doward

Building on the theme of "exact science, procrastination, bigger priorities and regular life" I have now finally made one more change to the backup TT5 BRZ: Installing the Whiteline RUCA offset bushings for more negative camber.
Between my purchase of these bushings and their install, NASA has since allowed us a "free" non-penalized arm per axle for the express purpose of camber generation. So, if I were starting from scratch today, I would just do an STX legal RLCA instead and save myself a days work of pressing bushings and swapping RUCAs. RLCAs are soooo much easier.
Other rule changes since last time out include ST5/TT5 dropping down .5lb/hp to 14.5:1, from 14:1. This actually helps my particular car, but also makes all previous records that much harder to approach/reset. A-arm penalty is now a bit smaller, .5 instead of .7. This technically helps claw back 'some' of the overall class slowing, but not a huge change by itself.

BRZ is being thrust into TT duty once again as my kswap, while physically in the miata, has not yet run/started. So, Mid Ohio in the spring, here we go!
Gone are my 2019 DOT scrub 225/40/17 R7s, and arrived have a set of 2022 DOT RE71RS. I still have the second/fresher set of 2022 AO52s as well.

Changes since last Mid O:
A bit higher ride height, the rear swaybar, and an alignment tweak. The height and bar were done last year and showed good results in autocross, alignment tweak happened yesterday.
Alignment is now:
-5.2 front (up from -4.9)
-2.8 rear (up from -2.2 with the whiteline bushings maxed out for most possible negative)

Gee Emm

Those things move. Problem may be worse if only part offset used, due to Physics, Forces. The solution is to put a small dob of weld on the face, which locks the bush against rotation. If the arm, offset bore, and bush centre line are all more or less in a single line you will probably get away with it, but worth monitoring.

Tarmac88

Man, I dunno how. Haha.

Theyre threaded internally and essentially double butted from one side and locked on the other side. They don’t get a through-bolt, they get a separate fastener from each side of the joint.

Lateral force on the cam inside the bushing would have to spin the serrated edge against the subframe and both bolts that are lock washered.

Nothing like the offset bushings in the FLCA of my miata.

Gee Emm

OK, from the photo posted they seemed exactly like mine (FLCA), held in place by friction against the serrated end surfaces - and the friction was overcome . Nothing I could do by tightening them with the alignment bolt would hold them in place, next event/run same/same. If the physical arrangements are different, and/or the loadings on that arm are lower, hopefully your experience with them will be different too.

doward

Since I was here in August(best lap on Pro course at that event was a 1:38.1), the class has had a few changes in the rules.
-Down to 14.5:1 from 14:1.
-A-arm penalty down from .7 to .5
-One free control arm PER WHEEL for camber correction, plus an additional toe link in the rear are now free.

My car's min weight went up enough that I either simply ate the extra weight or now had to remove the front lip I currently take the "splitter" penalty for. I chose to eat the weight in the form of not swapping to my light weight single exit exhaust, which might also cost me a horsepower or two.
I also elected to run on 245/40/17 RE71RS and AO52 tires instead of the same set of 225/40/17 Hoosier R7s scrubs that now even older with even more untold heat cycles.

New Centric hubs went on during the pad swap. DTC60 in for the weekend.


Rain all night Friday and most of Saturday. One dry session before lunch before it rained again and dried again for the 5:30pm TT#4 session.





I ran the 71RS Saturday and moved to the AO52 for Sunday.
Best lap Saturday was 1:38.4 on the 245/40 71RS.
Best lap Sunday was 1:38.7 on the 245/40 AOs.
Reference 2022 lap 1:38.1 on 225/40 Hoosier R7

This was my first time track driving on modern super 200s and they definitely move around a lot under braking compared to Hoosier R7s.
Car felt way better on track lifted up off the bump stops, and the rear bar change was also a great improvement. I really dont have any balance quibbles at all anymore.

Its taken alot of time to get here, but the car actually lets me adjust line in T1 and carousel with throttle modulation and finally felt like an intuitive, connected, single vehicle. Gone was the disconnected front axle/rear axle sensation it had last time out on track. It has always felt good at AX, even on the Teins, but now it also feels great at track pace.
I actually had fun just doing laps all weekend in wet/drying/damp/mixed/snow/sleet/whatever conditions. Its just a bigger 194whp Miata now.

So, full rundown for my own notes and anybody wishing to replicate:
949 Racing Xida 500/500lb
949 Racing front swaybar links
Whiteline 22mm front bar
Mann Engineering 13mm adjustable rear bar
Whiteline rear swaybar links
Whiteline offset RUCA bushings
Whiteline rear diff mount bushings
-5.2* front
-2.8* rear
zero toe front
~1/8" toe in rear (not sure what slipped from my zero setting, as I was super ---- about making sure the RUCAs were symmetrical going in)

Hardware changes if I was building one today:
RLCA for camber adjustment(instead of the RUCA offset bushings) now that NASA gives one free arm. SCCA requires the bushing to be rubber/urethane, and only allows one rear arm to be swapped, so again a Whiteline or SuperPro variant works here.




Competitively?
I was 1 second Saturday and 1.4 seconds Sunday off Nick Dugdale in his 2550lb FRS with a wing, splitter and 255 RC1s2. His ACE header and CSG/ECUtek tune make a few less horsies than my JDL/OpenFlash combo but he gets all that weight reduction allowance from the tire credit.
I was still claiming Hoosier R7s and the same aero as him, even though I ran a "lesser category" tire and only have OEM/STI lip/spoilers. My car can't easily get any lighter, nor can either of us easily make any more power. I need to add a wing and HoHos to put up a fight, but both are outside the scope of what my backup trackcar should be doing...
Neither of us had anything for the cable-throttle S2000s that both set new records.

doward

Cleaned up for street and AX duty. I am super duper hopeful that the miata will be back to track duty soon, so the NASA stickers came off.




This weekends course was very power-friendly, and I got raw timed by a handful of things, including this Focus RS, an STU Cayman and my buddy Nick in his STR ND2.
I won STX, was 4th in PAX and 3rd in our regional "ST-all" group.

Car was great. Tires got greasy. This will be the last competitive outing for these 2021 AO52s. Time for them to go away.

doward

This popped up on socials, but none of the paid photog shots were worth buying this time.

doward

An unfortunate series of events had me running HPDE4 at Pitt Race.
My ST5 Miata wasn't ready and TT5 was sold out due to NASA Championships coming to Pitt next month. So I had to drop my registration all the way down to DE4.

Ran it oldschool. Packed the track wheels, e85 jugs, tools, cooler, chair, etc all inside the BRZ and left the RV and trailer at home.

doward

My Kmiata rolled off my 2post finally so i was able to get the BRZ in and address a couple updates.

New style heim joint 949 endlinks for the Xidas, and their new velco shock covers went on during an alignment and corner balance checkup following the Pitt Race weekend. Only setup change ive made is raising the car up another 3-4 turns. It is now at roughly a 4.8" front pinch and 5" rear pinchweld.
Also finally went to an autocross on my RE71RS scrubs after theyve seen two track weekends.

Car was amazing yesterday back in STX trim. Biggest gap I've put on the local fast STX car(lightweight brakes, Giken diff, etc) and I ended up #2 Pax and #3 raw overall. 6 tenths over the rest of STX and only got beat by Danny Popp's CAMS C7(raw) and an FStreet SS 1LE(raw + pax).
May have been a great day from me and a bad day from Todd Kunze, but ive always been on junk tires and consistently close to him, winning/losing by tenths on 2-4 year old scrubs the last two seasons. Rumors of STX changing have me kinda wanting to look at taking this to SoloNats next year, or at least a couple big Tour events.

doward

The car was so good this weekend that I have been thinking about ways to make it better and "take it more serious."

There isn't much room left in SCCA STX prep, but I could:
-Buy new tires. RE71RS are the most affordable of the top three(71RS, AO52, CRS) at the moment.
-BBK. brake calipers and rotors are open. Many folks do a stoptech or wilwood kit with 2pc rotors for weight reduction. This would require taking a penalty in NASA TT5.
-Seats. I have a Recaro SPG i often swap in on the driver's side, but could move it to the passenger and upgrade/renew my side. Again, weight reduction.
-Battery. More weight reduction.
-Diff. I could slap in an OSGiken.
-LCAs. NASA now allows one arm free, so I could go back to my stock RUCAs and replace the RLCA to get the camber the car actually wants, as the offsets do not get me far enough. This wouldn't be a huge expense and would actually make the car faster in both...