Sports Car Club of Vermont

Dave,
First, I'm glad you are okay! Its also good to hear that through everything your spirits are fairly high. Your car did look good in the silver and stripes as I kept trying to figure out what happened to the white miata. Doh! Second, if you need to borrow my trailer/4runner to get your car moved around let me know, its all yours so long as I don't need the 4runner for something. I don't know what the car looks like but I wanted to make sure you had that option!

Tom

tomf wrote:Dave,
First, I'm glad you are okay! Its also good to hear that through everything your spirits are fairly high. Your car did look good in the silver and stripes as I kept trying to figure out what happened to the white miata. Doh! Second, if you need to borrow my trailer/4runner to get your car moved around let me know, its all yours so long as I don't need the 4runner for something. I don't know what the car looks like but I wanted to make sure you had that option!

Tom

He never had a white one (thats mine!)

Sorry Dave, you had (still have!) a nicely setup Miata. Let me know if you need any help getting it back together!

Sorry Dave.

Check the helmet's chin area for little cracks from the airbag. It may be wisest to just replace the helmet even if you don't see any signs of damage.

That's a scary place to go off. Having done a slide across the grass to a mostly immovable object at half that speed... I'm very glad you're unhurt.

Glad you are OK Dave.

Glad your OK Dave! Sounds like the car took a pretty good punch, hopefully it'll get straight.

Aww man, the car looked so good lately on my way home. Good to hear you're ok and hopefully the car will be back ready for next year (now enjoy that mini!)

Thanks for all the thoughts, everyone. With Ron's help, we got the car home Friday, and I've begun taking pieces off.

Here's the main damage -- note the Armco-shaped dents in the fender, and the positive camber of the front wheel:

The rear quarter panel also scraped the Armco on the rebound (the door escaped with only a minor scratch):

I had recently finished a bunch of plastic repair on the Jackson Racing CAI -- I hope I can salvage it again with more Plastex:

This is the one that's the most damning -- the steering column is rubbing against the header, indicating that some straightening will be needed (diagonal cross measurements across the engine compartment confirm this):

The engine isn't quite level any more:

Looks like I'll finally get to replace that scratched-up mirror:

The control arm is bent, the sway bar end link is bent, and the inner tie rod end is bent (though that doesn't show up well in this pic). I'm still not sure about the steering knuckle:


I'm away on vacation for the next two weeks (and out of Internet access too), so I won't have to think about it until I get back.

Looks like I'll be busy this fall! And I know where my track budget is going.

I just got the Miata back from the body shop today, where it got itself straightened out all nice and square. In the process they discovered that the odd angle that the engine was at was caused by a broken motor mount, so it looks like a good excuse to install some stiffer competition motor mounts.

Now it's just a matter of getting all the new pieces bolted on, and getting the two new body pieces painted.

Go Dave!!!

Hey Dave,

If you end up needing an engine hoist, let me know, and you can borrow mine and a truck to get it there & back if need be too. The motor mounts should be pretty easy to change; you MIGHT not even need a hoist. I've never tried to just change a mount w/out one though, as the task has always been coupled w/ engine/transmission removal projects.

Jeff