my place, and I let Griffin borrow my helmet. Unbeknownst to me, Griffin let his buddy borrow my helmet so he could ride shotgun. Welp, the passenger got sick, couldn’t get my helmet off in time, and threw up all over the inside of my lid. No good deed goes unpunished.

We rented a Jeep Grand Cherokee, possibly the worst car I’ve ever driven, and drove 500 miles home to the smell of stale cigarettes. People who smoke in rental cars should have their lungs ripped out. Fuck you.

The people at Glassman Hyundai were awesome, especially Ralph, and kept in touch with me. The good news: the motor will be replaced under warranty. The bad news: N motors are on “international backorder status.” I’m pretty much expecting October.

I had some track days coming up, so I dusted off my 1.6 Miata, which recently had HLAs serviced and new valve springs. I spent a bunch of time on new aero for that, including fitting my fastback to it.

Then I took it up to Pineview, and it dropped a valve in the first session.

So now I’ve got three broken cars and four broken engines (my race car’s engines are also currently apart) and I have nothing to drive for the PCA event coming in a few days. So I figure I’ll find a 1.6 engine, throw it in there stock, and at least I can drive something for two days at Watkins Glen.

I found a 1.6 a few hours away for $750, and tried to trace back the ownership. It was apparently Dieter’s engine once upon a time, and I get his assurances that it’s decent. So I buy the engine, take it over the Shade Tree, and have them install it. Except the engine is rusted on the inside and worthless. WTF?

Well, apparently Dieter had two engines, this one isn’t the one he was talking about. This engine used to be Stefan’s, and he pulled it out of a junkyard car and sold it before checking into it. Fucking boat anchor, that’s all it’s good for.

So now I’ve got five broken engines and no car, so I figure I’ll go to the PCA event and just do data coaching. That didn’t really work out great due to some scheduling mishaps (the classroom sessions were double booked with my data sessions), and then just a lack of people wanting to do data. So I didn’t get a chance to use my vMin coaching tools or show the slide deck I worked so hard on.

So I sat in the stands with Josh and watched turn 10 for a bit. In an entire session (20+ minutes), four people hit the rumble strip on exit. I’d say 90% of the cars left a car width or more on the exit of the turn. A good number of cars exited turn 10 in the middle of the track. Did I mention this was the advanced run group? Maybe data coaching isn’t that important.

All of this has kind of reframed what I want to do with my life. I’ve spent 12 years racing and being a prisoner of this hobby. And it isn’t just the racing I got into, there’s the instructing, data coaching, racing rules, Pineview bullshit, etc. And of course all of the aerodynamic crap: theory, building, testing, simulations, and eventually writing it down here.

I’m not sure what comes next, but I’m due a break from the chaos. One thing I’ve decided for sure is I’m no longer owning a racing team or any Miatas. I’m selling or giving away everything Miata related. It’s been a great journey, but that part of the journey has come to an end.

As soon as I’d made that decision, I felt better. My wife simply said “It’s about fucking time!”

I’m still going to write; I have a lot of unfinished drafts and some really good ones coming up. I’m still going to race, but it’ll be as an arrive-and-drive. I’m still going to track my Veloster and do a bunch of aero experiments, but it’s going to be a while before I get back to it. The future is undefined, but looks brighter already.

Just today Ralph from Hyundai sent me a little movie – the new engine is in, the car is running, and it’s ready to be picked up. Hallefuckinglujah.