Noob from Indiana
 

Hi,

My name is Lance and I am from Seymour, Indiana. I am not new to cars by a long shot. We have owned Camaros, Corvettes, Porsches, Subarus, old Lotuses and such. I am here because I am to the point where I want dwell into the engine tuning aspect of cars. The mechanical aspect I probably will not have too much trouble with, but I am week in the electronics area. I am really wanting to learn the stand-alone stuff.

My current car is a 1997 Mazda Miata that I will be using as a "Lab Rat". I am looking for a Hardtop for it if anyone has one close by at a reasonable cost, preferably black. I am not looking to build a Monster car, just looking for a toy that could also be daily driven with reliability. Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

Lance

Another Cummins engineer? I've got a neighbor who works in the high horsepower division, but he's usually in Columbus.

This is definitely the place to be to learn about megasquirt and tuning.

Hi Steve,

Nope, not an engineer, but did go to school for it. My dad is currently retired from Cummins, but worked for Porsche Motorsports in the late '80s early '90s. I am about 15 Minutes from the Cummins plant in Walesboro.

Megasquirt seems to come up a lot when discussing engine tuning these days. Seems like it would be a good system to start with. I will need to check their site out thoroughly and search the forum well.

lance

Right on, I know there's another guy from Columbus on the forum that races Miatas.

If you're looking for a hard top, check the Indiana Miata Owners facebook group, I got one for $600 I think it was.

Welcome to the site. If you're looking for a toy and want to learn something, you should REALLY look into getting a DIYPNP kit. Basically you build your own megasquirt to PnP into the car. You can download basemaps and then go about tuning it.

You're in the right spot without a doubt if you want to go about learning this. If you stick around and do some reading you will enjoy your stay here. I would install the standalone on a N/A car before doing it with a turbo.

Hi Lance,

I've got a buddy, name is Gary (Gariathon) down in Seymour that messes with shitty cars like me.

I'm near-ish to Steve, i met Steve at my shop and he didn't rape me, so that was nice.

I know next to nothing about Megasquirt, but will gladly fuck up your car if you ever need help.

...yet.

I probably raced against him. "Corky" (my spec-miata), has not been on the track since 2006. Sorry, I don't do facebook. What color is your hardtop? Condition?

He doesn't have one for sale, he's saying he paid $600 for his from someone on that Facebook group. ;)

Hey Dillon,

Good idea about doing the standalone as an N/A first. Safer way to figure out what I am doing wrong first and move up from there.

Hi Ben,

Shop, what shop? I may need your help with my shitty ones sometime. My wife kind helps make them that way, bless her heart. I won't let her touch the good ones.

Gotcha Ben. He paid a fair price then if it was in good shape. I see them for $1000 all the time, and I am like WHAT!!!

It's really just a big-ish 2 car garage i rent with my buddy in Lawrence/Oaklandon area, but there's enough shit in it at the moment that i just call it "the shop."

More than welcome to bring the car up to work on it if you need a hand/tools/whatever. The only stipulation is at the moment, can't have anything stay overnight unattended. Once i get the two cars i'm working on currently cleared out, i don't plan on starting another project for another couple months, so cars can stay overnight if need be. :)

Thanks for the offer. I should be getting some garage space this winter after I clean everyone's junk out of mine. Plan on getting a hold of the Miata for the winter when my wife moves on to her Subaru. Both are old beaters that are on their way to becoming my toys.

Thanks for joining, 4play!