In reply to wae :
I never really had much trouble with parts, MIE Maserati was very helpful, they have a web site, but if you call they might have what you need that isn't on the web site. Of course most stuff must be ordered, so you have to plan and sometimes wait on stuff.
I also adapted when needed....
Sell it why it's running and while it's still famous:
Before the rain hits, my wife helped me pull the vinyl off. We got it without any tears or rips! I stuck it on the wall by the office until I can make something to preserve it and hang it at the shop. Thanks again to everyone who added to it!
In reply to wae :
The autographed vinyl is what takes "the first Maserati to attend the Challenge" from merely awesome to truly legendary. It's a Biturbo?
Icing on the cake...
Well E36 M3.
This was my night to call bingo up at the school, and it's not a very mentally-taxing activity so I spent the time thinking about the input that's been given here and what I feel about the car. What I came up with was that if someone walked up to me and said that if I let them have the Maserati, they'd finish the Miata for me - finish putting the filler on, get it painted, find some daisies, put new tires on it, fix the A/C, and put a better stereo in it - I would absolutely make that deal. And thinking about it in those terms made perfect sense.
Since the trailer is still hooked up to der Scheißwagen, I had my wife drop me off at bingo and then my daughter picked me up. So on the way home, I was telling her about that and that I had decided that I was going to sell the Biturbo and put that money into the Miata. Perfect.
When we got home, I mentioned that there was a box that came for her today sitting on the dining room table. She said that it was actually for me and told me to open it.
She bought me the shift knob that the car is missing. And those things aren't cheap, either - there's no way it was less than $50. I just looked at her and told her that now I felt like an awful person, just telling her that I didn't think I wanted the car anymore. I hugged her and just started crying. She told me that it was okay and that she didn't think I was going to keep the car, but that it still needed a shift knob.
So now I feel like an shiny happy person and it has gotten so damned dusty in here.
Maybe this car has more feels to it than I thought.
In reply to wae :
Sounds like those feels are not for the car, but for your wife. 😊
In reply to wae :
It is amazing how resourceful you were to actually get it going.
I loved it.
In reply to wae :
Don't mistake your daughter's attachment to The Event and her attachment to YOU as attachment to The Maserati.
As a car, I will still contend that the Maserati is a path to Doom and Unmitigated Failure...but YOU, HER and The Event can continue in sooo many ways.
Sell the car while it runs! Or, if the attachment to the car is long term then you're gonna have to make it a better car which will mean an engine swap at minimum. I do love the idea of an LS-swapped Maserati BiTurbo! But, you need to remove alot of Italian DNA from the car. LS and Painless wire harness, re-wire. From there a stripped interior to just a few aftermarket buckets. Change to smooth-card door cards and minimalism everywhere else inside.
Long term Challenge car ownership becomes a path of frustration. Your vision of making the car "better" continues to be limited by budget. Sure, compete a year or two, or three with it in budget but at some point you have to put the budget behind you and break out of the limitations to make it long term enjoyable.
Maybe you have an attachment for the Missus, the kiddo, the experience, the adventure. Not so much the individual car?
Jerry said:Maybe you have an attachment for the Missus, the kiddo, the experience, the adventure. Not so much the individual car?
And their attachment is to you, the car and event are just showing that.
In reply to John Welsh :
"Long term Challenge car ownership becomes a path of frustration."
That's so true...
Eh, I'll voice the other side and say life is short, it's a Challenge Car so you probably didn't spend 10 grand on it and it'll probably roughly hold it's value forever.
Keep it and enjoy
Great meeting you in person and nice job this weekend! I hope my kids still want to hang around car stuff when they are your daugher's age.
You know what's sketchier than bringing a BiTurbo to the Challenge? How wae jacked up his trailer to unload it.
Well, at least it's still attached to the tow vehicle!
Sketchy would be one of the recalled HF jacks 
I'm going to sit down with my daughter tonight when she gets home from work and have a serious discussion with her. Her gift of this shift knob means so damned much to me. She said that it was okay and that it could go with the car, but I know that she didn't buy a shift knob for whomever the next owner of the car will be. She bought that for me because she knew how much I would appreciate it.
It is absolutely correct that my attachment is not for the steel and leather, but for the people that I got to enjoy it with. Becca, Tim, Dave, and Greg as we brought it back to life, my Dad for going with me to pick it up and constantly asking me how it was going, and every single person that came up to chat about the car, sign the front clip, and chime in on the ex post facto build thread. This was a project that was designed for the sole purpose of bringing smiles to faces and in that regard it has been an unmitigated success!
As much as I'd like to catch 'em all, I really just do not have the time, finances, or space to not only store all these cars but to also make sure that they're cared for. A running Biturbo does indeed very quickly become a non-running one if it's let to sit. I don't think that I would ever want to bring it back to the Challenge because I'm not skilled enough to build it to be actually competitive as an under-budget entry without basically ruining it and I don't want a Biturbo that is a stripped out, hacked-up rattle-trap. It couldn't replace the Saab in the fleet because I'm not about to let a 16 year old new driver try to depend on a 40 year old Italian tinderbox. It can't replace the Neon because it's not going to be a rallycross car - although that would be absolutely epic for the 75 feet it would go before putting a hole in the oil pan. It's not going to be my daily driver/tow pig. It wouldn't be my wife's daily driver. So it really comes down to a Biturbo or Miata Thunderdome. Two cars enter, one car leaves.
If Becca has a passion for the Biturbo, then that will go a long way towards deciding what stays in the fleet. Based on the level of effort that each car requires, though, I've got a much shorter pathway for the Miata to be the fun car that I can just decide to jump in whenever I want and take off for a drive. I'm going to preserve and mount the vinyl so that I'll have that - can you imagine what my grandkids will have to say about that when they're cleaning out their parents' house after my kids die and come across that??
Even though the pattern is all wrong - and I'm not about to try to make a Miata transmission into a dog-leg! - I think I can honor this gift by putting a threaded insert into the Maserati knob and installing it in the Miata. And when I sell the Miata some day, that knob can come along with me and find its home in whatever that is.
I think the lesson in this is that you really shouldn't have family or friends: They make it difficult to make cold, calculated, rational decisions!
In reply to Stampie :
Yeah, I supposed that could have been a little more centered on the jackstand, huh? All's well that ends well?
In reply to wae :
I was going to suggest mounting the shiftknob to a trophy-thing or something 3D printed, but that would make an interesting Miata accessory. I mean it looks like an M.
Why would the shift knob need to go with the car?? It's the perfect memento of a great event with your daughter.
I've got a corner of my shop that's just memories. A picture of me drag racing a Barracuda in a Yugo, emblems from cars, all the great little car gifts and plaques my kids have given me, GRM Challenge awards, etc. The memories are great, and I want to honor them.
I totally understand being attached to the car because of the memories. Like you, I'm not actually a great builder. But I've had some great successes, and some fantastic memories along the way. I get attached to cars because of the PEOPLE who built them with me, not because of the cars. But every single one I have held on to just because of those memories has turned to a deteriorated non-running hulk of its former glory. Worthless crap. A true insult to those fond memories.
You are far better off letting it go while there is nothing but great memories, and mounting the shift knob to your shop wall.
The upside.. I haven't spent money on Challenge cars in over a decade. When I sell stuff, I get to recycle the money into the next Challenge car. I stick it in an envelope and reuse it. More cars, more fun, more memories, without additional cost!
In reply to wae :
The real biturbo is the friends you make along the way.
Keep the knob and the memories, ditch the biturbo. However I'll stand first in line if you decide to keep the biturbo over the Miata
I have nothing to add as I have yet to get rid of a vehicle. I wish you luck in your decision
That being said, soapy water with just enough ammonia in it to make you go "yep, there's ammonia in this" and a stiff nylon bristle brush will go a long way to cleaning the grime and skin oils off that shift knob.
My next step after that would be mix some clear epoxy with white dye and fill in the emblem and other bits, then sand it smooth when dry, but that's me
In reply to Mr_Asa :
I think that Maserati shift knob would look great in a Miata.
wae said:I think the lesson in this is that you really shouldn't have family or friends: They make it difficult to make cold, calculated, rational decisions!
Um. You brought a Biturbo to the challenge. I'm not sure that cold, calculated, rational decisions are really your thing.
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