3 replies to this topic

[Ken Nesbit]

I was reading the thread the other day about people being slow to come to the new forum, I've been designing and building systems since the mid 70's and have never turned a system over to someone that liked it right out of the box, a year later they love it .... people just aren't quick to jump on board.

Just as an example of how far the reach of these forums are, and an amusing story... A few years ago I decided it was time to give up on my FP MG Midget grenade (15:1 compression) and build something limited prep, so I chose a Miata. Having never even driven a Miata at the time I started asking around to some friends that raced them and asked them to keep an eye open for a suitable car to start building on. This friend lived in upper Maryland, a week or so later he emailed me and told me a friend of his from Pennsylvania told him to tell me where the old forum was and to get on and take a look at a car that was in the classified, which I did. There was a street miata for sale, in Manassas, with a low price or best offer. Called the number and was asking about the condition of the car, mileage, any bad accidents etc.. he said it was all pretty good and he would take $500 for the car,sounded like a perfect donor. As I was talking to him he said the car was painted in a camo theme in black and white primer, sounded like something I had seen a thousand times, asked him where he lived .... it was right across the street from me and he quipped...why don't you walk across the street and take a look. So in a roundabout way, from Summit Point, to Pennsylvania, to upper Maryland to find a car right across the street, didn't even have to tow it home. He still stops over on a regular basis to check it out and thrilled that "his" car is a race car now.

I didn't know the first thing about Miata's at the time, had built a lot of race cars, but never touched a Miata. Spent quite a bit of time just browsing the "garage" forums here and started reading, picked up a lot of good information..some I could use, some I couldn't but was still good to know. Anyone that is building a car or considering building a car I would encourage them to read these boards, there's a treasure chest of information here for the taking.

[Tom Hampton]

In a similar vein....I stumbled across specmiata.com a couple years ago, after deciding to get into racing. I bought a donor last July, and (as most probably know) have been building it ever since. Everything I know about these cars comes from three sources: here, Dave Wheeler's book (which I learned about on here), and simply wrenching on the car.

-tch

[davew]

Back in the old days, 2000-2001, of Spec Miata we had another website called racernetwork . com. Very popular with us old timers, then along came specmiata.com. We had the same problem with people not wanting to change to the more modern and technical website. As with almost anything technology related, in 5 years specmiata was obsolete, but we kept it going for 10 years. Now we have to learn to love mazdaracers.com the same as we learned to love specmiata.com

If you build it, they will come

Dave

[Qik Nip]

This friend lived in upper Maryland, a week or so later he emailed me and told me a friend of his from Pennsylvania told him to tell me where the old forum was and to get on and take a look at a car that was in the classified, which I did. .. it was right across the street from me and he quipped...why don't you walk across the street and take a look.

Ken:
Interesting ... I wadded up my SM at the last race of the 08 season and was strugling to find a new donor. I was instructing at a HPDE a few weeks later and jokingly told a neighbor (who was attending) that he needed to help me find one. He replied that I needed to see "John" and pointed across the paddock at another student. I walked over and after learning that the price was right also found out the location was pretty nice too. John lived less than a block away!
Rick