rrjwilson

Over a year without an update. I've only just trundled through this thread. How is the Modena engine going?

Blackbird

Unfortunately, it's not.
Some key pieces of the puzzle are not happening despite everyone's best intentions and promises, and it came down to me scrapping the swap idea, selling the engine and cutting my losses or spending a whole lot more time and money on making it happen.
It is with great disappointment that I decided to move on, engine is currently on eBay -
Ferrari 360 Modena 3.6L V8 Engine assembly, F131

rrjwilson

Oh man. After i got through the thread I was awaiting some glorious audio.

K20 instead?
I'd love to see a boosted Hayabusa in Morpheus personally to really get the gasses going for the blown diffuser (that is assuming a blown diffuser requires faster than air speed exhaust pulses to function better).

I'm quite interested in the floor reinforced jacking points under the barge boards as it seems this is forgotten about by many and not detailed by others.

Blackbird

The future of Morpheus is being debated.
If the right offer came along I'd sell it.. I've been considering starting fresh on a new chassis, at my current level of knowledge both my cars are outdated.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

If I may..

As a nutball creator of fast Miatas like yourself, it pays to put together a simpler project that is cheap and quick to build and get dialed in. Cheap to maintain and fun to drive but still says the right things about your brand. That's how our original "Rental" came about while we were planning the pie in the sky OGK build. OGK planning became ever more complex and 10 years later, it still isn't built. It's gone through so many revisions that we had to start with a new tub. You worked on it a bit but we'll hack off about 70% of the work you did. Probably like your builds, by the time you make some physical progress, it's obsolete in comparison to the virtual car you have in your head. Meanwhile, we have had a steady stream of N/A track rats that have given hundreds of rides, countless social media impressions while also being mules for various prototype parts and tuning solutions. The key is maintaining some discipline in keeping the simple builds just that. It's never money as guys like me, you and Andrew will always throw too much money at the project. Time is the key. Build something that you can see a clear path to completing in just a week or two. Then don't f with it. Get your self back on track a few times a year (we miss you). This simple build just has to be fun, reliable and above all, not time consuming to maintain. Not a record breaker, just something that screams BBFW and puts you back into the mix.

The Miataverse needs you back in the thick of things, not just holed up in your shop welding unicorns together. Keep working on that unicorn but also keep a mule around. Vegas has take us over 2 years to build, still not done. OGK is a bare tub under a tarp out back. We bought and built Taxi in 15 days then gave rides at Miatas @ Laguna Seca all weekend. It has A/C

Scaxx

I agree 100% with E

KMiata

I agree with Emilio. There's a reason my blue NB is built completely from bolt-on parts from our website (and a few of your websites too). We could ship that car in a box, a customer could bolt all the parts to a stock car and be done in a few weeks.

That being said, your specialty is elaborate fabrication, while our specialty is making parts that the average DIY guy can install in his home garage without a welder. So I also understand your reasoning for wanting to go big and showcase your abilities.

Blackbird

It's a difficult call.
Morpheus can easily be converted to that mule you describe, that was how it was initially built.
The biggest problem I had with it is that it was just boring to drive, honestly... I just didn't enjoy it anymore.

E, you're absolutely right about the build management versus knowledge conundrum, the build will always be left behind the knowledge unless you're a factory backed pro-team that has front running budget and resources to spare, but at this point my builds are SO FAR behind my knowledge that to put them even on the same chapter in the book I can pretty much start with cutting off everything that I've done and start new, and at that point might as well sell the car as is and just grab a new tub... it's really more of a shame to trash all the hard work which is still a great quality build by 99.9% of the guys' standards.

That's a part of the curse of being a fabricator, an innovator, working on building customer cars all day long and using the words "it can't be done" to fuel the fire.
My know-how arsenal has expanded rapidly in this last few months, some of the stuff I designed recently will seriously blow your mind when it sees daylight.. Cutting edge stuff, some of which will have a much wider impact than the Miataverse.

Creampuff isn't exotic in terms of mechanicals, my accident at the beginning of the year set me back a bit, but it'll be back on track soon enough... it'll be way down on power (compared to you and Ryan) for any record breaking action, but 1:4X.xxx at BRP should be within reach and it's nothing to sneeze at.
More importantly, with the issues that I ran into at SLB sorted out it won't be boring anymore. I hope.

This still brings the question of what to do with Morpheus, and as of now I don't have a good answer.

Scaxx

Like a website?

Blackbird

Saw that one coming from a mile away, if not two

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

You ARE learning!

Blackbird

Yay me.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

<3

I agree with "A Mule and An Engineering Circle Jerk" fwiw.

Blackbird

Me too, it makes total sense from a variety of angles.
I'd get far more seat time, my business will have the rolling business card in front of more eyes etc...
I'm just done driving the same old formula, I can't bring myself to enjoy it anymore.
There's nothing wrong with the car, but driving home after the last few events I ran I stopped having this feeling of satisfaction..

To be completely honest, I find this quite depressing to think about.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

We could have a support group thread. I'm struggling as well. The difference is that i don't have a business around it. My problem is that i have the street car that i don't need, and a track car that i can't dedicate enough time to. I'd like to combine them but can't bring myself to give up the hard-edged violence of the track car, or compromise the gorgeous street car.

Feels bad man. This is now a feels thread.

icantlearn

Then there is me, who built a car with certain expectations. Car doesnt meet those expectations. I am sads. We all cry together.

Blackbird

Alright, let's go there.
My business is doing alright (despite not having a website..), the race car was always a bonus to have but not a do-or-die in terms of advertising.

Climbing out of a car after resetting my PB 5 times in a row in the same session as I have done in the last session of SLB 2017 and feeling this underwhelming sensation despite the personal achievement... it's a struggle.

There are other components to compound this.
My outlook on life in general has changed a bit after my near death experience in March.
Having realized how close I was to never coming home again made me re-evaluate how I spend my time, it put racing in general under a very harsh light for me, this is a very selfish, expensive, time consuming and borderline abusive (self and to those surrounding) hobby to have.
The thought of quitting the chase altogether crossed my mind many times over the months that followed, but my end conclusion was that I want to move forward and continue, even if it means to a lesser degree than what I used to do back when I built Creampuff initially, when I ran every single event..
Racing is a part of me that isn't going away and the fact that I have a shop that builds race cars all day long made it easier to arrive at that.
In turn, this meant that even more than before I just don't want to waste any time driving something that I don't wholeheartedly enjoy.
The single lap that I have ran in Creampuff with the Rotrex before the ECU quit on me at SLB was more exciting than all the laps that I drove in the 2.5 years prior to that combined, so the picture was painted pretty clear.

There were also other conclusions that I came to that made a huge positive improvement in my life.
One of which was to travel more and spend more quality time with my 2 girls.
We all love camping and it's the mother of all quality times as far as enjoying time with your kids IMO, so I made a special effort to do it more.
We've camped a bunch (and 3 more trips already scheduled with sites reserved), picked up a new hobby in going fishing and you know what? I have been enjoying my family more than ever before, so there's that, something to say about priorities.

We're way off topic, but I have a lot of friends in the community and people that I've missed hanging out with.
I'll be back soon guys, and don't worry



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Marioshi

Well said. As a new dad, the struggle with balancing my priorities is real. I often think "Why didn't I get into racing cars 10 years ago!". But in the end, spending time with your kids is definitely more important than racing cars, especially when you feel like you are not enjoying your hobby.

What you said about racing cars being " selfish, expensive, time consuming and borderline abusive" rings so true for me too, I really have to watch myself. Lately, I have realized that track time is more or less just a chance to socialize for me. Going to track days by myself is almost boring tbh. I like working on my car, but I am sure all of us have those points where we just want to sell that POS and move on!

Blackbird

My girls are 10 and 7, so I'm past that point of being a new dad and thinking that my life needs to be surrounding my kids as fresh parents typically would (not saying you, but I've seen enough friends with kids too).
There's definitely a place for a "me time".

I also enjoy driving, just got bored of driving the same thing...
I need a new challenge, Creampuff in its fixed form should fill that void reasonably well.

Marioshi

No doubt. I hung out with friends for most of one day this weekend without my wife and son and it was like guilt city, all self induced. The funny thing is, I feel like me time is more important than ever now probably because it's harder to come by.

I more meant, that you can't go wrong with spending quality time with your kids, I feel very strongly that when you have kids, you are opening up your life to something more than the day to day "grind" of adult life and there is a lot of small joys to be had. It's amazing to me how fast my son is changing, he keeps me on my toes with all the new stuff he can do, every day.

But challenges are good, the reason I have my car is because my current money making job isn't challenging enough!