Ideally I would have liked to learn to do all the software tuning myself, but I like having an engine that's not on fire, so it seemed prudent to take my new toy to a professional instead.

It turns out the guy who wrote the tuning manual for this kit lives in Livermore, so I paid a very expensive visit to his dyno. And I'm glad I did; he was very patient and created a very nice, smooth part-throttle map for me.

Not to mention that he got an additional 30 horsepower out of the car, for a total of 187whp (wheel horsepower.) 187! Out of a 1.6L!

So, how fast is it? Well, remember that power measured at the wheels by a dyno is a lower number than the power numbers that they print in the brochures, because there is a 20-30% loss between the crank and the wheels from the inertia of all the spinning drivetrain parts. So for reference, the Subaru is putting down about 195-200whp. The miata is now putting down almost that much, but it weighs about 35% less.

So it's, you know, pretty fast.

(This thing has actually created a rather embarrassing problem, which is that the gearing is far too short. The stock gear ratios have a very low top speed, because the engineers knew that it wouldn't get over 110mph unless you pushed it off a cliff. But I can now get to redline in 5th gear in just a few seconds, which means that at Thunderhill next weekend I'm going to be waving a lot of people by on the front straight when I top out, and then promptly munching them in the next corner. Thus, my hand is forced to buy a tall-ratio torsen diff. Woe is me.)

Last weekend was the end of my 6 week install of a turbo kit onto my ancient miata. It's a pretty tense moment to turn that key for the first time after having rerouted coolant, drilled holes in the oil system, cut and rewired fuel injectors, replaced the computer entirely, and flashed in mystery software to control it all.

I'm a pessimist, and this is the kind of situation where that really pays off--- To my shock and school-girl-like jumping-up-and-down-clapping-hands glee, it started up and ran, first try. I guess I have good beginner's luck!

Get your rides now, before it explodes.

(The noise this thing now makes is ridiculously satisfying. I actually cackle maniacally every time I press on the accelerator--- which is all the time. I just can't help it.)

As I came home from grocery shopping and stepped out of my car, I noticed an old woman in the driveway. She was speaking to me, although I couldn't quite hear her at first. I took a step closer, and then realized that I could hear her just fine, but I didn't understand because she was speaking Russian.

"You help me," she said. Not a question. I said "okay?", my arms full of bags. "You help me," she said again. I said, "let me put these things down, one moment," and I ran and dumped the bags in my house.

When I returned, she had drifted vaguely back toward the open door of the house belonging to Alexei, my Russian neighbor. A relative, I guess. "How can I help?" I asked.

"I don't speak english," she said, which was in retrospect the one thing that required no explanation. She then started speaking to me, slowly and clearly, in Russian.

When she had finished, I politely said, "I don't understand?" She nodded, cleared her throat, and then said the same words again, more slowly, and also slightly louder. After an awkward pause, she pointed at her head, and then at the ceiling, and then said something different.

Then she rang the doorbell.

I stared at the doorbell, hoping for some clue as to what she was getting at, and then shook my head. Realizing my confusion, she rang the doorbell again, a bit more firmly this time, explaining again what she wanted, in Russian.

I took out my cell phone, pointed at it, and said, "Maybe you should call Alexei?" She shook her head in negative. "Alexie," she began. Then: "My son, Alexie," she clarified. "Yes?" I said.

"My son," she continued, and then a relatively long stream of Russian words, during which she pointed hesitantly off to her left.

"I'm so sorry, I just don't understand what you're saying," I said, and then started to back away slowly. She nodded and said "thank you", ringing the doorbell a final time.

"No problem," I replied.