Good morning/afternoon/evening fellow MT.netters,

The name's Jacob and I'm from Knoxville TN. I'm a college student about to start my Junior year in Electrical Engineering this fall. Cars have been a huge passion of mine since I was a kid, but I've never owned a "cool" car. Think 1997 Toyota Avalon with 297k miles. Green, and not even a half decent green, like an ugly neutral grayish green. Yep, very un-cool car. Last June I found this gem on CL for a phenomenal deal and bought it.




That's how she looked the day I drove her home. 151k, recently resprayed, hardtop, girly giggles and smiles the whole ride home.

This is how she now sits one year later.





Please excuse the random guy posing next to my car for Instagram.

The difference isn't shocking, I know. Before I bought this car, I had only ever done the basic maintenance stuff with my previous car. Now I plan to learn everything I can about this platform and cars in general. The journey so far has been great and I've loved every bit of it.

I've been a lurker here at MT.net absorbing all the info I can since owning her. I'm sorta the only car guy in my group of friends so I don't really have anyone to share my passion with.

I will start a build thread soon as I am slowly following the preferred steps to a turbo Miata. There I will go into more detail about what I've done to the car and my plans. More or less, I'd like to document everything I've done and currently working on in hopes at least someone wants to hear about it. I'm a huge believer in doing it right the first time. Therefore, it'll be a slow process. You know, college student budget and all.

I'm excited to get more involved with this great community and continue to learn as much as I can. Thanks for reading!

 

Are you going to Miatas At The Gap? Lots of us and a bunch of m.net and cr **** will be there, too.

My circle of people only contains car guys because I have a choice, lol.

 

Welcome. Being an EE is super useful in this hobby.

 

Welcome aboard.

 

Welp, I am now. I sorta forgot about that event. Have you ever been to it? I ask because I've never been and I'm not sure which day would be the best to go, or if it really matters. I'm just a tad over an hour away so I would only be driving up for the day.

 

Oh, I believe it. It'll be fun getting to apply the knowledge I'm paying for.

 

Take control systems if you haven't already.

 

It may be called something different here, but I have digital systems and microcomputer systems already lined up.

 

One day? Probably Saturday. Or Friday.