Bump?
With its new aluminum flywheel and host of Jackson Racing parts (http://www.jacksonracing.com), our Miata is just humming along. Once the temperatures get back into the bearable range, we’ll run another set of 0-60 times. (The last set of runs were done on an 80-degree day; lately it has been about 95 degrees outside.)
On a different note, Pettit Racing’s Cameron Worth (http://www.pettitracing.com) really, really wants us to turbocharge the car. Doing so would definitely mean having to upgrade the differential to a later Torsen unit, but it is a tempting option. We’ll keep you posted, and if you have any feelings about us going the forced-induction route, let us know.
We were hoping to keep the car legal for SCCA’s C Street Prepared class, but that idea is quickly going away. Plus we recently received Dealer Alternative’s (http://www.dlralt.com) Flyin’ Miata big brake kit to test and evaluate, more equipment that’s not CSP-legal. We are also taking another look at our tire choice. We originally went with the Michelin Pilot SX MXX3 since it’s one of the best high-performance tires available. Unfortunately, they’re also on the heavy side—that’s fine if you have the torque of a Camaro or Porsche 911, but a 100-horsepower Miata doesn’t really have the muscle to spin them with authority.
We recently had a good, rebuildable cylinder head dropped off at Engineered Performance (http://www.engineered.net) for a little machine work. They will be sending it to their machine shop, Clark Engine Works (phone 770-590-5226), for a little R&R—little of this and a little of that. Our goal is to strengthen the car’s performance in the 4000 to 7000 rpm range. A set of Unorthodox Racing (http://www.unorthodoxracing.com) adjustable cam gears will also be installed.
The plan is to install the rebuilt head in time so we can tune the car at our upcoming Dyno Day. Look for Part I of the project in the October issue.
Bump?
Any more product placement in that post and I would think we’re were talking to a NASCAR driver that just won a race.
You seriously need to dial it back a bit. It is getting to the point where if a GRM staff member posts I ignore it as I know it is just going to be advertising and no real content. Over saturation of something with advertising ruins it. Think YouTube. I can stand a four second add but put a 20 second one in front of what I want to watch and I just click on to something else. Put adds in my videos and I click away as soon as I am interrupted. Another side effect of it is at some point over saturation of adds cheapens the brand. The above post is at the tipping point of doing this to the GRM brand. That is something I don’t want to see.
Holy zombie thread revivals, Batman!
IMO, when the staff of the magazine is writing about project cars there is going to be a different approach to providing information about the parts.
I've been reading car magazines since the late sixties, and I see two roles for the readers.
Some are following the build because they find it interesting and entertaining, but some people will be using this as a template for their own plans. For latter group, the provision of contact information is useful, and traditional for car magazines.
As for the advertising itself, who do you think is paying for this forum to exist? GRM is providing the storage to allow for direct uploading of photos. That's got to require a lot of capacity, and subscriptions to the print magazine are only a tiny part of the income required to keep the many parts of this ship afloat.
Personally, I'm really glad to get my printed magazine every month, and see how full of ads it is. It's a direct indication of the health of this business.
Lol. Damn near 20 years old...
In reply to Floating Doc :
I get all that but there is a tipping point where it cheapens the brand.
dean1484 said:In reply to Floating Doc :
I get all that but there is a tipping point where it cheapens the brand.
I see your point. My opinion is that it's within the convention for the car magazine industry.
However, I have to commend you for providing feedback. I believe that the people at GRM are interested to know what we think.
In reply to dean1484 :
When you say "product placement," are you talking about the URLs in parentheses? All of those interruptions definitely make the post awkward to read, but if the company names were links instead, would the post seem less like advertising to you? Honestly, it just seems like an outdated format from the year 2000 that hasn't aged well.
The post is just naming the items we used and citing where they came from. We're a car magazine, it's what we do. Posts would be pretty generic otherwise, and choosing specific parts is a major part of working on cars. Also, places like Jackson Racing, Engineered Performance and Clark Engine Works are enthusiast-owned and -run small businesses, the kind that help make this hobby a thing. I don't feel bad about linking to them. Plus it's just polite IMHO.
In reply to Sarah Young :
Making the link URLs hidden would help, but the real issue is that once you remove all the supplier references, there is precious little content in that blurb. It basically can be condensed into "We got a lot of parts from a lot of cool companies, probably for free, and we're going to have a lot of other work done for us, probably at a deep discount."
Maybe list the parts and vendors at the end and keep the blurb about the technical content and why you made that change?
I don't mind the references in the blurb, but they can make it more difficult to read if you're focused on the technical side.
It coudl be worse, it could be an ad for a car for sale with a regurgitated list of parts tossed at it as if to impress the buyer about their parts buying accumen. A list of OBX and other generic chinese knockoff parts does not a "build" make. GRM doesn't do that and that why they are as good as they are.
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