No NB Love

Today’s Blipshift T-shirt is another Miata design. NAlware, which is kind of a pun in a few ways. I’m sure of the first because of the always allow pop-ups tag line and the NA Miata headlights. Malware and pop up windows on the internet. Maybe a stretch, but ware = wear, a t-shirt with an NA on it.

pop_up_detail_grande

I’m going to pass on this one though, if I still owned a blue 1st gen car I’d be all over it. Maybe buy more than one, wear a hoodie over a short sleeve version….but I’ve got enough Miata themed shirts from them and all of them are of the 1st gen car. All their shirts have been of NA’s except one and that was a 3rd generation (NC) car.

Blipshift is always asking for design ideas or artist submissions, so I felt that this last NA design needed a response, so I submitted a version of my latest internet avatar.

Pop-up Blocker Detail Grande

Where is my NB love Mr. Blipshift?

How Ya Been?

Me too.

The Emperor returned home Wednesday evening. And the squeal was not related to the oil leak at all. The leak was caused by the exhaust cam seal. If about now you are thinking, wait a minute, exhaust cam seal, that sounds familiar. Right you are. It was changed back in October which is why Steve didn’t charge me for changing it this time.

He did charge me for a used alternator though. That was the squeal. Not oil on the belts, but bad bearings in the alternator. Steve said that the very act of backing the car up and driving the 75 feet into the garage made the alternator almost too hot to touch. Glad that sucker didn’t lock up somewhere in the mountains of western North Carolina.

When Donna asked if I minded the used vs. a new one I said, “Nah.” “This one came off a car with like 60,000 miles on it and the original failed at 160K, so I figure by the time the used one goes the Emperor will have over a quarter millions miles on it.” Of course, wouldn’t you know it, yesterday coming home from work in the Miata, a couple times when we came to a stop sign the car let loose with a squeal of sorts. Didn’t sound like what I thought was belt squeal before, not as loud and a different pitch, but it wasn’t a normal sound either.

We are going to breakfast with the MMC tomorrow, if the noise appears again we may just be driving back to Panic Motorsports this Sunday morning too.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 113

Squealing Like A Stuck Pig

Last Friday when we were at the gap, as we left the dam overlook, the Emperor took off with a horrible bit of belt squeal for the first 50 yards or so. Talk about embarrassing, especially as the few cars that were there were tricked out Subaru WRXs and tarted up Nissan Z cars. On Sunday morning we got so early a start for home it was still dark out. Turns out this was a good thing because not many people were awake and those that were couldn’t see which car was emitting that howling banshee squeal for the first 1/4 mile going east on NC 143 out of Robbinsville.

Tuesday evening the Miata got a bath, so Wednesday when we went to back out of the garage, the belt squeal started right up, and if you think this is noisy when driving outside, inside our one-car garage it is ear piercingly loud. I didn’t even let out the clutch and turned the car off.

Have I mentioned that there is still oil accumulating on the garage floor? At first I could explain it away as left over oil from the previous leaks aided by gravity finding its way down, but after wiping up a paper towel’s worth for three Saturdays in a row I’m thinking this is not the case. My best non-mechanically educated guess is that these two things are related. Who knows, maybe wherever the oil is coming from now it is splashing some on one of the accessory belts.

This morning I squirted a little belt dressing on them to prevent scaring little children and setting the neighborhood dogs barking as we left to drive the Emperor back to Panic Motorsports.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 111

59,000 58,000 Really Dead Brain Cells1

While waiting in the bank’s drive up window this afternoon I looked down at the Purple Whale’s odometer and realized that it read 58,024. Back tracking as best I could with a large chunk of fifty-eight thousand brain cells that no longer work, I figure that mile mark was crossed on our grocery shopping trip on Sunday.

That same chunk, likely 1,000 less at that point, is probably responsible for my totally missing the 58,000 mile mark sometime between July and now.

1. This post has been edited to reflect that perhaps not only are the brain cells dying, but the eyesight is not nearly as acute as before too. Got in the car this morning (Thursday 11/12) and saw that the ODO read 58,xxx.

Literal Ghost Town

Destination - Ghost Town

This Ghost Town was literally a ghost town, as it was closed for the season. Right across the street was the town of Maggie Valley’s sign, so we got all three of our points for today within 100 yards. And actually it could have been zero feet because now that I look at the Maggie Valley sign, in the background is a billboard for Ghost Town. The ghost town destination has an asterisk next to it meaning you need to include a sign…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 110

Motoring Challenge Points 3, Approx Miles Driven 275
Totals So Far: 157 points & 8645 miles

160,000 Steering Corrections In 11 Miles – Part 2

Cherahola View

— Saturday —
Well, I got my wish, sort of. It has been raining pretty steady all day. There have been brief moments when it has been misting, not raining and there was a short time around mid-day that it was just cloudy. We decided to use this time to drive the Cherohala Skyway to Telico Plains for lunch. The trip started uneventfully enough and up until about the 3,000 foot level the leaves were still hanging on to their color. Above that, they were pretty much gone. At 4,000 feet the rain started. Lightly at first and then enough that the top had to go up. It was then, about 15 miles into the 50 mile trip, I decided that we should just turn around and eat in Robbinsville. Fortunately, my co-pilot let me have my way.

— Friday —
After an early dinner at The Hub (they close at 5 now because it is “out of season”) we decided that if there was to be a run through The Gap it would have to be this evening. Because it was about 5:30 on a week night we thought there might be some traffic to slow us down, so I said if it did I’d just turn around rather than wait behind a slug. Turns out it worked the other way around. The Emperor passed the 160k mile mark just before the climb up 129 to the beginning of Deals Gap.

A couple miles into the Dragon around a switchback I noticed a 4-door Japanese sedan about 1/4 mile back. A mile later at another switchback he was still there and if I guessed right he was actually gaining on us. Now the rain in the area had stopped about noon, but there were still spots on the road that were wet, so I was not so much trying to slay the dragon as I was just riding on its back trying to hold on. A couple minutes later I heard a swarm of angry hornets closing in fast. Quickly there were 2 sets of HID headlights right on us. I found a spot and pulled over. A matte gray 370Z convertible, top down, roared by with a black Fiat 500 Abarth right on its tail.

We watched them go and got back on the road. During our pause our 4-door chaser made up a lot of ground and by the time I hit the next turn he was coming around the bend behind us. He was now close enough for me to make out that it was a dark blue Accord and he was working it. I played rabbit for a couple miles, losing sight during the the real windy parts, but anytime there was a 50-75 yard stretch of quasi-straight road he’d haul us back a bit. After a couple miles of this Donna said, just pull over and let him by. I thought what the heck, so I found a spot and pulled of. He came around the corner and pulled in behind us with a thumbs up gesture out his sunroof. I leaned back and said, “Go on by.” To which he replied, “No, you go, I’m having a blast trying to keep up.”

For the next couple of miles I was the rabbit to his greyhound until we caught up to a slow moving train of 6 cars which included the Z & 500. It was only a short time later that we got to the dam overlook which most folks consider the end of the dragon. Everyone in front of us pulled into one or the other of the already nearly full parking areas on either side of the road. Our Accord pulled in as well, but I opted to drive the last mile or so down the mountain to the large parking area, which I’ve always considered the official end. That is where we turned around the very first time we drove The Gap, almost 20 years ago at the inaugural Miatas at the Gap in 1997.

When we got back to the dam overlook there was absolutely no one there, so we stopped and took in the view a bit. After a while a few other cars pulled in and we took off back towards Robbinsville. This time through I just drove it and didn’t push at all and was sort of surprised that no one caught me from behind.

— Saturday —
At about 7:30 this evening we both had an attack of Cabin (Hotel Room) Fever, so we looked out the window to see if the rain had stopped. It had, so we got dressed into street clothes and walked the 200 yards to the McDonalds for a hot apple pie. Wow, its been a while since I’ve had one of these. When did they stop deep frying them?

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 110

160,000 Steering Corrections In 11 Miles – Part 1

City - Robbinsville, NC

This weekend was supposed to be the MMC’s Deals Gap Weekend that Donna & I head up, but for the last week and a half the predicted weather for today and tomorrow has been awful, so earlier this week we cancelled the trip. This allowed everyone to cancel their reservation at the Microtel in Robbinsville without penalty.

All except us. I had forgotten, to get a cheaper rate, I booked our room as pay ahead and non-refundable. We were all prepared to chalk it up as a loss, but on Thursday decided, “What the heck. “How bad can it be?” The answer…so far, so good. We got up to Robbinsville with more than half the time spent with the top down.

Tomorrow it is still supposed to be a nasty rainy day up here and I hope it is so bad that we have to spend the day in the hotel room, otherwise I’m going to feel bad about calling off the trip.

We took a picture of the Robbinsville sign for the R City in last year’s Motoring Challenge too, but ended up using Rome, MS instead, so we stopped on the way into town today and took another to use this year.

Started down, went up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 108

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 335
Totals So Far: 154 points & 8370 miles