ApexAlchemist

i.love.this.car.that.is.allllllll.

charlie_91

So sunday went to a meet, that was good. First drive with the new exhaust on and holy sh*t its good. So much better then the loud one. Nice and quiet when im just puttin around but when i get on boost i have the screamer come in to play so atleast it sounds good :P

Really happy with how its been driving and no issues have came up.

Heres some pics from that..








Then on wednesday i had a track day at Queensland Raceway. It was awesome. First session on the sprint track was getting use to the car but it felt really good so managed to get a 63.4 on the last lap . Second session i was a bit more confident and had no traffic so it gave me more room to improve and that i did. Managed a 62.3. Stoked with those times. Car is pretty easy to control. On exits i need to be careful cos it does wanna get a bit sideways there but in saying that its really easy to control sideways and isnt snappy like i was expecting. Brakes seemed to do the job pretty good (nb8a brakes with solid rotors and xp10's all round) and it never really felt like they were wearing that much. Tires held up really good but towards the end of the sessions i was getting a bit of understeer so maybe just a bit hot? not sure.

Next was clubman circuit and i never really got the hang of it.. A few corners i ran a bit wide and ended up with a bit of oversteer because of that but given more track time i think i will improve.. Once again brakes did there job as well as tires. After the first session i got a 65.4 i think. Second session the car felt a bit twitchy and i wasnt sure why so i only lapped in 66's but upon coming to the pits one of the bushings fell out of the lower control arm on the outers :P So that could explain it haha. Temps throughout the day were spot on. Never looked like over heating

Apart from the bushing falling out, (two on closer inspection and two more were on its way out) the only other issue i had was from the breather. because the catch can doesnt route back to the intake or some other place i was getting a bit of oil and as it built pressure inside the can it would expell into the engine bay. There was a fair bit of blowby but ive had it looked at with the mechanics and its nothing to worry about. Once a proper breathing system is put in place i shouldnt have any issues at all..

So today the local mx5 parts warehouse had some lower control arms all with sperical bushings in them. Since i was down a bushing i decided to chuck them in and be done with it. I needed another alignment anyways. Next week ill hopefully get the tune looked over at gt auto to make sure its all running the way it should. Im deciding not to drive to sydney this weekend as its just to much and ive got to much work on atm. And ive realised after the track day, that power is perfectly fine for learning with. If i got anymore power id definitely have issues with brakes and tires.

So next track day is hopefully the 20th at qr again only on sprint track this time. Hopefully i can sort out the tune, breathing before then Would have to say this is the most fun ive had in this car yet

Pics:

Cruising out


Trying to catch the s2k on the straight


Got him


One last one


Cheers

charlie_91

update:

So managed to get a couple of videos..

Here u go

Short Clip

Long Clip

And heres a couple of pics.. Right now the car has been raised a little, more cut out and canards and wing is back off. I remounted the fender as u can see in the first pic it kinda unhooked and just flapped in the wind like a boss :P

charlie_91

Havent updated on this forum in ages but for whoever cares :P
Cut my rear bumper









Coated my wheels black cos i got over cleaning the polished lip







Did a track day at Lakeside Raceway

Flickr: Andrew Foy Imaging's Photostream
Andrew Foy Imaging | Facebook

Down the hill into Hungry


Hard turn it


Parking up


In car vid

Favourite pic from the day

charlie_91

Did a roadtrip with some mates.

Roadtrip to Sydney write up

Friday:

So i woke up friday morning, went into work for a few hours then headed home to start packing and getting my car ready for the big trip down to sydney. Plan was to leave the Gold Coast at 11pm, drive straight through to Sydney with a couple of stops in bewteen and get there around 10am ready start preparing for The Lowdown's Showcased meet that started at 1pm. Unfortunately not everything goes to plan :P

Washed, waxed and pack the car and i was pumped to start getting on with it.


Drove over to a mates house to meet up with him on the way so we could travel down to meet the others an hour away. Before i got to his, i took the exit off the highways only to be confronted with an 4 cop bikes and 2 highway patrol cars. Clenching my **** i drove straight past and luckilly for me i got green lights and got through fine

Picked up my mate and drove down to meet the others at Chinderah BP just over the border into NSW.



Caught up with the others and wasted no time in getting on the road




First few hours were great, spoke some ---- with my mate in the car and everything seemed to be going great..

Saturday:
About two hours into the trip i looked in my rear view mirror to find the 2 other cars missing. We quickly pulled over at the next servo and called to see what happened. I did not expect to be told what i was told lol. Zak (drive a static slammed BMW 7Series) who run Streetkarnage had split his fuel tank open after bottoming out coming over a bridge. We looked for supplies in the Sevice Station to see if there was anything we could use unfortunately there was nothing. We drove back 2 kms to see how they were going to be confronted with the Beamer in the air with fuel pouring out of it.




While others were seeing if they could block the leak Zak raised the rear up. We convinced him to drive it up to the servo so have more space and light however he was concerned considering his car throws sparks constantly and Fuel + Spark isnt that great of a combination. We managed to get it back to the servo and decided it was a good photo opp :P


NOTE: the fuel puddle to the side of the car

Alex's bagged golf and Cobeys static stanced V35





One of the guys that was with us came up with a great idea to use soap to seal up the split and atleast stop the leak. They ran into the servo and got soap, plugged it up as good as they could, dropped the car and rolled it forward to see if the fuel was still leaking.

10 minutes passed and no sign of fuel POWER ON!!!!

charlie_91

After that setting us back 1.5hrs we had to get on the road if we were even gonna get close to making it in time. We drove for a couple of hours before stopping off for fuel, snacks and checking to see how the soap was going


Filling up like a boss :P



Drove through the dark and fog waiting to be greated by some light. At around 5am i started feeling a bit sick so i got my passenger to drive for a bit. Morning came and we decided to stop off for some breaky, talk some ---- and fuel





Dawn seemed like a perfect opportunity for rolling shots.. However my sickness got worse and i was relinquished to the Getz :P





Looking sorry for myself :P


As i tried yet failed to sleep we continued driving till we got to newcastle.. Unfortunately we got split up and had to try and meet up somewhere.. Still being 2 hours away we decided the car wash was a good option. I didnt last that long and had to pull over twice to throw up :(

By the time we all got to the carwash it was around 10.30 and promtly washed all out cars.. At this point my windows stopped working and the drivers side was stuck down :(



Not being able to put it up meant i couldn't wash it properly.. So i quickly sprayed it down and did the best I could without soaking the inside of my car haha :P Once washed and dried, we rolled out for the last time before we arrived at the meet.

charlie_91

With no time to spare we were hurrying to get there in time and was was supposed to be a boring drive on the highway actually turned out to be a lot fun seeing that the roads were twisty At this point i think everyone was surprised that we didnt see any cops lol Probably a good thing to

1.5hrs later we arrived at the carpark where the meet was held. Quickly parked up on the lower levels to wipe over out cars and get prepped to park up on the roof top





We drove up the top and got given out designated area Parked up as a club and got out and chilled for the rest of the arvo





A lot of coverage from a lot of good photographers. Heres my favs so far






Me with the beard





Alex's golf


For more coverage of the meet see these links
The-Lowdown Presents Showcased // Photo Coverage | Stance:Nation - Form > Function

Downshift | Australia's Best Events and Killer Rides

Streetkarnage

Meet finished so we headed packed up and made a move.

charlie_91

After a few hundred kilometers we stopped off for a break and we couldnt have timed it worse lol :P Two minutes after we pulled in i decided to put my lights up, thats when this cop came in.



Shortly after a Department of Transport car rolled in as well haha. We waited for him to start filling up and drove off on our merry way The sun went down and i started to feel my car like it wasnt boosting properly :( Didnt take much notice and just kept driving. About an hour later we stopped off on the 'private road' to do some skids :P It was after doing that i knew my car wasnt right.. Having no boost getting onto the highway i pulled off a couple of kilometers down the road.



Trying to diagnose to see what the problem was. Until one of the boys noticed this:


Danger to manifold :(

For the next 6 hours the car was noisy, uncomfortable, cold, smelly and not much fun to drive lol. We stopped off for dinner, fuel and the crack along the way and came to the last stop. This was about 2 hours from the gold coast and its where we all parted ways.. Wanting to get home asap i headed off first with the Getz.. About 5 minutes later a cop on the opposite side of the road drove by. I watched him disappear untill a couple of minutes later a pair of headlights was coming up from behind fast. I tried to put a few cars in between him and me but unfortunately he ended up behind me a couple of km's down the road. The road merged into two lanes so i moved across (Right hand rear indicator bulb blew on the way down) and two seconds later the lights came on :(



He proceeded to go through my car and defect me for the following items.


At this point my turbo had fallen off the manifold, i was tired, and i just wanted to get home.

Final stop for fuel and we were back in Queensland.


Sup brakedust


1.5 hours later (3.45am) i was home ---- yeahhh. Time for sleep.

Next day i washed the car and took it to a Automotive Plus to access the manifold and make plans



This is the aftermath :P


So thats the trip.. Even though it was long, and i was tired.... Its gotta be the most fun ive had in a long time . Big shout out to the Streetkarnage boys, Downshift and The Lowdown for organizing the event

charlie_91

Repaired manifold



New collector


All off again to get ceramic coated

New rear towhook

charlie_91

Got all parts re ceramic coated

Some pics


Hotside parts looking fresh


Killswitch mounted and hooked up


So much to do :P


Chillin with its big bro

charlie_91

Latest update is here..

Update:

So sunday we were trying to get my car sorted ready for the track day on monday. We got it all running and as i went to test drive it the car felt a lot quick. Looked at the ecu on the laptop and i was now making 19psi to my previous 15 psi. So big jump there.. We brought down the boost and knock back timing 4* just to be safe. WE were gonna get the tune re done during the week anyway so it was only temporary.

Next morning i went out to Lakeside with the mx5 club the the afternoon session only to have my exhaust fall off the hangers twice lol.. FUUUUU. When i got there i quickly zip tied the ******* together so they wouldnt slip off .


We were split into 3 groups and by 12.30 or so we were ready to get racing. There was something weird about my car and i couldnt put my finger on it. When i got on boost it would like sound like WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSH lol and it would seem like it would stop pulling as hard (i suspect the bov was leaking?). Never did this before the new manfiold. I didnt think much of it and proceded to drive out with group 1 and get on with it.. At the end of first hot lap i hear a POP!!! and suddenly no boost :( drove all the way around to get back to the pits and looked to see what i had assumed had happen was true. Cooler pipe blew off.

I put it all back together and clamped it down tight to make sure it wasnt coming out (yes i do have nipples welded to the end of the pipe :P) Seemed more or less ok so went out that next session. Familiar story, 2-3 lap in and POP!!. I did it again lol. Drove back in and grabbed some pliers to try and flare out the pipe to give it a better chance at sealing. Missed the 3rd session so waited it out for the 4th. Drove out, did warm up and managed to get 3 or 4 laps in woooohoooo lol At one point in the session i was stoked cos it hadnt blown off then 2 seconds later .. POP!!!

Incar vid from that session.
GOPR0013- YouTube

[YOUTUBE]7rs7g7NuGJ8[/YOUTUBE]

After that i tried to get it sealing again but the clamp was rooted so i just left it and began packing up. Sorta disappointed with the car and just having weird problems come up but oh well.. thats cars for u. Happy i managed to drive it home, N/A but still happy haha :P So this week im getting it sorted, re tuned, new bov and hopefully no issues for the track day on sunday

Cannot wait for this one. All my mates are racing and we are in the same group so should be sick.

Some pics.




how i left it :P


Also used harrys lap timer pro for the first time.. not a bad app.


Only slightly off the pace. Real time was 64.1.

charlie_91

So where we stand is atm cooler piping is getting fixed. Bead welded on the end of the pipes.. New silicon joiners to allow flex. New bov cos the old one shat itself. And finally new tune to go on this friday with high and low boost set. Should be interesting.

Sunday is another trackday so cant wait to get back out there and get a full day back in.

Scrappy Jack

iTrader: (2)

Yeah; especially for cars that see on-track action, I would look for rolled beads or some welds at a minimum. All the other tricks (like hairspray) are band-aids that won't hold up to SERIOUS GEEZ.


I'm assuming the rear wing is mounted inside the trunk. Any photos?

I can imagine you'll get some "hate" for hanging out with all the "stance kids" but at least you are out participating in car activities, including track days, and having a good time.

RE: your vehicle violations: FTC.


Finally, why is that 7-series called BEARD?

charlie_91

I never even knew about the hairspray trick lol. Yeah wing is mounted on the inside of the boot. I'll get pics over the weekend. Yeah I expect hate but meh. Its like every miata on here has to have 6uls to fit in lol.

7 series is called beard because the owner has a massive beard lol

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Sweet car man. Thanks for updating your thread with all these videos and pics for me to drool over. I'm in for dnyo results now!

charlie_91

Update

Ok so during the week we fitted a dual stage boost controller, new hks bov, fixed cooler piping all in preparation for the dyno today to get the tune sorted.

Swapped out the plugs for some colder plugs to start it off. Then started the tune. New manifold makes boost come on around about 600rpm earlier which im stoked about. Started to set things up for the power runs. On 20psi it made 220rwkw but fuel pressure was dropping at this point.. So we put boost back down to 16 psi and it made 200rwkw. Did a few more pulls and fuel pressure kept dropping. Something was wrong.

Luckily we had a spare deatschwerks 300lph fuel pump on standby. Swapped that in and luckily that solved the problem. Did a few more runs on 20psi and everything was all good. Made 250ish rwkw on 20psi and 185rwkw on 15psi. For the yanks out there.. thats around 335rwhp and 250rwhp ish..

Safe to say im stoked. Cooler piping issue is sorted. Everything is looking really good. Cannot wait for sunday now haha

Dyno vid.
http://youtu.be/7KhIHPVHego

Will have sheets up tomorrow

timk

You can thank me later.

Scrappy Jack

iTrader: (2)

Fully sick!

Sick as!

Ace!

Bonzer!

That's a ripper of a little MX-5!

charlie_91

Lol Cheers

So did something ive been wanting to do for ages. And that is make it so i can put stuff in the boot with the wing on.

So this morning i took the boot off and cut some slots in the side to make it work. Bit of touch up paint and put it back on. Works perfect. Very happy to be able to put all my track ---- in the boot instead of the passenger seat.

Here are a couple of pics of how its mounted for those that want to know.


Cuts in the boot


Where it mounts


Packed boot for the track tomorrow


All done

charlie_91

update:

So another trackday came and went on sunday. This was a different track with a different setup during the day. They had sprint sessions, cruise session where you could race people on the straight :P and a skid pan. Was setup to be an awesome day.

Started bright and early that morning. Met up with some mates at the servo local to the track for some breaky before we headed out to get setup.



Got setup, did driver briefing and went out for the first sprint session.


What a technical track, a lot difficult to master then the previous one.. Little to no front end grip coming into the hair pins and along the high speed sweepers it was an **** clenching experience being top of 5th with not much track to work with.

Screen shot from harry's lap timer gives u an idea of the layout.



Being chased by my mate in his supercharged k20/24 civic


Next up was the cruise session. This was so much fun.. having re reign of the track and racing whoever we please. Was good to test out the new power to
So much fuel :P


heres a quick race again an s15 with an 3076r.. Making a fair bit of power i cant remember how much. Would have been good if we took off the same :P

video 2012 07 29 10 25 28 - YouTube

Lining up ready to go out for another sprint session. Started to find my grove here and was really enjoying it



Next up i decided to try out the skid pan haha.. So much fun but difficult at the same time.



This is where it gets pear shaped. After the skid pan session i went out for another cruise session and then the car started playing up. I went back to the pits and fucked around with it for a while till i concluded that it was running on 3 cylinders.. Somewhere in the wiring harness there was an error and it wasnt sending a signal to No. 1 Injector. As i wiggled it around it seem to fix it just breifly but then went back to 3 cyinders.. Thats where my day ended.

For the rest of the day i was passenger in a couple of mates cars which was just as fun. Came time to go home and i got it running back on all 4 so quickly made my way out the gates and on the way home. About 1 km into the drive car started struggling a lot and air fuels were going crazy so i pulled over.. Was barely running by this point. So i decided to just call a tow truck before i do any more damage.

Took the bumper off while i waited for the tow truck.


admired the crazy as skies going on behind us




two hours after calling the tow company the truck arrived and picked me up and took me home.


And thats where i left it... Time to take out the harness and start trouble shooting the cause. I really enjoyed the skid pan so i wanna start learning how to get sideways and hold it properly