Megan the Merlot M edition

[Senor_Taylor]

Wow, long time since an update! This must be some kind of record!

As the weather has gotten warmer, the idle issue has started to subside. I really should find a new TPS, but if the car behaves normal over the summer, I guess I have no real reason to worry about it. Other than that, the car has been fine besides the occasional cloud of smoke on startup which seems to happen randomly on cold days when I haven't started in a while.

My best lap at the After-Show autocross event in Verona was 63.758 but with 1 cone. When I was out there, I felt really slow, but apparently that put me in the top 40 for Pax out of over 100 people. I really wasn't focusing on doing well (I never do at the events that has MM involvement). I instead focused on showing as many MM'ers how fun a Miata can be and I hope I did a good job as someone rode with me on every run. Looking at the results and speaking to people in BRR-SCCA, it seems that the E street class is completely stacked. I agree with this as over the last 2 and a half seasons, there are always people in ES with miatas running times MUCH faster than most of the STR field. It really seems like I should stop worrying about staying in ES and I should go ahead and get better tires, do a full suspension and add some more go-fast parts and move up to STR and actually compete. As it sits, my times would place me higher in STR than I place in ES, and that could only improve if I added some suspension bits. Hell, I might just do STR next event so I can place higher even though it's a class up from what I run now. I wish I had the money at the time to buy some better tires than these as they aren't really that good for autocross, but you live and you learn I guess.

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Next up, graduation, but hopefully after that I can start to really get some things done.

- New TPS to hopefully improve how it runs
- Get a soft top that isn't exploded into a million pieces
- Used Koni Yellows so I can get a better suspension feel and lower it a little while still being legal for ES if I choose
- Gear/ Diff Oil
- Fix hole in front left fender
- Re-do compression test / Leakdown to confirm if it's valve seals causing my smoke and low compression in Cylinder #3

Overall, I've been happy with the car, but this is a really frustrating thing to drive when it's cold and doesn't want to run correctly. Hopefully a new TPS and a suspension that doesn't let it bang off the bump stops 20 times a day will make it more livable. Sorry if I'm rambling, but I'm trying to write this during class.