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SuperMiata announced their Orange Friday sale today! I sent them an email at 11pm est and heard back from them within 15 mins. I spoke with Ed about which spring rates to run and this is what we cam up with
We actually went from 800/500 to 900/500 on our TT6 car mid-season last year and it was a positive change. Our car was lighter and made less power but we ran hoosiers. Your heavier car with a little less sticky tire will probably like the higher rates.
As a note, the 3.6 rear ratio will cost you a lot of speed at that power level. You want a 4.3 for most tracks but even a 4.1 would be a big improvement.
So looks like Hanukkah is coming early this year in the form of some Xidas.
Nice! Xidas are the bomb for sure. I've actually been considering bumping up to 900# springs up front just to see how it feels. But first I need to take advantage of their sale to fix my slipping clutch haha.
The last couple of weeks have been devoted to renovating one of my bathrooms. Today I caught a break when the people delivering my vanity top cancelled, so I was able to walk into the garage to work on the Miata instead of cutting tile.
I removed the header today and plan to have it installed shortly.
Racing beat header, cerakoted 34.1 lbs
CA manifold weight in at
RB header weight in at half the weight, 15.1
Anything I should do while the header is off? I plan on clean the surface before putting on the new gasket, but other than that I don't see the need to do anything else in that area.
Got a call from SuperMiata today, they are currently out of Hyperco 900 springs so we decided to go with 850s for the front. Excited to have those shipped and installed.
My Xidas, 850/500, arrived in the mail today. These are my first coilovers I've ever purchased for a car of mine,I've handled a few other brands, but these just seem so well built and solid. I just finished remodeling my downstairs bathroom, now I can move on to installing my headers, midpipe and my racing beat exhaust once it arrives. After that's ill put in I'll start taking the suspension apart and checking the status of all my bushings and install the Xidas, sways and end links. A lot is being done in the off season and I can't wait to get the car on track and get everything dialed in.
I've been making a lot of progress on the NB lately. The exhaust is full out from the header back. While I was in there I replaced the O- ring for the water mixing valve and gave it a good scrub. I'll be replacing it with a RB header, Roadstersport midpipe(until I move out of a state that checks emissions), and a RB muffler. 75.7 lbs Header, heatshield, midpipe, muffler
I get a case of the hot feet from the header coming through the transmission tunnel. So I'm going to take off the stock heat shield thats in that area and replace it with this duct insulation. I've used it before for a similar purpose and it worked green. I'll simple green the crap out of the area, rough it a bit and roll a nice sheet of this on. Hopefully that'll help bring the in cabin temps down a smidge. 8.9 lbs. Stock rear suspension 6.1 lbs. Rear Xida
The stock endlink was the longest part of taking the old shocks out, I could not get the nut off, so I had to cut it with a wheel. In its place will be SM adjustable and a RB bar #54103, so I wasn't too heartbroken about having to cut it. The threads of the endlinks were coated with a nice mixture of red loctite and rust, so when I held the thread from moving with an allen key it was just getting shredded whenever I turned the wrench. It had to come off somehow.
I'm at a bit of a stand still because my RB order from Dec 22nd just arrived and it contains my exhaust, sways bars, so for now I'll install everything I can and slap in the endlinks and sway bars to finish off the suspension; along with the last bit of the exhaust. That will pretty much finish all of my bolt ons I planned for this winter, with the exception of a squaretop manifold, but that can wait. After that I'll pull the dash and tidy up under there and get the car dialed in and ready for a limerock weekend and just daily it until I sell the house in NY and find a new house in VA.
Name a more iconic duo. Breaker bar and ratcheting ratchet, 21mm do get the upper UCA bolt out This little douche 9.14 lbs. Stock front shock 7.13 lbs. Front Xida The last one is in
Test fitting the RB header
Not a huge update, but a small milestone hit...All my Xidas are installed. These are my first coilovers and the first time I've ever done any suspension work. Once I got the hang of what I needed to do, it wasn't bad at all. Except the locktited endlinks and the upper UCA bolt, but once I got some shorter 21mm sockets it was a piece of cake.
I'm still waiting on my sway bars and endlinks from SM, but racing beat seems to be extremely back up currently. When I get my endlinks is there a proper way of adjusting them or just make sure they fit? I'm going to do a base home adjustment and then have a shop corner balance and do a race alignment.
The racing beat header was so much easier going in than the OEM one was coming out. My header was Cerakote ceramic coated by the previous owner, but I through in some duct insulation around the trans tunnel anyway and I'm sure it'll help. The only time I ever really feel the heat is when I wear shorts and go for a quick drive, but I've never felt it at the track. I'm hoping to clean up under the car a bit, change some fluids, install the midpipe and when my sway bar comes in throw the rear in at the same time as the RB muffler.
I think I followed SuperMiata's instructions on the endlinks. The key thing is to make sure they (the spherical bushings) can move freely once everything on the car is settled. You don't want them to be bound up at all and creating any preload on the bar.
For the FUCA bolts, slap some ant-seize on the shaft if you can for the next time they need to come out. Mine were rusted in place to the point where I cut them out the first time (along with the RLCA long bolts) and it was rather pricey to get new ones from Mazda. This most recent time taking them out after anti-seize was super easy.
Bought some goodies from the man himself, Tarmac88 GWR cattied Mid pipe 18.3 lbs
I'm not a cat
Not a lot going on mainly because the weather has been extremely volatile in upstate NY lately. I'm wrapping up my suspension, with just the endlinks to finish putting on. I'm being a little too obsessive over the angle, especially with the rears. I've watch the 949 install video a few times, but for some reason I'm over analyzing it. Once I get those put on I'm giving the car a base alignment and bringing it to EFI Logics, https://www.efilogics.com/, for a corner balance and alignment. EFI mainly deals with Subaru builds, but most of the techs also have Miatas and are always at the North east events. I really thought doing the eccentrics would be a little harder, but that was a piece of cake and was interesting to see how they work.
When pulling the rear heat shield to have better access to the rear sway bar I noticed small pinholes and one dime sized hole under the shield. I'm planning to repair those and protect the area with some fresh paint and then I can hang the RB exhaust and that will be the whole exhaust system done. I currently have the RB header and the GWR catted midpipe. I'm hoping once I pass inspection in NYS I'll take off the catted midpipe and put in the RB race pipe. Then I'll probably V band the race pipe and the GWR mid pipe to make a quick change setup for inspection purposes.
I registered for a track day, probably my last one with NASA NE, at Lime in April. I really want a set of 15x9 and run 205s on them, but I don't know if its in the budget because I'm getting ready to move and aggressively paying off debt and remodeling. My question is will the Xidas and new sway bars over power my 15x7 205 set up? I've already accepted that the day will most be getting used to be new setup and finding the right dampening set up for the Xidas, but I love Lime Rock and wanted to get one last session in, shame its only a one day event.
I think you’ll be fine if you stick with faster tires. The suspension doesn’t do anything that the driver doesn’t make it do... with heavier spring rates and stiffer bars you’ll have to work harder to get the weight transferred and won’t be able to feel it as easily, but on a sticky tire you’ll carry more corner speed without getting on the bump stops. With that setup on a track-only car I’d look at something like 205 Toyo RR’s.
My first few events with my XIdas and sway bars were on stock 6" wide wheels on 195 width Toyo R888Rs and it did fine. Even still with my current 225s on 9s I've still yet to move the bars to a stiffer setting. I don't see any reason to upgrade wheels now if you already have something that works. Learning how to control the car will still occur even if the setup is considered sub-par by the internet. You're not out there trying to win a race, it's still car development and learning how to handle to car...plus hopefully just having a ton of fun!
Picked up my car from EFI Logics and its aligned, corner balanced and ready for the track in April. I drove it around my neighborhood a bit and it feels solid. It feels more planted, no more creaks going into turns. Al I have to do now is brake fluid, oil, and switch from coolant to high quality H20.
I'm still trying to decide what tire to go with. I'd really like to try out R888Rs, but since I only have a single set of wheels and plan on moving I'd like to minimize the amount of tires I have floating around. I have a set of Falkens with a few sessions left on them, but I might just give those away and get some A052s, Cr-1, or RT660s or another one of the "Super 200s," so I can get the car inspected and prepped to move down south.
Once you get down south I think you'll enjoy the heat tolerance of a true trackday tire like the R888R over a street tire. The Super 200s are good for a hero lap or two per session, but if you are looking for CONSISTENT lap times without needing a cooldown lap then I think the semi-slick R-comps are the answer.
Once you get down south I think you'll enjoy the heat tolerance of a true trackday tire like the R888R over a street tire. The Super 200s are good for a hero lap or two per session, but if you are looking for CONSISTENT lap times without needing a cooldown lap then I think the semi-slick R-comps are the answer.
Agreed. When I get a set of track only wheels I'll run a true track day tire.
A local supplier said he can get me RT660s for cost, so I'll go with a set of those.
First track day of 2021 is just 2 weekend away and I couldn't be more excited. I changed my brake pads today, I need to give the car a good wash, cut and buff and that's it.
I haven't used any other pads, but I love the DTC60s, non sport brake, that I've been using. This is 4 track weekends(the left obviously) and even on that last track day the braking was still super consistent, but I did experience some pad knock back. What's funny is last year when I was super green I was changing pads after every event because I was scared. I always bring a spare set of pads to the track with me and 3-4 bottles of motul Motul rbf600. After this event I will probably take some time off and focus on my move to VA, but in the meantime I will probably start gathering parts to run sport brakes.
11-26-2020, 01:09 AM
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