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@Jeff76 yep, that's Mission BBQ in Robinson. I'm just over the hill from there in Moon. I was back at Pitt Race yesterday for the "Last Chance to Run the Beve" event. It was a very Low-key style event, so it was perfect for me to get my feet wet at a track day. We only ran the North Corse (so the old, original Beaver Run layout), and it was super cool to be a part of. It was definitely more geared towards those guys who had been running that track for many many years, so I was grateful to be allowed to participate.
I got to have an instructor for the first 3 sessions, and they paired me with an SCCA RX-8 driver (very cool of them to pair us like that). At the end of the third session, he basically said, there is more pace in you and the car....go get it. While I was very grateful to have him in the car, and keeping me from doing anything that would be considered bad track etiquette, I definitely feet a bit more free without him in the car, and was able to push quite a bit more. I think it was more the mental block of not wanting anything bad to happen with another person in the car. There were not times recorded or anything like that, but I certainly felt that I was getting faster each session. But when the time came for the 7th session of the day, I decided to sit it out. I was pretty mentally drained, and I figured it was better to go out on a high note, and not risk anything bad happening. I'm amazed today at how sore my whole body is. It was definitely a workout of muscles that I don't use haha.
Obligatory PittRace sign pic 1 Obligatory PittRace sign pic 2 My instructor out for his session in the Advanced group. Definitely the loudest car of the day haha I think I was really actually pushing the car appropriately
Sun setting on PittRace
It was certainly a bittersweet day. Tons of fun, and meeting new people, but knowing that it is all going away is really sad. Such an amazing facility. Everything is essentially still brand new.
I am pleasantly surprised to get the car home and healthy in one piece, considering I basically tuned the car myself. I did leave it on WG pressure for the event to keep things safe, and the car still had way more in it that I had in myself. The trepidation of the self-tune was a major reason behind not getting to the track sooner, but if I was going to get on track, I needed to just suck it up and accept that if it blew up, then I at least did it on track. Thankfully that didn't happen, and I was able to drive the car home and have a solitary toast to the track and all the people who organized the event. I honestly think I was even more nervous about hitting a deer on the drive home than I was about blowing the car up (the deer are so freaking bad for some reason this year). Also, there was so much more I had wanted to do to the car before getting it out on track (suspension refresh-wise) that I didn't get to do, and I'm sure that held the car back a bit. But who cares. I was perfectly happy with being one of the slower cars on track for the day, and very content with just improving as the day went on.
So, the lesson here is to listen to people when they say "Just get out there"
-Thanks for the update, keep up the good work and safe driving. I agree with the deer statement, nice to see I am not imagining things. Way more deer than usual out there.
Putting the interior back together was happening somewhat side by side with the install of the roll bar (once test fitting and all the provisions for the install were in place). Obviously, the rear of the car needed to go back together first, before installing the bar. One of the things I kept telling myself was to not forget to put the rear strut caps in place before final fitting and welding the bar in. There was a bit more trimming of some of the interior that was necessary as well to allow for the larger rear strut bar to fit, but nothing super crazy. The pictures of the rear of the car can be seen in the last post, so no need to repost that, so it was on to the front.
After replacing all the bulbs in the dash with LEDs, I was really excited to get that put back in. Unfortunately, I was met with a lot of, we’ll call it, less than ideal illumination.
So, it was back out with all of that. I realized that for some reason, the LED bulbs were polarity dependent. I flipped all the ones I thought were wrong, and put it all back together.
Got a couple corrected (all of the HVAC portion was good), but I had to remove the cluster again. This time, I got smart. I unhooked the cluster from the cluster face/hood, so I could just hook it up and trouble shoot everything.
Success. I also added something I hope to be a trick little addition. The head unit came with a microphone for wireless calling. I decided I didn’t want this think sticking out anywhere, so I came up with the idea of putting it (as well as the wifi antenna) in where the center speaker would have lived. I’m not sure if the mic will actually pick up my voice here or if the mic is too enclosed, but I figure if it doesn’t work, I won’t be all that upset.
You can also see in this pic, that I had installed an LRB speed defroster in the past. I had driven around with it a couple times, and honestly, I wasn’t crazy about it. The raw aluminum caused far too much glare on the windshield (you can even see how bad it was in the above picture). I certainly could have just painted it black to match the rest of the car, but ultimately, I decided it was a bit too ‘racecar’ with the bolts sticking up (yes, I understand the irony of me saying that, considering the state of the rest of the car). I decided to pick up a brand-new OEM grill. With the cluster out, it was a great time to swap that over.
Next was to put the center console back in, and I also put on a BubbleTech V1 center console support. I had picked this up a few years ago at DGRR, so this is another part I’m happy to get on the car and off my shelf.
From there, it was time to move to the seats. I haven’t really showcased the condition of the seats that have been in the car. But, if you look at the condition of the rest of the car to this point, I’m sure you can guess the shape of them.
So, these were not going back in. Kind of a bummer, cause having touring seats in a base, was kind of nice…but they are just too far gone for me. I don’t think there is even enough foam left to reupholster them. Knowing this, I had picked up a set of base seats quite a few years ago. They aren’t perfect, but they are much better than these. Since these did not come with rails, and I had to swap my rails over, this was also a great time to get another part off my shelf and onto the car: a JP3 fire extinguisher mount. Still need to grab an H3R extinguisher, but this will do for now.
what's that you have there in replacement of the ash tray in the center console
hows the mic in the center speaker area working out? That's a slick idea if it works well!
My wife called me on the way home from the autocross, so I finally got to test how well it worked. She said she could hear and understand me, so it seems like a success. I'd still like to try and have her sit in the car, and I call her to really understand what it sounds like on the other end.
Originally Posted by Molotovman
The car is coming along great! I love the combination of the A-Spec front with the Top Fuel wing.
Thanks! It's definitely the 'vibe' I had in mind. I'd love to get the hood modified this winter. That and a diffuser, and I think my vision for the exterior will be ready for paint.
Originally Posted by dannng
what's that you have there in replacement of the ash tray in the center console
That's a Drake's arm rest.
Last edited by REnaissance_Sle7in; Nov 7, 2025 at 09:41 AM.
I had posed in the DGRR Facebook group that I was pulling my car back into my neighbor’s garage for the winter, and he has the idea that we are going to do all the body work and paint the car. I’m really hoping to get everything done before Deals Gap, and have the FD there for the first time (I’ve always taken the Cosmo). Not sure if it’ll happen, but I’m hopeful.
So, first thing was to disassemble the front bumper, and try to make it fit as best as possible. This was a much easier process with someone who knows body work, and not just me learning as I went (which is how the first iteration of the fitting went). I was able to get things MUCH closer than they have ever been (still took about 3 nights to get it where it is). There will still be a good bit of work to make everything line up. I’m not sure if the mold was bad under the headlights, or if the bumper sagged from just sitting in my garage for so many years, but you can see how much will need to be built up in that area.
Next, I took off all the door trim to get ready for him to show me how to weld in a plug for where the OEM mirrors were.
My neightbor creating the plugs for the holes was actually quite impressive. He measured each side just one time, and had them virtually form fitting in less than 10 min each
Looks like i have a door from a CYM....that means I have a CYM....right??
While he was working on that, I turned to the Ronin Speedworks rear wing to get some of the bolt holes hogged out, and get the wing sitting a bit better. From there, I had to “clearance” a good bit if the underside portion of the wing that overhangs the fenders.
Now with a little daylight shining through that area, I’ll be more confident that I won’t be cracking any new paint that is laid down. Still not really as much clearance as I’d like, but I started getting close to blowing through the fiberglass, so we thought it best to stop there.
Next will be to learn how to sand and prep a car for paint. As I said in my DGRR post on this subject: Pray for me…..I have no idea what I’m doing.
