Never too little - never too late!
 

I suppose I should have joined this forum before I started my V8 conversion instead of now when it's pretty near finished! But, never too little - never too late (and never too old to have fun!).

I've had three Miatas now and the current one I bought for my son who decided he liked motorcycles better, so I got it back. Then someone mentioned something about a Targa in Newfoundland (where I was born and raised) ... hmm ... after checking it out, I noticed there was a Miata in the event and it was driven by a young guy named Keith (who was also a Canadian). That led me to Flyin' Miata and I began to yearn for something better than the stock Miata and I started thinking about re-boring to 2.0 and adding a turbo - a man can dream, eh? (That's my Canadian roots leaking out!).

Finally the day came when I was driving home from a conference in California and the exhaust split in two and I already had a clunky driveshaft, so I parked it and began in earnest planning for the conversion. About that time (2011 now) Keith was putting a V8 in his seasoned Miata, so I asked him which way I should go, seeing I was at the beginning of my own endeavor, and he thought it was a wash in cost either way (I haven't added it all up yet), so, being the novice I was (I have changed oil and brake pads before) I started on the long path to V8 heaven.

The short story: parked it Sept 2011; started disassembling Dec 2011; bare metal by March 2012; cutting and welding June - Sept 2012; bought pieces as I could afford it and installed them Sept 2012 - May 2013; End of May 2013 - started it up for the first time and almost cried! What a beautiful sound! An Arizona summer of 130 degrees in my garage now seems worth it - not that I'd do *that* again!

What I ended up with is essentially a FM LS3 V8 conversion, but it definitely has a bit of my personality built in!

Next stop - Newfoundland for the 2013 Targa. The excuse is to visit my family and Engineering buddies. My son-in-law from Philadelphia will be my co-driver. Oh, wait ... FM summer camp in August to make sure I put it together right! It's going to be a looooong drive! It would be nice if I actually made it there. Signed up for the Grand Tour, but may do the Fast Tour.

Eventually I'll get a diary put together and post it. I got a lot of pictures ...

Am I taking on too much? :-)

Welcome to v8miata.net

Wow great story! You could do the Sand Hills road challange over here to warm up for the event. I have not looked deep into the Targa event but I believe Sand Hills is a mini version of it. Well maybe more like a micro version... Home | Sandhills Open Road Challenge | Arnold, Nebraska

Or there is always one lap of america which is at the top of my bucket list. Oh and yes you are not allowed to build a V8 Miata then sign up with no build thread!

Welcome and great to meet you!

What a great introduction - probably the best one ever without photos attached! Welcome to the forum. I hope you will PLEASE take the time to write up a build thread and display pics of your journey the past year or two. You definitely have a gift for prose so it should just come natural to post up somewhere.

Wow. The Targa - Good for you and your son-in-law. I guess you'll plan a 3-4 week tour for all the travel and the event.

Visit more often and please do a write up when you can! It will be like re-living the entire build all over...

Pat

Yes Pat, my bad. I have to learn all this stuff (first forum I've ever been on!) and get 'er done. Emissions test tomorrow and dyno tuning next Tuesday. Flyin Miata did post a picture of my car on their site under the shop updates. I'll have to figure it out for this site - shouldn't take too long ... can't be harder than doing the V8 conversion can it? :-)

Awesome. You'll get the hang of this and other forums. Would love to hear all about the FM experience. About 99.99% of Miata folks are fans of Keith and Bill. I'm just envious that they get to do this for a living. Maybe they need an East Coast shop at my place in NC.?? :)