There’s a lot I haven’t documented while making upgrades to the Mazda. Let’s go back to midsummer of last year. The car had Tein adjustable coilovers, a Racing Beat front sway bar, a Mazdaspeed rear sway bar, 949 Racing end links, a manual transmission with an Exedy clutch and flywheel, a Hard Dog roll bar, and some other minor upgrades.

One of the minor upgrades I performed was purely cosmetic. I’ve always liked the look of a painted valve cover (or cam cover). A lot of different colors ran through my mind. Eventually, I decided on purple. Yes, purple. I tried a rattle can job, but it looked atrocious. It was embarrassing. After seeing some nice powder coating work at Tuner Galleria earlier in 2015, I went with K&K Coating near the Illinois border. They mixed a base, Illusion Violet, and Chameleon Teal Sparkle. The result was fantastic. The violet can be more blue or more red depending on the light. The teal flakes really make it pop.

I took the time to do a few things while the valve cover work was done. I test-mounted the exhaust side turbo hardware. I replaced the engine and differential mounts with Mazda Motorsports units. Upon reinstalling the cover, I changed out the cam angle sensor o-ring where a small oil leak had developed. I also put in new Magnecor spark plug wires.

On the exterior, I installed a factory hard top, Project-G G-fusers on the sides, and a carbon fiber trunk lid from CarbonMiata. In June, I installed a set of Jass Performance low profile headlights. They make the front end look a little more like the FD chassis RX7.

We’re getting closer to the present day! There’s a radiator upgrade and some suspension changes in the future. Fast forward to now and I’m getting ready for my second car show. My wife will be joining me at Offset Kings outside Chicago at the Autobahn Country Club. We’ll be out there on Sunday!