My other vice

I went a bit insane this weekend and ended up with the guitar you see on the left in the photo. It's an Epiphone Les Paul Classic Quilt Top in Transparent Amber. I've never owned a Les Paul before and this one is really nice! For the pittance it cost, it's hard to believe that it actually plays nice, but it really does! The fit and finish are excellent. I can't find a flaw anywhere. The tones this thing puts out are sublime - and totally different from any of my other axes. This is guitar #8 in my rapidly growing collection. This time a year ago, I only had two, and I'd owned them for 15 and 20 years.
The guitar on the right is #6 in the collection. I got it a few months ago when Lulu bought it for me as an early birthday gift. It's a Schecter C-1 Hellraiser in Black Cherry finish with a maple quilt top and mohogany back and neck. The inlays are all abalone and very nicely done. The pickups are EMG 81 and 85, and this thing just shreds! I'll have to get the whole collection togther for a group photo soon.

Corvette Weekend

This weekend I spent some time with the Corvette, removing the factory body side moldings (BSMs) and polishing the doors so you can't tell they were ever there. It took about 20 minutes to get them off, and then two hours of cleaning off the adhesive and buffing the paint out with 3M Perfect-It fine cut polish. The result is stunning. It's like a new car!

I've been really enjoying the Vette. We're taking it on a short trip to Savannah next weekend. Can't wait!

Spec Miata is sold

I made a deal this week with a gentleman from Sebring to buy my Spec Miata racecar. He coming to pick it up in a couple weeks. I hate to see it go, but there is always another Miata. When the time comes for me to go racing again, I'll just buy one and go! In the meantime, this starts to pave the way towards me getting something different to drive every day.

Short Day at the Track

I was back at Sebring yesterday for a racer testing session with Chin Motorsports. Even as daylight broke, the skies were threatening rain, and it had rained hard on us Saturday evening on the way down to Sebring from Tampa. Still, I went out for the first session of the morning and put in a bunch of laps. The car felt good, although the track was very green and I felt like the car was sliding around a lot. Finally, about 30 minutes into my session, just as I was reaching my heat/exertion limit, I went a little too hot into turn 1 and looped it just after the 85mph apex. I spun 180, quickly got both feet in, then spun 180 back the way I came, ending up sliding sideways off the track and just into the dirt pointed in the right direction. A Radical that was following quite closely took evasive action and managed not to hit me. I put it in gear and drove slowly back to the paddock.

Even before I got out of the car I knew the results of my long, lurid slide. Both of the Hoosier R3S04's on the right side were flat-spotted down to the cords. Not having any spares, I packed it up and we went home just ahead of some very heavy rainclouds, so I probably didn't miss much track time after all.

Dead Cat

Just a data point - the Jackson Racing catalytic converter on the supercharged '94 died a couple weeks ago. It's been on the car for 8 years and around 90,000 miles so I certainly can't complain. The failure mode was one of the elements inside the can broke loose and turned sideways. The car lost power big time and sounded terrible. I ordered up a replacement from RSpeed which ended up being a Magnaflow unit. The new unit looks identical to the JR unit, with the exception of the JR tag welded to the old one. I installed it late last week and all is good with the world once again.

Successful Day at the Track

We had an awesome day at Sebring this past weekend. It was a track day with Chin Motorsports. This was the first time we've run the new motor, other than idling in the shop, since we built it last summer. It ran flawlessly and the rest of the car was great, too. It was one of the most enjoyable days at the track I've had in a long time.
Here's some pics.
Click here

Why Zanardi is my hero

Just ran across this post and had to pass it on.

http://metacool.typepad.com/metacool/2005/09/my_hero_is_zana.html

I've read Zanardi's book and feel like I know him personally. He is certainly an inspiration in my life.

Kevin

Long time, no post

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted. Things got quite off-track lately. First, I had to cancel my plans to race at Daytona in early August. I just didn't have the money or the time. So, we worked throughout August to get a new motor built and installed in the car, only to have to cancel our outing at Sebring on September 3rd and 4th due to Hurricane Katrina. My parents, sister and brother all live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and they took a hard hit from Katrina. I did not hear from them for almost 2 days after the storm, so I decided to cancel my race plans and head up there from Tampa to try to find them. Fortunately, they managed to get a call out to me just as I was leaving to drive there. I went anyway, taking up a large amount of water, food, batteries, and a generator. Our house came through mostly unscathed, though many neighbors and friends were not nearly so lucky. Please remember the residents of the Gulf Coast in your prayers and donate generously to the Red Cross or another relief organization.

So, the next chance we'll get to race is at Sebring the weekend of October 22-23. The new motor is together and in the car, and everything else is looking good. I'm ready to RACE!

Gearing up again

The next race is looming near - Daytona International Speedway on August 6-7, for a SARRC series double-header.
Stuart decided he wasn't happy with the bottom end on the motor, so he's building a new one. We were a little low on compression on the high-mile block - probably because we honed the bores and the end-gap is out of spec. We blame this on the Showroom Stock engine rules we're stuck with that won't allow us to overbore at all when doing a rebuild. I guess I should have just bought a crate motor and been done with it. Anyway, we have to swap the bottom end out within the next couple weeks. Other than that, the car just needs a new front left fender (oops), and I want to change the differential fluid now that the new diff has a couple hundred miles on it.

The Just Miata shop is moving to a new location, just a couple miles from the old shop. That will give us more room for the racecar and trailer, and Stu will have a lot more space for customer cars and such.

I'll keep you posted on our preparations as they progress. Hopefully, there's not much else to do...

Successful first outing

Just Miata Racing competed in our first race in 16 months this weekend, on the short course at Sebring. In a field of 24 starters we qualified 12th, and after running as high as 9th at one point in the second race, finished 11th in both the first and second races.

I got a really good start in race 2 and put a lot of distance on the guys behind me, and stayed in touch with the lead pack for the first half of the race. Gradually, the car seemed to lose a little power and I dropped back a bit. Then, late in the race, my foot slipped off the brake pedal on a downshift and I missed my turn-in point. In a class this competitive, that's all it takes and two cars got by me.

We were hoping for a top ten finish, but overall we're very happy with our results this weekend. Finishing in the top half of the field in a brand new car after not racing for 16 months is the best we could have hoped for. It's a very positive result.

Photos and video coming soon.

-Kevin Morrison