That is why I did it. Otherwise, it seems to make more sense to turbo a N/A.

 

Went for a drive today, I'm loving this car. Needs more chassis rigidity and better brakes. Thank goodness I have 100% of the MSM under body bracing still sitting on my back deck after a good washing, the BBK still needs to be installed, and the Blackbird Fabworx GT3 still...being fabbed? In shipping? Who knows. Point is this is a beast already, feels like a solid 190ish hp at 8psi, this guy (C7) stood zero chance.



Then of course I did too much tuning in the Fred Meyer parking lot, and the battery died. Luckily I was only ~5 miles from home and my wife was available. Quick jump later and I was driving home again. My wife snapped this interesting photo on the way back.



Gonna have to fix that once I clean the car up a bit. Luckily I didn't loose the badge.

 

Sounds like it's coming along nicely.

Speaking of cleaning up when should we setup the puff and polish session? Might be best to just do it when you're working.
Should we make it the very last thing done?

 

That's what I'm thinking, yes. This Saturday I'll install the BBK and under chassis bracing at AR, and between now and the 24th will be spend fine tuning fuel and other aspects of the tune. And on that Friday the 24th, Martin and I are dyno'ing Laz with 3", and the MSM.

 

Hey Ryan, I understand you're going to working on getting the paint looking better. Thanks! I really appreciate it.

MSMs are nice looking cars, especially in black. It's a shame the way this poor car was treated by the PO. It will be really nice not cringing when I look at her when she comes back to me.

Thanks again.

 

Mike, sounds like you should have your car back by the end of the month! Exciting.

In for results. I want to ride in this car too.

 

I had been looking at FM's frame rail brace as a possible add-on for stiffening things up a bit. Does this make sense on this car (MSM)? I'm not sure how much Mazda did in that department. Didn't the MSM get additional chassis stiffening bits? I don't have the car here of course, or I'd go out and look myself.

Anybody here got opinions/experience with these and "butterfly" type cross braces from FM (and others as I recall).

 

The FM stuff is far superior to the OEM bracing. I bet you'd notice an improvement just running FM's frame rails and ditching the OEM "butterfly" bracing junk.

 

And the FM stuff is probably lighter than the OEM stuff to boot.

 

You'll be fine with the factory bracing and roll bar if you want more do some door bars

 

That's exactly what Josh and I decided would be our path.

I do know a guy down in the SF Bay Area who specializes in building full cages into cars in such a way as to minimize the comfort in an otherwise DD. He's put cages in some high dollar cars you'd never expect.

TC Design.

 

minimize the comfort usability impact was what I was thinking. Apparently my fingers were thinking something else.

 

TC-Design cage:

https://www.miataturbo.net/cars-sale...-%2420k-53618/

 

That's the guy. Tony is a very talented fabricator and a really good guy. We were on a race team together just before he formed TC Design. He's come a long way. Not that I'm at all surprised. He is very good.

When Turner Motorsport is one of your dealers you know you've arrived. At least when your shop is in Silicon Valley

 

Little teaser for Mike:



Passenger side ebrake wasn't adjusted correctly, hence the blocks, just in case. Fixed that already.

 

Remember that premature ejaculation I mentioned in my first post? Dang, I've done it again.

 

Tackling the paint today.

 

Hey Mike and Josh,
Taking a brief break here.
I think the consensus here was that the car's paint has been neglected and seen better days. You can see the type of corrosion on certain hardware/nuts and bolts from living near saltwater I assume.
I've gone over it a few times with my DA polisher and with a couple different products and polishes to get the best results.
Bad news is that there are some pretty deep scratches, marks and oxidation that are down to the paint and beyond. I'm able to hide those some but I just don't have the capabilities and equipment to remove them.
Good news is I've removed a lot of haze, swirl marks, fine scratches and water spots from the clear coat. The shine is coming back really nicely and the pearl/flake is showing through much better as well. It looks much more deep and dark black. It'll be a very nice 8 footer
I'll follow up with some more photos.

 

Hey Ryan, thanks for all the work. We knew going in that this car was neglected in every possible aspect including the exterior. It's hard to imagine someone having a car like this and just letting it go to s&$t, but it happens.

It looks SO much better in the photos I can tell you've done an amazing job with it and I thank you very much. As an 8 footer you gained about 30' or so. We used to use the term 50/50 as the minimum spec for acceptable appearance for the race sponsors. That's 50 feet, or 50 MPH. This thing wasn't quite 50/50 but it was pretty bad. Eight feet is a big improvement.

Maybe when the bank account is a bit less depleted I'll be able to take it in and get a real repaint on it, because this car deserves it. But until that time you've made it so I don't have to grimace every time I walk up to the car.

Thanks! --mike v

 

Killer job Ryan, absolutely amazing. If you can get a decent shot with your NA and the MSM, I'm pretty sure we'll be in the next Mazda commercial.