I think "daughter's birthday" trumps track weekend, so no pushback from me. Have a blast!

I've got no advice on Miata oil, I run whatever's available in my street Miata. My track Miata doesn't have a Miata engine, so the usage profile is very different.

I switched to MTG, also known as "AMSOIL 75W-90 Manual Transmission & Transaxle Gear Lube" after running the previous 6-speed unicorn blood. I much prefer the AMSOIL.

I still have a couple of bottles of RBF-whatever, but SM has recently switched to selling ELF brand brake fluid. They know what they're doing, so when I lost track of my inventory and ordered even MORE brake fluid, I got a couple bottles of that. On paper I think it's even better than the RBF.

 

Great to see the Catfish again! Let me know if you decide to do a track day. My Lucky Dog team wants to do a practice day with the chance to switch off drivers and passengers.

I’m also planning for this to be the year that I rewire the Exocet and put the Turbo in it. It’s been sitting due to all the work on the Track Rat but at least I’m learning.





We had a great race at Sonoma (Saturday in the Dry and Sunday in the Wet) and only got hit by a BMW once this time.

We should catch up, seems like you still have a ton of projects going!

 

Indeed, only so many birthdays where they want you to be around!
Thanks for lube suggestions, I'll be back up in mid March and should have time then to begin the great fluid swap of 2026.

I'll definitely let you know! It'll probably be a Sunday or a Friday to work with my schedule...
The ADU is 90% done... Shooting for May for final sign off. So maybe I'll actually be able to help with your Exocet this year!






I was there on Monday and pulled the wheels so I can get the 2018 date coded rocks removed and get some new rubber!

 

I did that with the 2016 Rivals on my Miata last summer -- went with some Nankang CRSv2s.

--Ian

 

Maybe time for a title change...

 

I mean, we could fill up the "track battle" classes with a bunch of Miatas, but we'll be seriously outclassed everywhere. Full race cars can do GLTC, but an NA/NB has to have ~190hp and 245s. And I think a few builds here have already proven they're not the most competitive. There's drifting too...

I feel like Reunion is now just a tent in the corner of a giant Gridlife Festival? Or am I reading that wrong.

 

That's my read on it too, kinda sad turn of events.
Hopefully this was just the easy button for the new organizers and they'll do something different next year?

I thought about track battle, but it's $1300 and wait listed already

 

I just ordered some 245/40 CRSv2s to put on @EO2K 's 9" 6uls that I still have, figure he's not using them...

Also got a wix 51356XP and a gallon of 15w40 T6 cause I didn't feel like looking around for something fancier and it's cheap, and I have a couple of bottles of RBF600 to flush through.

I'll be up at the garage week after next, hope to get it all done and maybe a quick string alignment.

@Cxracer I still haven't signed up for the May 3rd track day with NorCal SAAC, figure I'll make sure the car is mostly functional first.

 

GLTC is 10 minute races full of carnage because they're so short you DO have to win the race in the first corner.

--Ian

 

Well, the races are actually scheduled for 12-15mins (that's 20-50% longer than 10 min). However, they can be extended depending on how the schedule is going. "Carnage" is strongly discouraged to the point of being serious penalties for even minor contact. I am not sure what live stream you've been watching, but as a long-time follower and participant in the series, "carnage" isn't something I've witnessed often. Has it happened? Yes, it's racing, it can be chaos regardless of the time frame. Yes, I wrote my car off at Road Atlanta during Race 3 last year, but it was all my fault and not the fault of the "10 min" race.

 

I think Ian ran a GLTC event and got wrapped up in a little carnage.

Yeah, it's a bummer. Hopefully next year it's its own event. I personally don't understand the decision to glob onto the Gridlife event, but it's good for us as a vendor wanting to break into the larger wheel market so we'll definitely be there showing off the new 18" wheels, 86 Tecnas, and of course all our other Miata goodies.

 

Isn't it 2 sets at this point? I think you've got the Storms from the NA as well? The only reason I remember those exist is the spare I bought is still in its box next to my desk in my office. The cats occasionally sit on it

They can hold up cars or take up space in my garage or yours indefinitely, no worries on my end either way. To put it another way, if I had them I'd have to figure out where to store them...

Hell yeah brother, keep the T6 faith alive!
During the week or weekend? Theoretically I may be able to help, if you consider what I do "helping"

 

I haven't personally run one yet, partly because the timing never works out. The Laguna event is the only one even remotely near me, and it has always conflicted with other events that I have considered more important (NASA champs in 2024, WRL Utah in 2025, and NASA champs again in 2026).

I know a few folks who've gone to them, though, and there seems to be a lot of crashed cars coming back.

--Ian

 

What if I told you that GLTC/GT Laguna is only has a limited number of "regulars" from the east coast events? So, it's going to be mostly people who run series out that way that are banging into each other. A Gridlife has given the Laguna the short of the stick in terms of its attention the last two years. No dyno (as promised) to make sure people are playing legally by the same rules out this way. Then last year they combined both TC and GT which didn't go well. Slow TC cars interfering with the front of GT and slow GT cars interfering with the front of TC.

 

Yeah, I get that singleton events a long distance from the rest of the series can have a very different personality than everything else for various reasons. The Laguna event is the one where Miatas@MRLS/Miata Reunion/whatever-it's-called is happening, though.

--Ian

 

We'll it was a busy week, so I got less done than intended on the exofish.

Pretty sure I drained some low milage Dominator 15w50 out of the engine to replace with the T6. But it's been sitting in there for years, so I guess I don't feel too bad.


Also my PC680 is dead dead, after 3+ weeks on a NOCO 10A charger it can't even turn over the engine once. I ordered an ODS-AGM16L from FCP euro as I'm sure I'll kill it again and can use the lifetime replacement. Supposedly the AGM16L is the new version of the PC680. Old one was ~8 years old (or maybe 12 years old?), so I can't complain too much.



I didn't manage to get anything else done beyond dropping off the new tires/wheels. But it seems to run fine once I jumped it (warmed it up for the oil change), so I'm thinking I'll sign up for the Sunday Shelby club day anyways and try to come up the afternoon before to do the remaining maintenance overnight (they have overnight camping that day).

Punchlist
- Bleed brakes
- Replace pads (they looked like they have enough meat for another track day, but I have no idea what's on there)
- Install wheels
- Attempt to pump out the fuel tank
- Maybe trans and diff fluid
- Replace all the old tape on the ducting
- Maybe flush the coolant

 

Damn, I have a PC680 here that I'm probably not going to use. PM me if you'd rather do that.