Don't really get the appeal, but I've seen Civic's & the like doing a pretty good job of it. Also, while I saw "road driven" and using his current engine, I didn't assume stock.
Really? I've got close family in Duanesburg and have visited them regularly since the 80's.. never noticed the plates though. Guess I'll pay more attention next trip.
Not to drag on, but you pointed out how well tape can adhere & the situation was regarding somewhat frequent add/removal of the plate. Goo-Gone type removers help, but from my experience, sometimes it still takes the power of the dark side to completely remove 3M & similar.
Then every time you want to go plate-less you've gotta deal with removing the tape/adhesive, make sure you stick it back on straight etc. Not brain surgery, but annoying none the less. For a center mount I'd do something like what I suggested and/or the colored cap idea above. So.. what state has orange plates and is a big enough jerk to actually require both?
Distantly related rant below: (regarding a ticket)
While traveling recently I got stopped for an expired registration. I was pissed to start with because the cop had to tailgate me @ interstate speeds to get my info. (soo wanted to brake-check him!! he didn't have his lights on either, so I wasn't sure what was up for a minute) Anyways, I get home to find he's given me an out of date number. After calling it & getting hung up on for about a week, I Google the right one and speak to a human. Turns out he didn't give me all the paperwork either, like the slip that's actually got the citation number @ the top. (resulting in the clerk getting pissy with me) Fine's $190, same as if I'd been going 16-21mph over the limit & the only way I can get a payment plan is if the magistrate WITNESSES my signature?! (meaning I drive 3h one way) I've been ticketed all over the country and haven't ever ran into that before. (it's not that I don't have the money, but paying it may result in having to postpone my FI plans a tad, heh) If I didn't have a personal plate it'd have been good until the end of March as well. That combined with my having not received renewal papers yet for whatever reason, caused me to completely forget about it. :doh:
Then you'd have fugly velcro & a plate that could fall and/or be rather easily knocked off. The first thing that came to mind was make a bracket of sorts that attaches in the opening that the plate overhangs. There're a few different ways one could make that work, have a solid mount & leave no trace or marks on the front of the bumper cover. I think I've seen variations of the idea sold commercially.
Regardless of the drilling aspect, do you think the plate looks worse centered, or did you just mean the holes in the bumper do when you completely remove the plate? I agree with Bose that if you have to run one, it'd probably look better in the middle/that the cover looks a bit odd & naked as is. Also, while I've always lived in states where front plates were optional, I've seen multiple mounting solutions over the years from others who also didn't want to drill. Surely there're alternatives for BMW's?
Here's a bad pic of the back of my Tamiya rim. I realize it's likely not helpful for modification of yours, but there's a chance Tamiya and/or another manufacturer makes your rim with a similar spoke design..
Without a daylight shot of both the car & seats, from the same camera, lighting etc, (unless you've seen both in person), how can you say they're a bad match? Taking such into consideration, they don't look far off to me.. but I could be wrong. Also while it'd be nice, we can't all have color-coded interior accents.
The pictures aren't great/can't see them real well, but I don't see anything wrong with the replacements. Do you think they're gaudy just because they've got some color accents that match the paint? Getting rid of that OEM pattern in the center sections definitely isn't a bad thing, nor is the addition of leather. (instead of vinyl or whatever) It's not like they're all blue or multicolored etc.
I'll try & get a pic of the Tamiya rim later tonight'ish. Like I said, I'd definitely surf around to see if there're any alternatives and if anybody can get you pics if so.
That sucks about the diff. While welding is an Ok short term plan, it really does negatively affect the car's wonderful handling properties. I'd suggest finding online MX-5 communities and/or used Miata parts dealers. These cars are typically so popular & plentiful, (at least in the US), that you'll find sites/yards which specialize in cannibalizing wrecked ones. Open diffs aren't too expensive here and while the average price of used factory LSD's from a yard seems to be around $900USD, I wound up finding a private party selling a few for $300USD. (by way of miata.net, and in various ratio's ) Unless you plan to dramatically increase power @ some point, open diff's tend to be the more popular for autoX Miata's, but for the price & due to my FI plans I couldn't pass up the opportunity!
Ahh dang, I was kinda wondering about such & just assumed that wouldn't be an issue. I wonder if there're any other manufacturer's of that rim design with better shaped spokes and/or if you could file them @ the back for better flow etc? The Tamiya rims I've got seem to have a good spoke design for airflow. (though are a different rim) I could take a pic from the back if you'd like to see.
Sounds good, that stinks it's too loud for ya though. Did a custom setup once with the same issue & wound up both deepening & deadening the tone a bit, (as well as cutting some rasp), by installing the longest glasspack possible as a resonator. Of course the engine was up front/there was more room to tinker with exhaust design too.
Again, I like it Derv94, nice subtle change that only Miata people and/or judge's will probably notice.