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Today I said goodbye to the body shell. It's going to be cut up to provide rear quarters for a smashed Miata.

I gave the guy the shell on the condition he had to come pick it up. That saved me quite a bit of time cursing a sawzall.



I had a panic attack when I first bought the car, wondering what I'd gotten myself into. Now I have a nice, warm feeling of accomplishment to help me kick start the next phase of the build.

I'm pretty excited to have hit this small but important milestone, but I'm also a little sad to see the car I've spent the last 3 months working on go away.

Now it's on to measuring parts, and design. Woo hoo!

I've been busy in the last month. The pace of work on the project has been slowed considerably as I turn my attention to preparing for the spring LeMons South race. This year, I'm putting my crew coveralls away and donning my new getup...



As far as the project goes, I've been working on the workshop in preparation for the build. I'm in the middle of installing 20 new 20A outlets, a 240V outlet and a whole mess of lighting. Also on the list is paint, more shelving and a pretty good sized workbench.

I've also been acquiring parts for the car. Santa delivered these goodies yesterday:



I've put together a list of items I'll need to make an accurate mock-up of the cockpit. I want to make sure I've got ergonomics right and that the car is comfortable (as possible). Between that mock-up, some Wishbone analysis and a fair bit of CAD, I feel like I'll have enough confidence to start the build.

Lookin good William. I'm going to be purchasing those wilwood parts pretty soon myself..

You can never ever have enough lighting in your garage. You will thank yourself later for putting so much time and effort into preparing your work space with tons of storage/shelving, organizers, etc etc. Having a well laid out and well stocked garage can make a whole world of difference.

By the way, I think you need a dark visor for your helmet, and then we can call you "The Stig"

P.S. What will you be driving at the spring LeMons race?

Good deal!
I just started to pull my car apart to install a wilwood brake biasing knob!

Good start bro!

Those components represent a pretty good value. It's also a move for a safer solution. I want to make sure when I hit the brake pedal that it stops the car.

You can see the list of components I'm gathering on my spec sheet. I've included the radiator and fan assembly since it seems like people have problems designing the frame in that area.

Would you mind telling prices on the Willwood stuff? I'd love to do that but I dont know if I can afford it.

No problem. I ordered the three parts (single pedal, dual pedal, 5/8" master for clutch) for $222.40 including shipping.

The seller was listing them on ebay for retail price and free shipping, and I wrote them and asked if I could get a $20 discount if I ordered them all at once from them. Doesn't hurt to ask...

Value is relative. The pedal box in the Gibbs book represents quite a bit of fabrication. For that cost I have a safe, light and reliable pedal set with a balance bar. Not bad in my book.

I just searched Ebay, found used set with 3 MC's, balance bar, for $69.00 + 11.00 shipping. just have to search, I know its hard to do.

That's an even better deal! Link?

If you're more patient than I am, there are lots of deals to be had.

just go on Ebay search "tilton" or "wilwoob" or "CNC" pedals. just remember its an auction, and be sure to keep an eye on shipping charges.

LeMons was a success. I didn't get much track time, but my team won the People's Choice award (and $500 in nickels).

You can see a good shot of our team in the lead photo on Jalopnik:

http://jalopnik.com/5198257/the-bs-insp ... mons-south

I'm the second from the left. I had a good time, but I also learned I'm no racer. I care too much about my car and my butt to be as aggressive as needed to go really fast. I'd like to try to do an HPDE or some autocrossing. I think that will be more my speed.

I'm anxious to get back to the locost. Now I'll have time to finish my garage upgrades...

Maybe I spoke too soon on the fate of my racing career...

Yesterday I competed in my first ever autocross!!! A friend invited me to hit the cones with the local Porsche Club of America chapter. Does everyone else know how much fun this autocross thing is?

Seriously, I've never had so much fun driving a car! My hands were shaking after each of my runs, and was pretty winded because I kept forgetting to breathe. Fortunately the course was only 3/4 of a mile or I would have passed out! I have never driven a car so aggressively before.



I'm pretty proud that each of my runs was faster than the previous. That was my goal for the day, to show continuous improvement. I didn't get anything close to FTD, but I was thrilled to get FTJ (Faster than Jeep). I've spent most of the last 24 hours lost in thought of where I left time out on the course. I can see how easily it is to become obsessed with this stuff.



As for my car, she did the job despite having crappy tires and worn-out shocks. I've never been truly at the limit in my car, and I have to say dancing that Miata around the cones was a religious experience. It has always been a major goal for the Spartan to have the same driving qualities as my Miata. I think if I get even close to the dynamic qualities of a Miata it'll be a major victory.

Moving forward with the build I need to review the SCCA's classes and figure out where a Miata-powered vintage locost fits into the regs. My car will definitely be seeing cones as much as possible.

Forget SCCA instead look for local car clubs like S2000's, Porsche, BMW, Vette, etc. They will put on a much better show than SCCA and give you much more seat time and usually longer runs than SCCA.

At the local SCCA you are lucky to get 2 minutes worth of seat time all day and yet with my local S2000 club I get almost 2 minute runs each time X 8 plus we get as many fun runs as we can fit in at the end of the day.

I realize that the PCA circuit is everything you say. I got four good runs. It'd have been more if the threat of rain wasn't there. I've heard horror stories about the SCCA events around Atlanta.

Still, it's the biggest show and I figure local clubs have less emphasis on classification. Also, if I ever intend to do this competitively I'd like to have it in line with national requirements.

I gotta say something here.

Agree:

1. True, the Marque Clubs offer more seat time. Seat time is valuable to a beginner. I run with the Miata club, Porsche club, BMW, and Audi club locally and get a lot more runs than my SCCA club by far.

Disagree:

1. In my Local experience SOME of the above Marque clubs have less than desirable course designs with some features and operations downright unsafe.

2. After 6 or 7 runs on the same course, improvement declines and you start repeating errors and reinforcing bad habits without instruction. Boredom sets in for me, and I just wear out rubber. It is the main reason at the higher level of SCCA competition you need to get it done in 3 runs. It is the whole point of the game. Imagine if you were golfing and got 3 or 4 mulligans for every tee shot.

3. Classing structure is loved and hated in SCCA. Loved by those who are serious competitors and want the driver and car prep shine through. Hated by those who are not big on rules and want to collect trophies earned or not. My SCCA trophies mean something to me. The other clubs trophies I get are easy to obtain and I collect in a box somewhere.

4. As far as putting on a "better show", this is in the eye of the entrant and what they are looking for.

Yes, I am a SCCA autocrosser, driven at the National level, and would not trade the fairness, friendship, and fun of the SCCA Club, people, and solo program.

My $.02

Mark