Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Keep On Truckin’ Edition of SORT
As of Monday, June 13, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1931 Ford Model A
Pickup Hot Rod		 2022 Ram 1500 TRX
Crew Cab 4×4		 1999 Chevrolet K1500 Suburban LT 4×4
I almost chose the 2022 Ram 1500 TRX Crew Cab 4×4 for all the spots.
The supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8 fills the Sport’s criteria, 4×4 for Off-Road &
the heated leather seats with the extra row of seats for luggage for Touring.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 2004 Volkswagen R32 Sold for $36,632 on 6/11/22
Off-Road: 1989 Volkswagen LT45 Dually Camper Conversion Bid to $32,000 on 6/8/22
Touring: >2012 Volkswagen Touareg Executive TDI Sold for $28,500 on 6/7/22

Lowered Miata

When we bought The CTBNL it was lowered on a set of Racing Beat springs along with a set of Koni Sport yellow shocks. When a car is lowered the spring rate needs to increase, otherwise the shorter suspension travel will bottom out on sharp road imperfections. The Racing Beat springs were around 20% stiffer and that would have been great is all the roads we traveled were fairly smooth, but in the real world it seemed like were hitting the bump stops way too often.

Our previous Miata was lowered on a set of Flying Miata springs with those same Koni Sport shocks. So, not long after we bought the current car we swapped the Racing Beat springs for Flying Miata’s almost 100% stiffer units. No more hitting bump stops.

Flying Miata says that after their springs are installed the ride height, measured from wheel center to the fender lip, should be 12.5″ in the front and 13″ in the rear or an even 3/4″ lower than stock. When I measure the ride height on the CTBNL now it comes in at the advertised 13″ in the rear, but the front measures just 12″.

This extra 1/2″ lower ride height comes into play rarely and only when really pushing the car the car through a very sharp turn. The tire will scrape the inner plastic fender liner. This is especially prevalent in the winter when I have the taller Mini Cooper all-season tires on the car.

I don’t remember these stiffer springs feeling this harsh on both the last car and on this one when we were in South Carolina. There is probably a reasonable explanation for this. It could be we are getting older and less tolerant of being jostled. It could also be that we used to drive the Miata a lot more back east so we were used to be jostled around. It could possibly be the roads out here are worse than in South Carolinas. Or it could be a combination of all three.

I have been considering swapping out springs back to stock to maybe mellow out the ride some. Also, because of that whole aging thing again, it might be nice to get that 3/4″ of ride height back. A set of used springs are fairly cheap, around $100, but the labor to swap them out will probably be 4 times that. After the swap and alignment would be needed. With what little we drive the Miata anymore, 238 miles in the last 6 months, I’m not sure it is worth it.

17.1 miles to the Running Y Ranch for a walk.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 33

 

It Must Be the Accent

Lately I have really been sucked down the rabbit hole of car videos on YouTube. I find that I have gravitated towards shows that originate in the UK. Honestly, it nothing to do with Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, it is just that everything sounds so much more refined in the Queen’s English. I’ve already discussed that James Engelsman increased the enjoyment of Throttle House vids, but now I’ve stumbled on a few more YouTube channels that I find positively mesmerizing.

Firstly there is Harry’s Garage, whose presenter is named, go figure, Harry Metcalfe. Mr. Metcalfe founded EVO magazine back in 1998 and after 15 years retired to become a gentleman farmer with a decidedly awesome car collection. Although he is technically not an auto journalist anymore, because of his car guy stature he also gets all the new cool cars to review. He also films his adventures restoring or repairing some of the older exotics in his collection and random Silverstone Auction previews. With him being an old guy like me I especially like his road trips in some of his cool cars because he breaks out actual paper maps to explain the routes he is going to take:

Next up is the Autotrader UK channel where Rory Reid, ex of Top Gear, puts cars through their paces, like his latest on the new Lotus Emira:

While I’ll probably never own an electric vehicle I still like to keep up with what is happening in that market, but if you are into electric vehicles the Electric Vehicle Man is worth checking out. Here is their latest on the Genesis GV60 the sister car to the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6:

11.3 miles to Home Depot and back.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 32

 

Gyros

Today the Miata made a 5.7 mile dinner run to the only “Greek” restaurant in town, that’s right Arby’s, for gyros.

We needed to cleanse our palates after last week’s attempt to make our own at home following a recipe Donna found online. It turned out very, very disappointedly. It used a mix of beef and lamb like a gyro should, but it was using ground meat of both in an oblong patty fried in a pan, unlike the traditional vertical rotisserie method. The meat turned out tough. 🙁 The pita wasn’t that great either, we couldn’t find them anywhere in Fred Meyers, so we bought what we thought were the best ones on the shelf at Walmart. The pitas fell apart after warming them up. Our tzatziki sauce was from a premade tzatziki yogurt dip we found and even after adding feta cheese pieces to it, was not really that great.

Having had good luck with Arby’s gyros before and after our home disaster we figured that these tonight would just blow us away, but for some reason they just didn’t hit the mark. I think we’ll give them another chance, but two strikes and they’ll be out.

We have tried a gyro at a place over the Cascades in Medford and it was a bit different, but not worth going back there for one. On a trip in Washington state we found a chain called Pita Palace or something like that and had a similar experience, meh.

When we lived in Aiken we were regulars at a family run restaurant called Acropolis that did a real nice gyro. There was a nice little Greek place in the French Quarter that we ate gyros at semi often when we lived there after discovering this wonderful food at the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition.

Ed Note: Donna swears it was at the 1982 Knoxville World’s Fair!

15.3 miles from 2 sperate trips yesterday & today.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 31

 

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Volkswagen Edition of SORT
As of Monday, June 6, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2004 Volkswagen R32 1989 Volkswagen LT45 Dually Camper Conversion 2012 Volkswagen Touareg Executive TDI
I bet you thought when you saw Volkswagen Edition in the title you were going to see nothing but bugs, buses and Karman Ghias. Ha, I decided to go another way, but as to not disappoint my public, here are some of the usual suspects:
Beetle, Beetle or Beetle Bus, Bus or Bus Ghia, Ghia or Ghia

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1973 Lancia Fulvia 1600 Bid to $52,000 on 6/3/22
Off-Road: 1981 Daihatsu F55 4×4 Sold for $22,500 on 6/3/22
Touring: >1968 Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 Bid to $204,000 on 6/6/22

Hammered Copper

When we first bought our current bed frame it was because we really liked the shade of green of the one on the display floor. The trouble was that the one on the floor was already spoken for, the person had paid for it, but hadn’t picked it up yet. The only other colors they had were a brown and a white.

We picked white with the intention to paint it a color that would approximate the green we saw in the store. We went to Home Depot and got some paint chips of the color we thought it was, but when we compared it to frame in the store, nothing came close. Instead of painting the bed frame we picked one of those shades of green that we could agree on and painted the bedroom walls with it. Some time later after watching too much HGTV we turned the wall the bed sat against a darker shade of the same green family to create an accent wall.

After last week’s “over the bed” art print purchase, we thought that maybe we needed to repaint that accent wall. The forest scene had a lot of dark greens in it and it might get lost on the dark green wall, so we went back to Home Depot and picked up a quart of the lightest shade from the same family to cover it. Now fearing that the while bed would get lost in the light colored accent wall, we picked up 3 spray cans of Rust-Oleum Hammered Copper paint for the bed frame.

Earlier this week I parked both cars outside, laid down a giant tarp and placed all the bed frame pieces on it. I used up almost all of the three cans of paint on just one side of the parts. I did get two coats on them though. And because I tried to get as much of the sides I ended up covering two thirds of all the surfaces. I was looking pretty good and the only down side was that the index finger on my right hand was extremely sore. So much so that I was experimenting with using my left hand, but I was awful at it.

The following day we returned to Home Depot to buy a few more cans of paint and a little something else that was needed if I was going to be pressing a spray nozzle at all, because my right index finger hurt and was practically numb, a High Performance Comfort Spray Grip Accessory. And man, this thing is cool, I only wish I had bought one to begin with.

Yesterday the bed frame went back together and I hung the picture over it. Everything looks really nice, the bed pops and the forest picture doesn’t get lost in the background. Now what the heck am I going to do with that quart of light green?

Miata Moves

Yesterday’s lunch was a medium Boss from Rodeos Pizza and because it was a beautiful afternoon the Miata was pressed into aa pizza delivery vehicle.

This morning we took the Mini to Fred Meyer for grocery shopping and while Donna was was restocking the selves with food, I was sent to High Lakes Dispensary to restock our cannabis shelf.

When I got back home, while the Miata was still all warmed up, we both made the trip to Walmart for some food items we couldn’t earlier. Then from there we looped east over to Home Depot for some more painting supplies.

28.2 miles from 3 sperate trips yesterday & today.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 29