Roland....the Beer Can Miata

So I bought this... with the encouragement of Seth and because Daylan tipped me off to the ad and he was willing to go get it.

and I'm starting the build thread before we have it in our session.. because I have faith in Daylan who is going to pick it up next weekend. 

so... GRM Challenge 2020.... Team Blue Mountain Racing is a go...... 

I'll explain the name in future posts.. 

You idiot. You bought a car I have to go pick up and fix now. 

Wait a minute...

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said

so... GRM Challenge 2020.... Team Blue Mountain Racing is a go...... 

 

I'll explain the name in future posts.. 

 

 

 

In reply to bgkast (Forum Supporter) :

yes.. you're picking up the idea... but there's a story behind Roland...

so David Wallens from the magazine wrote up a nice little feature for the website about my other car Ronald... and his autocorrect got the better of him.. but I didn't even notice it...

and then when we were talking names.. Daylan suggested it again and I was like yeah.. that works.. not having any idea of the context... until a bit later when he explained...

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

I thought it was Wallens?

sidenote: my autocorrect suggested 'Walker'.  Ymmv.

also, All Hail Roland!

I have no idea what's going on here. I mean, I kind of do, but it's better to maintain an air of plausible deniability at this point. 

So many auto-corrected (im)proper names!

This ranger50's car from 2017?

In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :

Yes it is.

It probably still has my old nt01's on it that i ran in 15/16.  

Watching.

Only had to fix the backup tow pig in an Autozone parking lot once, but we're making solid progress now. 

I love it. Needs a ko4 and a tmic sticking through a hole in the hood with a scoop painted to look like a case of beer 

so while Daylan was off being a berkeleying champion of a friend that I don't deserve.. 

I was off autocrossing with fellow forum member TXRATTI in his new SSC car. 

during morning tech and such I get a missed call from daylan about 0755, call back and no answer... 

around 9 he calls me back and leave a VM that I miss because we're in the drivers meeting. I call him back to find out there was a trailer issue, Uhaul didn't open till 9... and then the trailer issue got solved... so he didn't need to rent a Uhaul trailer.. which I was literally ready to crack open my wallet and pay for to make this deal happen today... 

about 1030 I'm sitting in the timing trailer doing my master control radio work assignment and there's a message that pops up from daylan with a... we have a problem....and a photo... and my heart drops... 

turns out the Durango was having a cooling system leakage issue that Daylan thought he solved earlier this week.. luckily he was able to limp it to a AutoZone and he started a heroic fix in their parking lot as I'm trying to message Ranger50 to let him know we're going to blow the original arrival window we agreed upon to pickup the Miata. 

mind you.. I'm trying to stay calm cause as I'm  starting to stress out because I'm like.. berkeley Im making this guy drive 400 miles today to drag home this miata

and I won't lie.. I leaned on Daylan a bit with some peer pressure help from Mazdeuce to have him go get this miata... 

so I'm like berkeley.. if this Durango has had a serious malfunction I'm gonna feel awful.. 

luckily, daylan is a damn good wrench and he got the Durango and empty trailer rolling again within 45 minutes and his pockets not much empty for parts... apparently the problem is a common issue and he thought he got away without buying the part but it was not to be.. 

so once he was rolling again I felt better.. and we talked again a bit later and Ranger50 finally messaged me back to say that it was totally fine if daylan was a bit late. 

Ranger50 you're a gentleman and a scholar, thank you for your patience today. 

couple hours later I'm doing my autoX runs in the FRS and I pull my silenced phone out to photos from Ranger of a Miata loaded on Daylan's trailer!!

and then daylan rolled home without issue and sent messages to me as he was going to keep me in the loop to his progress. 

and I got confirmation a little while ago that the Miata is 4 wheels back on the ground at Dylan's house and I just got home to my new apartment in San Antonio after driving back from DFW following the autox. 

and I wanna raise a toast to Daylan. you are the greatest friend a car guy could have. you've literally met me in person one time and you were willing to go on this crazy adventure today... on behalf of our Challenge Team... but the ultimate benefit was my own.. so I'm heavy in your debt buddy. 

so I raise a glass to you my friend. without my GRM friends like you.. I'd be a pretty berkeleying boring person...

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

It probably still has my old nt01's on it that i ran in 15/16.  

Nope. 

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

I included all the replaced parts, trans and what the jy left on the new trans, plus a set of front rotors and pads from the previous owner.

Ranger50 said:

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

I included all the replaced parts, trans and what the jy left on the new trans, plus a set of front rotors and pads from the previous owner.

sweet! thanks man! 

So the full story on the tow vehicle's issues. I replaced the thermostat housing about a few weeks ago but it's still had issues since then but I had't been able to track it down and fix. I did catch it leaking out from around the top hose before and tightened the clamp and it seemed to have stopped leaking since I did that. 

Well I was climbing a hill and the coolant temp started climbing rapidly so I pulled over and shut it off. Got out and started checking things. I noticed it was wet around the bottom of that housing. So I decided to pull the trigger on the best guess I had. Let it cool and baby'd it to the next gas station to get water (I thought there was some in the truck but I couldn't find it). Found an autozone close and they had a thermostat housing in stock so I went and bought it and a 3/8" drive socket set (because of course I didn't bring tools) and proceeded to swap it out in the parking lot. It was still hot enough to open the thermostat as soon as I started it so it didn't take long to burp it and then get back on the road. 

Fairly confident that was the fix because I can't tell that it lost any more water, and it never got hot again even though I was climbing steep grades in 2nd gear with lots of throttle. 

The return trip was pleasant though, nice weather with the windows down and pretty scenery. 

My take away from this weekend. WOT in 2nd is more fun driving a Miata than it is towing a Miata. 

In reply to Daylan C (Forum Supporter) :

Nice work on the road-fix!

Daylan started digging into the car this morning for a few minutes. 

overall it's a really nice little miata with  few scuffs around the edges. 

little bubble starting on the driver rear area 

solid door bushings installed already, with stock ones in the glove box

soft top starting to show some age. not a huge deal.

steering wheel also showing age pretty bad.. may just need to wrap over it with a new stitch. 

the rear finish panel is destroyed, need to work on finding a new one eventually. 

and Daylan can't seem to get the key out of the ignition... so we're not sure what the issue is there..

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

and Daylan can't seem to get the key out of the ignition... so we're not sure what the issue is there..

Because it's like a woman, if you don't jiggle all the right bits just right, it just lays there and doesn't do E36 M3. 

Ranger50 said:

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

and Daylan can't seem to get the key out of the ignition... so we're not sure what the issue is there..

Because it's like a woman, if you don't jiggle all the right bits just right, it just lays there and  doesn't do E36 M3. 

Thank you. You just made me snarf. 

In reply to Ranger50 :

i have no words... but I made a noise pretty close to what Duster described.. lol

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Ranger50 :

i have no words... but I made a noise pretty close to what Duster described.. lol