by "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
Published 05/22/2017 at 13:09
by "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
Published 05/22/2017 at 13:09
Tags: wichitoppo does ozarks 2k17
; ecoboost is not a real mustang
; miata is a real car
STARS: 11
Got back from Arkansas last night. Roughly 950 miles traveled, averaged 28.45 MPG in the Miata, no breakdowns, no drama, just had a damn good time driving some great roads with friends.
We left from Cars & Coffee Wichita at around 10am.
There was this neat Sprite. Pretty much the only thing I took pictures of.
We stopped at Mo-Kan dragway on the Missouri/Kansas border. Situated in a dry county, the Kansas side of the border is home to some of the largest liquor stores I’ve ever seen.
Eventually we hit the Pig Trail Scenic Byway which is one of the best downhill bashes we encountered all weekend.
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This video is from our last run on Sunday but it best shows the byway and is some of the more exciting driving, despite my GoPro being cheap and awful. The Fiat mentioned is a 500 non-Abarth we had seen absolutely going for it up and down the pass who finally synced his downhill run with ours and was chasing behind us. The tire squeal towards the end of that video was his, not mine. I was impressed he was able to keep up with us though we were only doing 8/10ths because public road and all.
Went to walmart and bought some stuff for camping. My cargo space where the soft top used to be came in handy.
Big car, small car, big tent, small tent. Girlfriend and I both stayed in the small tent. It was cozy but my back would have appreciated more padding.
The views from the camp site weren’t bad either.
The next morning we were woken up by the most annoying sound in the universe at about 5:30am which turned out to be a Chuck-Will’s Widow.
Behold our torment for several hours:
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At one point we were convinced it was a car alarm.
The scenery was nice that morning.
We did some more driving, including this excellent flowing road with a lot of broad, fast sweepers
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Stopped for lunch with a view
I noticed that driving behind a car with no mud flaps was taking a toll on the front end of my car. Oops.
I saw a Miata!
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Bastard.
The pass down from the Cliff House Inn was fantastic:
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Saw a Hyundai Accent from earlier that was going balls-out on these roads. We figured he was either having fun or figured he had nothing to lose since his life ended up with him driving a Hyundai Accent. Back up was pretty fun as well, though a bit more of a struggle for my little 1.8 liter I did manage to record all of it
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Kept driving for a while. I let Michaela take over for a bit.
The scenery kept getting better
Eventually we headed home by way of Tulsa and sweet merciful heavens the Cimmaron Turnpike is one of the most godawful things I’ve ever experienced in my life, and who in the fresh hell has 2.75 in CHANGE in their car? Either way, the ride home was boring and straight but significantly smoother once we got into Kansas.
Made it back to Wichita as the sun was setting thoroughly tired and ready for a much-needed shower.
"DutchieDC2R" (dutchiedc2r)
05/22/2017 at 13:47, STARS: 2
That trip looks absolutely amazing! Looks like fun driving. I cant wait for the next EuroMeet now!.....
"Jayhawk Jake" (jayhawkjake)
05/22/2017 at 13:53, STARS: 4
Here’s a video from me
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"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
05/22/2017 at 14:02, STARS: 1
Haha what an interesting array of cars. Most spirited drives I have gone on have been with a gaggle of Miatas (a gaggle ranging anywhere from 2 to ~40). Nice to see other people actually doing camping and driving trips combined too. When I went down to Deal’s Gap for Miatas At The Gap last year, I camped out the whole time. Most people were staying in hotels and such so I felt like quite the outlier.
"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
05/22/2017 at 14:10, STARS: 2
That quilted headliner turned out so awesome.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
05/22/2017 at 14:31, STARS: 0
Yeah I’m considering camping at MATG this year... motels are expensive, yo.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
05/22/2017 at 14:43, STARS: 1
There’s a few nice campgrounds in that area too, well worth it. Don’t bother with going to like any of the official events though, those are all garbage haha. I just met random people and went cruising with them the whole time. Was just surreal being around with that many Miatas. I went to the big dam picture and the vendor thing to get free food, but otherwise it was just driving nonstop. I think its funny how you averaged 28mpg. While yeah I made 33mpg driving down there, there was one day that I managed to deplete a full 11 gallon tank in 200 miles (so like 18mpg!)
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
05/22/2017 at 14:50, STARS: 0
We’ll have to meet up this year if you’re going. I’m mostly just wanting to tool around the roads and meet some of the guys from ClubRoadster. I’ve heard the same about the official events.
28mpg is outlandish to me. My car has been averaging 25mpg lately and my KS City trip a couple months ago I got 20mpg highway @ 80mph. Might be the difference between summer and winter blend?
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
05/22/2017 at 14:55, STARS: 0
That’s somewhat weird to get 20mpg unless you were running regular. I know for me, its very hard to track gas mileage since the pump ALWAYS shuts off early so I really dont know its full without guessing. I dont want to overfill it so I kinda just get it close.
I probably am not going since I hope to move out to California by then. But if I am around I definitely am considering going. It falls on a weekend where I dont have off Friday so its problematic to make it. I kinda really want to go back though since the roads there are just magical.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
05/22/2017 at 15:00, STARS: 0
Pro tip: align the handle of the filler so it’s inline with the body instead of sticking out perpendicular to it (aka rotate it 45 degrees counter-clockwise). Fills up to full every time since I learned that trick.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
05/22/2017 at 15:18, STARS: 0
Yup, that works when I am out of state. But I live in NJ so instructing the gas attendant to do that is a fucking pain in the ass. If they happen to speak English and have more than a single digit IQ, then its tough but at least possible. I have never had issues filling up when I drive elsewhere.
"daender" (daender)
05/23/2017 at 18:56, STARS: 1
Fuck, I need to go to MATG sooner or later. That said, I camped at the dam near the Dragon. Once you get over the natural fear that you’re downstream of a fucking huge dam, it’s quite bueno. I do recommend preparing yourself for the hot and humid weather you’ll likely be experiencing over there. Also, bugs, fucking bugs.
...That trip I did through the Dragon was also the trip where my roomie put his just-repaired supercharged V6 Stang into a Tennessean ditch less than an hour after the Dragon.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
05/23/2017 at 19:21, STARS: 0
supercharged V6 stang? Eaton on a 3.8 aka Super Coupe swap or did he put a centrifugal on a 4.0?
Also you should go this year. We can touch butts and wave at each other like Miata owners should.
"daender" (daender)
05/23/2017 at 19:27, STARS: 1
The former, it was also an automatic that I helped convert to a manual (and we did it fucking again when he went and bought another automatic V6 to swap his parts into).
All the butts and all the wannabe-Miataspeeding! Besides, I haven’t carved up a mountain road in over a year so I’m really wanting to scratch that itch very badly.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
05/23/2017 at 19:50, STARS: 0
I did it this weekend and I’m already itchy again. Or maybe that’s the mosquito bites.
Oh, and the auto -> manual swap thing. I need to do that as well. Ugh.
"daender" (daender)
05/23/2017 at 19:59, STARS: 0
I got lucky on my outings, mostly because one was late-summer/early-fall and the other was mid-spring so the bugs weren’t active just yet. That said, I kept a small handful of dryer sheets to rub myself with as the scent wards them off (learned that from a well-seasoned autocrosser, and it works!).
I imagine it won’t be so bad on the Fox unless your car isn’t carbureted. Here’s what bothered me the most about that Frankenstang; he never got it tuned right. It runs pig-rich and he’s never had it running along enough to realize it really needs a proper street tune so it can make the most of all the tens of thousands of upgrades he’s thrown at it. No, really, even he admitted he could’ve bought and built a Terminator that would blow the Frankenstang’s doors off for the money he’s spent on it.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
05/23/2017 at 20:31, STARS: 0
Yeah... the fox is a throttle-body injected car. I’m told swapping a manual trans in isn’t terribly hard though.
"daender" (daender)
05/23/2017 at 20:54, STARS: 0
Hmm, well it shouldn’t be too bad as I think the transmission isn’t operated by a computer, right? The primary issue my roomie had for a while (until he got a band-aid tune) was that the engine would randomly pulling timing or spark because it thought it was time to shift according to the ECU’s logic.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
05/23/2017 at 21:10, STARS: 0
oh god, no. 1986 transmissions are dumb as a sack of bricks. The kickdown is literally a mechanical lever attached to the throttle body which means I can do super fun stuff like make it kick down at the slightest application of throttle (because race car?). Of course, the 3 speed auto is also doing its best impression of a shitty seive for ATF so I really should get about tossing in the T5 that’s taking up space at my buddys shop
"daender" (daender)
05/23/2017 at 21:31, STARS: 0
Oh, shit, well in that case it should be painless to drive it around with a manual since you don’t have to worry about the ECU still thinking it’s an auto! The only thing I can think of is make sure you know what you’re doing when you’re making cuts in the floorpan for the pedals. I vividly remember my roomie shooting sparks everywhere inside his not-stripped interior while using an air-powered cutting wheel. I’m surprised the carpeting or headliner didn’t catch fire that day.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
05/23/2017 at 21:49, STARS: 0
I believe the clutch/brake assembly just bolts in if I remember correctly. Unless your buddy bought some sort of generic cable clutch pedal.
"daender" (daender)
05/23/2017 at 22:01, STARS: 1
I dunno, I think it was an OEM pedal assembly but I guess Ford changed enough things in the New Edge era to warrant some cutting for fitment. He did use an adjustable aftermarket clutch setup from what I think was Maximum Motorsports (hell, he basically bought their entire suspension and bracing catalog).
Also, I just potentially scored a 10AE convertible boot cover. The ball has begun rolling toward project black and blue NB2.