It has been also a long time with any updates with my Miata and a lot has happen after only owning it for one year .

I first bought the car May 2013 for a cheap deal. The Miata came rims, coilovers,  bucket seats, and other bolt on parts but NO ac or power steering. Kinda weird because this car is my daily while the GTI, which has AC, is a special occasion car. The thing was, the Miata is a convertible roaster, and if you haven’t driven one, then you are missing out on life. The car was already upgraded and looked nice, but soon the bug bit me and I started changing things to make it more of my own car. First thing I did a complete maintenance overhaul, because I wanted the car to last for a long time and be reliable. The car when I bought it only had 130,000ish miles on it.

After the maintenance part was done, I started changing things. The first thing on the car to be changed was the seats. The car came with the red racer boy seats. Personally I didn’t really like the seat because on long journeys the seat would become uncomfortable and the quality was alright. I was getting back aches and having to pull over at gas stations to stretch. I had to change that immediately. Since I have a Status seat in the GTI I wanted one the Miata. Status Racing is a brand of quality, safety, and good looks. There are no knock offs of Status Seats and its FIA approved so you know they are legit for racing. Luckily, being in the car culture, I met someone that was selling a seat and got the homie hook up. I paired my Status Racing seat with Garage Star seat rails.

The installation was a breeze. The Status Seat looked perfect and the Garage Star seat rails hold it in. I sold the the red seats and to this day I still have no passenger seat. Main reason is because putting in a stock seat won’t compliment the car and I didn’t want to buy knock offs either. Then it just so happens I  have a Grip Royal steering wheel lying around, for quite some time, and replaced the old eBay steering wheel. I also bought NRG hub adaptor too for the steering wheel, the blue hue matches well with the blue paint job.

Later on, I noticed the factory seat belt would randomly detach itself and the 4 point eBay seat belts wasn’t much good either. The back harness was incorrectly installed, WHICH is scary. The last thing you want during a crash is your seat belt to break. I was honestly scared to drive this car for that reason.

^^^ The top pic shows the 4 pt eBay harness wasn’t wrapped  around a harness bar, but instead it was laid over a style bar which is the wrong to install a 4pt harness. Style bars are not used as harness bars. The rear harness was attach to the seat belt, along with the side harness, and that has putting too much stress on the stock stead belt bolts. This car was a death trap to happen.

I wanted to make my car safe to drive just and know my safety equipment wont break. I bought an OMP 4 point racing harness which is FIA approved and a Hard Dog harness bar. I choose OMP because not many people in the States use them, but FIA approved, and I want to be different from the others. The correct way is to the wrap the rear harness straps to the harness bar and not the seat belt mounting points. Here is the link on how to wrap a harness on a bar: http://www.schroth.com/installation-instructions/en/05_restraint_installation.htm. After searching craigslist, I manage to score a cheap deal on a Hard Dog roll bar. I noticed this also improved chassis stiffness and race car looks.

Starting to get tired of the XXR, I wanted to find legit rims. The good thing about the Miata is legit 16-15″ rims are relatively cheap compared to  legit 18″ rims. I found rare set of Advan SA3R rims with the center caps for cheap!! I sold the XXR to my homie and I bought the Advans. I loved the look of the style. The Advans matches the era of the car well and had the tracked functional fitment. Surprisingly, the Advans are heavier than the XXR but the Advan SA3R was made in the 90s and the forging technology was different back in the day. But I rather have legit wheels over fake wheels any day. I have nothing against fake wheels but please don’t put “Volk” “BBS” or other name band stickers on rep wheels or say its a legit wheels but actually its a rep. Its just tacky when people do that.

Then I was pulled over twice in one week for no front plates. Felt like it was a dumb excuse for the cop to stop you, so they can check if you have any outstanding warrants or give you a ticket with something dumb. I got away with a warning but that was annoying and a bought a Garage Star front plate holder. Till this day I haven’t been pulled over by a cop.

After a while, I wanted to be ricer and I changed the stock muffler to a lightweight Apexi muffler. My set up is super loud, like it literally will make your ears ring. I do like the ricer fly bys this car makes. Never gets old.

Made my own custom piping with the classic jdm angle. Car gives a mean growl and sounds fast too haha.

Then the stance bug hit me hard. I love the functional track set up but I really miss stance and yeah my GTI has that but I wanted it also on the Miata. I was browsing the wheel forums and came a across a nice set of BBS RM with really aggressive specs. I wasn’t sure if it was going to fit but I wanted it and determined to make it fit. I contacted the owner and bought the rims the next week.

Even with maxed stock camber and a lot of fender pulling it was a wide load. I had two options, I can go over fenders or more camber. Noticing over fenders is popular this year (2014) with rocket bunny kits and liberty walk kits, I wanted to do something not soooo popular. I went for demon camber. With the amount of poke i had, I knew I needed extreme camber. Demon camber or ONI camber is something very controversial in the car community. People really love it or people really hate it. I know most track or Miata purist would be mad but I don’t give a damn.

Negative 12 camber. No rubbing and no issues. I like this look a lot, its something different and unique.

Tired of the red, white blue colors I painted the finish panel blank for the JDM look and less subtle. then the red finish panel. People used to call this the smurf car but not anymore.

Added stickers to the interior for my personal touch and I had to rock Cambergang of course.

This dog seems to love my car.

Tired of the weak factory headlights, I came across a group buy from Top Miata. I bought Jass Performance low pro headlights!!! Its worth the money and big light upgrade too! The headlights are upgraded to H4 bulbs which is more brighter than the factory sealed bulbs. Plus the look of the headlights matches the car perfectly, slim and low proflile. Not many people have these lights and kinda glad they don’t, because I want to be different.

I rocked no fenders for a while because I got into a wreck. Don’t want to talk about that. But I did like the no fender look, reminded me of the rat rods.

I did by new fenders but not factory ones. I got fiberglass D1 style fenders. Something different that you don’t see everyday. The rubbing did go away after cutting the inside of the fender a bit.

Yep its daily driven and static.

Thats pretty much of what is going on with the Miata. Next major upgrade would be replacing the coilovers to BC Racing or 326 power. We had our ups and downs but I very much like this car and way it has turned out. I daily this car because I like the persona this car gives, the way it drives, and the character it has attainted over this past year. I know my car is not everybody cup of tea, Ive seen and heard people say crap about my car, but I don’t care. You don’t build cars to get people’s approval, built it to your taste and style. The car is a blank canvas and you are the painter.

It has been a very long time since I have made any updates about my GTI. The main reason is because it has been down for almost 6 months. The month of October is when I took my GTI to the dealership because I had a CEL I noticed, at the time, the engine took a tiny bit longer to start but the car felt faster and pulled harder for some weird reason.

Naturally I took it the dealership in Austin because a couple years ago, I had the head completely replaced at that dealership because some idiot drove my car, and miss shifted which over revved and practically ruined my engine. The dealership took care of me and the work was spot on. Thankfully the insurance company paid for it and the dealership said I didn’t need a new engine. Well fast forward to two years later I got my CEL and I took it to same dealership.

I did Vag Com my car before I drove to the dealership to see what caused the CEL. The Vag Com showed engine speed error. Well that could mean the sensor was going bad or my timing chain skipped a tooth or timing is off. I was hoping for the sensor, but that was not the case. Come to find out the engine balancing shaft seized, the timing chain skipped a tooth. The engine balancing gear popped out and caused the timing chain  to ride on the shaft. This was making the timing chain eat into the tensioners. My motor was dead. As in, I need a new F***King motor.

I found it odd I had to replace the motor because I drove the car with CEL from Houston to Austin without any problems at all, except it just took a tiny bit longer to start. The car felt it pulled harder with the CEL, but Im guessing that was due to the skipped tooth on the timing chain. The engine sounded normal not showing signs it was on a bad health decline. But after seeing the damage, I guess it was just one drive away from being on the side of the road with a pool of oil and engine bits.

I don’t really know how the dealership didn’t see this before, even when I come in to get it serviced. I asked the service advisor what could have caused this and said “overrevving.” WELL I know how to shift and never in my life, miss shifted and overrevved any car. Except when 2 years ago some idiot drove my car and that person miss shifted. I was hoping the dealership or the insurance would cover the damage because this was do to that incident. But after talking and reasoning, they just said its not covered under warranty and the insurance wont cover it. The main reason is because I did drive my car for 2 years before the CEL came on and they can say the car was driving just fine when I took it off the lot. Since my car is modified the insurance company automatically labeled me as a “streetracer.” But some parts could have been severely weakened and fail prematurely from the stresses of being over revved at that point. The dealership and insurance didn’t want to hear it. To them, its just money lost because the dealership was quoting me $10,000 to replace the motor with labor!!!

I was in a deep hole and probably one of the lowest point of my life. This was my first car I bought after college and needed a heart transplant. I still owed $8,000 at the time plus a possibility of paying $10,000 for a new motor. Oh, I also had to pay $600 labor fee when the dealership took out the timing chain. This is risk of upgrading a car and still owning money, and the same reason why my parents said to pay off the car first before modding it. I just thought it wouldn’t happen to me but it did. I did have the Miata and thats all paid up but still the GTI was my first car I ever bought. Its was a present to myself for graduating college.

After a lot of thinking I decided to screw the dealership, drop the old insurance because they suck and switched to a new one. I went to my good friend Joe and we go way back since middle school. Back in the day Joe and I would go to his bother shop and help around and just learn about cars during the summer. I was serious gear head before I could drive. I still remember when front mount air intake was the in thing and R34 GTR headlights on Hondas. I called my friend Joe to let him know I’m bringing the GTI to the shop and towed my car to Active Motorwerks in Austin Tx.

I decided to keep my GTI and not sell it or part it out. I had memories in that car and I couldn’t let it go. I knew I had to rebuild her and come back harder. I worked over time at my hospitals. The last thing I wanted was to be a financial burden on my parents. After looking for a couple of months of searching, I found the right motor from Eurospec Sport, thanks to a friend who showed me the website. I could have bought a used motor but a brand new long block was just $1000 more and I want this build done right the first time using quality parts. I ordered the new long block and within a week the engine arrived. The shop is a two man team and they were working on a couple of cars before they could do mine. I ended up waiting a couple of months but I didn’t mind because that gave me time to save more money for the build and I didn’t want them to rush on my car.

I bought Defi BF gauges with the controller about one year ago, and I wasn’t sure when to install it but since the car was going in for a heart transplant, that would be the perfect time to install the monitors. While the engine was out, I replaced the factory clutch since it was slipping due to the tune. I got the Excedy clutch which could handle my tune with the flywheel too. I even got BSH stiffer engine and transmission mounts so I can feel the car more. I bought the BSH oil catch can because I saw my old engine had a lot of oil build up on the intake due to the blow by from the turbo. Later I found out the engine that I bought is for the newer model GTIs but it bolted on perfectly to my car. I would say that was a good surprise.

Mario and Hass from Active Motorwerks really did a great job. Honestly, it took a while for everything but I wasn’t complaining. They take the time to make sure everything is done right and very thorough with the work .  All the gaskets, fittings, lines where replaced and was nice enough to do a 50,000 mile transmission service. They wire tucked my Defi gauges, and used MOTUL oil on my engine and transmission. They cleaned the engine bay before putting the new engine in. Even though it was their first time changing engines on a GTI they are not new to modifying cars. Active Motorwerks is a shop that does OEM and aftermarket installs mainly specializing on BMWs. The shop gets the exotic cars like Lambos and Ferraris for tune ups or repairs. GT3 Porshes come in for modifications and rotary powered cars for engine swaps. Every time I come in, the shop is always clean and organized with a lot of different style cars.

When I actually saw my GTI start up for the first time in 6 months, it was like a seeing a old friend you haven’t seen in years. It just felt soo good and you remember the memories. The deep burble of the exhaust, seeing the Defi opening sequence, the familiarity of the Status racing seat, and gripping the leather steering wheel. I took the car on a test drive, and made me really miss the power. Hearing the spool of the turbo build up boost just brought smiles. The Miata is fun in its own way but the power and acceleration is something Im not used to in a long time.

After getting my car back with a brand new, zero miles motor I immediately started putting some miles on it to make sure everything was working right. Just before my GTI called it quits, I bought a set of Work Kiwami. After many months of just sitting at my crib, and letting a good friend borrow them I finally got a chance to mount up my Kiwami. They were more aggressive spec then the Rotas but I was tired of rep wheels and I wanted real wheels again. I know the fronts will be perfect but I was worried the rears would be too aggressive for the maxed out rear stock camber.

The front specs are 18×9.5 et5 205/40/18 with -3.5 degrees of camber. I just like how lightweight but strong these wheels are. Did I mention its deep concave specs too.

As I suspected, the rears didn’t fit like a glove. I had to get smaller 225/35/18 tires because the tire shop had a super hard time fitting 215/40/18 on a 10.5in wide wheel. I ended up raising my coils to the max height and it still rubbed enough to burn my fenders. Stock camber was maxed to -4.5 but I needed camber arms. The picture above and below shows my fitment before camber arms with the coil overs at the highest setting.

Some people say this is Mexi poke but its not. Just hella poke and hella stretch. You can still see the groves of the tire is still within the fender. Mexi poke is when the groves of the tire go past the fender. I could have gone with over fenders or went crazy and have a body shop widen the rears. But I like aggressive wheels with aggressive camber. I ended up purchasing Innovative Design and Fabrication (IDF) control arms from Bag Riders. The IDF is a better quality build then the eBay counterpart.  The bushings are quality Energy Suspension bushings which can easily be replaced if worn out and stiffer then OEM. The install is straight forward and a direct bolt on.

IDF adds serious camber, if you are about that stance life. At the alinement shop,  the max camber is -12!!!! The camber arm is designed  so you can really lay frame without having the camber arm hit the frame. Don’t buy eBay ones, they suck period. You can never go wrong with quality that is backed with design and research. The eBay camber arms wasn’t a direct bolt on and I had to do some drilling for the factory bolts to fit. While drilling to make the holes bigger, the bushing literary broke off the camber arm. I didn’t even get a chance to ride on the eBay one because it broke during installation. Thats better then having it fail on you at highway speed. The thing with eBay products is the the quality is not there. Its a hit or miss, sometimes you get lucky and the part works but most the time the part fails and you are back to were you where in the first place.

My main shop in Houston, is One Stop Automotive located on Bissonet and Hwy 6. The shop is dump friendly and have a chill shop owner. Ask for Fernando or Alex, they know to work on cars properly and are car guys too. This would be the second place to go to if I can’t make it to Active Motorwerks in Austin.

With my camber arms installed I dialed the fitment to -8.5. I could tuck the 18×10.5 et0 rims but I wanted the slight poke of the fender to rim. This is static, and still had enough clearance if I hit a bump the rims would tuck under the fender.

No place for hate. But let the haters hate. Stance is something you either like it or hate it. Some people respect it, some other people just don’t get it. I just build my cars for my satisfaction and enjoyment.

Stay tilted.

This car has brought me ups and downs kinda like life. I was really down when I found out the motor was dead. I was seriously thinking of just cutting my loss and just sell the car as is with a broken motor and pay off the rest of the car. But I felt that was worse then trying to come back harder and rebuild her. I did not to give up. I took my time finding the right engine, I towed my GTI to a shop that I trusted. I saved the money from the overtime and paid for everything. I wanted to do things right the first time and no short cuts. No matter how tough life can get, if there is a will there is a way. Hard work and determination gets you where you want to go in life, and not just in cars but everything you do. Taking shortcuts, laziness, and making excuses wont do you good. Every problem has a solution. Its what you do about your problem determines what kind of person you are. We all have downs in life, what matters is how to deal it. Don’t let the down get the best of you.