Horry sheet, i want this. Please keep making these for a while, I really want this to be my old man sports car one day.

Here's a short video of the engine start-up for our in-house build. It's a stock 1.8 with our side resonator exhaust. It's raucous with NA's and perfect with a turbo.

The milestone is that it's the first in-house customer build, and the first start using our custom wiring harness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr_g...ature=youtu.be

Paging OLDERGUY

SEMA prep
 

Sorry, no pictures today.

We're doing the usual SEMA thrash this week. It would have been a lot easier if our engine didn't crap out on us at Laguna Seca. So to get ready we've got the following planned:

--WINDSHIELD add--this is the big one. It was painted today and I hope to install the custom glass tomorrow.
--COWL--this is a stiffened portion that used to be the extended hood. It's now a separate piece where the hood rests.
--HOOD--shorter, and with new mounts
--Aluminum Roll hoop covers--these look cool. I just hope we can put them on without screwing up the fresh paint.
--PAINT--just to mix things up, we're running silver sides with a black hood, cowl and trunk. We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

Besides that, I think it's pretty surprising that we installed a rebuilt 1.8 in place of the 1.6 with very few problems. We followed the basic guidelines that Flyin' Miata listed on their website, swapped the 1.6 log for a FM 1.8, and then updated the information in the MSPNP2. The new 1.8 worked right out of the box with the 1.6 tune, and has a great idle even with no IACV. Extra added bonus...this engine seems like a big jump in performance in the 1.6, just from a light break-in drive around the neighborhood. :bigtu:

That cutting tape stuff makes it soooo much easier to do vinyl wraps. Lookin good.

I'd sell my hardtop/shell in a heart beat if it could get me the money for a catfish shell.

+1 (oh - and the possibility to make a TÜV approval for the car... :vash: )

Oof you guys have got it rough over there.

Yepp, even the whole Westfield/Super Seven DIY kits are not allowed anymore, due to having no electrical emissions tests etc. of the car... so sad - would have loved to build a Westfield/Seven with my son in the near future (he is 8 now - nice age to start working on cars...)

What if you add an engine from an OBD2 and have it tested? That wont work?

TÜV is a whole different animal in Germany. Completely separate and more strict certification standards.

No, the car has to be street legalized as a package according to a shitload of rules. Noise and electrical emissions, engine emissions, brake system, safety system and about a quadrillion more...

Even Westfield had to stop selling kit cars therefore in Germany.

Caterham.de is the only option for a new Sevens in Germany.
UK have the SVA , we have "amateur built vehicles", and every EU country have their own exempts (or none).
Importing these exempted cars between countries is tricky if possibly at all.

Random pictures
 

What's new...

Beside's my engine builder putting the cam journals on willy nilly, which caused the intake cam to seize up, there's been some good progress.

The windscreen is done and looks awesome. There's a fair amount of brackets and bracing that goes on under the frame, including brackets that will hold the wiper arms and motor.

Some other fun stuff includes an aluminum battery box that mounts to the back center of the frame and some nice aluminum seat brackets for the Lotus Exige seats. They include a flat aluminum bracket underneath that fit both the driver and passenger sliders. The design is still being tweaked, but gets the seat about as low as it can go.

The car is due to be finished Friday, which gives me a couple of days to tune it before taking off with the family for Thanksgiving. I'm really looking forward to getting used to the new 1.8 power. :)

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That windscreen looks so incredibly fantastic. Great job on that Cordy.

Thanks Tim! It's based off a Miata screen but has been cut down so the mid-section is only 14" tall and the rake is 30 degrees. I designed it so that the bulk of the frame is behind glass so that the front face is completely smooth. There are no rubber bulges or trim pieces. The actual frame only sits out 1/4" from the edge of the glass. The frame weighs in at around 4lbs. Pretty happy with the color scheme too.

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Every addition to this masterpiece makes me want one more and more. Stop tempting me!

Where did the glass come from.

Definitely like it much better with the windshield. Well done.

The glass--believe it or not--is Miata. It's raked far more than the stock screen and has had the bottom cut out of it.

A custom screen mold based on this one is in the works...

Here's some video from two (!) years ago. Try not to laugh when you see the speeds at Laguna Seca...it was our first tentative laps around the track, and the first time for the Catfish anywhere outside of a garage.

catfish 1.1 on Vimeo

Gotta change your avatar now!

Like this? :)

So did the hub situation ever get figured out? I always had the impression that it was going to use the Miata hub stuff (less weight = less hub stress) but I took several hours to read this thread in one sitting and that is not the case. Does the "base" model use the Miata stuff and the 5x114.3 hubs will be optional?

The bottom line is that at this point every time we start engineering something new for the Catfish or the Miata community, it starts to feel like tilting at windmills. I have an actual hub manufacturer (they supply OEM's) who can builld much stronger hubs, but the minimum quantity is also OEM-like. Maybe I can talk Mazda into buying some. :)

Until then, we've taken stress off the hub by reducing the weight of the car.

It might be another story when we start adding V8 power...

So add the car above to the bodywork below:

Impressive and way to chase a goal. I saw FM's at Laguna Seca last fall, and it looked like a blast.

How did you make headlight lenses? Full injection molds seem like they'd make this impossibly expensive. Also, do you make a version of the LED bolts that projects light axially along the bolt's axis? It'd be an awesome solution to lighting wheel wells and maybe some interior stuff.

The headlight lenses started out as a male vacuum mold, and ended up as a simple drape mold; you puts the flat plastic in the pizza oven, and the drop it in the female mold once it's nice and hot.

The LED lights are more decoration than anything else. It's crazy to think that an M5 aluminum screw can be gun-drilled, and then have an LED circuit small enough to fit in it. The light generally shoots directly out of the hex on the top of the screw button, but I do make one with a side cut under the head. You can see the side light in the included picture. These lights were made to install on clear plastic so it would light up. Okay--a little bit disco--but pretty cool looking on a Harley.

Those are freaking awesome. Any retailers? Amazon Prime eligible yet? :)

On Amazon. :) company name Motorcycle Parts House, called Sportbike LED Headlite

I think he meant the car :)

Haha no I did mean the leds.

Too bad, i want the chassis on prime with free shipping and 50% discount using my amazon credit card :D

Bruce's Catfish...home stretch
 

Bruce's bodywork was installed on the car for a final fitment test. I hate to say it, but it's all coming off for some final tweaking. I hate moving painted bodywork around, but details will make a difference.

Bruce wanted a red car with silver wheels. It wouldn't have been my first choice before seeing it up close, but it might be now. :)

Check out the custom aluminum seat brackets that we made for the Lotus Exige seats. They're made to fit perfectly on the stock Miata sliders. What do you think...are they worthy to be offered on their own?

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God bless you sir.

*single tear*

Beautiful...

I'm sure the lotus seat brackets would sell just fine. Not too many off the shelf options for them that I've seen.

zoom zoom Flyin' Miata video
 

Nice, but they could have at least mentioned where the Catfish came from.;)

We didn't write the script.

Cool vid :bigtu:

Mach 5 coming soon!
 

That's right, the Mach 5 rides again! :)

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Wow. Just wow!

New Seat Covers
 

I took my Lotus Exige copy seats to SOS Upholstery in Oceanside on Monday, and they gave me these today. I'm very, very happy with the look. :)

We're heading into "enemy territory" tomorrow--the Factory Five Racing show on Main Street in Huntington Beach, and I wanted the Catfish to not suck.

Speedy Racer
 

Robert got his Catfish last week, and here's what it looked like after four hours.

Apparently he worked on the body too, but we'll need to wait for that picture.

Seats look awesome, and holy crap quick progress on that other one. Wow.

Huntington Beach Factory Five Car Show
 

Good show in Huntington Beach yesterday. There was some head-scratchin' going on with the Cobra guys when I arrived.

I had my new seats in the car and the damn thing looked pretty good, despite the nicks and cuts and stuff that hopefully only I noticed. The Catfish didn't look to out of place next to the Cobras. The windshield were a little straighter and there was a bit more chrome, but otherwise there seemed to be a family resemblance. Factory Five was really cool to let me crash their party.

My favorite part of the day--meeting Peter Brock and discussing the aerodynamics of his Daytona Coupe! He actually stopped by the Catfish and complimented me on the car. I probably got a red face when he said that. :)

Around 2:30 the rains started to come down on all these well prepared cars...with no roofs. Then it POURED. I took the car home during the worst of the weather, wondering how my NEWLY UPHOLSTERED SEATS would hold up. Very well! The new Synergy Suede took the weather in stride, and looked absolutely new this morning. I've been putting this material in most of the cars lately, and I'm damn glad I put it in mine as well.

seats
 

One more seat pic...

Mach 5 interior
 

Robert W is really moving fast with his build. These two pictures represent essentially two afternoon's worth of work on the car, but he must be on a stopwatch or something because he's making LOTS of progress. Get ready for RED:

Church dyno day
 

Epic day today. I drove my car up to Shawn Church's shop and had a nice, quick, short, uneventful dyno session. That's it! WIN!!!! I'm now officially done messing with this particular engine. It's all forged, 2560 Churbo, 700cc injectors, and a very conservative 9psi worth of boost. Shawn tuned it slightly on the rich side...again, just for safety.

Still there's no discernible turbo lag, and the swap to a Flyin' Miata Happy Meal clutch & flywheel even seem to make the shifts smoother. It's counter-intuitive, but the Happy Meal flywheel is easier to match revs on downshift than the 8lb flywheel with race clutch setup. All in all, very happy day.

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2560, 9psi, and 237hp...wut?!

Jealous.

Church's dyno. Probably like 210 on a dynojet.

It's alive again! nice. Let me know when you plan on heading out to some track days.

About 220whp. And that's a perfectly good number for when I send this car to my sister in Seattle.

If you need anyone to drive it through Oregon you know who to call :)

Bruce's car goes to a the Audio Show
 

Bruce's car is essentially done. It needs a touch up here and there, but it otherwise drives like a go cart and sounds like a snarling beast. :)

Speaking of beast, I picked up a not too subtle 2014 Sierra Quad Cab as a Catfish hauler. I'm still getting used to its size, and being "that dude with the big red pickup". Anyone have an extra can of Skoal?

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If you're in the area, check out High End Audio Show - THE Show Newport 2015, which is a very high end audio show at the Hotel Irvine off Jamboree and the 405 this weekend.

Have you guys looked into roof version for us folks up north?

Haha, roof would likely require working doors, which won't happen. I'm still trying to justify owning an open car in a part of the country that isn't a desert. Thunderstorms late every summer afternoon here make something open to the sky a bit tougher to use. But it's certainly pretty.

Don't forget your "Calvin peeing" sticker.

My main problem is that I've got two hands and limited funds. We're working on the racing bodywork now--hopefully for a SEMA debut--and need to find some time for a bikini top and soft tonneau. Soon.

Catfish #1 update...Whiskers gets a rebuild
 

Boy it's been a while since updating this thread! I figured since the engine "dun blowed up" at Streets of Willow and was just put back together, it would be a good time to catch up. Believe it or not the original Catfish -- now dubbed "Whiskers" just like Flyin' Miata's Cat -- was born at the 2012 SEMA show. It took over two years after that debut to actually make all the parts needed to offer these cars for sale. Boy was that a lot of work...

Now we mainly enjoy the car, and use it for testing and updates. Since the engine went boom, I decided to do some upgrades to help it not grenade. Again. The upgrades include:

Completely new engine rebuild:
--polished crank with new bearings
--new con rod bearings
--new +1 SuperTech pistons with a lower compression. This allows a wider tuning window for the turbo
--new valve seals & gaskets
--decked case & head to ensure a flat surface

...and to ensure safety
--Innovate wide band O2 sensor with gauge
--new Flex fuel sensor wired into the MSPNP2 so we can run cooler E85 at the track
--new (old) temp sensor in the Mazda gauge that actually reads temperature--it's not a dummy gauge
--new (old) knock sensor mounted onto the 1997 block
--new custom coolant reroute with swirl pot. This will add more water volume as well as take help take the air out of the system. I'm really happy with this setup.

While the car was on block, the interior came out and was cleaned, and the one-way ball valve found on stock Miata fuel inlets was retrofitted to the Catfish. We've had too many problems with fuel spilling out the gas cap, so hopefully this will solve our issue.

What else? Well the car now runs on Ohlins suspension and the headlights have been upgraded to LED units. A custom Infrared tire temp sensor system was also installed. It reads the tire temperatures at the outside, center and inside of each tire. Testing this is next on the list. A master cutoff switch was added, as were USB 2.0A charging units, for phones and "stuff".
Our own adjustable cam gears and some new Bosch 1000cc injectors were also added, just because. If you haven't seen the car lately, front canards were added (hence the name Whiskers) as well as our own design stainless steel hood vents.

All in all, the car has never been in better shape. Next up may just be a new rear wing setup.

Until then, here are some recent pictures of the changes.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...54bfcded97.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...779197e911.jpg1000cc Bosch injectors will help with the larger volume of fuel that will be used once the car is tuned for E85.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3aeb8d6173.jpgProperly installed, after being installed backwards on the first try. :)
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c71bfc7eab.jpgThat's the stock ball valve that is on all Miatas. It's hiding in the galvanized steel gas inlet elbow.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...39f7eb1235.jpgWhiskers! Carbon canards help manage the air up front.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...102d80a93d.jpgHeat and air pressure get sucked out of the vents at speed
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...693c10211c.jpgFun but dusty Qualcomm.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3565a4329e.jpgThe NA8 engine uses dual adjustable cam gears. The new gears in stock have the sensors needed for the NB8.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ae21660f0a.jpgThe Swirl Pot is the highest point of the engine. It's where air bubbles go to die.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...504d3d0460.jpgHot water from the back of the block flows down to the radiator.