Funny getting to see Scott mentioned in your build thread. He runs with our local autocross club. Up until this year he's been racing his homebuilt twin charged CRX which is an absolute beast. Almost always one of our fastest drivers. With a little more development and refining I think his Miata will be stupidly fast (even more so than it is currently).

Congrats on TTOD! My roommate told me Scott took second yesterday but I had no idea who took first.

 

Congratulations Nate! Fantastic job out there and thank you for such a fun time.

 

 

Ha! Yeah, I was all packed up to leave some a bunch of dudes wanted to see more of the car that won the time attack so I gave them the tour. Funny enough flywheel films YT channel was there and they covered literally every car except for mine, oh well! I know it's not the best looking, but at least it was the fastest

I had a great time hanging out with Scott, he was one of the other guys camping at FM and we shared a few beers together. He showed me his YT channel and he's definitely a great driver, would kick my *** all day in the cones!

Thanks Ricardo! Thank YOU for the good times, the friends made this trip so much better than my last one to FM. Definitely wanna plan some more stuff with the NM crew, what a ******' hoot.

Ok, now this is great. hahaha thank you for that.

 

Scott is the *****. Good guy.

All good Nate, you were parked next to me during the flywheel films walkthrough. I have a natural +50 media shroud.

 

Nothin' new on the NA right now, but finally gave the daily some love.

New windshield:



New soft top:





Not pictured in the cleanup I did here. And touched up a few spots of surface rust with paint.








The soft top install is a bitch like people say. It's not incredibly difficult, just time consuming and annoying. Probably spent 7 hours on it. I couldn't be happier with the outcome though, it came out perfect. It was a cheapie top (moss miata budget top) and I'm happy with the looks and quality so far.

 

Looks great. Jealous of that car. IDK what it is but I really really like driving a bone-stock 10AE. Had one for a short time in Portland that had been repaired from a wreck by cutting the front of the car off and welding a new front section on - bought it at auction, didn't realize this til after i got it home. Damn thing drove great, 6-speed + 3.9 is excellent on the street, BP4Ws are peppy... it was just a lovely little thing to zip around in.

 

Couldn't agree more! When I bought it, I just got it because it was too good of a deal to pass up. Thought I might make it a slow N/A seattime track car, or something, and maybe even steal the 6 speed out of it for my turbo car.

But after driving it as a daily I can't bring myself to modify it, it's just too good as is. The 3.9 + 6 speed makes it super fun to row through the gears, feels plenty fast and peppy. Plenty playful to throw around, super fun to slide around on small 400tw tires, etc. There's not much I want to change about it, though I do have a NB2 catless header I'm going to throw on it. I also have 1 mazdacomp mount from when I went to the supermiata hybrid mount on my N/A, so I think I'll run a reverse hybrid mount setup with just 1 mazdacomp mount on it. And maybe diff bushing inserts to tidy up some of that slop. I also picked up some FM springs at summer camp for $80 (scratch and dent, but otherwise brand new), though I'm honestly not sure if I want to run those or not since it's so comfortable down the dirt road.

I drive this thing pretty much every day, it's a perfect DD for where I live (non highway, all rural B roads).

 

Still miataing.

Racekar at work. Took it out to rip some canyons too, but no pics. Cars running great. I wanna bleed brakes and rotate tires before next track event in Sept, but just been working on other stuff and enjoying it.




Stupid friggin' "budget" top I bought through MOSS de-laminated the first day I had it parked in the sun. Good thing they will return it, but MAN I didn't wanna do this again.



Out with the $350 top, in with the $1150 top. You know I gotta say it's worth it. Canvas tops are super nice, glass windows are way better, and I went with the OG 10AE blue. Love it or hate it, I'm digging it.


Finally I installed 1x mazda comp motor mount on the pass side, since I had it left over from my hybrid superiata mount setup. So this is like a hybrid OEM/Mazcomp setup. Feels great, no downsides and really tightened up that driveline lash. And hand me down parts are the best. No pics of this. Then I went whole hog and slammed the FM springs I picked up on a whim at the summer camp in. Go them from $40 and they were basically brand new, few nicks from being installed and removed once. Again no pics of the item, but the car turned out great:




It's also on some 14" wheels that came with the car for now. Gotta get new tires for the 10ae wheels, they are nearly corded. Those 14" are on friggin snow tires, and the slip angle on this thing is hilarious from the deep treat snowtires and stiffer suspension it just slides everywhere. Passed the dirt road test as well, these springs with OEM bilsteins are smoooooth. Dare say better than OEM, at least through the washboards it seems to handle it better. While I was in there I replaced a few worn out tophat mounts (lucky I had some), and the rear bump stops that disintegrated (lucky I had some). So this suspension upgrade is pretty much a net $40 mod.

 

Where does he find the time!?

Solid update, man. I figured the FD was taking up all your time but apparently it’s not haha. Glad both of the other blue guys are getting some love as well. 14” wheels on snow tires during the summer seems like a lot of fun. Maybe experiment with that setup on the NA?

Looking forward to hearing how the next track day goes!

 

A 3 day weekend and the wife was working! Lots of shop time. I got the top install down a bit quicker but it was still about a full days of work, probably 7ish hours. I wasn't rushing it, it's a very expensive top and I would have lost my **** if I fucked something up with the install or messed up the top. Actually in a weird way kinda glad I practiced on the cheap top first.

Once I got the top on the car looked so nice I had to keep working on the NB. Didn't touch the FD this weekend but it's back as top priority now that the DD is dialed. I do technically have a nb2 header for the NB that needs to find its way on there soon as well though...

IDK if I'd try those 14's on the NA even if they would fit (and hooo boy they definitely won't), they are honestly kinda sketchy how loose they are even on the NB. It is fun though, probably going to rock them until next summer and pick up some nice tires for the 10ae wheels.

 

Miata things. The DD has been really enjoyable with the new top, springs, motor mount. That top is worth every cent, even is thick and insulated enough that the AC works great. It's hard to tell in pics, but the blue top is very nice looking in person, classy.



Took out the NA for a nice Labor Day canyon rip with the wife. Even got some ice cream on the way home. The car is so dialed and enjoyable now days thanks for @redursidae and his tuning magic. And is running great, did a couple of pulls on high boost which was fun. Even on low boost the damn thing is fast. Passing traffic is more motorcycle-like, but I feel like a lot more of a dick than when I'm on 2 wheels doing it. Haha.

 

Hell yeah dude! Stoked to see that thing doing what it was made to do in its natural habitat.

I gotta let my inner MTBer get the best of me. What ski resort is that? I've still gotta make an NM summer trip one of these years. Angelfire is high on my list...

 

That's TSV (Taos Ski Valley), best skiing/snowboarding in the state. They do some MTB, but it's nothing compared to Angel Fire (also very near me, about 40 mins away).

You should definitely come out this way and bring the bike, Angel Fire is world class for DH. I had a pass up there for a few years but ended up getting out of the DH game due to some injuries. I'm still an avid snowboarder though, never miss a pow day!

Definitely holler if you are ever in the area!

 

Oh, right on! I was going to ask if it was Taos, but only because it's the only other NM ski resort that I know the name of

I'll hit you up if I ever make it out that way! A few buddies of mine usually go out to Angelfire every couple of years, I've just never joined them. It'd be sick to meet up for a handful of laps, even being that no Miata-related activities would be happening lol.

 

Got a wild hair and finally mounted these corner flares I bought a few years ago. Somehow the car only needed a tire rotation in preparation for the upcoming trackday, and I was off today, so why not.

They went on nicer than expected. Just with the adhesive tape/primer that came with them. Man, I underestimated that tape. It's insane once it sticks the tapes going to rip the foam middle part before it comes unstuck. I've had these in mind for a while for my "mild downforce low drag" aero pacakge I've been working on. I also removed the mudflaps from the rear, you know, for aero reasons. Ha, not sure how much it will actually do, but the cars looks as a whole are coming together (well minus the paint, but that will come).







Anyways she's all cleaned up, loaded, and ready for a long weekend at the track and partying with the boys for @redursidae 's bachelor party!! I got a hotel and the wife is holding down the fort back home. The 5am wakeup tomorrow I'm not necessarily looking forward to..

 

How have I never been made aware of those flares existing before? Things look sick! The car will look good painted eventually, but I’m not super bothered by the unpainted black bits around the car since they all match.

Enjoy it, boys! Looking forward to the post-weekend recap.

 

Looks great, I wanted to run those before I committed to the big flares/tall skirts look. I think some of those little eBay skirts would tie your front and rear together perfectly.

 

Woke up at 4:30 AM, had to get to the track by 7:30 for drivers meeting (earlier than usual).

Fire up the car, it's idling like a ******* rotary and the tach is kicking in and out. Ironically I was wearing a rotary t shirt so I think the car was trying to tell me something (all my time has been spent on the FD lately).

Quick plug swap (maybe I fouled them somehow on the cold start?), and still nothing. Again this is at 4am, I almost considered taking a different car but busted out the flashlight and started looking closer.

Long story short, when cleaning the engine bay I bumped the crank sensor and the spacing was off from the trigger wheel. Just enough to start and run but go in and out of sync. I'll need to put a sync loss counter on my main dashboard, I've just never had an issue like this. So about 30 minutes late I finally get on the road.

It was a nice sunset and a great drive up. I get to the track and there's all sorts of **** going on. I should have taken more pics, but they were running vintage car racing, spec miata, and time attack all in the same day. It was awesome.




Some sick racecars.



The fast group C run group (minus that 'vette, that flew off track a few times ):



13b powered Formula Mazda





After the track we met up with @redursidae for his bachelor party. We all stayed at the same hotel, that had underground/secured parking. Was a great call from Tim (red miata), because I'm super paranoid in albuquerque. Everything gets stolen there.






Another one of our buddies with this funky looking euro miata:





Had a GREAT ******* time this weekend with the guys, ran a new PB (1:29.4), only a few tenths of my old but that's a win. Didn't really go off track (does 2 wheels count?), and generally just had a hoot. No issues with the car, and after experimenting with much lower tire pressures (after talking to the SM guys who run the same 660's) I found some easy time running ~25psi hot instead of ~28-30. Dropping the pressures really fixed the car getting greasy/slidey after 2-3 laps, so I'll start there next time (and actually bring my temp probe and use it).

The after party was the best time I've had in a while with a great group of guys and lots of drinks. Good times.

And a video with Ricardo riding shotgun. Not my best driving here but the most entertaining video I had, excuse my ham-fisted-ness. I cleaned up my line into 3/4 later that day and was able to PB. I felt a bit rusty after 6 months away from this track but got back into my mojo pretty quickly. Still lots of time on the table out here, it's a tricky track and I know easy 28's are there, and maybe even eventually 27's out of the car if I can man up in the braking zones (still super cautious here, and no offense to supermiata's brakes I just don't trust them fully yet after 4 seasons on sport brakes randomly fading on me and kissing a wall).

 

Damn dude, looks like it was a solid weekend all around! I'm stoked for you guys. Cool **** to look at, killer driving at the track and I'm sure the after party was a blast haha.

Glad your car ran trouble-free and you were able to PB. What're the odds of knocking the crank sensor just enough to start the car but run like crap? Probably couldn't duplicate that issue if you tried haha.

Sick to see Serinio's car out there too, glad he's still getting after it. Nice drivin' too! Track looks properly tech and your oversteer corrections were on point