greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

So today was quite the busy day, pulled the 6spd out expecting TOB failure only to find that a spring had decided to liberate itself from the clutch disc, replaced the disc with a LUK disc we had laying around and put the trans back in along with a new pilot and TOB. Also added a new hanger to the exhaust system to keep it from moving around too much. We also put in some Garagestar delrin diff bushings while we had the car in the air.



The guys at FFD hooked me up with another set of their great wheels, this time in silver. I mounted a set of 225/45/15 RS3 V1s on them along with some red extended open end muteki lug nuts. They look great.



The bad news is that the clutch slips in gears 4+, leaving me with 2 options considering I have 3 days of tracking coming up next weekend. I can theoretically run wastegate pressure and run low power, or I can overnight an ACT XT-SS and hopefully get it installed by Tuesday nigh tand break it in by Saturday morning.

Here are some photos from today's fun

curly

iTrader: (25)

Careful on that clutch. The benefit of FM or 949 clutches is they spend time with the miata hydraulics and clutch fork. ACT deals with diameters and friction material only, so there's a few ACT clutches that are super heavy.

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

I don't mind a heavy pedal, I just want to end this clutch fiasco and have it hold up to the future abuse Ill throw at it.

shlammed

iTrader: (8)

I had a 1.6L ACT xtreme in my Miata,.... its really, really stiff. more stiff than anything else I have used, ever.

I would upgrade the friction material and lighten the pressure plate a bit. a 6 puck clutch with sprung hub center would be my choice for a long lasting drivetrain with lots of power holding.

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

I dont mind the stiff pedal feel since my daily driver has an ACT XTSS clutch with a full face organic disk. I would go with FM but Im disappointed in the fact that spring liberated itself from the clutch and so I dont want to deal with that again.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Well I didn't say get FM obviously, and 949 clutches are no longer available, but IIRC there are certain ACT clutches that have that crazy stiff clutch, and certain ones that don't. The MSM I parted had a very streetable clutch, but still held good power. Contact Conner, I'm not sure if he's even put it in yet.

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

Too late, the XTSS is on its way and will be here tomorrow. The XTSS is the one with the stiffer PP compared to the HDSS, however with my eventual torque goals I think it is best to play it safe and have the XTSS. I looked at other options like FM and 949, and right now I dont want to shell out the money for a 949 twindiisk since I see no possibility of wanting a clutch that holds that much power.

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

A few small updates. Pulled the trans again, curly and I did it on 80 minutes start to finish. Replaced clutch with ACT XT-SS with organic disc, awesome stiff clutch pedal. Grabs great, I like it.

Also scored this cool Mazdaspeed oil cap

And finally changed plugs on the motor, out come the Denso garbage, in go freshly gapped NBK 7Es


3 days of track thrashing coming up!!!

18psi

iTrader: (76)

normally i'd tell you the xt was a mistake, but you don't daily this thing, so it will likely be just fine for what you want

oregonmon

Awesome, in for turbo track rat to come home under its own power after 3 consecutive track days.

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

Vlad my turbocharged 330 wheel daily galant has an XTSS in it, my clutch leg is up to the task.
I also have a Tilton 5.5 inch twin disk that I need to find the right flywheel for in case the XTSS doesn't work out to my liking

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

Finally got caught up on this build, hopefully I can see it in action at the Alfa day. Thanks again for the clutch, hope it holds onto its springs.

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

So this last extended weekend was a real torture test for laz and myself. Started out Friday night attempting to break in a clutch the night before a track day, also had to mark my shift points on the speedo since laz still doesn't have a functioning tach, needless to say topping laz out in each gear on farmland back roads at night was exhilarating.

Saturday morning saw NASA time trials at PIR, action photos and videos to come but the car was great, ran consistently in the low 1:26s with a best of 1:26 dead on a 90 degree day on worn out tires. For reference Bob Bundy was running in the 22s, I had a nice battle with a 420whp conti slick shod evo 9 driven by my friend Jason.

Here is a shot my friend Molly took in the paddock of Laz hanging out.



car was good until I melted the 1.6 brakes and had caliper seal failure.



that's the pad between the rotors, one of which was cracked.

Threw a new set of front calipers, rotors, and pads on it and drove out to Oregon Raceway Park that night.

ORP has some nice clear gas right at the track, here is laz filling up, again, video to come soon



First time to ORP post MSM swap, ran a 1:56 dead as my personal best with lots of time left in the car, had a good battle with Brian Kelly and John Mann and was within a second of their best, the session that I had clear track I also had a passenger. Again, laz was great and had no issues, went out on my newly mounted 225 rs3 v1s on my street set of FFD wheels at the end of the day and did a 1:58, car is a blast to slide around on street tires. Drove home that night.

Next morning was BMW club track day at PIR. it was only about 70 degrees outside, lots of the local hairdressers showed up, here is a photo of Laz and curly's smurf on my street FFDs



went out in the morning, did my personal best and broke into the 1:25s, I think with fresh tires and better brakes this car has low 24s in it. I managed to go through 50% of my new front pads in 6 total sessions between ORP and Portland. Unfortunately after my fast lap I saw the temp start to climb and the charge light came on so I killed it and trundled into the pits. This is what I saw.



crank pulley sheered off, no big deal.

and the lap



and an action shot of laz exiting turn 3



and a small clip of me hassling a 996 gt3

Charles White Photography | VIDEOS-BMW Track Day @ PIR - Sept 22, 2014 | Video 13

even though laz was down I had the pleasure of driving curly's car for a session, was good fun, oregonmon's car for a session, and my student's chevy 350 swapped with a 4spd Miata on archaic suspension and stock brakes for a few laps.



Great great weekend spent with good friends. Looking forward to fixing laz and bigger and better things next season.









The car has come so far, a year ago I could not have fathomed it would be here. Thank you to all the forum members for their support throughout the build, and for all the vendors and sponsors including AR Auto Service/Adrenaline Racing, Garagestar, FFD Motorsports, Singular, Kazspec Engineering, and Im sure others that I am forgetting. There is much more to come.

Have a few exciting winter projects in store, including something very similar to this.

m2cupcar

iTrader: (5)

Any reason not to go with a sanctioned/qualified cage? That way IF you ever wanted to race wheel-to-wheel you could. It would definitely increase the value by growing the venues the car could compete in. Oh, and then there's the safety benefit.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Pretty sure price and class are big factors.

It's never going to fit in any class now that it's turbo'd. Too fast. We'd be doing full aero to be competitive in whatever class he'd fit in right now. And no one but Martin would really be able to drive it. As is it's scary even to most N/A Miata drivers. 250ft/lbs comes on fast.

And that's a $1000-1200 cage vs. the above ~$500.

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

I have no desire to race this car wheel to wheel, I have a bit too much of an emotional attachment to it at this point and I also want to focus on building a more time trials oreinted car. The biggest weakness in the chassis so far is the inherent flacid nature of a miata chassis with 235k on it. I want to stiffen it it while minimizing weight gain, hence the halfcage with the weld in door bars.

Also, I like to drive the car on the street during the summer and I dont feel quite comfortable doing so with a full cage.
This car was built for the purpose of having fun, and that's all I want from it. Also, if I ever do wheel to wheel it will be chumpcar/lemons and this car has just too much into it to make it a worthwhile car to campaign in that realm.

m2cupcar

iTrader: (5)

Understood.

I am stunned that the rollbar/doorbar setup in the photo is $500. I thought it would be more like a $300 difference. Or is that just the addition of door bars to the existing roll bar?

I get the fast part- it's a realistic consideration. That would be my reason for installing the cage, when there's fail at top speed. I have a flaccid 90 Miata that was raced with a bolt-in cage and you could still hear/feel it twist in dramatic load changes- so I hear ya.

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

Well the setup is 850 but after selling my current bolt in roll bar it should be right around 500 out of pocket.m

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

some more updates

Did some test fitting of 11.25 inch lotus elise brake rotors with 2 piston AP racing calipers, the rotors are significantly thicker than any Miata bbk kit rotor Ive seen. My wheels clear them easily so now its just a matter of making a bracket for the Miata hub and boom, no more melting front brakes for laz.

The car in the photo is a Lotus 211



I got laz all put together with a new OEM crank pulley, crank pulley boss, and bolts.



Also threw my favorite wheels back on my daily driver



I also had the pleasure of driving this around after aligning it, street/track prepped e36 M3, moton doubles, carbon bits everywhere, Recaros, half cage, Tilton twin disk, the car was a dream to drive.















And some more photos from NASA time trials courtesy of ShutterMeShort photography

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Car looks great.

Laz looks pretty good too.