Rediscovering Miata

We took 'Willie' the '99 Miata on this year's fall leaf-peeping trip. It performed flawlessly (except for both low-beam headlights burning out on I-75, at night, simultaneously, 100 miles from home), and we had a great time. Isn't that what it's all about?

 

Brego shines

 Did a bit of detailing today. This is "Brego" after about 8 hours of clay-barring, polishing with Griot's Garage #3 machine polish, and a coat of Griot's Best of Show Wax. Looks like a new car! Next up are a few mechanical items that I want to do just for peace of mind.

Euro car nightmares?

A recent forum post asked about nightmares in owning and maintaining a european car. My 2004 BMW M3 is my first Euro car. I bought it with 83k miles almost a year ago and now it has 94k miles. I didn't get a pre-purchase inspection (other than looking at it myself) and it was overdue for virtually ALL the periodic maintenance. Yes, I know that sounds like a crazy scenario but I have a highly developed sense of mechanical empathy and I knew the car was ok. It has actually worked out perfectly well for me so far. If I was not a die-hard do-it-yourselfer I would never have bought a car like this, but the car looked very clean and while the maintenance had been deferred by the last owner, it was obviously not abused and the service records showed the first owner had done all the required maintenance for the first 50k miles. If I had paid a dealer to do all the maintenance it would have cost 3-4 thousand dollars, I'm sure. Doing it myself, it was maybe $1200 in parts. Everything is caught up now and the car is perfect. I'm sorry I don't have any nightmares to report.

I would NEVER own one of these cars, though, if I was going to be dependent on paying a mechanic to do all the maintenance and repairs. I can see how it can easily cost $2500+ per year at dealership prices. Of course for many people that is not a lot of money. It's all relative.

Went to Sebring today

 

Spent today down at Sebring watching the HSR Endurance Challenge Series. There were some really great historic racecars there, including my all-time favorites, the all-conquering Audi R8R, one of which I personally witnessed winning the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2000, before it went on to dominate in many more races. It's really great to see these cars again, especially on the track and not in a museum somewhere. They are in the hands of collectors now, but fortunately still see the track. The pictures above are a few of literally hundreds I took today.