573

iTrader: (2)

I'm using the TinyCWA. IIRC, I learned about it in one of your threads. tinyCWA

acedeuce802

iTrader: (1)

I got a ride in this thing on Saturday for the first time. It is incredible! It's prompted me to start a spreadsheet wishlist for a future LSx build.

Woot, for making it in your build thread haha.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

How come all the pictures i see you're in the drivers seat?

Also, if i didn't know Curt i would never be able to pick him out in that picture. lol

acedeuce802

iTrader: (1)

All the driving pictures: I'm one of the two lead drivers for the team (for the two most popular driving events, autocross and endurance), and our car failed half way through our first endurance. So, I have 75% of the drive time in competition, where most pictures are.

Static pictures: Chief Engineer get's first dibs

573

iTrader: (2)

I've come to the realization that my Miata is the most practical vehicle that I have for transporting large objects.






The barrel is becoming a bbq and the guts of the treadmill will drive a rotisserie.

Mobius

iTrader: (2)

Excellent!

573

iTrader: (2)

This thing is now garaged for the winter. Plans for this winter aren't particularly labor intensive for once, which is nice. Some proper coilovers top the list. My 100k+ mile r-package Bilsteins and 450F 300R Ground Control setup is likely a pretty big performance bottleneck at this point. I haven't decided which ones I want, perhaps Xida Clubsports, but I need to read more before moving on something. Oh, and ABS may happen as well. And I'd like to remake my front bumper. A proper custom radiator would be nice too in place of my heavily modified, amateur welded, universal scirocco rad. Hmmmmmmmm....so maybe I'll be busy after all.

Anyway, here's what's happened since the last update...

Two day OTD at Gingerman. I got some coaching on my lines from Danny Kellermeyer, a very successful racer in the area, and ended up being pretty quick. Tons of fun!










Video of a few of my faster laps from the weekend:


And finally, before I put it away, I had to let what remained of my tires go out in a blaze of smoky glory.



Oh, and there's this. If you're cringing, it's okay, I was too. These are the corner weights with half a tank of gas and myself in the car. What's appalling is the wedge, at >54%. This is the first time I've had the car on corner scales, and what you see is the product of my just kind of eyeballing things and deeming them probably fine for the time being when installing the suspension. Well, now I know why my car oversteers to the right and understeers to the left. Fortunately, this is one of the easiest things in the world to adjust.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Awesome, loving the bumper cut. Makes me want to get my car corner weighted.. damn.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

This ****** thread needs more than a bump, Curt.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

Alright **** it, i can't hang you boys out to dry and not share some awesomeness.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

hahaha what a beast

573

iTrader: (2)

I haven't been prolific with forum posting lately but that doesn't mean that I've not been busy working on and enjoying this car. During the off season I upgraded the suspension, engine, and made another set of unusual custom headlights. I also have a few projects that are currently in the works.

I'll post some more details and photos after work but here's some track footage for now. Fun fact: the Seca track day was incorporated into an enormously fun 7,200 mile road trip. I now have over 18,000 miles on this swap.

Grattan:


Laguna Seca:

573

iTrader: (2)

Okay, time to drop a photo bomb.

First up, the engine... What started out as concern for the sustained well being of my stock valve springs ended with me installing ported ls6 heads, with some nice stiff springs that shouldn't be phased by what I subject them to, and a more aggressive cam. The lift on my cam isn't particularly high, a decision I made for reliability, however the duration and overlap have gone up drastically. It's now a full embodiment of of the things that people who hate v8's hate about v8's. Loud, lopey, and very much not epa friendly...which I'm not proud of but on toy like this I'll let it slide. Still not a power monster(in v8 terms, not Miata terms), but based on what's done the wheels should rotate with the strength of nearly 400 horses, or unicorns since this is a Miata. Also for reliability I installed an ls2 timing chain. It's a bit beefier and less apt to break when I occasionally scrape the rev limiter.




While I was at it I cleaned the hell out of everything that I encountered. Selective OCD at work...






I've also picked up ABS components from an NB. This project isn't complete and is moving slowly. So far, there's a mount for the ABS module and I've switched to ABS compatible front hubs and uprights. Next up is figuring out the mounting for the rear wheel speed sensors and tone wheels. I may have to stick my axles in a lathe to bring the OD down to the ID of the oem tone wheels but I still need to investigate the viability of that. Then wiring harness which is easy and plumbing which is just tedious.



I touched on the cooling system as well. Last season I ran a universal radiator that had been modified to work with my setup. The welds ended up being kind of dirty and there were some pinhole leaks that I repaired, by redneck definition, with some epoxy. That got me though the season. I have too many teeth and not enough flannel to leave the system in such a state so I had a new radiator made, by somebody capable of making welds that don't leak, to fit my specifications. It's nice--whether on track or sitting in traffic in a 105 degree desert, my water temp won't budge.

Water pump bracket:









I've also installed Xida Clubsport v2's. I chose 800 front 500 rear. The car may be a little over-sprung right now but I chose those spring rates with the intent to add some down force in the not too distant future and also because they F/R wheel rate ratio is about the same as what I had with my previous setup, which actually provided a pretty satisfactory balance. Also, I think my unibody must be in really awesome shape because I made literally zero adjustments to achieve 50% wedge. I just set the collars to be an equal number of threads up from the bottom and stuck them on the car.



Now for the fun stuff... Over the course of about three weeks, I drove 7200 miles, to California and back, with a number of stops along the way to visit friends and do cool things. My Miata probably wouldn't be most people's first choice of vehicle for such a trip but when you consider that people used to go out west on horseback, gaining sustenance via the consumption of rattle snakes sprinkled with gun powder, my car, with special amenities such as a seat...and another seat that I sat a cooler on...made the trip not only bearable but genuinely pleasant. *Not applicable to the two instances where I encountered flash flooding and had to wade through literally a few inches of water. But even so, the thing was pretty damn reliable and I'd totally do it again.

Auto-x in Nebraska. I dominated X Prepared, which just consisted of myself and a rough looking z3.


Claiming victims


American muscle......bro...


Utah salt flats. No I didn't drive on them.


This is the street we stayed on in San Fran




Prepping our cars for the track in a cul de sac.






















After the car meet pictured above I went to the Wal Mart parking lot that my friends were at, trying to fix the Camaro. The torque arm mount fell off. Using what was available to us at 1am, that being a clothes line from a nearby grocery store, I employed my dope eagle scout skillz and lashed the torque arm to the crossmember. Then we drove from LA to Vegas...and eventually on to San Antonio where the yarn was replaced with a new mount. This didn't budge at all.


We all wore these for the drive to Vegas because not doing so would have been pretty silly IMO.


Then we water skied through New Mexico...

573

iTrader: (2)

I tried driving straight yesterday and I think it went pretty well.



I was launching in second and by the end of the pass I'd be at the top of fourth. I have to practice my launches though....I'd get some wheel spin, let off to regain traction, and then roll into the throttle again. It was kind of tricky since I didn't want to bog or burn the clutch. Based on what some of my friends are saying, the trap speed should be good for high tens. It'd be pretty cool to make a 10 second pass so I may practice a bit, pull out my negative camber, and have another go at it.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

hahaha yeah 126 trap should definitely be good for 10's, but if you're saying you cross the line at end of 4th it might be difficult to actually hit 10's for you cause that extra shift will really kill the et.

in case this wasn't said enough already: that car is a beast

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

yeah that's pretty nuts, must be a pucker ride for sure.

EDIT: they let you stay at the track with that ET and your (4 point?) roll bar? Hmm...Drive shaft loop?

EDIT 2: I see you have door bars, my bad.

573

iTrader: (2)

Towards the top. I may have had another 500 rpm left but I wasn't looking at the tach at the end of the pass--mostly judging my sound.
It's kind of a rough back country track and they seemed to be pretty lose with rules. They didn't look at my car or helmet so I probably could have gotten away with using a 4 point roll bar. I don't have a drive shaft hoop.

573

iTrader: (2)

The car is in storage now, and actually has been for the last month and a half because I've run off to Germany...but I'll share what I was working on before I left.

The headlights that I built before I did the California road trip seemed pretty good...but then I tried to do some night time canyon driving and I quickly realized that were grossly inadequate in that setting. My primary gripe was that the projectors did not put enough light out to the sides. I was entering turns blind, which isn't safe or confidence inspiring. I had to come up with something better.

Adaptive headlights have been on my radar for a while. Driving cars that are equipped with them has always been a treat. Making a set just wasn't a high priority. Then I was an idiot and forgot to reinstall my hood pins after washing the car. The hood flew up and I needed a new one. Putting headlights behind the windshield was something that I had also been contemplating because getting the performance I desired from the stock headlight location seemed unlikely, so I had a new hood made that blocked off the stock headlight openings and that put things into motion for high mounted adaptive lights to actually happen.

Anyway, photos....







Covers to block out glare:


Pulley, bored out for the steering column.


A 10 turn pot went on the small pulley. This proved to be a cheap and easy way to track my steering inputs.






To answer the most likely questions....

-No, I haven't been pulled over with these yet. That said, I keep an excerpt from the Michigan motor vehicle code and a tape measure in the car so that I can prove that at least as far as mounting height goes, they're legal. They're aimed to be fairly courteous to other drivers.

-They do not obstruct my view in any appreciable way. I sit low and am only 5' 9". Taller people would have a tough time driving my car, which is fine because I don't really pass my keys around.

-They're controlled by an Arduino. Servos, equivalent to what you'd find on an RC car, move the projectors.

-Glare is negligible.

-This is what they're like in heavy rain. It sucks but I expected that. That's why I have the LED spot lights in the front bumper. They make the car plenty drivable in **** weather.


-I intend to eventually read the VSS output so that I can scale the headlight movements based on vehicle speed.

-They work great. I went to the tightest and most twisty local road that I know of. They threw tons of light where I needed it most.