2011 Challenge Rules

Sounds good. How 'bout this year, since I've got a car entered?

Is anyone going to dispute a $0 FMV claim on a torn Miata soft-top?

Our original plan was to call in some favors and borrow a hard top off a local car, but the owner has backed out and we're stuck with a roofless car and an open trailer. We've got an old E36 M3ty softtop in the "attic" of our shop, and to the extent of my knowledge of Miata parts, it's effectively worthless. We're planning on taking out the back window completely and taping up whatever holes exist, just in an attempt to keep rain out of the car should we run into the inevitable shower.

If it's an issue, we can take it off every time we take it off the trailer, but that's a hell of a lot of work for something that adds no performance value and (in my opinion) detracts from a concours score.

If anyone has a problem with it then just take it off for the competition. I don't see any problem with it unless it has magical powers to make your car faster.

hrdlydangerous wrote: If anyone has a problem with it then just take it off for the competition. I don't see any problem with it unless it has magical powers to make your car faster.

It has magical powers to make the NHRA tech guys allow you to run a non roll bar equipped Miata down the drag strip. (only reason mine had a soft top last year)

MrJoshua wrote:

hrdlydangerous wrote: If anyone has a problem with it then just take it off for the competition. I don't see any problem with it unless it has magical powers to make your car faster.

It has magical powers to make the NHRA tech guys allow you to run a non roll bar equipped Miata down the drag strip. (only reason mine had a soft top last year)

That makes about as much sense as HPDEs allowing fiberglass-covered Miatas pass tech that wouldn't without the roof.

unevolved wrote: Is anyone going to dispute a $0 FMV claim on a torn Miata soft-top? Our original plan was to call in some favors and borrow a hard top off a local car, but the owner has backed out and we're stuck with a roofless car and an open trailer. We've got an old E36 M3ty softtop in the "attic" of our shop, and to the extent of my knowledge of Miata parts, it's effectively worthless. We're planning on taking out the back window completely and taping up whatever holes exist, just in an attempt to keep rain out of the car should we run into the inevitable shower. If it's an issue, we can take it off every time we take it off the trailer, but that's a hell of a lot of work for something that adds no performance value and (in my opinion) detracts from a concours score.

They add about 40 lbs or so to the car up high, so overall it's bad for performance.

I was sure that I wouldn't be the only Miata there, but I'm probably going to be the cheapest. Challenge budget is $840 as we sit.

Yeah, you'll beat us. We're sitting about $200 below, but we've learned when you buy everything at rock bottom prices, there's not much you can resell. The Civic we did in '09 had a full interior and suspension, etc, so there was plenty to offload and recover a large portion of the cost. This is a true $2000 car this year.

Matt Cramer and I were going over my budget sheet, and weren't sure exactly how to claim an expense.

I bought a parts lot from a dismantler to include a couple of doors, a used battery with hold down, radiator cap, and dipstick. I paid $120 for everything.

Before putting the doors on my car, I stripped out the power window motors and speakers. I was able to get $100 for the motors and gave the speakers away. I installed my original power window motors in the new doors.

Matt and I agree that I should claim $20 towards the budget for these items. But the $100 I received from the sale of the window motors is in question. I sold them before putting the doors on the car, so the part didn't make it to the car, and any part not used doesn't count toward the budget. However Matt thinks I may need to claim it against my $1000 sold parts cap--which I'm already at.

Thoughts?

I'm thinking he's right. Sadly. Either that, or you'd have to claim the full 120$ towards your budget.

If you bought the doors for 120 and sold parts off them before installing them then do a FMV on door shells.The motors and working parts are what makes a used door so expensive.Door shells run around 20-30 bucks at the junk yard.

mndsm wrote: I'm thinking he's right. Sadly. Either that, or you'd have to claim the full 120$ towards your budget.

yeah, what he said. if those doors didn't have power window motors, would the parts lot only cost you $20?

speedbiu wrote: If you bought the doors for 120 and sold parts off them before installing them then do a FMV on door shells.The motors and working parts are what makes a used door so expensive.Door shells run around 20-30 bucks at the junk yard.

In that event, ideally the doors that were stripped should be left off the car completely, and go get some skins at the yard that fit the budget better. But then you're still left with a 120$ pile of parts, and if any of those other ones make it to the car, you're right back where you started. You could probably argue FMV on them, since "techinically" you had the parts laying around.

I used all the parts in the lot. I also installed teh motors from my original doors into the new doors. I did it that way to take the $ off the budget. It was more work, so if I did it wrong, I wasted a few hours.

I'm sitting at $1053 if I keep the entire $120 for the doors in the budget. I have to kill $53 to go that route.

Just going to claim it at $120. Removed some stuff like new air filter and plugs, and it has mismatched lug nuts. I also had to not install exhaust gaskets. It leaks a little bit at the flanges, but we're a few bucks under $1k again.

Also got to drive the car for the first time today. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Did anybody need me to pik some beer up ?

diablo canoe

So, I'm looking at the weather forecast and it's not looking good. I understand that the drag race pretty much gets thrown out if either one of the days he's rained out, but what happens if both days get rained out?

florida weather changes in 15 minutes

Yea, I'm from St. Augustine. I know all about it. It's always a possibility though to have rain all day. It happens.