AER - 2, BS - 0

Previously on: "T-Shirt Designers vs. Racetrack", our little Miata That Couldn't was in need of heart surgery stat after blowing chunks (of our engine) at the New Jersey Motorsports Park back in June.

Thankfully, the answer to everything has pretty solid parts support and spare engine are o'plenty. The good folks from Planet Miata sourced a new (to us) 1.6L block a few weeks later and we coulda used their wrench turning skills for a quick swap the right way. But nooo, we decided to get our dainty hands dirty. Time to put the tees down and get the old boat anchor out…

Ya see - engine swapping a Miata is probably super easy for most, but our days are usually spent stacking t-shirts and like the idea being caressed between luxurious cotton. Spare parts were ordered, torso covering awesomeness continued to ship out, and the dead engine remained.

With the Summit Point race date fast approaching, schedules were cleared to work on the spec racer, and with a final push over Labor Day weekend, the last bits of the dead engine were unshackled and freed its cage. Success… sort of, as there was still the matter of swapping over all the still-good parts from the old lump, plus the quickly escalating checklist of 'while you're in there's".

So what does this mean? Sadly, with the other much more speedy and skilled teams gearing up for this weekend, our NA is stuck chilling in the garage, sans-engine. The weekend won't be completely sans-blipshift though, 'cause if you’re racing, you'll be getting a big ol' BS sticker for your faster-than-our car, and you might even catch a glimpse of an bs-ified E36 partner-in-crime tearing it up... assuming it can keep its headgasket on. Good luck to all the teams running this weekend!

Will the blue wonder live to terrorize mildly inconvenience Mid-Ohio in October? Will we ever realize that "BS" has other meanings? Find out on the next episode!

Big thanks to