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.

First trip behind a tow truck ; (

(EV
Things had been going real well lately, so something was bound to go wrong...

I was on my way to work this morning - I had just shifted into 3rd at 55mph when the battery light went out and the check engine light turned on. This meant the controller had turned itself off with an error. Since I had no power, I coasted to a stop by the curb in a nearly legal parking place.

I tried to start it a couple of times without any luck. I then pulled out my laptop to see the error code from the Zilla, and it indicated the Zilla and the Hairball weren't communicating. I checked the data cable and it was in place and properly seated.

It took about an hour for the tow truck to come.

I contacted the vendor I got the Zilla from (EV Source) and they contacted Cafe Electric who after a few questions sent me an RMA number for the Zilla and Hairball.

Good news is it's not something I did, but the car will be out of commission for a bit.
; (