Bunch of actual updates are coming, but I had to choose between wrenching time and some last minute fixes, or updating the thread.

The car and I are on the way to Laguna Seca for Miatas at Laguna Seca, with a stop at a customer site on the way. Some of my colleagues wonder why I like to drive to the Bay Area rather than fly:

Dashboard upholstery is still work in progress and I didn’t get the interior spruced up like I wanted to, but at least it now has a roll bar (fitted with some added CAD in honor of Project Binky), a working head unit, new tires and new brakes. It’s also slower than a three legged dog (are stock 1.6L really that slow?), although the Italian tuneup through the mountains appears to have helped. Alignment has a bit too much toe in at the back - my usual alignment guy isn’t taking new work as it looks like the owner is shutting down the shop, so I had to take it to a local tire place and they couldn’t get the camber and toe adjusted to FM fast road specs - and it occasionally flicks its tail a bit, but it feels good overall.

Heck, I even don’t mind the Hawk Street/Race pads on this one (only pads I could get quickly enough), and I didn’t like those much on the RX8 for street driving.

Let’s hope it’ll hold together OK on the weekend as I need to drive from Monterey straight to my next customer engagement and would prefer not to have to take a rental all of a sudden.