Another drift event. After 8 years of drifting, and 6 years of drifting with the car turbo'd, the transmission (NA 5 speed) finally bit the dust. Lost 2nd gear.

Carnage photos of transmission for everyone's viewing pleasure.

This came out of the drain plug, good start lol




Splitting the bell housing




Getting better




Very nice





All things considered the flywheel looks ok after so many years of clutch kicks and abuse. Obviously a lot of heat, but didn't see any cracks. ACT Streetlite flywheel.






Flyin Miata Level 1 clutch, again held up and lasted surprisingly great






Ordered a new ACT Streetlite flywheel, my buddy is giving me his gently used FM Level 1 clutch and ordered a new pilot bearing. Swapping in a NB 5 speed, hoping that trans lasts me as long as this one did.

 

Driving photo's from the event. The transmission issue happened on my 4 run of the day, I managed to keep driving, using 1st and 3rd gear, wasn't great but still had a good time driving with my buddies.

 

Nice update! My 5 speed has been going strong as well, lots of track time and DD use at a power level known to eat 5 speeds. Some just seem to hold up.

You going back in with a 5 speed or changing to a 6?

 

I have another 5 speed to swap in, so I'm going to give it a shot and see how long it lasts. My buddy has a 6 speed swapped in his car and says it's def not as smooth as his 5 speed was so for now I'd prefer a 5 speed based on that.

But if this 5 speed doesn't last I'll probably look for a 6 speed. I haven't looked into the 6 speed swap as far as gear ratios to see how different it would be for me on track as well.

 

Side by side flywheels. Old one looks worse out of the car, pilot bearing was very rough. Didn't expect the pilot bearing to have failed this quickly, not many miles put on the car.

 

The six speed is pretty delicious with the MR shifter.

 

Got the transmission back in the car, learned the NB 5 speed has 2 pins in the turret vs the NA 5 speeds 1 pin at the front.




Called my buddy to see if he had a spare NB shifter, fortunately he did. Unfortunately the turret boot was destroyed, so I had to get the boot off my NA shifter. That was a huge pita.




Used my old NA antenna to pull the boot up onto the shifter, after what feels like an hour I got the boot off.





Had to replace the boot on one of my axles, also had a pretty good clunk. Found a decently worn spot on the star nut, flipped it, and put it back on. Hoping the ball stays off that spot and the clunk is gone.




Axle back together.




Got the car on the ground, and went for a quick test drive. Transmission shifts fine, clutch feels good, will see what happens at the next drift event.

 

Forgot the car also has Toyota COP's now, and two catch cans. Please ignore how disgusting and filthy my engine bay is, cars a bit of a track rat...yikes.




Also hacked and bent up a radiator shroud from Jegs to fit the Trackspeed Engineering radiator. 1777 cfm 13" SPAL fan, needed to wire in a larger relay, the factory relay kept popping.







Trimmed a few fins to clear the factory sway bar.





Temps have improved, and I can feel the air being pulled through the inter cooler and oil cooler so that's cool....

 

More driving, the new to me transmission survived.

 

 

Drove 2 drift demos for some local car shows.

 

Lately, I've been struggling with shifting from 2nd to 3rd at higher rpm's. This wasn't always an issue, but it's been getting more difficult as time has gone on. I'm thinking it could be the MazdaComp motor mounts getting, they've been on the car for about 7-8 years. The rubber mazda comps have seen a lot of clutch kicks, hard on throttle and off throttle, and the car being thrown around back and forth throughout those years.

Anyways, picked up the SuperMiata motor mounts. I have poly diff mounts on the car already, so hoping these help out as well.

 

Photo's from the drift demos

 

Old mounts are out, new ones are in.

 

Finally put together a video from the last event of 2021. We ran the road course in reverse, and it made for some fast driving which was great to do again.

 

Been a long time coming but finally ponied up, and bought better rear upper control arms. Pacomotorsports arms with Energy poly bushings.




SPL junk in the trash...such a waste of money.

https://imgur.com/K2RT6Bw


https://imgur.com/EJQdLOa



Cleaned the car up, and took it out for a drive Feels great with the new arms.

 

Got to test out the new ruca's at LoneStar Drift's, Drift Week 5 at Thompson Speedway. Much better camber wear.




Downloaded the Track Addict app since I was always curious what my speeds were on the Thompson road course. Footage below.

 

Another drift event, another video.

 

 

Had an off at the last drift event, I'll post the video up, and hit a plastic water filled barrier. Passenger side front took the hit, and this is the second time that sides taken a hit. First time was into a car, and I hammered out the apron damage and kept driving for 2-3 years.

Damage from the plastic barrier.




Polished out pretty well all things considered.




This is the cumulative damage from the two track accidents.







Prepped for a frame shop visit.




On the way to the shop.




Back from the frame shop. Looks really decent after 2 wrecks. Passenger side frame rail was bent up a little, the apron needed massaging to get the wrinkles and folds out, pulling, but the strut towers never moved from the hits. So all in all, not bad.



Few more odd's and ends to finish putting it back together, install a new to me axle, and a new upper radiator hose.