The Last Drive of the Year

With cold weather just around the corner bringing rain, snow, and salt trucks, these fair weather days are my last chance to go for a good drive. I had the day free and the weather was decent so I decided to drive the Hope Princeton Hwy then up to Merrit and home via the Coquihala. I haven't done this drive for a long time and I was surprised and disappointed to find that the Hope Princeton Hwy has been upgraded and most of the dangerous curvy bits have been turned to four lane freeway; which is great for minivans and SUVs but kind of boring for a two seat sports car. Luckily they haven't managed to castrate the whole route and I was able to find some adrenaline inducing curves. Here are some observations:

1. BC is Beautiful - the scenery was gorgeous just about anywhere along the route. I really dread the day when it's all turned into Surrey.
   
2. The Miata Could Use More Power - Going up hill in fifth at high speed the Miata would start to wheeze and all the cars I had just passed in the curves would start to catch up to me in the hills.
   
3. Too Much Brake Feel - The Miata is a sports car that communicates really well with the driver; I know what the engine is doing, I know what each wheel is doing, and I really know what the brakes are doing. Hit the pedal and it feels like it's my foot rubbing against the rotor. It's not pleasant but the car does stop quick.
   
4. People Drive Fast and Aggressive Outside of the City - As soon as I got past Abotsford everybody was going 140, and people who were going slower would move to the right hand lane. Wow how nice.
   
5. The Miata's Seats Are Surprisingly Comfortable - Nine hours and my back and butt were fine. I even went out dancing in the evening; fancy that.
   
6. I'm Chicken - This car freaks me out. In the corners the limits are so high that I'm too scared to go that fast. The car is never fazed and keeps asking for more and faster curves. I only reached the limits maybe once, and then the back starts to step out which is really freaky. It's so much fun.
   
7. I Hate Winter - I hate winter.
   

Here's some photos I took.When I got tired I bought this candy but it was not what was promised on the box, in fact it was just toffee.
If you've ever wondered what it's like to carve a few canyon curves in a Miata, I made this brief video so you can enjoy it from the comfort of your home.

Video

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been busy creating a video of the Miata having it's transmission, differential, and shift linkage oils changed. It's hard and time consuming work. Here's a bit which I in frustration let Microsoft Movie Maker edit automatically. It chose the choicest parts.
Stay tuned for more videos.

The Clouds Break.

Enough repairs in dark garages, the sun came out briefly today so I delayed an appointment and took the top down to scoot around. Serious scooting.

I also came across this beautiful Alfa Romeo Giuletta spider.
I'm no Alfa expert but this car is from the late 50's or early 60's.

At auctions they go for 35 to 50 thousand dollars

This one looks a little worn (note the rust on the grill) so it's probably more of a 30 thousand dollar car. But I didn't see any rust on the body.

The styling was by Pininfarina.


Sweet red leather interior though the owner likes to stuff books everywhere and what's with that LED light stuck to the dash; that's sacrilege, this car is a shrine to classic European motoring, a little respect please.

The Miata is a spiritual descendant of cars like the Spider; simple two seat rwd roadster with style and fun.

Growing Pains Continued

The last two days I've been continuing doing the maintenance that the previous owner didn't do. Yesterday I installed new spark plugs and new ignition wires. Today I checked and adjusted the timing, I advanced it by four degrees making the car a bit more spunky (I think; it's hard to tell) and I had a fuel injection treatment done to clean the injectors. Hopefully this will give the car a bit more guts and fix a slight very very slight tendency for the car to hesitate when accelerating.