Postscript
Quite a bit has happened with the Miata since Shane took delivery of the car. All of the little things that I couldn’t resolve are being fixed, and the car is well on its way to being the faster STR car that it could never be under my ownership.
As Maryland has emissions testing, something that the “my street drag race V8 with open headers is totally legit, you guys” State of Michigan doesn’t bother with, Shane had to resolve the check engine light, something that I pretty much ignored for the entire year. I had installed a new midpipe with a cat that didn’t have half its honeycomb missing and a new downstream O2 sensor, which didn’t resolve the problem.
Shane took a look upstream of the cat, and quickly found the issue. First of all, the O2 sensor wire had melted, which would explain why the car kept throwing some weird codes. Secondly, Shane removed the upstream O2 sensor and discovered that… the O2 sensor bit that sticks out into the exhaust flow was completely missing. Hmm, so perhaps that’s why the old cat had a massive hole in its honeycomb structure.
With the wire and the upstream O2 sensor replaced, the car was no longer throwing codes, and the car could pass emissions. As a precaution, however, Shane (wisely) decided that the car will make the trip to Moto-East sometime in the near future for some tuning; perhaps the folks there will be able to optimize the tune and ensure that the car doesn’t disintegrate another O2 sensor. While remote ECU tuning is a wonderful thing, I don’t know if I still trust it as much as tuning on a dyno, and if I had kept the car for next year, a trip to Moto-East was definitely in the books. Here, it’s easy for Shane because Moto-East is a much closer drive for him than it is for me.
Shane also raised the car back up a little bit, and claims to have solved the issues regarding the rear end binding up and the rear diff sending things into a tizzy when the gas is applied while the rear is bound up. I have my doubts, but Shane’s a smart guy, and he’s surrounded by smart New England and Washington DC Region STR guys who can figure this kind of shit out, so maybe the OS Giken ends up staying in the car instead of getting swapped out for another diff.
Finally, and perhaps most disappointingly for me, Shane took the Plastidip stripes off the car. He’s going to put a new livery on the car, and I’m sure it will look awesome, but it does make me a tiny bit sad that the stripes are gone, because I really liked the stripes.
So, the car is no longer throwing a check engine light, supposedly the rear end of the car is now under control, the car’s tune is going to get refined at Moto-East before the start of the new season, a new cloth top is going on the car to replace the torn, ripped vinyl one, and one of the best wheels on the East Coast will be campaigning the car next year.
Things are looking up for this particular Miata. Next season in STR is going to be mighty interesting.