Well, I was cruising along, only on the 2nd lap of our 3rd session on saturday, and I'm going down the front straight still kinda taking it easy. There is a black miata not too far in front of me. I recalled his car smoking on the grid. I figured he knew what was going on, but err...

I close the distance on him pretty well, and I didn't want to get on his tail too much since it's still early in the session. I ended up being kinda fortunate. As we were coming out of T 1/2, the miata started to get loose, like he lifted, but it kept going, and then KAPOW. My car got showered with twisted shiny metal bits... Internal engine bits... Huge plume of oil smoke, and oil all over the track, and I ended up bailing to the left to be safe.

Found out later that it's a turbo miata. Dunno why the engine let go. I have one of his friend's email addresses, so I'll contact him this week. The coolest part about all of this is that I have it all on video. I'll try to get that digitized sometime this week.

I like Karl's comment after I told him my car was covered in Miata oil. "Of all the cars that had to look more ghetto, it had to be yours."

Warren

 

So I take it you aren't pissed as most of the rest of us would be? Especailly since yours is wrinkled and a dedicated car.

And the KAPOW made me think you lost it in a turn or the Miata lost it and Kapowed into you...

I'd love to see the video or some stills since my dialup is sooo friggen slow and AOL just Sucks A$$.

Good luck,

A.

 

Well Warren, I do believe you have answered your own question. The only Miata engines I've seen/head of "blowing up" have been ones with Turbos.

ps - Yes, I'm sure there are those who have Miatas that have turbos and they are perfectly reliable.

 

like dis?



14 psi all weekend long.
~1300 deg.(F) EGT's max.
125ish on the back straight (lifted b/c of braking issues)
was not the one who made #2 messy

Will
-who can't fit inside a me-otter

 

Nah, I didn't really care. My windshield didn't crack, which is all I care about. You think I'm kidding, but some engine part that the Miata decided was no longer necessary came up and hit the windshield. Fortunately it was a low speed deal.

However, my car needs a serious bath in degreaser. I was about 2-3 cars back when it let go. There was a LOT of oil dropped. It's very apparent on the video from the next day, and on the front of my car...

Warren

 

Used miata motors are so cheap though, you could almost afford to keep a spare or two on hand.

 

Damn, I paid that guy all that money to blow his motor in front if you, and you still didn't wreck into the wall! Gezz Warren, what do I have to do to get rid of my competition...

 

Warren.. That video was great! I'll have to say, with all that smoke, I think luck was also with you... and yes, there were many bits of metal that had to be removed from the track.. as well as the large oil spill. I'm extremely glad there were no impacts during this incident... Thanks for being on your toes.

 

I was the ballast in the right seat when the miata went, it was unreal, thinking back it seems like it was a TV race, I can hear the announcer say "let's see what it looked like from Warren's point of view" and then play it back...Did you figure out what the main chunk of engine was in freeze-frame on a large screen? huge to warren for the excellent decision making and control on the grass at speed, i can't shut up to my friends about how excellent your driving is

 

We are talking about Warren? Warren ****?
I'm sure he just closed his eyes and grit his teeth. Followed by blind *** luck.
I mean... just look at the guy's car. It looks like a Hershey Kiss wrapper. How good a driver can he be?

At least maybe he'll go ahead and wash it now. Maybe.

 

You wish Giles, you wish.

Ask me again the week before the race.

Warren

 

People who know their car is having problems they can't fix, shouldn't be on the track. Last year @ Sears, a certain car kept having having coolant hose problems. He kept getting black flagged. Eventually he lost all of his coolant on the track. He layed a big line down thru turn one. A NSX & CRX didn't make it. A couple of months ago, I almost lost it when a 2nd gen. Mazda RX-7 Turbo blew up. Turns out he had been having problems all day. A couple of cars went off track, luckily nothing too serious. I know, everyone wants to use the track time they paid for. They might want to think what could happen to their car if they lose it. Instead of someone else paying the price, it could be them. OK, I'm done whining!

 

Warren's blind luck huh??? Ask him to tell you the story about the girl's, his sentra, and a ditch!

Sorry Warren, I couldn't resist.

 

I'm thinkin it's story time on HT...


I didn't actually thinking metal engine bits would make it all the way out the exhaust. Wow. Learn something new everyday!

 

I don't think the parts came out of the exhaust. Seems like it just blew!

 

Oh wow, I forgot I told that story to you. Too bad for me huh? Well, I think I'll save that little jewel for another day.

re: engine bits. They pretty much just came out from under the miata. It's not my camcorder, so I probably won't have this digitized til a little later in the week.

Warren

 

At my first SCCA school "race", I was following a guy in an old-school GT 510 who was in turn following a Fiat 128 (yike!), at the end of the back straight at Portland. There was a huge poof of smoke and the 510 jerked from side to side - on the oil slick, I figured. When we got back to the paddock, I went to see the 510 driver and he showed me a piece of crankshaft, about the size of his fist, that had come through his windscreen, bounced off of the back window and ended up on the floor.

Have there been any "Helmet Help - Open or Closed Face?" strands here recently?

Kirk

 

that would make sense, but often doesn't seem to be the case

Last spring a friend of a friend built a 240Z and took it out to the first MARRS race. Ran like poo-poo all thru practice and qualifying. He started the race anyway, went down to turn 1, blew the motor, spun in his own oil and wadded the car up real good.