2026 Nevada Open Road Challenge

The desert is silent except for the wind. My comm radios rest against my chest as heat rolls off the sun-baked pavement of Highway 318. For a moment everything is still, and then it comes. Faint at first, the distant roar of a V8 somewhere beyond the horizon. Pistons hammer in rhythm, tires rapidly claw at the asphalt. Air rips across the body of a machine built for one purpose: speed. In seconds the car tears past my position at well over 165 mph, off into the distant horizon quickly as it came. One heartbeat later all that’s left is the sound of the motor fading into the Nevada desert.

Prestige

The Nevada Open Road Challenge (NORC) serves as the more experimental sibling of the Silver State Classic Challenge (SSCC). Many teams use it as an opportunity to test new equipment, dial in their cars, and refine their strategies before returning for the marquee event in September. It is what happens when you shut down miles of Nevada highway and hand the keys over to people who think triple digit speeds are just a warm-up. It's full-send blast across open desert where precision matters just as much as guts. There is no wheel-to-wheel racing and instead a high-speed time trial where drivers pick a target average speed, often pushing well north of 150 mph, and then rocket through the hills as fast as possible on an unforgiving stretch of public road turned into a temporary racetrack. Out here there are no barriers, no runoff, and no room for sloppy driving. Just you, your co-driver, the math, and a whole lot of throttle. It’s fast, it’s technical, and it’s just a little unhinged. In other words, pure Nevada.

A brief history

What started in 1988 as a scrappy last-minute idea to show off a few vintage race cars on a closed stretch of Highway 318 near Ely NV, has grown into one of the most unapologetically wild motorsports traditions on the planet. An event so unique it dragged open-road racing out of a 50-year hiatus and straight into the Guinness World Records. Back when the event was just getting started organizers had barely two months to convince counties, law enforcement, and insurers that letting people rip down a public highway at full tilt was a good idea. Somehow, it worked. The early days were equal parts chaos and ambition: Ferraris, Porsches, muscle cars, blown engines, and a whole lot of figuring it out as they went. In time the formula evolved. Speed classes based on target averages, tighter safety rules, international drivers, and eventually two flagship events: the September Silver State Classic Challenge and the springtime Nevada Open Road Challenge. Along the way came record runs faster than 200 mph, NASCAR-bodied land missiles, and a steady climb from a niche experiment to a bucket-list event with global reach. Today it’s a polished operation backed by volunteers, sponsors, and a surprisingly serious infrastructure. At its core it is still the same slightly insane idea: shut down a highway, point fast cars at the horizon; see who’s brave, and precise enough, to chase perfection at speeds most people will never experience.

Arrival

This year I was able to attend NORC as a Safety Officer. I blasted from Reno to Ely in my RWD Lexus GS350 via old Highway 50, the Loneliest Road in America, making the trip in a little over four hours. During the week of the event, Ely transforms into a perpetual car show with exotic sports cars parked all over town, on every street and around every corner.

HWY 50 speeds

My Lexus GS350 RWD

Parking lots look nice

Factory5 Daytona

I stayed in a hotel and casino called the Jailhouse. It earned its name because it sits on the site of Ely's original jail, where some of the West's toughest criminals were once held. The hotel itself refers to the rooms by cell number.

Jailhouse historical marker

This hotel specifically is great because it is right across the street from all administrative NORC related activities, the Bristlecone Convention center. My cell had a direct view of the convention center. Also, the hotel owners must know one of the racing teams because in the main halls you will find the awards won by the "Old Fart Racing Team" over the years.

The Bristlecone from my cell

Old Fart wall

After getting settled into my cell I made my way to the other side of town to meet the drivers and cars. They were all meeting by the local high school to stage themselves for the parade. Yup that's right, the town of Ely loves this event so much they host a literal parade for all the competitor cars. Ely relies on the tourism revenue generated by the SSCC and NORC every year. Check out this page dedicated to the pictures I captured in the staging area and during the parade itself: 2026 NORC Parade Photos.

2026 NORC Parade

Once the parade was over everyone met up at the Bristlecone convention center for the opening banquet. This was a catered event with introductions to members of the administrative staff, MC'd by the charismatic Chairman, Blue Offutt.

Blue Offutt

The following day, Saturday, was going to be busy with classes for Safety Officers, Navigators, and Drivers, along with last-minute adjustments to the cars.

Prep Day

I enjoyed a pancake and sausage breakfast provided by the local Lions Club and spent some time talking with Event Director, Frank McKinnon, while cars underwent their final tech inspections. Before long my coffee cup was empty and it was time to get down to business, so I trekked back to the Bristlecone Convention Center.

Safety officer training proved to be a comprehensive and worthwhile experience. Assistant Event Director, John Bigley, covered a wide variety of topics relevant to the safety officers in his slide deck, complete with audio and video examples to supplement the pictures and text on display. He talked about how the event operates and what our priorities as safety officers are. We were shown how to use the flags, radios, and other gear provided to us by the event organizers. One of the most important tasks for a safety officer working this event is simply to make sure no one enters the roadway between the hours of the race. When a driver is going down this road at 165 miles per hour or more, it is literally impossible to react in time to unexpected obstacles on the road. Bigley provided a few recorded examples of how quickly things can go wrong on this road when the stakes and the speeds are this high, blink and you'd miss it.

Once the training session wrapped up it was almost noon and I decided to grab a bite at Racks, a local bar. I was delighted to discover a familiar sight from back home in Reno. My eyes could barely believe it: they served the "Awful Awful".

AWFUL AWFUL

Naturally, there was no way I was leaving without ordering one. I settled in with a cold beer and tried my luck at the blackjack machine built into the bar, while the kitchen worked its magic. After polishing off a burger large enough to live up to its name, awfully big and awfully good, I figured I had better walk it off. With that in mind I made my way to the town's largest park for the competitor car show. Follow this link to check out pictures from the 2026 NORC Competitor Car Show.

2026 NORC Show

The afternoon at the Bristlecone Convention Center was devoted to navigator training and the driver's meeting. Although neither session was required for my role, I attended both out of curiosity, and they turned out to be some of the most informative parts of the weekend. The presentations offered a behind-the-scenes look at how the event is coordinated, from timing procedures to communications between checkpoints spread across the course. Better yet, the radio frequencies were shared openly, giving me the perfect excuse to load them into my scanner for race day. One topic that came up in every meeting was the weather. There was a chance of snow for the race day in Ely, and the general consensus was that we would race rain or shine. The highway was scheduled to close at 5AM on Sunday morning, which meant my day would begin at 3AM to give me enough time to collect my gear, locate the gates I was responsible for, and get set up before the first cars arrived. Knowing race day would start long before sunrise, I decided an early night was in order once the driver's meeting wrapped up.

Cellblock Steakhouse

I grabbed a surprisingly great steak dinner at the Cellblock Steakhouse before making the short drive to Lund NV, where the starting line for the following day's race would be located. To save myself a predawn drive from Ely, I had already reserved a room at the All-in-One Motel and Truck Stop. It wasn't fancy, but it put me exactly where I needed to be when the alarm clock went off a few hours later.

All In One Truck Stop

Race Morning

Three in the morning is very early for me on Sunday. Heck, that is early for me any day. A short walk from the motel led to the truck stop where a much-needed cup of coffee helped shake off the last traces of sleep. I happened to be the first safety officer to show up for gear pickup which gave me the opportunity to spend some time talking to the HAM operators before heading out to my gate. I wish I had gotten pictures of the HAM operator vehicles, they looked like rolling RF shacks, but my mind was too busy waiting for the caffeine to hit.

My assignment placed me roughly 45 miles south of the starting line. Highway 318 stretched into the darkness ahead, its mile markers illuminated only by my high beams. Anticipation of the race to come, knowing that the drivers would be flying down the same stretch of highway, just a few hours from now was a strange feeling. There was something surreal about driving that lonely stretch of road knowing that the competitors would be hurtling down the same pavement at more than twice the speed limit. Eventually mile markers NY5 and NY6 emerged from the darkness. Somewhere between them were my gates. A few passes up and down this mile stretch in the dark eventually revealed my gates, set back from the road by a couple hundred feet on either side.

As I locked down my gates, set up my chairs, cooler, cameras, radios, and flags; the sun slowly crept over the horizon and swept the high desert in a bath of golden light and much welcomed warmth. I shed my gloves and beany and took a moment to soak in the natural beauty of Nevada as the birds sang their morning chorus.

Watching the clouds for a bit felt comfortable that the weather would hold for the day. After a few crackly comm checks over the radio, from each checkpoint to every safety officer, it was time to get the race started.

The 2026 Nevada Open Road Challenge

SSCC and NORC are both time-speed-distance events, not traditional races where the fastest car wins. Instead, the winners are those who finish closest to "on time" for their speed class. Being early is just as much of a penalty as being late. Competitive times are thousandths of a second away from the target time. Even being hundredths of a second off is considered good, but not on the level of the highest performing drivers here. The race is two parted, a southbound run, quick break, and then a northbound run back up the same stretch. One hundred and fifty-one miles in total.

Southbound

My radio scanner crackled as it picked up a message from the start line announcing that the first car had started begun its southbound run. Before long I could hear that very car roaring somewhere on the other side of the horizon. Just moments later it tore past me and off into the distance again.

The variety of cars at this event is astonishing, Euro exotics, American classics, and even a handful of JDM offerings. Over the past few days, I got plenty of opportunity to talk to drivers about their cars. Here are the ones which stood out most to me.

NORC is an American event, and what is more American than a Corvette. Out of the 109 competing cars, 36 of those were Corvettes. But this C3 Corvette stood out to me over all the others. Not only is it the most vintage corvette here, but it had an LS3 swap in it. Ray Maione and Tj Groenenboom were having some trouble with the serpentine belt in the parking lot back when I was checking in to the Jailhouse hotel, looks like they may have gotten that sorted out.

The Nissan 350Z isn't the fastest car in the world, nor the most sophisticated, but give it a big naturally aspirated V6, rear-wheel drive, and a willingness to misbehave, and suddenly you remember why sports cars were invented in the first place. I spent a lot of time talking to these guys, Ken Lindsey and Steve Nesdore were probably the coolest competitors. They also were running a new experimental timing and prediction software using highly accurate positioning systems to calculate target speed. Of all the innovations encountered that weekend, this struck me as one of the smartest. I couldn't help but wonder how useful something similar might be for my own CannonMiner Cannonball-Run software.

In an age where sports cars have become rolling computers with the personality of a tax return, this bright yellow Toyota GR86 arrives like a cheerful hooligan, reminding us that lightness, balance, and rear-wheel drive are still the ingredients that matter. This is the car that gave me hope that my own roadster could compete here one day. The driver and navigator combo, David and Stephanie Zeh, were both really nice and welcoming competitors.

Since the dawn of the automobile, mankind has occasionally produced machines so utterly outrageous that common sense packs its bags and leaves the country, and the V12 Lamborghini Diablo is one of them. According to the stories making the rounds in Ely, Bjoern Flesland journeys from the European Arctic Circle to Los Angeles, collects the car, and drives it across the American West to compete in both NORC and SSCC.

The Ferrari SF90 Stradale is what happens when Italy takes over a thousand horsepower, a pair of batteries, and every known law of physics, stuffs them into a purple missile, and then has the audacity to call it a road car. This absurd machine was piloted by William Griffiths who traveled from the UK to New York and then drove to Ely to compete for the first time ever in this event. I think he is a natural foil to Bjoern and his V12 Lambo.

I did my best to snap a picture of every single car that flew by on the southbound run, but at least 3 of then snuck by without capturing them on film. Check out this page to see all the photos from the southbound run. After a couple hours of marveling at these wonderful machines the final car passed by, I settled in for a quick lunch and break from the sun in my Lexus. Then it was back out to the field for the second half.

Northbound

Every competitor on the northbound section of the course was captured on video with my DJI Osmo. The long gaps between cars were edited out, condensing the field into a few minutes of uninterrupted speed.

To my dismay I didn't see Ray and TJ in their C3 LS3 Corvette pass by on the northbound run, that belt which was giving them trouble earlier must have given up the ghost on the southbound run. The rest of the field continued through without much drama. As the final car went by again, and the all-clear came across the radio, I started packing up.

The drive back from my gates through to Lund felt different now that the course had gone quiet again. Along the way, I passed a red Ferrari 488 Challenge EVO that had blown a tire on the southbound run and spun off the highway. Another quiet reminder of how quickly things can go wrong out here. Later I found out that the driver of this vehicle and his navigator were unharmed. The weather finally turned when I was between Lund and Ely. Light snow began drifting across the highway and started to pile up softening the edges of the desert, timing that couldn’t have worked out better for the weekend.

Closing Ceremony

Back in Ely at the Bristlecone Convention Center, everyone gathered for the closing ceremony. We ate well, we drank well, and traded stories from the weekend while the award ceremony played out and brought the event to a close.

A full house

Driver of the spun-out Ferrari recounting the experience

By Sunday evening, Highway 318 was just another Nevada highway again. The checkpoints were gone, the timing equipment packed away, and the drivers getting some much-needed rest. If you happened to drive through a few days later, you'd never know that hundreds of volunteers had transformed it into one of the fastest racecourses in North America. The following morning, as I pointed my Lexus west toward Reno, I couldn't help wondering what it would be like to see Highway 318 from the driver's side of the windshield. Maybe next year I'll find out.

Build Story - My Mazda MX-5 NB2 Miata

Midnight on Cooper Road felt detached from the rest of Columbus, like the city had fallen asleep and left the asphalt alone. Street lights flew overhead in rhythmic bursts, washing the hood in amber before disappearing into darkness again. The car settled into each corner with that perfect weighted confidence, tires whispering against the pavement as the next bend quickly arrived. Reflections smear across the windshield, the engine humming steadily beneath it all, and for a few fleeting minutes the world narrowed down to the glow of gauges, the sweep of the road ahead, and the feeling that nothing beyond the yellow and white lines really matter.

Early on, this car captured everything I love about driving. A connection to the asphalt through the machine as its engine hums and beats like the heart of a living thing. It did not take me long at all to find that I loved this car and wanted to do more with it. For the first year of ownership I made no modifications. I only pursued the standard maintenance while letting the car tell me through feeling, what I should change in the future. The more I drove the car, the more it spoke to me.

Fully stock

History of the MX-5

The original Mazda MX-5 Miata was born from a simple idea that had nearly disappeared from the automotive world by the late 1980s; a lightweight sports car built purely for the joy of driving. Much of that vision is credited to Bob Hall, who pushed Mazda toward creating a modern interpretation of the classic British roadster after years of the segment fading into obscurity. Inspired heavily by cars like the Lotus Elan, the engineers pursued balance and connection over raw power or luxury, obsessing over lightweight design, responsive steering, and mechanical honesty. Every aspect of the car was built around communication between machine and driver rather than outright performance numbers. The result was a car that never aimed to dominate spec sheets, but instead made ordinary roads feel alive in a way few modern cars still can.

Lotus Elan

Miata design team including a younger Bob Hall

Bob Hall and his NA

What car should I build?

I wanted to build a fast Miata for a while but everything about it made even more sense once I got behind the wheel of one. I purposely set out seeking the NB2 model because that generation is the most performant iteration of the original Miata before it was completely redesigned for the NC generation. All NB2's come with things like Variable Valve Timing (VVT) and reinforced chassis for stiffness, as well as other creature comforts in the cabin.

Test driving a completely different candidate

My first time behind the wheel of an NB2

A low-mileage NB2 in perfect condition came into my possession, completely untouched by the previous owner, though it was only a base trim car. A great platform for sure but from the factory there were even higher performing versions like the LS trim or the Shinsen trim. I was only getting started in the world of modifying cars outside of the thumbpad and joystick. Anyone can upgrade a car in a videogame, but when you start doing it in real life there is so much more to consider than the straight-line hallway of upgrades which take you from stock to the extreme presented to you in a game. In real life every change comes with its own compromise. It is a balancing act between what the original designers got so right which caused you to fall in love with the car in the first place, and where you want to take the car. Early on the easiest way for me to walk this line was to go for an OEM+ type of build. This is where you use as many original parts from the manufacturer as possible or use high quality aftermarket parts which fit the original design concept for the car.

First time doing "the thing", other Miata owners know

Stage 1 - Learning and Improving

For starters I did some basic, easy-win, upgrades.

• Stiffer door bushings help keep the car solid when going around corners. This is something convertible cars need to consider because the frame of a convertible car is basically 2 dimensional, where regular cars are 3 dimensional frames.
• My buddy Nate did an amazing job wrapping the front bumper in vinyl he custom matched to the paint. This helps keep the front of the car looking good because paint chips on some of the fun roads would otherwise build up from stones and large bugs.
• CoverKing provided some really nice seat covers to keep the OEM seats protected and style up the interior a bit.
• I got some stylish floor mats from MossMiata too.

This next upgrade kinda spits in the face of OEM+ and I later removed it. Although, most JDM enthusiasts typically grab the same thing for their first upgrade. This is a K&N Typhoon "cold" air intake. In Ohio, at lower altitudes and in denser air, this intake did a good job at moving power to the higher end of the rev range. Later when I moved to Reno NV, it just doesn't work properly at the elevation of the High Sierra's. At these higher altitudes it makes the motor a bit boggy at any rpm lower than 5k.

Installed and naked

Aluminum space suite also

OEM vs K&N

"Car need stop fast more than need go fast" - Luck Lucid 2026.
The golden age of Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond taught me brakes are one of the most important upgrades you can do to any car. I went with these Brembo brake pads and I love them. They stop the car really well without fade and the best part; they don't create an excessive amount of brake dust.

Brembo branded noise gel

pads after a bit of use

One thing the LS trim Miata came with, which mine lacked, was a limited slip differential (LSD). My base model instead used an open differential, the most common and cost-effective design. A differential allows the driven wheels to rotate at different speeds while cornering, since the outside wheel travels farther than the inside wheel through a turn. For enthusiastic driving though, an LSD is far more desirable because it limits the amount of slip between the rear wheels and helps the car put power down more consistently. Depending on trim and year, Miatas came with open diffs, clutch-type LSDs, or Torsen units.

The classic differential demonstration

Alex Todd over at Scratch and Sniff (SNS Mazda Parts) sent me a Torsen LSD, and with the help of Igor and a couple of his buddies, we managed to get it into the car on a random Tuesday after work at a shop belonging to one of his friends. This upgrade made the car so much more predictable and enjoyable coming out of tight corners.

Inspecting

playing

Igor and friend

A few other upgrades I did later on in Stage 1 which basically speak for themselves...

• Speakers, head unit, crossfader
• Restored headlight finish
• Shifter and E-Brake boots
• Ohio Ricky reconditioned the steering wheel
• UV Tint (not pictured)

installing speakers

restoring headlights

shifter boot

Reconditioned 

driving me nuts

One of the stylish elements of all Miatas, which was inherited from the Lotus Elan, is the bottom feeder radiator opening on the front bumper. Looks great, but because there is no grill there stones can easily jump up and puncture your radiator. MossMiata sells a great solution for this. This is when my Miata lost its baby teeth.

Baby teeth

Ask anyone, wheels and tires are one of the most significant upgrades you can do to any car. It was time for me to get into that action. Stock Miata wheels already are pretty light from the factory, so there is only a small handful of wheels which weigh less than the original ones. At the time I wanted to do something different from what everyone does, everyone goes with Enkei RPF1's or 949 Racing's 6UL (3rd gen at the time). I landed on these beautiful Konig Lightning's and paired them up with the tires best know for high performance in both wet and dry conditions (at the time), the Continental Extreme Contact Sport.

Did I mention stopping is important? Yeah so my buddies Alec and Gabe both talked me into upgrading my brakes further. High quality rotors and steel braided lines, both supplied by Dan at Tarmac88, helped to reduce fade. At the same time we noticed the stock radiator, which was made out of plastic, was turning brown and green so we replaced that with a high performance aluminum CSF radiator and an air cowl from BeatRush to help reduce wasted air.

Fresh rotor

bleeding the brakes

CSF radiator

Radiator and Cowl

Installed

That was a heavy stretch of performance upgrades and so it was time to focus on cosmetics inside and out. SpecD headlights and Rev9 aluminum machined trim rings for the hvac components.

Fresh out of the box

Out with the old

In with the new

Halo projectors

Machined aluminum trim rings

The whole dash

Every Miata owner eventually wants more power. More air going into the motor gives the opportunity for more power. Compared to US models, Japanese-market Miatas came with an intake manifold design that flowed air more efficiently at higher RPM. We call this manifold the “Flat Top” or “Square Top.” I sourced one from SNS Mazda Parts and began replacing the factory VTCS manifold. The tricky part is that the stock ECU expects the VTCS system to remain functional, so simply removing it would trigger a check engine light. After digging through engineering documents and mapping out the factory vacuum system, I found a workaround that allowed the ECU to see the expected VTCS signals while eliminating the restrictive hardware entirely. By rerouting vacuum from the Purge Solenoid Valve through the VTCS Solenoid Valve and into the VTCS Vacuum Switch, the ECU continues to receive the readings it expects from the system. The end result was a noticeable improvement in airflow, a stronger pull at higher RPM, and an intake sound that completely changed the character of the engine. On the first rip after this I drifted an industrial col-de-sac with Nate chasing me in my 7th Gen Toyota Celica, pure fun.

Came dirty, and with goodies

Disassembly

Cleaning chems

Scrubba dubba

Cleaned up really nicely

Color coded the stock diagram

Color coded the stock configuration

Successfully installed

Stage 1 glamour shots:

Stage 2 - The Nevada effect

Columbus was where the car and I first learned each other, but Northern Nevada changed the direction of the build entirely. The canyons and touges, elevation changes, and mountain roads outside Reno demanded something different from the car than the tight industrial corners and humid summer nights back in Ohio ever did. What began as a careful OEM+ refinement slowly gave way to a stronger focus on performance and capability. With my mechanical and driving skills reaching a new level it was time for the car to reach a new level as well. It's no longer about just preserving the character Mazda created, but pushing it much further without losing the feeling that makes the car what it was in the first place.

Car manufacturers love reusing proven engine designs across multiple models, and the Miata’s B-series motor is no exception. Originally designed for transverse applications where the engine sits sideways, Mazda instead mounted it longitudinally in the Miata for better weight distribution and driving dynamics. The downside is that coolant flow through the head is less balanced in this orientation, creating hot spots that become especially noticeable in Nevada’s dry heat. To address this, I installed a coolant reroute kit from 949 Racing, which improves coolant flow through the motor while also adding provisions for future upgrades like forced induction. Beyond solving the cooling issue, it also looks great.

From there, attention turned to the exhaust system. It’s one of the easiest areas to get wrong and I'd been tinkering with different ideas for a long time — endless combinations of mufflers, midpipes, and headers, all with tradeoffs between sound, power, and drivability. The ideal setup adds performance without introducing drone or harshness. After hearing Gabe’s Roadster Sport 4 system on his NB1, the choice became pretty clear. I ordered the same setup from GoodWinRacing, and with help from Nevada Ricky and Trevin, it went in without much trouble.

Headers

Midpipe

Muffler

NV Ricky's garage

After that a series changes quickly went into the car without any pictures:

• A lightweight flywheel and ACT clutch installed by Low Boost Performance
• Sequential LED taillights from Top Miata
• NA style sun visors gifted to me by Nate
• Roof latches from Flyin' Miata

The tires I purchased for Stage 1 were amazing, but I wore them out. At that same time 949 Racing released their 5th generation 6UL wheels, which are now the lightest wheels on the market which fit the Miata. Needless to say, I had to pick these new wheels up. Continental also released an even better version of the previous tire, the Extreme Contact Sport 02. It was like everything aligned perfectly at the same time and they were meant for each other on this car.

Best unboxing ever

Matching lugs and stems

Closeup

949 Racing 5th gen 6UL

Continental ECS 02

So shiny

After upgrading the wheels and tires I quickly realized the suspension was in dire need of upgrading to handle the forces at play now. When the car would try to settle coming out of a corner, the body roll could throw you in the opposite direction if you accelerate two quickly on exit. To tighten everything up I installed a Racing Beat front Sway Bar, 949 Racing Tecna Sport coilovers, and 949 Racing adjustable end links.

Branded packaging wow

Looks expensive

preload before tightening

brisk spring morning

Going back to the stock intake I mentioned earlier, wasn't part of the plan and I needed to do a different modification to feed that Flat Top intake manifold. Thankfully Flyin' Miata's Randall Style intake came back in stock and I jumped on the opportunity. This intake pulls cooler air into the stock box from a high pressure zone of the car. More air, and cooler air = MORE POWER BABY!

Mr. Pumphry and his famous catch phrase

Cutting the firewall

Engine side

Cool side

Randal to stock box

I found that going up steep grades (especially Mount Rose Highway) at an enthusiastic pace for longer periods of time create a lot of heat. The coolant reroute does a good job but I needed to move more air through the radiator. Flyin' Miata has the answer to this with these awesome hood vents. Derek (the same Derek mentioned in my KoTH post) helped with the install.

Removed the hood

Masked off the area

careful planning

Hours of cutting later

rivetted in place

Re-assembled

The final piece to finish Stage 2 is very simple. Regular drivers have a tendency to not notice small cars, so its important to be able to make a loud noise if you need too. So I installed a second horn, this one has a high-power compressor as if to shout "HEY I'M DOWN HERE!"

wiring diagram

dedicated relay

dedicated button

Stage 2 glamour shots:

Stage 3 - Planning the Future

I don't want to give away too much of what I have planned for stage three, and why these things specifically, but here's a brief shopping list:

• Roll bar
• Engine Internals
• Standalone ECU
• Bodywork

Stick around if you want to see where this leads me.

The Shape of It Now

By the time the road unwinds back out into the open desert, the smell of hot rubber and sagebrush hangs in the air behind the car while heat shimmers upward from the canyon floor. What started years ago as a mostly stock Miata built around careful OEM+ refinement has slowly transformed into something far sharper and more capable, shaped as much by Nevada’s mountain roads as by the garage floors and late nights that built it. Every modification now feels connected to a purpose. The cooling system holds steady in the summer heat, the suspension stays composed through fast sweepers, and the car responds with a level of confidence that simply did not exist when this journey began. Somewhere along the way the build stopped being about chasing upgrades and became about creating a machine that feels perfectly alive on roads like these.