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It's been all of 6 weeks since a 400 page report covering all of this was released. How quickly do you think impeachment should happen? Should people rush it or should they talk about it for more than a few weeks? How short is America's attention span that 6 weeks is too long to still be discussing a bombshell report detailing a concerted attack on our democratic process by a foreign power? Yikes! MFers on here take 6 months to hem and haw about what car to buy.

January 2018

This exact same issue (suspension bolt hitting the gas tank on my Mazda5) prompted my to buy my first sawzall. Amazing engineering.

Trump to order additional forces to Middle East Sigh.

Race cars don't have tint. Tell him he's a ricer and to save his money for something useful. Sorry, I have no helpful advice

There's very little distance between Honda nerds and Mazda nerds, and the BP is generally regarded as a turd anyway, so the only flack has come from the "why would you spend that much money on a Miata" crowd. And I have no response for them other than I've never been good with money

My experience has been unique in that regard. Consider it a combination of bad luck, bad decisions, and a dash of poor design. D'oh!

It ends up being 30lbs lighter due to the aluminum block and the subframe.

Just gonna have to disagree on some of these. That's not to say the new Supra is all that far out there in terms of exterior/interior design, but the interior is 100% BMW and the exterior is nowhere near as clean as, say, the Mk4, what with all the swoops and flares and fake vents everywhere. It's just not Japanese, in the way that the BR-Z/FR-S very much is.

Figured I'd contribute some actual automotive content to this ghost town. I bought this Miata 4 years ago because I wanted something less ratty and more reliable than my Integra for a dual use track/street car. When I bought it had a relatively fresh (30k miles) Mazda crate motor, which I lost at the track due to an overheating issue (I think the head cracked but I sold the long block without taking it apart). I tried to keep it as close to stock power as possible for reliability but since 99/00 motors are the motor to have for SM they're not cheap, and I installed an 01+ VVT motor instead and threw some additional mods at it. I got 2 years of track duty out of that motor until it let go at VIR last October, I think due to oil starvation. Still not sure of the exact cause. Here it is at that event before it spun a bearing: I hemmed and hawed about what to do, not too keen on putting in yet another BP motor that made dick for power and wasn't proving to be exactly reliable, so I bought this: It's a JDM K24A from a 2005 Honda Odyssey Absolute, 205hp in stock trim with an 8000rpm redline. The installation kit is from a company based in Michigan called KMiata, it's not terribly cheap but it's pretty thorough. It uses the stock Miata transmission for ease of installation and cost, and comes with an adapter plate, flywheel, new subframe, oil pan/pump mods, modified K24 ECU and wiring, plus a host of odds and ends. Here's the subframe ready to go in, it's outsourced to V8 roadsters and is essentially the LSx swap subframe: The necessary internal mod is to remove the balance shafts and modify the oil pump and pickup using kit components to make clearance for the steering rack, which is going to run right through the oil pan here in the middle of the picture: The kit also comes with a new timing chain/tensioner, OEM 50 degree VTC cam gear for a bit more power, a baffled oil pan to fit around the subframe and steering rack, and some coolant re-route bits. Now here's a random picture of the blank slate under the dash to make room for the new (OEM Honda Element) engine loom: This setup is going to change, the kit comes with a custom pulley and belt to simplify the accessory belt situation but there's no tensioner, it's kind of a bitch to slip that pulley into some random bolt hole in the front of the block and then get the tension right with washers under the alternator. KMiata sells an A/C kit, which I have in my possession but haven't installed, which will eliminate the top pulley here and use the A/C compressor as a tensioner. I took this picture of the AN line I made for fuel, I opted to use the stock fuel rail and just connect it to the Miata returnless feed rather than run new lines. It's straightforward but the downside is that the fuel line is now on the hot side of the engine because everything's backwards from the BP. A walbro 255lph pump is necessary to keep the fuel pressure up at high RPMs because the stock FPR is kinda shitty. I went ahead and ordered the Skunk2 intake manifold, B-series throttle buddy (because cable driven and not DBW), and associated adapter bits from KMiata. Not seen here but tucked off to the side is an OEM IACV mounted on a custom block to keep the idle happy. Honda engine management is delightfully straight forward, all the wiring tucks up nicely. The throttle cable does need to make a full loop as you can see but I didn't see any reason to find a shorter one. Here it is all done and driven under its own power to cars and coffee a few weeks ago. At this point I was still having some issues with cooling and wiring it that wouldn't reveal themselves fully until a couple of days ago, but I was in a time crunch due to previously scheduled track days. Unfortunately all I got out of my first track weekend was this one picture of it not moving in the garage. A missing ground wire stymied me and a lost a whole weekend before finding it and fixing the frustrating misfire I was getting. After I fixed the misfire it was running awesome, and I turned my attention to the terrible NVH caused by the polyurethane engine mounts included in the kit. Clay helped me figure out a solution using some Hyundai suspension bushings I'd found. Unfortunately, these bushings are hard as shit and the NVH is still pretty bad. Something to sort out in the future. Here it is ready to go for my second attempt at Mid-Ohio, I actually washed it, clayed it, and waxed it for the first time in 4 years. Sadly, the entire day was rain and I only did a few pathetically slow laps on whatever street tires I happened to have on my style wheels. Full disclosure, I have a vinyl cutter and the heart of a ricer, and so I do stuff like this. I'll update this thread when I go back to Mid-Ohio in a few weeks. The KMiata sales material advertises 215-220whp with the tune I was delivered, that's up substantially from the 131whp I made on the VVT motor. Previous PB at Mid-Ohio was a 1:49.9, that's my frame of reference. I'm honestly not sure what an extra 85-90 horsepower will do, but I can't wait to find out.

Heh

But the world didn't gain anything new -- there was a Z4 before, and there's still a Z4. Now there's just a Z4 with a different skin. As a huge fan of Japanese cars for their reliability, simplicity, and conservative styling, I don't see the appeal of buying a BMW just because it's got a Toyota badge on it. If I wanted to buy over-engineered headaches I'd be a German car fan in the first place. But I can't afford a $50k sports car anyway, so I don't think my opinion matters. I guess if you're a Germanophile and you view this as a discount Z4, it's a win.

C/D seems to think it's underrated by quite a bit. I'm usually dismissive of claims that modern cars are underrated since there's an SAE testing procedure and ratings are less capricious than they were back in the day, but I suppose it's possible. The BMW version of the same car makes 382 horsepower and there may be some marketing hijinks going on with BMW not wanting the cheaper version of the same care to steal sales... Of course, C/D also claims that the launch control did considerably worse times than they were able to pull with their expert feathering, which also raises an eyebrow.

I did some distillery tours with my dad a couple months ago, it kinda soured me on things like Blanton's, which we saw getting bottled at Buffalo Trace but couldn't actually buy anywhere. Realizing that many of these brands, and almost all of the small batch/single barrel products are recent creations to capitalize on bourbon's popularity and not necessarily the work of ancient artisans is somewhat disappointing. That's not to say they're not good, or even that they're not worth the money, but it made me feel a lot better about the fact that I really just enjoy sipping Bulleit Rye at $19 a bottle or whatever it is when it's on super sale. Anyway, from what I gather buying booze in Ohio sucks because government. If you want anything from the class six I go about every month but their selection is limited and they don't have a lot of high end stuff. I've gotten Eagle Rare there before, had a bottle of Wild Turkey Longbranch that was all right all right all right, and they have Woodford/Bulleit/Maker's Mark products in large quantities. I'm happy to bring back extra bottles.

Dec 2017 ideally.

On desktop I did that and the search results came up for a second and then disappeared, blank page with the FB header. Two different browsers, same thing. On mobile I punched in search criteria, the number of results would filter down accordingly, but when I hit apply or whatever it lost all filters and showed me the full list. Hit filter again and it was back to no filters. I'm a web developer so I'm not tech illiterate, you can believe me or not but it was flat broken for me and I have no motivation to figure out why.

I tried to use FB marketplace yesterday and it was the worst thing I've ever used. Broken on desktop and mobile in different ways.

What should I be using instead?

Finally gave up on waiting for my GTR fuel pump and threw a walbro in the Miata. Seat in, hardtop on... ready for a shakedown at Mid-O this weekend.

Why would they "call out Muslims?" Did they "call out Christians" after the mosque attacks? Where did they call out "white people?" Maybe I am blind. Quit being a fucking pussy snowflake and finding ways to get offended. You're making up all of this animosity, it's not really there.

Yeah, close is key, I want to be able to get it out and play with it. My neighbor was wanting to do this with the old fruit stand on Kenny that's been vacant forever but he could never get anyway to call him back.

Is that the base, unfinished price I assume?

I've been wanting to do this for a years in Upper Arlington, but I don't have the connections or skills or work ethic or money to pull it off. But it sounds amazing.

Fucking heretic.

Depends, do you like a good bush?