Hope Springs Eternal

After our latest two day trip to Hendersonville and back, with a couple of quick trips into the mean streets of Asheville, we have come to the conclusion that the leather seats wouldn’t have helped our comfort level at all. This got me thinking, “What is the big difference between the CTBNL and the Emperor?” The shocks are the same, slightly newer even, but the lowering springs are different. The Emperor had Flyin Miata springs and the CTBNL is sitting on Racing Beat, both trusted long term Miata parts purveyors, but further investigation reveals that the hive knowledge on the forums vastly prefer the Flying Miata units.

The secret is in the spring’s strength numbers. When you shorten the spring length you have to increase its strength to prevent bottoming out. The Miata’s stock springs are rated at 162 lb/in & 118 lb/in (front/rear), the Racing Beat springs that lower the car an inch all around are rated at 195 lb/in & 145 lb/in a slight increase. The Flyin Miata springs, which drop the car about three quarters of an inch, are rated at 318 lb/in & 233 lb/in which is nearly double the stock units.

The Racing Beat springs would probably be just fine if you ran only on race tracks or all smooth roads, but we live in the real world. South Carolina has very cheap gas because we have a very low state tax on it and this translates into plenty of deteriorating roads. Just on my little 6 mile commute there are several places I need to slow way down to cross railroad tracks or traverse drainage dips or edge real close to the center line to avoid burgeoning pot holes or pine tree root bumps. And don’t get me started on the transitions between asphalt roads and concrete bridges…

From my memory the Flyin Miata springs, even though they are stiffer that the stock (and the Racing Beat) shocks didn’t really ride that harsh and they would definitely keep me off the bump stops on the sharp hits of roughness. Today was Suspension Sunday as part of Flyin Miata’s Black Friday sales event with $60 off their springs, so I took the plunge. Not being sure how the Racing Beat bump stops are configured, I went ahead and added the FM bump stops to the order as well. So, in a couple more weeks the CTBNL, with the existing Koni shocks, will be riding on the FM Stage 1 Suspension Package which is the exact same setup as the Emperor had.

This afternoon, both cars got a bath. Didn’t take long to do both, they are small and they were covered only in a bit of road grime.

59,000 Things I’m Thankful For

1. My morning person wife.
We got up on Turkey Day at 5:30, the same time as on a normal work day to drive up to Hendersonville, NC.

2. My patient wife.
To visit my sister and her husband and have our Thanksgiving meal at their community pot luck.

3. My carefree wife.
But before getting to their house we traveled 25 miles past them to the north into Asheville.

4. My curious wife.
To take a picture of an Inspirational Woman’s Monument she found after hours of internet searching.

5. My lovely wife.
Who posed in the near freezing temperatures by a very Large Flat Iron sculpture in downtown for a Motoring point.

6. My flexible wife.
Then when we were stymied in getting the Woman’s statue photo by thousands of runners participating in a Turkey Trot and Gobble Wobble, Donna shrugged and said, “We’ll come back again early tomorrow.”

7. My generous wife.
At the Black Friday sale at Mast General Store she let me buy a $40 hoodie I wanted, but didn’t really need, while she bought a gift to give away at the upcoming MMC Christmas Party.

8. My understanding wife.
She understands that there is no way I can come up with 58,992 more of these.

The CTBNL passed through the 59,000 mile mark a few miles north of Saluda, SC on the way up to North Carolina.

Mini Mini


The Mini parked in the Miata’s usual spot on a rare day a couple of weeks ago when Donna let me drive it into work.

“Blue” Sky


The threatening sky above a storage trailer around the back of the Valve Store while on my morning walk.

Let’s Take A(nother) Drive


So yesterday morning we drove to Columbia in the Mini, essentially a one hundred twenty mile round trip for breakfast. Some people might question this method of purchasing the most important meal of the day, but we could think of no finer way to spend 3 hours on a lovely fall Saturday.

On second thought, we could.

So after a lunch at Subway here in Aiken yesterday, we filled up the Miata, dropped the top and drove to Greenwood, about 60 miles away, to take a photo of a train locomotive. Not just any locomotive, but one worth 10 points in the Moss Motoring Challenge in the category “117 Years of Transportation.” Before we took this drive we still needed 4 of the 12 photos, the decades of 1900, 1910, 1950 & 1980.

On our way into Greenwood I got a fleeting glimpse of a car repair place that had a very interesting old truck parked outside. Because we were going to go back out of town the same way we were coming in I didn’t pull an immediate u-turn. The shop was further back than I thought though and I was just beginning to worry I had imagined it, when it popped up on the left.

The 111-year old train was the big prize, but this auto repair was a nice prize in it’s own right. That old truck was a 1954 or 1955 Chevy 3100 pick up. And in the back was our 1980’s point just sitting there, a nicely preserved Pontiac Fiero. Before we had headed north we cut through a local golf course neighborhood to get a photo for our last point in the “Around the World” category.

Sorry Soda City Minis

A couple of weeks ago, to compliment our MMC membership, we poked around looking for a Mini Club. The nearest group to us was a facebook group called Soda City Minis. They were going to have a meet and greet on Saturday, November 18th. The meet up spot was Sesquicentennial State Park and end up at a Red Robin for lunch. We were back and forth about attending for a while, but opted to go after the Miata Club event that day was going to a breakfast spot we didn’t care for.

The trip to the Soda City1 was two-fold, the Mini Meet-Up and a bagel for breakfast at Bruegger’s. We got up at our usual 6:00 AM to make the hour drive to Irmo to have breakfast. Before we left we checked the Soda City Minis page to double check the 11:00 AM start time and noticed that the event was called off because of lack of participation. There were only 4 people who had responded “Going.” I asked Donna if one of them was her and she said, “No. I don’t like to post on Facebook.”

Sorry about that Soda City Minis. Although I doubt that our one more, making 5 total, would have made the minimum participation level that had been set by the organizer. If it was me it would have been around 10…

Turkey Eating Season Began Today

Working at ASCO still has a few perks and one of which is once every quarter they feed us a meal. In essence, at the Valve Store, there is such a thing as a free lunch. The fourth quarter calendar year meal is always in November and is always a traditional Thanksgiving style meal. That meal was today.

For as long as I can remember the meal has been catered by the same folks who fill the vending machines in our “cafeteria.” By some quirk in our vending contract with them, we were stuck with them supplying all the quarterly meals, and it was not always very good. The last couple of years Donna and I discussed maybe just going out to lunch on the day to avoid it, but never did. This year that company ceased its catering business. So, so far this year we’ve had a couple other vendors for the previous meals and this was to be no exception. A local chicken finger mini-chain place was tapped to do it and for the first time in a while the turkey dinner was pretty darn tasty.

This was just the beginning of the season. The real Thanksgiving is 8 days away where I will once more over-stuff myself at my sister’s neighborhood pot luck turkey day meal.

A little over two weeks later is the Miata Club’s Holiday party where we are having it catered in the manner of a full fledged Thanksgiving feast.

Then 6 days later the Fabrication Department holds their holiday meal which is, you guessed it, a turkey and ham led potluck meal with all that entails.

And the company’s salaried group usually has one of these too, so depending on the date, I’ll get one more crack at turkey, taters, stuffing, green beans, mac & cheese, deviled eggs and enough desserts to kill a couple dozen diabetics before never eating turkey again until November 2018.