OT: Universal Choice in Education Can Work, and what is a good Teacher worth?

[paramount]

[quote=svelte][quote=paramount][quote=svelte]I’m going to go out on a limb and make some guesses about you, paramount.

[/quote]

Sounds like you fell off that limb and bumped your head…you’re not even close.[/quote]

Where did you get your degree?[/quote]

UMCP

[spdrun]

I did autocross. I truly don’t didn’t seriously care about it — I just preferred to daily-drive the Miata. It was fun on the street and on the parkways north of NYC where I had to go a day or two out of the week for work.

It even did fine in snow with four winter tires, a hard top, and a ski rack, though people looked at me like I was insane. I wasn’t; I’m just not your typical wuss who feels that need an SUV barge just to cope with normal traffic.

[ucodegen]

[quote=flu]I think the weight difference is about 200lbs for the V8 conversion versus a stock 4 cylinder without all the extras of the turbo… [/quote]That is true. What is interesting is that 200lbs also includes replacing the trans with a heavier one (T56), the rear diff and suspension (from a CTS-V), replacement rotors and additional bracing. [quote=flu]For an autocross, turbos I don’t think really help on the miata, because the lag from the spool up and the extra weight from the extra add ons (turbo, intercooler, yada yada yada) would offset any gain from a stock miate running with lighter weight….[/quote]True, not to mention running the parts on turbo version closer to their strength limits, and more likely to break.[quote=flu]
The key to a miata in an autocross (I’m learning) is keeping the momentum… (I generally suck at things right now, still learning)…..

The V8 would be rocking on a long track like chuckwalla, though I would think I’d want to run a full cage when/if I ever decide to do that in a miata…[/quote]There is a recommendation for a cage on the V8 versions. I think BossFrog has a cage on their parts list. High horsepower also helps on short track, but you will wear the tires out and really heat up the brakes. If working on technique (carrying momentum through corner, entry and exit positioning), high horsepower could actually hurt learning – can mask bad technique through powering out.[quote=flu]
But quite frankly $43k for a V8 conversion (minus the $3-5k for the donor miata car) is kinda steep, unless you attempt to do it yourself… Not to mention dealing with CARB in california if you want to run it on the street….[/quote]The $43K also includes some of the cutting and bracing work as well as trans and rear replacement. When you start calculating all of the work that is giong into it at this level, it is not too bad. You have the option of buying the pieces and putting it together yourself. There is even a manual of how to do it on their website.

CARB has some interesting rules, one of the general ones for re-engining a vehicle is that the engine be of a same or newer year from the vehicle you are altering. It must be from the same or heavier vehicle (trucks etc excluded) with the same emissions requirements of the target vehicle. Test is done to the date of the engine.[quote=flu]And if you don’t want to run it on the street, you might as well stick a motorcycle engine in it instead, like

http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/1519/Project-MiataBusa–Part-1-What-The-Hell-Are-We-Thinking.aspx%5B/quote%5DYes, but you will have a problem getting it close to what you can do with the original engine, then you have to worry about mating the motorcycle engine to the drivetrain. You can also go for a Miata race block[quote=flu]
Anyway… I went with the reduce weight option..First..Well, since I generally suck still at the driving part… Well, that and it’s cheaper to rip stuff out than put stuff in…

heh heh….Also need to lose the extra 15 weight on myself too…[/quote]The later will probably help with other things as well. Lightening is good. Also see what panels you can replace with carbon. Hood and trunk are the usual. You can go ‘stealth’ and paint them white like the rest of the vehicle…

[Author]

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