Roda

Had no idea that existed... have a cat!

yuba

I grabbed some of the R3 stuff, the car actually cleaned up pretty well.

Pulled the rear knuckles and pressed out the wheel bearings today since my MiataHubs should arrive tomorrow, along with my new check valve line. I was worried about the right knuckle being bent, but I think it is fine, though the upper bushing on that side is pretty worn out. I did find that the right lower super-long bolt is slightly bent - maybe 2-3mm of bend on a straight edge. No way to tell if this is old damage now though.





When I quickly toe plated the car I got about 0 rear toe and about 1/8" of toe out up front, so I'll need to look over the front right more closely (as, imo, that is where the toe out is coming from visually, even though it didn't take a hit) and have it aligned. Was thinking a little less than 1/8" toe in for the rear and 0 front to start.

I was planning to run Chuckwalla this weekend, but open passing was sold out for Sunday when I went to sign up. My friend (TT2 Exige / Spec Miata) ended up getting us in to Apex Motor Club for Saturday, which is about 45 minutes from my house and will be an open track with likely few other people.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

That lower long bolt is something every track NA/NB Miata owner should have in their spares kit. Weakest link in rear suspension so it sacrifices itself when you whack things the wrong way.

Padlock

Bummer on the accident, but awesome attitude to rebuild it. If you still have the NB2 housing without the lens, I'll snag it from you (and even give you some cash for it). Toss me a PM.

yuba

I ended up grabbing a straight off someone else today, but when I went to install I noticed that it has a coarse thread pitch versus the original one that is fine threaded. There is also no 8 on the bolt head.
I'm guessing this is a non-OEM one so I'll be ordering a couple of them from the dealer and replacing the one in the car once it comes.



Miata Hubs versus Doormans that were on the car.



Has a few pry marks and the silver thing inside went missing (???), so if you want to transplant guts from a housing with broken tabs or something you're welcome to it for whatever it costs me to ship it.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Both OEM, I think that is just NA vs NB.

HarryB

Fine threads result in more clamping force for the same tightening torque; and they are also a bit stronger (at the threaded area), as the load is more evenly distributed.

Padlock

PM'd you on the headlight

yuba

I spent 2.5hr driving it today, its pretty good. It has quite a bit of push mid corner in longer corners, but it is very settled and basically feels like piloting a train with respect to power delivery. I'm going to try removing the gurney flap from the wing.

The brakes were odd, I ran the first 30 minute session with ABS disabled and it felt alright so I started walking the bias in and it very quickly locked the rears first at a lower setting that it was on prior, so I backed it off a bit. Plugged the ABS fuse back in and it seems like the ABS isn't great and you can still get a tiny bit of lockup, but it is live-able for now.

Issues:
3rd and 4th gear give me a grind going into them and the shifter feels like ****
There is quite a bit of chatter taking off from a stop, I wonder if it is related to the next item
Quite a bit of vibration >100mph
Something grows in the front end when it is hot so the aerocatches need to be pryed at to slide past the pin, this goes away about 5 minutes after I come off track (lol)

Also, to me, it feels like the RC1 v1 isn't as good as the RC2 v2 that I ran through a number of sets through on the S2000. It falls off much quicker, doesn't have the same grip level, in my mind, at least, and screams a lot louder.

yuba

Stuffed SuperMiata mounts into the car to see if it helps the shifting. Car needs a deep cleaning



Also, since I am a bitch



AMP this weekend and Chuckwalla next weekend if the car does well.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Post report on EPS. We have the same kit but haven't installed it yet. Going to try to get it into our enduro car.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

Those engine mounts combined with some poly or delrin rear differential bushings do wonders for shifting. After that you might want to look into the Miataroadster short shifter or something along those lines.

I picked up a couple 6 speeds for my build but have never driven a car with one, really hoping it doesn't suck as bad as a lot of people say. I'm going to splurge for the CAE Ultrashifter though.

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

It doesn't suck as bad as people say. A 6 speed with MR shifter and fresh bits inside feels really nice IMO. Maybe not as nice as my S2k did but that's a high bar.

yuba

I think it has ES diff bushings already, so we will see how it goes this weekend. Was definitely planning on the MR shifter if it still sucks.

Will do, so far there are a couple of things I don't like about it that are easy to fix
1. Control **** uses a fuse tap
2. By default, it mounts the steering control box under the column, which eats space where your knees are

Mm, yeah, it is hard to beat the S2000 shifter. The 6spd certainly isn't dumpster tier though. I drove my friend's Exige when I was at Apex and... that is hot garbage. Also the way the pedals are offset to the center of the car, wtf?

edit:

I mounted the PS control unit behind the dash instead of on the column.

Dr.Sep

Interested to hear how you like that electric power steering --- I will admit, I did not even know that was an option. Certainly would free up some space up front!

yuba

I had the PS turned to the lowest assist on Saturday and it felt like exactly what I wanted -- not overly light and no hiccups, similar steering effort to my S2000 or a touch heavier. I'd be curious to modify it for a lower assist level just to test.

My previous PB at Arizona Motorsports Park CCW in the S2000 was a 1:48:170 on the last day of a set of RC1 V2s, Saturday I did a 1:46:68 in the Miata with some >15HC RC1 V1s. I was consistently in the high-46 to low-47 area all day as I figured the car out more, so knowing that Arizona tracks slow down after the first session I think the car had a low 46 in it as-is (yay bench racing) and I would be curious to see if a sticker Toyo RR will get me into the high 45 area.

Fortunately, a 46 is more than enough to win this track locally these days. Downside is that the lap record is a 44.6 set by Dave Schotz in the C4 Corvette with a 245 A7 on an 11 before the section width rule was written, so I don't think that'll realistically happen. The other track records are open season though.

Terrible driving:
Anyway:
1. I want more front grip
2. Finding 3rd and 4th is still difficult coming from 5th
3. The ABS is annoying in that it feels like it comes on early, you get a few pulses, then a pretty hard pedal that makes me feel like I need to increase brake pressure. Maybe I am doing it wrong, anyone care to enlighten me as to the proper way to work with the NB2 ABS?

The car is fast, I just need to learn to drive better.

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Miata ABS (even the NB2 setup) is not really good enough to be useful all the time/relied on for threshold braking. It's really just for flatspot prevention. If you're engaging ABS all the time you need to either correct the setup of the car (pads/brake bias/etc) or correct your driving/brake application. Figure out which tires are locking up to cause ABS engagement and go from there.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

1. Judging form the video, you have enough front grip for the time being. Your rough pedal and steering inputs are causing any turn in understeer you might be experiencing.
2. You downshift too often. A few spots when you can just leave it in the higher gear and roll through the turn with a higher min speed. That motor will develop enough torque to get the desired rear slip angle all the way down to 4,000 rpm in most cases.
3. Don't use NA/NB ABS on the dry. It's slower. I only used it in the wet and occasionally for the first turn in a race to reduce the chance of locking on cold tires in traffic. Default is always off.

Overall, you're not trusting the car enough. It seems like you're trying to get the car hooked up, not sliding then as soon as its not sliding, hitting the throttle or turning in more. Need to drive it more like a low powered Miata where you enter the turn fast and very gently initiate rotation
with brakes and a slow smooth steering input. Once sliding, you want to maintain the little 4 wheel slip angle with a gentle steady throttle and minimal steering. You're tossing the car around mid corner and generating the instability yourself. Once its starts yawing like that, you are in and out of the throttle, furthering the oscillation cycle. Looks like maybe you have the shocks set too stiff. Car seems to bounce around even though the track looks fairly smooth.

You need to try doing some laps 1-2 gears higher for practice. That will force you to be smoother on entry and soften the fluctuations in torque your rough throttle inputs are sending to the rear tires mid corner. Just let the car slide a little and control it with smooth throttle inputs instead of sawing away at the wheel. Consciously focus on not closing the throttle completely when you make a mid corner adjustment. Instead make little adjustments. So instead of maintenance throttle mid corner being 40%-0%- 50%-5%, try 40%, 30%, 42%-37%. Get the idea. Your fastest laps will be the ones with the fewest steering inputs.

The S1 ruleset was built to allow a car that can be driven at its limit with very small, precise inputs. Doesn't need t be bull dogged to go fast. Let the car do the work.

yuba

Thank you, I really appreciate the great feedback. You're right that I haven't built any trust in the car yet.

Everything you're saying makes complete sense to me, and it seems like the Chuckwalla event this weekend will be a good place to work on it with minimal traffic and no pressure to put down a lap for TT. You watch a two minute video on the internet and gave me better driver feedback than I've ever had even in person :lol:

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Chucky is great in an S1. You can do the whole lap in 5th. It'll just fall off the powerband in Keyhole (T9) and T16, but do some laps in 5th all the way around as practice. Only video I could find