I’ve got the final stage of the Vuelta a España up on the big screen, the Red Sox baseball game on the “radio”, a window open with ESPN’s FanastyCast keeping track of the Purple Whales vs. the Red Bank Raiders while I’m typing this post.
If you are as impressed with this as I am, buy me something off my Amazon Wishlist. 🙂
When I bought the CTBNL from my Fairy Godfather (thanks again David) he had done a few tasteful mods and when he took off a stock part, where he could, he kept the removed item. This is why when we I bought the car I also got a bunch of parts in a box, a few larger things that went in the shed in the back yard and some others went on the departing Emperor.
Now that Donna’s retired, the CTBNL is my daily driver and this means that over the summer I have driven home in a few gully washing type afternoon thunderstorms. When this happens, I will invariably have to drive through a few puddles that have formed along or on the road from the overflow of washed gullies. This then washes the underside of the car causing the accessory belt(s) to squeal in protest (they must like water like cats like baths.)
One of the mods David did was replace the large plastic engine undertray (#13 on this Moss Motors page) with a fancy Beatrush Aluminum Underpanel, so one of the large things in the shed was this huge hunk of plastic. I tried to sell it to members of the MMC, but got no takers. I was going to put it up for sale on the Miata Forum, but opted against it because I did not want to have to figure out how to ship it. Now I’m glad I still have it.
The Beatrush panel is slick looking, if you are laying on the ground looking up at it, but I doubt there is any reduced wind turbulence compared to the OEM plastic piece as they claim. The thing is even heavier than the plastic undertray, so that’s not a plus. The only advantage I see is that it extends past the stock unit to cover up the oil pan and on a lowered car this might be a benefit. But the negative aspect is the sides are open, thereby allowing water to bathe the bottom of the accessory belts when fording impromptu bodies of water. The original plastic piece curls up at the sides sealing off the bottom of the engine compartment better.
So when I jacked up the car on Labor day to rotate tires and change the oil, I put the jack stands one notch higher than usual so I could get under the car easier to take off the Beatrush Aluminum Panel and put the OEM plastic piece back in its place. I’m hoping that this might eliminate the squealing of belts when driving through puddles in the future.
Monday was Labor Day and the Valve Store was taking a holiday, so I didn’t have to work, but I did do some Miata work. I was a few hundred miles past oil change and tire rotation time, so in the morning when Donna went off to the gym, I jacked up the CTBNL and went to crawling around under it.
First I took off all the tires and rolled them to their new locations. When rolling the left front to the back I noticed that there was a lot of wear on the tire’s inside edge compared to the tire that just came from there. The tires on the right both looked evenly worn and good for several thousand more miles. The left front was not that bad and could go that long. The now left rear has probably only got a couple months to go before crisis time.
So now I’m tire shopping. Really, really love the Toyo R1R and have sworn that when the time came I would replace them with the same. Now, when it comes time, I start to doubt that declaration. There are 8 results when you search for summer tires in 195/50×15 tires on the TireRack.com. I have personal experience with 3 of them and experience with a newer model of tire that replaced one I previously owned.
I have to say the Toyo R1R are the best of the lot, but they are the most expensive tire of the four at $125 each. My second choice is the newer Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R. I ran several sets of the Potenza RE-11’s on the ’95 Miata and was very happy with them. They are $9 cheaper than the Toyos and there is even a current rebate deal that would take the price down to around $100 each. But, the tires are the noisiest of the group in reviews and they have a fairly stiff sidewall which won’t mix as well with the stiffer suspension of the CTBNL.
The cheapest of the bunch is the Yokohama S.drive’s, they were the last tire we had on the Emperor and they handled well, but were the noisiest tire that I can remember having on a Miata. The BFGoodrich g-Force Sport COMP-2 were the tires on the Emperor just before the S.drives and I don’t really remember them, but I must not have liked them much because I didn’t buy another set when it came time to replace them.
After trying, and failing, at really talking myself out of buying the Toyos, I’m a cheapskate at heart and will probably end up with the Bridgestones. First I need to get an alignment…
This afternoon was Draft Day for the EZEFFL. It was the league’s 8th year, my 7th and my 5th & last as Commissioner.
| Rnd# | Pick# | Player | Team | Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Keeper | Rob Gronkowski | NE | TE |
| 2 | 13 | Jay Ajayi | Mia | RB |
| 3 | 36 | Terrelle Pryor Sr. | Wsh | WR |
| 4 | 37 | Christian McCaffrey | Car | RB |
| 5 | 60 | Emmanuel Sanders | Den | WR |
| 6 | 61 | Kirk Cousins | Wsh | QB |
| 7 | 84 | Ameer Abdullah | Det | RB |
| 8 | 85 | Martavis Bryant | Pit | WR |
| 9 | 108 | Tevin Coleman | Atl | RB |
| 10 | 109 | Cardinals | Ari | D/ST |
| 11 | 132 | Willie Snead | NO | WR |
| 12 | 133 | Mason Crosby | GB | K |
| 13 | 156 | Carson Wentz | Phi | QB |
| 14 | 157 | Giants | Nyg | D/ST |
On Friday I did something that my mother would routinely tell me to do after I did some sort of stupid thing or another while growing up – I had my head examined.
Remember the earache steroid episode from back in June/July? Well, after the doctor ordered the second round of steroids to clear hearing issue he also scheduled an MRI. Two weeks after finishing the steroids and a week before the MRI my hearing is fine so I think I’ll just call off the scan. But I waited another 6 days, until the day before, to call and cancel.
Wouldn’t you know it, but on the way home from work on the Friday the MRI was scheduled for the left ear acts up again. Not only that, it sort of sounds like the right ear going a little wonky too. Naturally by the time I get home and call on a Friday everyone has gone home for the weekend.
I called the imaging place on Monday and ask if I can reinstate the MRI appointment that I had cancelled on Thursday. The nice lady said that she’d be happy to reschedule me. But – uh oh – it looks like the Southside Imaging Center’s MRI machine was down for maintenance. I asked, “Well when will it fixed?” “November,” she says. “You can have the scan done at the hospital,” she says, “They have an MRI machine.” “Great,” I say. “Let’s see when I can get you in…” “How about September 1st?” It is now the third week of July. “Wow,” I say, “If that is as soon as I can get in, I’ll take it.”
The left ear has been good and bad, off and on ever since. The last few days it has seemed fine, so does that mean the MRI won’t see anything up with the auditory nerve? But more importantly will they be able to locate the source inside the brain that causes me to do those stupid things or anothers?
Here is Part 1 of Mother Would Be So Proud from 2006.
We have led a Masters Miata Club Event…this week was the annual Bug Splat.
When Donna and I put on this event for the very first time way back in 1999 I had devised it sort of like a rally style start, I would send each car out at 3 minute intervals to guarantee clean air in front of the cars for maximum exposure to bugs. When I tried that the next year everyone balked at it, so I handed out the maps and sent them all on their way. I had underestimated the Club’s love of driving all in one long line (which as it turns out is second only to the love of all eating at one long table no matter how big the group or small the venue.)
By the third year everyone wondered why Donna and I weren’t playing along. When I explained that we didn’t want to steal anyone’s chance at a prize, they all went, “Pshaw, you should have some of the fun too.” We have been leading the line of cars around the route ever since.
It took me a couple of years to figure out the group had ulterior motives for this. They just wanted someone to lead so they wouldn’t have look at a map and/or not get lost, but probably the most likely reason was to decrease their odds of winning the Biggest Bug Trophy which is so ugly it is kind of cool. You either love it or hate it, with the haters having the larger numbers.
As we were loading the trophy in the trunk to bring to the starting point on Saturday, Donna was looking over the list of names of those who have held it in the last 18 years and asked, “How come we haven’t ever won it?”
“Alexa: play ominous music”
That’s right, we won the trophy this year with a silver dollar size splat on the nose of the CTBNL right next to the Mazda logo.
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