Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Blocked grill and "monster teeth"


Made a few changes in the grill area of the car. First of all, I bought a tow bar (from Harbor Freight) and mounting bracket (from Renenmetal) so that I can easily tow the car to events.

Miata's originally come with bracket on the sides of the grill area to tie the car down during transportation. They are known among the Miata aficionados as "baby teeth"and removing them is a mark of an enthusiast. My donor had them removed, but the tow bar mount came with "super sized" mounts. So rather than baby teeth, my car has monster teeth. I also wired up a trailer light wiring harness so the car's tail lights work while being towed.

Later, I got the bright idea to block the grill to improve the aerodynamics a bit. I bought a sheet of aluminum at the hardware store and after making a template, cut it to size. It took a while to get it to fit right. I used some leftover vacuum hose to cover the bottom lip.
I was going to paint it flat black, but I liked the aluminum look - it reminds me of an early 60's drag racer.
Seems to help as my range on the street appears to be about the same as on the highway.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Little but Interesting One!
Electric Grill