Husband and Wife $08 Challenge 1991 Miata Build

Family just doubled in size a few days ago I need all the wrenching help I can get!

Adopting twins?

Congratulations Josh! I should be able to spare a few evenings this week. I'll give you a call tomorrow.

Congratulations on the new addition(s) and the progress on the car!

fastEddie wrote: Adopting twins?

Siblings, brother and sister 2yo and 3yo.

MitchellC wrote: Congratulations Josh! I should be able to spare a few evenings this week. I'll give you a call tomorrow.

Sounds good to me! I do seriously need about as many hours help as there are hours until the challenge. Problem is I cant really do much until they go to bed......sooooo, has anyone here tried using 3 in the afternoon as bedtime for kids?

Problem with that is they get up earlier, so no sleeping late for you.

Congrats though.

Wow! Props to stepping up to that - we need more people to adopt, especially older kids. Good luck and have fun!

I have no problem staying out into the wee hours, as long as you're the one getting charged for the noise complaints.

MrJoshua wrote:

MitchellC wrote: Congratulations Josh! I should be able to spare a few evenings this week. I'll give you a call tomorrow.

Sounds good to me! I do seriously need about as many hours help as there are hours until the challenge. Problem is I cant really do much until they go to bed......sooooo, has anyone here tried using 3 in the afternoon as bedtime for kids?

It's easier to get ear muffs, safety glasses and hand them wrenches. Just be aware that they learn how to disassemble stuff faster then you can assemble it. Screw drivers should not be shown until they are 5....scratched paint.

CONGRATULATIONS! Will they be with you at the Challenge?

DUDE SWEET! congratz I know u two are going to make awesome parents! just think power tools at 3yrs old, oh man the fun I could have had...... j/k I know it won't be much longer, than that but with the stuff around it's better to teach them safety and to not touch it without u around, than to say "DON'T TOUCH PERIOD!" u know if u say don't push the button.....what happens

MrJoshua wrote:

MitchellC wrote: Congratulations Josh! I should be able to spare a few evenings this week. I'll give you a call tomorrow.

Sounds good to me! I do seriously need about as many hours help as there are hours until the challenge. Problem is I cant really do much until they go to bed......sooooo, has anyone here tried using 3 in the afternoon as bedtime for kids?

No haven't tried using 3pm as a bed time, but I'm used to going to bed around 6:30-7ish and getting up at 2, so altering that for a week or so and going to bed around 2pm and getting up around 9 shouldn't be to big a problem, just have to get it by the wife since she's put off her trip to NC till after the challenge. That and can u handle kids all day and then all nighters till the challenge gets here.

Bump

So...is the whole team going?

wow congrats on the team expansion..

October 4, 2008

We made it! The last few weeks have been more sleep deprived and stressful than any I have ever experienced. Lets just say that throwing that many things on top of an adoption of a 2 and 3 year old is a little overwhelming.

September 23, 8pm-4am With all the extra time I decided it was a good idea to attempt my first spray paint job!

Charlie and Mitchell helping assemble the paint booth. (for all you safety Nazis, yes he is balanced on a ladder on the top step leaned against an inward opening door while drinking a beer)

After many many hours of cleaning and painting, at 4 am I ended up with this:

Rustoleum Aluminum makes an amazingly shiny silver. My only worry was that on a sunny day no one could look directly at it!

9/28/08 8pm-?
I attached the rear suspension and fabricated the bushings and top mount needed for my super trick coilovers. (R6 shocks $30 each shipped all day long on ebay)

September 29, 08 8pm-2am

The engine and front suspension were still on the ground.

Attaching some parts before the install.

Oooh turbo!
We decided with all that fresh paint it would be a shame to scratch the engine bay on engine install. Soooo-instead of engine into car, we did car onto engine!

Fruits of our labor

Sebtember 30, 2008 8pm-4am
The motorcycle coilover idea was an easy install on the rear only needing a new bushing and a larger top mount hole. The front suspension took a little more work.

Building the pedestal to move the lower mounting point up several inches.

What I ended up with was a simple rectangle pedestal that mounts on the stock lower mount and provides a new mount 3-4 inches higher. Don't worry, After this picture I did add another attachment point to keep the whole assembly from collapsing on itself.

September 1, 2008 8pm-2am
Due to the extreme kindness of friends, Jenna was able to spend the evening wrenching.

How many overtired people does it take to install a power plant frame?

I think the lack of sleep killed her! (but man that paint does look good doesn't it )

Thursday October 2, 2008 2pm-8:30 am(yes, check in day and I do see that stupid counter at 0 0 0)

So the checklist for Thursday at 3pm included:
-finish installing wiring -install turbo oil feed and return lines (including tapping oil pan) -Install cooling system -fabricate exhaust -install seats, seat belts, dash, and assorted wiring -Install bigger injectors -upgrade front shock mount to include another attachment point -install autocross wheels and tires -install front swaybar (stock) -detach rear swaybar -install/tune megasquirt

As of Thursday evening I asked Jenna if she would mind if we just cleaned up the daily Miata, threw some sticky tires on it, and had a relaxing challenge weekend. Her response was that there was no point in her going if we didn't take the project car. While I slightly disagree, the sentiment was completely understood. Needless to say, we mobilized the troops. No one slept that night!

Gene, Charlie, Myself, and Mike my brother in law. Not visible but ever present was Mitchell.

At 8 am October 3 the challenge beast came to life! With a 1 minute tuning effort we had a halfway decent running car. 3 hours later and a couple of wheel spacers later we handed the keys to a car that had never been over 20mph and not driven over 300 feet total to a pro driver. It was an amazingly competent Autocross car. We had incredible richness problems, oil blowing into the intake, a sensor unplug, then oil blowing all over the engine bay. Despite all of those things the car placed 29th on its clean run. One of the runs was good enough raw time to put the car in the top 20.

Thank you to all my friends and family who have deprived themselves of sleep, small chunks of skin, and large amounts of sanity.

Time to go drag and concourse!

Loaded and looking pretty.

Gotta say, that's one great job you did! You did pretty much the same thing we did with the Alfa Spider, but with a few extras. By the time you read this, 2008 will be done, so I hope you did well.

While I really like seeing the outrageous cars out there, this is my personal kind of build for the challenge.

But take advantage of 2009 to tune the crap out of the car- refine.

You make me want to make a car again!!!!!

Eric

Saturday October 4, 08

Well the car made it through the day............mostly.

The first order of the day was to build a catch can to help with the oil filling the intake problem. An old acetone can was about the perfect size and shape for the location available. A custom hold down and some hammered silver rustoleum later I had something that looked, well, like a painted acetone can.

The can worked great! It was probably helped by the fact that we drained the extra quart of oil that had somehow made it into the engine.

We were having problems with running rich. Part of the problem is that our megasquirt wasnt seeing a coolant sensor and was staying in warmup mode. Dropping the warm up enrichment from 160% to 120% helped somewhat.

Our times werent all that impressive. We ran solid low 16 second runs. Considering the fact that I ran those times in a bone stock Miata several years ago at the challenge I wanted more. We decided to try a homebrew boost controller. Enter the hose clamp on the wastegate actuator tube.
That dropped our time slightly but I wanted more. I asked Gene to try a 6000 rpm loaded launch and to up the shift RPM slightly. The car ran its best time with those tactics running I think a 16.3. Unfortunately the diff decided to stop all tire rotation after passing through the traps. Gene took it all in stride doing his best Fast and the Furious, Gainesville Drift routine. Hmmm-did we remember to put fluid in the diff?

Doing some of our best teamwork as dead weights for tilting a tilting trailer.

Well the car is tucked on the trailer in the side yard while we get ready to head to the banquet. The weekend has been a blast!

First I would like to thank the Academy..........................

Wow! While I am really impressed with the crew and the fact that this car came together in such a tight situation, its incredible to be recognized by the mag. The only problem is that Jenna's first entry won something. Now we have to try to win something every year .
Seriously though, you guys rock, the magazine rocks, my friends and family rock, and most of all Jenna you rock!

BTW-this trophy is cool: all the doors open, it has a suspension, the motor is on mounts, and the detail is pretty darn good. (and its about the color our car was supposed to be)

alfadriver wrote: Gotta say, that's one great job you did! You did pretty much the same thing we did with the Alfa Spider, but with a few extras. By the time you read this, 2008 will be done, so I hope you did well. While I really like seeing the outrageous cars out there, this is my personal kind of build for the challenge. But take advantage of 2009 to tune the crap out of the car- refine. You make me want to make a car again!!!!! Eric

I agree!

Congrats! Looks like you guys and gal had a good time and the car held up other then the lock up drifting I love the look of this thing and I just realized, I need friends like yours! I like the paint booth installers professional skills! I would love to find a Miata cheap but no luck around the PA area.

That trophy is sweet, one of my favorite Ferrari's and my buddy is building a model of that.

Congrats Josh and Jenna! A very well deserved honor for you both.

awesome build, you guys. Should be proud. Sounds like you just need a good tune and thorough debug to be competitive. I would love to continue reading updates on this car.

Tinkering around with my camera during the all-night build-a-thon...

I was great meeting you guys in the pits. Helluva effort there too.

Are you asking for pics of Josh in a bikini?

Well done, Josh and Jenna. You guys are indeed hard core on so many levels and so very deserving of the Spirit of the Event Award. Sleep is overrated anyway. I was very happy to see the car there and compete. It looked great!! I hope to see it compete again next year! Job well done :).