V2 of the Beeline mount is finished.  It relocates the display from the face of the dash to the top of the scuttle, where it's in direct line of sight while driving.  To make this location work while maintaining the design brief of being quick to mount/unmount without leaving a trace, it was clear the magnetic clamping system required a big redesign.  After straining my few remaining brain cells looking for the right solution, I eventually opted to change from a large standalone magnet that clamps to a thick steel washer embedded in the mount, to a two-part mount with several smaller magnets embedded in each section.  This smaller footprint allows the mount to fit on the leading edge of the scuttle where it overhangs the top of the dash.  I had initially dismissed this location as an option for anything other than a screw or spring clamp given the overhang is less than an inch at the top and quickly reduces to nearly zero due to the rake of the dash, but this just fit.

To add a little more friction and to protect the paint, the bottom of the base is covered with 1/32" thick neoprene sheet.  This setup has proven even easier to mount/unmount and store in the glovebox than V1; it literally takes just seconds.  Although a short test drive revealed no movement issues, a proper blat is still required before calling it done.  If there is movement, the plan is to stick with this design but invest in higher quality magnets to increase the clamping force.

Smart phones are amazing devices. By simplifying many tasks that were previously considered complicated or time consuming, they bring convenience to our daily lives. But when that same convenience makes you accessible to the office 24 hours a day via email, texts, Teams, Zoom, etc, it quickly loses its luster. Particularly on those occasions when you're trying to decompress from work. And nothing helps me decompress from the daily grind more than driving an engaging car down a back road for no other reason than to bludgeon corners into submission. That means looking at my iPhone for navigation while on a blat in the Caterham presents a contradiction.  

Enter the Beeline Moto II. Beeline combines a navigation app optimized for planning fun-to-drive routes, with a small device that leverages your Smart phone's GPS, but streamlines the directions into a small 37mm diameter screen that provides just the information you need to get from point A to point B. It's a simplified map display that shows both the distance to your next turn and the direction, as well as the current speed limit and how far into your journey you've travelled. Additionally, a small LED blinks once when you're 200 meters from the next turn, and twice when you're just 50 meters away. There are other screens available such as a compass mode that always points towards your destination, speedometer, journey progress, and battery levels of both the Beeline and your phone. Bottom line, it packs a lot into a small space while allowing you to keep your phone in your pocket where it's less of a distraction.  

​The Beeline is also light. Obviously, this weight is incremental to your smart phone, but at just 42 grams, the Beeline doesn't present the same type of load to its mounting system as a phone. This matters when you are bludgeoning corners into submission. Just ask anyone whose phone went left while their car went right.

For my installation, I 3D printed a small mount angled to face me and embedded a 3mm thick steel washer into the base. A fishing magnet located at the back of the carbon fiber dash grabs onto the washer and holds the mount in place. It's very secure when underway and very easy to mount and unmount, leaving no trace upon removal.

Yikes!This blog was last updated over 2 years ago!!  Okay, so I’ve been a
bit delinquent, but given my website statistics, I think I’m the only person
who’s noticed.  The past two years have been pretty uneventful car-wise, so I’ll just touch the highlights here in reverse chronological order.

Adding Even More Lightness
The Odyssey PC680 in the Westfield was beginning to die, and since Lithium batteries are coming down in price...I picked up a 16 cell Ballistic EVO2 battery through Amazon.  Before going through the installation hassles though (I plan to relocate it, so will need to mess with the cables and build a new battery tray/hold down setup) I wanted to test it in cold weather to make sure it is up to the task of how I use the car.  The other afternoon, with the temps in the mid 30's and falling, I rolled the Westfield out of the garage and let it sit on the driveway to acclimate to the colder outside temps. When checking back over 2-1/2 hours later, an infrared thermometer showed the battery had equalized with the current air temp at 31F and the block was a warmer, but still chilly, 37F.  Next it was time for the big test, so I inserted the key and turned...the engine fired right up! I immediately switched it off and then repeated that process two more times, and the result was three back-to-back startups around the freezing mark with zero issues.  Not too shabby for something that tipped my postal scale at
3lb 4.5oz! For comparison, the PC680 on the same scale came in at 14lb 10oz.

Stereo
I've been toying with putting a decent stereo in the 993 since buying it 5 years ago.  The cheap aftermarket head unit matched the interior, but wasn't a sonic masterpiece, while the factory speakers suffered from age related rot, so they...well, sucked.  Since Christmas is always a good time to spend wastefully, I picked up a new head unit locally (Kenwood Excelon KDC-x995), and then went to Rod Birch of Rennlist fame for speakers (Focal 165 V30) and amp (Arc Audio KS125.2 Mini).  The tweeters on these particular Focal's are small enough to fit in the factory tweeter housings with just a little persuasion from a Dremel, so other than the head unit, the system looks stock.  The amp is a class-H item which is really, really small and  light, and fits perfectly under the passenger seat.  It was a pretty big project
that took almost an entire weekend, but the results are impressive.

The Miata came with a poorly installed, tacky-looking silver head unit that was *really* out of place in the otherwise nice interior.  Given there’s now an innocuous-looking, black Clarion from the 993 sitting on the shelf, I made the swap.  It’s not a sonic improvement over the outgoing Sony XPLOD (no really, that’s the name Sony’s branding brain trust came up with after countless focus groups and hundreds of hours of market analysis), at least it looks a lot better.

It's very well made, has full extension, ball bearing drawer slides, and features 73% more drawer area than my outgoing cabinet, so I now have space for everything.

Speaking of  everything, the garage is also a little short on space for those
things, so I installed new, adjustable shelves over the tool cabinet.  (that’s the new shop dog, an 11 month old Great Pyrenees who doesn't like
to pose for photographs).

I recently upgraded my floor jack and stands.The 993 works better with flat
top stands, and I wanted something that would enable me to raise the cars a little higher than my old set up, so I went with the ESCO from Ultimate Garage.  It is a copy of the NLA AC Hydraulic stands, and shares the beefy construction, useful 13”-21” range, and build quality with the original.  They also share the price, but thanks to a group buy on Rennlist, I saved $13/corner.  For a floor jack, I picked up a very nice piece from Griot’s Garage at their annual garage sale – only $85 rather than the normal $400 price tag.
 
Last weekend I used the setup for the first time and was blown away by the
difference in stability.I’ve never had a pair of ratchet type stands that lock
at exactly the same lift height.  This doesn’t seem to make a difference in a
real car where the vehicle weight is sufficient that modest chassis flex keeps
all the jacking points in contact with the stands.  With the Westfield, however, the car is so light, that it would only rest on three stands at any given time.  With the ESCOs the Westfield was rock solid.  Very comforting.
  
Unfortunately I discovered that my bargain floor jack is broken.  After lifting
the car a few inches I noticed a puddle of hydraulic fluid forming under the
piston.  Not good.  A quick call to Griot’s and they told me to bring it by for
a look.  If it is repairable then they’ll take care of it, otherwise they will
simply exchange the jack – even though it was bought at the garage sale which is an all-sales-final affair.  They may not offer the lowest prices, but their customer service is outstanding.

I know that last time I promised pictures of the new transmission tunnel caps, but I unfortunately didn’t get around to it.  The caps are installed and are completed except for minor trimming, so the next step is to cut out the pattern for the cover, pull out the sewing machine and relearn how to use it - and take pictures.  Hopefully I'll complete everything this weekend.