Hey all,

Just wondering if there is anyone in the Maryland area that's in these forums. I'll be moving there during the end of summer. I hope that there is some scene there, otherwise, the only thing to look forward to moving from CA is cheaper gas prices, higher octane premium, and less stringent emission standards.

Best,
Brent

yea i live in md. the scene isnt too bad. where in md will you be moving ? your close to dc nj and va so you can always find something going own.

I'll be moving to right in the middle of Baltimore. Taking up school there at Johns Hopkins. Good to here from you.

Cool, welcome to the Baltimore. Will you be up at the Homewood campus? We actually just moved from Charles Village (near hopkins homewood) to another part of the city not far away. What is you car/club/activity of choice?

I'll be living right on Remington at the Homewood campus, pretty close to that Ace of Cakes place. Well I don't have an enthusiast car at the moment. I drive a Nissan Xterra '02. I want to pick up a used miata and do some autocross. I like the idea of working on driving skills on the cheap.

I'd stay away form that Corrado guy if i were you, he's a bit 'off' ya know? ;-p

Welcome to MD when you get here!

Go for the Mazdaspeed Miata! I am kinda looking around for one, will liekly wait till winter to buy though

test drove the new 09 NC miata and an 04 MSM last week, 09 is nice and fun, but MSM is my choice hands down, I am used to a tighter suspension on my SVTF then the 09 miata provides. The mazdaspeed miata is a blast to drive and pretty affordable.

That car is quite good. Haven't had the opportunity to drive one but I think it'd be a blast. I will be on a tight budget and going new doesn't make financial sense. In my opinion, the only time you'd want a new car is to boost ego and show it off, cause the amount of money it depreciates in the first year, you could spend on performance upgrades. I'm really just eyeing the NA or NB. I did see an 8k NC mazdaspeed a month ago on craigslist but it sold quickly.

Cool. Well the Capital Driving Club is pretty active with auto-x events several times a month. http://www.capitaldrivingclub.com/ Summit Point is about an hour and a half away but they offer all sorts of racing at the facility, auto-x, rally-x, track days, HPDEs, drifting, professional events etc... The bowie and frederick events will be 45 minutes away or so. SCCA is also pretty active. Not sure about miata enthusiast groups in the area since I had a VW and now have an S2000 but I see quite a few of them in the area that have almost certainly seen some racing.

Most MSM i have seen are in the 12-16 range, I was trying to find a low mile sone with less then 20k on the clock, and part of the wasiting till winter is so my budget is more relaxed.

I have found a lot of MSM's are listed at or above dealer retail, one crazy dealer on aurotrader listed the thing for like 18k. If you need uber budget a friend just bought a 94 NA with the intent to build a custom turbo setup this winter. I was frankly surprised at the fun factor to a 15 year old car, only weighing 2200 lbs is nice, i told him that for the price (less then $4k) he got an awesome deal for just a fun car (maximize the "fun to bucks spent" ratio?)

I would say an uber cheap NA is a better fun to price point, but I personally am willing to fork over a low miles good condition MSM. If you end up seriously considering the MSM, check Flyin miata and Bell (BEGi) they both have intake and exhaust kits, FM has a pretty impressive dyno plot for their full intake and turbo-back exhaust kit, (1500 total, plus 500 more for larger IC) but apparently the MSM stock intake and exhaust are pretty restrictive. The full FM kits bring it to 205 hp and 195 ftlbs at the wheels, pretty nice jump for a simple intake/exhaust setup without going aftermarket tuning or more extensive mods which may screw you over on emissions testing (MD is a ODB-II code read every 2 years btw, long as your gas cap seals and you dont throgh check engine light codes you should be good)

Oh and also, I happen to have the unfortunate condition of being friends with that Corrado guy since college, he pointed out he was going to be the bigger man and not call me "unstable" on the boards as it may be misread. So my apologies if you were at all affected by me having a bit of fun and being an ass warning you away :-p

Aww, you stopped the running gag. I also see an edit was in place here... I can read in between the lines, I know its amazing.

I've been to the FM site before, actually if I had the money, the LS V8 swap had my eye but that's a bit crazy, for now. At the moment, I'm more interested in the suspension setup. I saw that video of the miata on the track with their custom coilover. It drove over some bump at a corner and didn't seemed phased. I like that setup, lots of travel but still fast, kind of a rally tune. I like the idea of a car that can speed through speed bumps and pot holes so it can actually be fast on the street. :-) A good idea for Southern California, but I noticed that Maryland's roads are in good condition and have lots of low speed exits and on ramps.

Looks like I have a lot of options for sporting events once I finally move in, good to hear. You guys have names, or prefer your aliases?

-Brent

I'm Mike and he is Dave. The guy with the NA is Scott. The roads in MD are spotty. Some are smooth, others heavily potholed. Baltimore is pretty bad in general and Charles Village is no exception. Remington can be pretty rough with the stiff suspension. But I can recommend a fun little stretch of road just a minute or two away in the city.

Well I'll be moving to Silver Spring, MD hopefully soon. I'm currently looking for a job in that area. My wife is already out there, so I'm trying to move soon. We have an 01 Legacy Wagon at the moment. I'm hoping to pick up a fun car, but we'll see how the finance situation is. Plus, I'd like a place to work on the car, and our apartment complex frowns on that sort of thing. Anyway, hopefully I'll see you guys at an event!

Nice, I'm flying in on the 15th this month. Hopefully my Xterra will have shipped in by then. I'm hoping the prices for roadsters will decrease in the winter time, but I won't be looking into anything for bit, have to save up.

I live in Central Maryland. There are a lot of car shows to go to around here in the summer, but that's about it.

reviving something from 09! how did things go, are you still here?

Hey,

I'm still here. School's been keeping me really busy. I did attend the BGP recently, which was good. I only watched the ALMS, didn't care so much for indy. I own a condo now, but don't have a garage, so the Miata stuff is pretty much scrapped. I am interested in reading that Miatabusa project though.

yea the miatabusa looks pretty cool. im thinking about miatas all the time these days. though rotary power is equally attractive. dreaming is free so ill keep doing that for now. maybe some motoiq meetups in the future.