Things that make life just a little bit easier....

A few months ago, I received an Amazon gift card that has been languishing unused. Kind of on a whim, I bought a Morrflate 4-wheel inflation/deflation system. Besides sports cars, I'm also a 4x4 enthusiast (2022 Turbo-Diesel Jeep Gladiator Rubicon, in case you're wondering). The off-road guys are always airing down for off-road trails, and then airing back up for the trip home. Getting all the tires to the correct and equal pressures is a pain point for this crowd, and one of the common solutions is a 4-wheel inflate/deflate system.

To use a system like Morrflate, you close the fill valve on the gauge/splitter assembly (via a big green slider valve), and then connect each tire to one of the interconnected hoses. Doing nothing else, you instantly already have each tire equalized in pressure. Want to air down? Open the valve, bleed off some air, and close it when the gauge says you're at the correct pressure. Want to air up? Attach a compressor to the inlet port, open the valve, and adjust the tire pressures to the exact amount you want. Then close the valve, disconnect the tires, and... voilá! Each tire is exactly the same pressure as the others.

Today, I used the system for the first time on the Bugeye. One thing I'm learning about the car as I drive it is how sensitive it is to even modest changes in tire pressure. A few psi too much, and the car feels unstable and "floaty". A few psi too little and the crispness and nimbleness disappear, with the car "wallowing" in corners. Further, the small tires (because of their small air volumes) gain and lose pressure really easily when I'm trying to fill them. Just a brief, inadvertent 1-second bleed when disconnecting the compressor and applying my tire pressure gauge can net/lose 1-2 psi or more. The result is I'm never fully certain what my pressures are, or if I have equal pressures, left-to-right or front-to-rear (And yes, I've found that equal pressures all the way round are currently the best setup for me; typically between 30-31psig).

Is a system like this needed? No, of course not; I've been filling tires for more than half a century the old way. Is it nice to have? Yes, definitely! Is it worth the money? If I had only one car, I'd probably balk at spending this amount of money (~$200 on sale) for something I could keep doing the old-fashioned way, one tire at a time. But given I have two Jeeps, the Bugeye, and a finicky trailer, this little tool seems to be something I wish I'd had years ago. 

All in this morning, it took me about five minutes to connect and use (and that included the brief learning curve of unboxing and setting it up). In that span of time, I had four tires all equally set at 30.5 psig. (Of course, I had to check the gauge accuracy with my high-end Longacre gauge; the Morrflate unit is dead nuts correct). Putting it away took just a couple of minutes, too, using the velcro straps to wrangle the coiled air hoses.

It's always fun to discover a new tool that makes a chore like setting tire pressures a little easier.

Some Updates, Some Not

 We got quite a bit done on the car over the past 3 weeks. Plus one area that we're back to square 1. Let me explain. First, the good news:

First up is a fuel leak issue I was experiencing. The wife was complaining of a faint gasoline smell coming from the garage. Turned out to be a cracked fitting that was seeping gas. Relatively easy fix:

Next was a balky bonnet. More specifically, I was having trouble opening and closing the bonnet consistently, plus we kept shearing off these little rubber bumpers we'd installed to keep the hood from vibrating. Joe had a cool idea of using rollers and machined ramps to help guide the bonnet close, which seems to work really well thus far. The rollers are old skateboard wheels that got turned down on a lathe. They're a little rough, and I'm thinking of upgrading to something made from urethane, but otherwise, this works great:

Another big upgrade we did was install a parking brake. Yes, this is a big deal for me. There have been a half-dozen instances where the car almost rolled away on me, or that it felt really unsecure in a parking lot, or on the trailer, etc., just held in place by keeping it in gear. It was a lot of work, but the results were really worth the money and time. The unit works great and looks even better. The brake lever assembly came from Speedway Motors, whilst the actual brakes are the stock Miata bits. It's almost an OEM result, but cooler. Someone recently remarked that it's got a definite Cobra vibe going on:

Finally, the one thing that didn't get done: the windshield. Had a friend ride in the car a month ago, and despite my warning them not to put weight on the windshield frame, they did. Result: a cracked windshield. Sigh. So, I ordered what I thought was the correct windshield from Moss Motors. Part arrived and.... did not fit. Long story short: my windshield frame is from a Mk2 Spridget, despite the car being a first-gen (1959). Dunno what happened or when, but somewhere in the car's past, someone swapped out the frame. I think. Dunno? Really weird... and a very costly mistake. I've got a lot of money into buying and then returning the wrong part. Worse, the new/correct part is on a month-long back-order from Moss. In Arizona, we can't drive cars without windshields, even if we wear helmets, so I was basically looking at a month or more of non-drive time. But once again, Joe came to the rescue, creating this ridiculous/hilarious/completely-functional windscreen out of plexiglass and a fabricated aluminum mount:

Finally, in related news, I'm considering upgrading my little 1-axle trailer to a heavier duty 2-axle so I can more securely/sanely transport the car when needed, plus a few non-car uses, too (e.g., toting water to our remote family cabin. 

Another Car Show

 Took the Bugeye out to the east side cars and coffee (though, no coffee present). As seems to be the case, the car got a lot of attention. Lots of questions, ranging from "what is it?" to "I had a Bugeye back in the day, but nothing like this!" Also got some attention on the drive home, with lots of thumbs ups from other drivers, a couple of kids who wanted to tangle in their souped up G35 (they didn't stand a chance), to some guy in a custom caddy who took lots of film of me on a long stretch of road. Even had an old homeless guy downtown give me the thumbs up and trucker's salute. I didn't build the car particularly to get attention, but it is nice when it happens. Some pics from the car show:

New Gears! New Seats! Same Old Great Car!

 With its brand new seats and fresh 3.6:1 gears, I took the Bugeye out for its first significant drive this morning. Specifically, I took the car across town to the Tucson British Car Register (TBCR) so-called "Phantom" car show. To get there, I took our city's cross-town "parkway," which is like an unknown secret in Tucson. Hardly anyone uses this 2-3 lane, 65mph throughway, especially on weekends. I basically had the road to myself for-4-5 miles... and boy, it was fun!

The new gearing has really transformed the car. First gear is now fully usable, and I can keep it in 2nd, 3rd, and fourth gears much, much longer than before. I hardly got into fifth at all today, in fact. She pulls just as hard as ever, but for longer. Taller gears were the secret to opening performance up. Love it!

I also really like the new seats. Yes, they're tighter than the old (tattered) seats on this driver's big butt, but ultimately they will stretch with time. And they look great in the car. The only downside now is the rest of the interior (not to mention the whole exterior) seems lacking in comparison. In any case, the car got lots of attention at the show today. All in all, it was a good day.

A Quick Update

 First update is the rear gearing. One of the primary performance issues I've had with the car is the gearing. Specifically, the too-short rear end ratio of the car, which was 4.11:1. Combined with the Aisin AR5 transmission ratios, the 23-inch diameter tires, and the 6500rpm rev limit of the Ecotec, I essentially would run out of gears way too fast. First gear was essentially useless, and at the Autocross I was running out of second gear at critical times. In the US (where I live) there are essentially two gear sets available for the NB (second-gen) Miata diff, 4:11 and 3.9. After some simple spreadsheet work, it was clear that even the 3.9 was going to be too short if I swapped it in. The good news is that Mazda did make a 3.6:1 rear end gear set. The bad news is that it was sold only in Japan and Australia. Good news is we found a seller on eBay down-under and, after a couple of weeks of shipping transit, had a hardly-used gear set delivered. We took the car apart and dropped the diff off at a local differential shop to swap in the gears, which was finished this week. The car is now back together with the new gear set, but still not quite drivable....

...The reason it's not drivable, is we took the seats out and dropped them off at another shop (upholstery) to get recovered. I looked into simply buying new seats, but the incredibly tiny cockpit of the Bugeye means essentially that the current Paddy Hopkirk seats are the only ones that will fit. Ergo, re-upholstery time. Still waiting for the shop to finish up the seats so that we can re-install and make the car drivable again. I'm really excited and hopeful the new gear set will make a big difference.

Finally, terrible news with a silver lining. An elderly fellow gearhead in my neighborhood passed away following surgery a couple months ago. He was a really nice guy and a serious car and motorcylist guy who had some pretty amazing fab and machining skills. Long story short, his widow is selling off some of his shop tools, and she asked if I was interested in anything. Well, I am. In fact, I'd love to basically buy all his tools, but there's this pesky little problem of my limited tool budget. In the end, I picked up a few things, including an Evolution chop saw and an Enco 36" finger brake. I will likely go back in the future for a few more things, but the key purchase this week was his Millermatic 252 MIG welder. I've been getting by via a combination of my little Lincoln 110VAC flux-core buzz box and the outsourcing of quality welding to guys like my friend Joe. The new machine I bought is a serious step up in capacity, quality, and abilities, so I'm hoping to improve and hone my skills accordingly and do justice to my dearly departed neighbor. RIP, Ron.

End of the Buzz

If it's not been obvoius in past posts, I really love the car. It handles great. It has more than enough power throughout the entire rev range. It's a joy to drive. It gets plenty of attention. Etc...

...but until recently, it was also kinda annoying to drive. See, there was a vibration-- no, scratch that. There were about a dozen really aggravating buzzes, rattles, shakes, and resonant sheet-metal-shake-your-eyeballs-out noises that ruined otherwise perfectly great drives....

...so, we've spent the last month slowly-but-surely tracking down noises and squashing them.

The biggest culprit was simply all the sheet metal on the car that would buzz at certain speeds, usually when I lifted off the gas around 4000rpm or so. Solutions we applied included glueing fire blanket material to the backside of these various offending locations. We also added a heat shield to the underside of the bonnet over top of the turbo and exhaust, and included insulation there, too. Plus we crimped down the headlight buckets to form a tighter grip, added rubber gaskets to the doors, intercooler interface to the bonnet, installed a boot on the shifter, etc... Well, you get the idea. 

This week, we'd gotten rid of ninety percent of the racket, but one loud buzz remained somewhere toward the back of the car. So, while I drove up and down the freeway frontage road, Joe risked life and limb, crawling all of the car, listening and applying pressure to potential noise sources. Again, long story short, we traced the last big buzzing source to the rear-most body panel that would intermittently touch the old bumperette mount behind it. A clamping bolt was quickly installed and, voilá, problem solved. 

The car is still a joy to drive--and it's relatively quiet, too. Well, that's if you define quiet as the wide-open throttle symphony of the 2.4-liter turbo spooling up. Love it!

Went Racing. Finally.

 Okay, it wasn't pretty. I was slow. I've forgotten some of the most basic tenets of autocross. I don't understand the limits of my car. I have a half dozen important issues with the car to address. Yada yada yada....

...but damn, it was fun.

I'm talking, of course, about my first autocross drive in over fifteen years. And of course, the first race with the Bugeye. 

The local SCCA group (Arizona Border Region SCCA: https://www.azbrscca.org/) conducted their first event of the season yesterday. The race was held at Kino Parkway here in Tucson, and about 60 cars showed up. Everything from Teslas to Miatas, and Porsches to BRZs were in attendance. And the Bugeye, of course. The course itself was pretty straightforward, with four big sweepers, intermixed with two slaloms. 

Here are some random thoughts on the event, the car, and my (lack of) abilities:

• Autocross Is FUN. Many decades ago, before marriage and kids, I was a regular in the local A/X scene. Then life happened. I still sporadically went to races, but other priorities took, well, priority. It also didn't help that I moved a number of times in the ensuing years, to Europe, Hawaii, Colorado, etc.. for work. Further, when I moved back to Arizona, the Bugeye was in pieces. Now that it's running (and mostly reliable) it was time to go back and see if A/X was as much fun and worthwhile as I believed it to be. It is.
• The Car. The car is great. The car is lacking. First, there's plenty of power, but the rear end gearing really limits performance, making first gear worthless and forcing the car to run out of RPMs at just the wrong times. The other big thing is body roll. Yes, I put a sway bar on the car this past week, but it's not enough. Probably need a rear bar, too. Also, I've ordered stiffer springs for the rear, which should help a lot. But the excessive body roll is unnerving. The car never really felt in danger of going over, but the suspension geometry was clearly affected in the sweepers by the excessive body roll. There were a half dozen other things I noted, but these two (gearing, body roll) are the big ones that require first attention.
• The Driver. Okay, I've forgotten how to drive fast. Even the basics are greatly lacking, like looking ahead, not trying to brake and turn and accelerate all at the same time, etc. The good news is I got a full second faster on each lap, which is huge. The bad news is I was still near the bottom of the pack in overall time, with the fastest cars being a full 8 seconds quicker per lap than me. I need to practice a lot more, plus probably ask for a ride along with some more experienced drivers to point out the things I'm ignorant I'm doing/non-doing.
• The Day. I'd forgotten how long an autocross race day can be. Don't get me wrong; it's a fun day, but I left the house at 6:30am, and didn't get home until~3pm or. Only a fraction of that time is spent driving; the rest is getting through tech, standing through the drivers meeting, walking the course a few times, working the course, jawing about cars, sitting in grid, loading and unloading the car from the trailer (yes, I trailer'd it because I worried about breaking something). Heck, just literally standing around on course that long is a bit draining (yes, first-world problems, I know...). I did remember sunscreen and food and water and a hat, but it's still a long day. 

Some photos:

Car loaded on trailer and leaving home. Next time I will probably just drive the car to the event, but I was pretty concerned about breaking something and being able to get the car home afterward:

First in line at the tech inspection:

On course, trying to remember to look ahead, look ahead:

In one of the big sweepers. Pretty sure that course worker is yelling at me to look ahead, look ahead:

Bad news is the (very) slow overall times. Good news is each run getting significantly faster by over a second per lap. Just needed another 8-10 runs at this rate to vie for FTOD. Yeah, right...: