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No. That was an HPDE with a local driving school. Passing is only allowed on the 4 longer straights. Everyone is supposed to act like an adult and show some awareness.
The school has a perfect 15 year record of never having a paint-on-paint incident, and they are VERY focused on safety. Had it been a member day, things might have been different, but I'm not sure I would have trusted him enough to pass him in a corner. I vaguely remember worrying that he would freak out and wipe both of us out, if I came up on him too hard. (<-- low hanging fruit, thataway) He was an early intermediate driver at best. Sometimes, they talk a good enough game to slip through the cracks into the advanced group. I know I would hate having to be his instructor.
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Last edited by Steve Dallas; 01-27-2017 at 07:36 PM.
Reason: Grammars and spellins
A few minor things done tonight. First off, should I end up using the flanges I ordered from Aircraft Spruce to replace my fog lights with brake duct inlets, they need to be black. My older son was kind enough to polish them with 800 grit wet paper for me, and after a wipe-down with denatured alcohol, the backside was ready for primer.
Then black semi-gloss paint, because my black flat paint wouldn't spray.
I'll hit the top side tomorrow for installation on Sunday. Moving on...
The floor mats in this car came with those terrible plastic devil anchors that tear up the carpet. The PO apparently cut them off at some point, which is good, because there are pretty bad cuts in the carpet that are several inches long. To better secure the driver's floor mat, I installed a pair of #2 or 3/8" grommets in the holes left behind by the devil anchors. Brass is what I had on hand, so I used them. I sanded them, hit them with metal etching primer, and painted them black. Eh. It didn't work. The black paint can be scraped off with a thumbnail. I'll order some black oxide grommets and replace them eventually. Lowe's Racing Department provided me with #10 1.5" black oxide screws, plus black oxide flat washers, block oxide hex nuts, stainless flat washers, and stainless nylock nuts. Black stuff on top, stainless stuff on bottom. Stacking that stuff with carpet and floor pan between between created a pair of solid studs, with which to anchor the grommets. Now the floor mat will stop sliding around and should be much safer.
It's a good start, but the Ghost of @Jeffbucc won't let me sleep, until I replace the grommets and spray the bottom hardware with undercoating. Stop eeet, Jeffbucc!!! Stop eeet!!!
My younger son had some important work to do as well.
Have you been out to Cresson before? If so, who do you run with? What car do you drive now? I am out there upwards of 18 times per year with Apex Driving Academy and SCCA TNiA, and I drive a black RX-8. I'm willing to bet we have crossed paths. If not, we definitely should.
I've only taken this Miata to the track twice, and even though it's sloooooooooow, I'm already hooked. I'll start shopping for the next one soon. This one will be kept nice. No holds are barred with the next one.
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Yes, I have been to Cresson, last Oct. with Apex, but I was in my S2000 CR, I remember seeing a black RX8 that day now that you mention it. The S2000 is tentatively sold and should be gone in the next few weeks, then I will be spending some money on the miata. Hopefully I will see you out there in the next couple months.
I didn't need to do this until this spring, but I had some time this weekend and decided to get it over-with. A trip to Home Depot Racing resulted in $5 spent and a selection of pipe foam insulation. That stuff works great in sealing the sides of RX-8 radiators, due to the way the nose is constructed. Will it work with an NB2 Miata? Hopefully.
I slid the top piece in, when I installed the radiator about 1000 miles ago. It has served its purpose and stayed in place. Maybe I'll make or buy a fancy plate to seal the rest of the holes and dress things up.
The bottom is a little trickier. I don't know if this is the final solution, because I don't know if the foam will blow out on me. Freeway testing is needed.
There is room on the bottom side to stuff one of the largest and one of the smallest diameter foam tubes. The larger piece is held in place by the bumper tray. The smaller piece is trimmed to fit under the AC hard lines. Both are contacted by the undertray, once reinstalled. Between the bumper tray, AC lines, and undertray, there should be enough friction to hold these in place. If I see problems down the road, glue and/or wire ties will be employed. I'll report back on how well this works.
That condenser really needs some help. Anyone know of a fin straightening tool that actually works? Or, should I just plan on spending 4 hours with a 6 pack of good beer and a small screwdriver?
Next, I turned my attention to the sides of the radiator. There are body braces on either side of the radiator that look like they could assist in holding a piece of foam in place. The smallest size foam has to be trimmed to be able to force it in there, and it is easier to install it from the bottom. It doesn't look like much, but it will work, and the foam is held tightly enough, that it shouldn't move. This foam runs the height of the radiator, from top to bottom and seals a substantial gap on either side.
What is left, is a V-shaped gap on either side of the radiator, between the body braces and the uprights (see ^ photo). I don't have anything on hand that will reliably seal a gap that large, so I will have to revisit this in the future.
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Last edited by Steve Dallas; 02-05-2017 at 12:49 PM.
The real reason I attacked sealing the radiator in the dead of winter is, I was already in there installing the brake ducts. For this, I went all credit card mechanic again and ordered the Singular kit from Goodwin Racing. By the time I bought Singular or Trackspeed prawns and added hose and flanges from Aircraft Spruce plus shipping on all of it, it would cost more than just buying the kit, so I bought the kit.
This little project was done in fits and starts, because the duct hose was backordered for a few weeks.
The plan was to do the obvious on an NB with fog lights. The plan did not work out so well. I ordered the 2.5" kit to clear my 225 tires. The 2.5" flanges do not fit my fog light holes as well as they could. There is less than 1/8" of overlap, when front-mounted, which means there is not enough material to hold even a #4 bolt reliably without notching and clamping with fender washers, which makes things irreversible. Rear mounting could be made to work with the right hardware, but would still be a redneck kluge. (Still, I may need to do that in the future, when I have to figure out piping for a FMIC--turbo kluges are acceptable.) And, I like my fog lights and don't really want to give them up unless absolutely forced to. [Zips up flame suit]
Remember those V-shaped gaps between the body braces and bumper uprights? Any sharp edges on those? No. About the right size to hold 2.5" hose in place? Yes. Tightly? Yes. Is there anything more permanent than a temporary solution? Nope. Decision made!
This is pretty straightforward stuff, so on to the ridiculously oversized photos. (Seriously. Why doesn't this site resize photos like every other forum on the planet?)
I finally found a reason to use wire ties!
Trim the hose back to the wire, shape the spring wire into a V that roughly matches the opening, shove it in there, then reshape it back into a circle to hold it in place.
The undertray needs a trim.
Done.
The fender liner does too.
Finished.
Yes, I'm scavenging some positive pressure from in front of the radiator to cool the brakes, but I don't think it will matter as long a this car remains N/A.
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Last edited by Steve Dallas; 02-03-2017 at 11:36 AM.
225s on 15x9s. I tested everything last night, and the only rubbing I heard happened in full lock. Of course, I'll need to test further to be sure, but I should be OK, if last night's test is a good indicator. What configuration are you running that was cause rubbing on the sway bar?!
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Last edited by Steve Dallas; 01-31-2017 at 11:35 AM.
I drove the Miata to work today, which is significant for the fact that it is 21 miles of city driving each way, which means a lot of turning, therefore opportunity for the brake ducts to rub or otherwise act up. Again, I heard no rubbing, except when backing out of my driveway at full lock. Upon inspection after arriving home, I saw very little evidence of rubbing on the ducts, and there was plenty of clearance between the tires and the ducts. I think I'm OK.
Now my car sounds like a Wiffle ball going down the road. Pretty sure that makes it even more ghey.
The turbo project is officially on hold. I just blew the kitty on joining my home track as a full member. That affords me all the seat time I can stand, without having to navigate the various driving schools, and without the headaches associated with being an instructor.
Track day tomorrow, and weather looks pretty good for once. Fingers crossed.
The turbo project is officially on hold. I just blew the kitty on joining my home track as a full member. That affords me all the seat time I can stand, without having to navigate the various driving schools, and without the headaches associated with being an instructor.
Track day tomorrow, and weather looks pretty good for once. Fingers crossed.
The Super Tramp had her first real track day yesterday. The schedule consisted of 3 sessions running CCW in the morning, and 3 sessions running CW in the afternoon. I had no instructor duties, so I could just focus on driving and having a good time. The car did great. The weather ranged from low 40s and cloudy to high 50s and partly cloudy. Other than wanting to extend oars and row to help it out on the straights, the Tramp performed beyond expectations. Its current limitation became immediately obvious: 1.4Gs means I REALLY need seats and harnesses. The car was capable of more than I could physically manage. I was quite literally holding on for dear life in nearly every corner, and it was exhausting. I am SOOOOO sore today.
Random observations follow. I will probably follow up with more details later.
Brakes
The Carbotech XP10 / XP8 combination worked very well. Reducing the rear compound prevented me from locking up the rears first, like I had done before. The stopping power of these pads worked will with the grip in the tires, and I did not really have to think much about threshold braking. I had only 1 brief lock-up event that came during a warm-up lap, when I forgot my tires were not hot yet, and it did not cause any tire damage, as I realized it immediately. The brake ducts worked wonders for keeping things cool. I measured ~280F front pad temps after running 1 cool-down lap at the end of a session and rolling into the paddock. Hell, the front pads are still painted orange after 6 sessions; they have never made it past 1 session before. For reference, my front pads on my RX-8 will measure >700F under the same conditions.
Tires
I have run a lot of tires before, but never R888s. I bought these, because TireRack ran a killer sale on them in December, with rim purchase. They have a good amount of grip, provide adequate feedback, and are relatively precise. The amount of wear is about what I expected, and the wear patterns are all more even than I have experienced before, thanks to 949's alignment settings. Time will tell how long they last. I can't really make any direct comparisons to other tires, as I have only driven this car on Sport Comp 2 tires before.
Suspension
I will post a full review after another track day or two. As previously noted, I have mostly Flyin' Miata parts in my suspension. I took a toolbox with me--expecting to need to make some adjustments. I never needed to. After using the first session to set front and rear rebound according to the Penske method, I found the balance of the car to be so close to perfect as to not warrant any further adjustment. To the extent I could get the car to lose grip, which was very little, all 4 tires would slip together in a predictable way. I have 2 softer adjustment settings available in the front sway bar, should I decide I want a little more rotation in the future. Finding the edge of grip was nearly impossible; I spent most of the day looking for 10/10ths and never really found it. I couldn't stay in my seat well enough the push the car hard enough to find it. I will post actual data later, but I hit 1.4G at least once nearly every lap. The short summary is, the suspension just worked. There was never a time that I found myself wishing it would do more of X or less of Y. It was utterly forgettable, which is a very good thing.
Radiator and Cooling
There isn't much to say here, considering how cool it was outside. I have not dived deeply into the data yet, but skimming it appears to show I reached a max temp of 199F and leveled off there every session. I still won't know how much actual cooling capacity I have until July, but it looks good so far.
Lap Times
This took me by surprise for some reason. The car felt really fast. It wasn't. I was almost exactly 3 seconds off my personal best in the RX-8 in both directions. The better power to weight ratio of the 8 is enough to overcome the slightly better cornering ability of the Miata. Of course, 3+ years of experience tracking that car doesn't hurt either. Another possible factor is, it has been roughly 6 months since I have had a full-speed track day due to poor weather. I have to be rusty.
Photos
I didn't take many. Sorry.
Video
I did take as much video as my equipment would allow. I haven't gone through any of it yet, but I'll look for anything interesting enough to post. In the mean time, I did isolate the one Spinderella moment I had. This was during the 6th session, I was tired, and I wasn't even driving very hard. The only thing I can figure is, I hit some dirt or grass from where other people had run off the track there. The oversteer took me totally by surprise, and I couldn't correct it. Fortunately, there was no damage, although my alignment settings are probably a little off now.
I still have not had much time to dig into data or video, but here is a quick and dirty look at my coolant and intake air temps from session 5 at 3:00PM when the ambient temp was 67F. (It was actually a bit warmer than I thought.)
Coolant looks good.
IAT could be better at a delta of 17F above ambient. I'll have to do the math to see how much improvement might come from bringing IAT down somehow.
These data were logged by Harry's Lap Timer, which I was mainly using to shoot video for its overlay capabilities. Its resolution isn't that great for data logging, but it does give a decent idea of what is happening.
I spent a lot of time typing up a really cool post filled with all sorts of really exciting data analysis, but the site ate it, when I submitted the post. I may type it up again later. In the meantime, here are a couple of bad videos.
I recorded video from the windshield using Harry's Lap Timer for Android. That video is easy to access and post individual laps, so I quickly pulled it. My phone mount obviously sucks, so I'll have to fabricate something better, if I want to continue to use the phone for video. Harry's still sucks for video overlay on Android, so I probably won't bother.
Here is the fastest (yet pathetic) CCW lap, according to Harry. My AIM Solo, which has far better GPS than my phone, reports this lap as a 1:33.1. It would have been a second or two faster, if I had not been forced to lift for the Green Machine in front of the finish line. This lap came late in the last CCW session, after I had started to figure out the Miata thing. The Spec Miata record for this track in this direction is something like 1:25.0. I have a long way to go.
Here is the fastest (even more pathetic) CW lap, according to Harry. My AIM Solo reports this lap as an embarrassing 1:34.9. I haven't driven the track in this direction in the dry in about a year, so I am more than a little bit rusty. This direction is typically about one second slower than the other way.
My GoPro was mounted to my harness bar, and its video looks much better. Unfortunately, I have not had time to review or edit any of it. Instead of doing that, I will probably spend my time watching YT videos of people who are actually fast in Miatas at this track to try and learn something.
[The overlay stuff on the left side of the screen is fairly decent--just add 0.2G to the accelerometer. The overlay stuff on the right side of the screen is terribly inaccurate and useless, so ignore it.]
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Last edited by Steve Dallas; 02-19-2017 at 10:56 AM.
Realizing that seats would be the next priority early on, I took the opportunity to plant my butt in as many seats as car owners would let me last Monday. The seat my bad back liked the most turned out to be economical and light: the Corbeau FX1 Pro. I am 5'10"; and 160lbs and have a 32 - 33" waist, and this seat fits me with barely room to spare. It isn't too tight, like the Recaro Profi, and it will hold me tightly enough to solve the holding-on-for-dear-life problem. The seat plus Planted Miata brackets only set me back $454 shipped. I'll try this one out, and purchase a second one for the passenger side if I like it. The only potential issue I can see is lack of lumbar support, but very few seats that will fit a Miata have good lumbar support, and a well-placed, rolled-up hand towel can take care of that.
Soon.
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Last edited by Steve Dallas; 02-19-2017 at 10:48 PM.
I spent a lot of time typing up a really cool post filled with all sorts of really exciting data analysis, but the site ate it, when I submitted the post. I may type it up again later. In the meantime, here are a couple of bad videos.
Any time I type up a long post, I always copy it to note pad before posting, just to make sure it doesn't get eaten.
The spin from the first video is a few things:
1. Rear suspension bottoming and not enough low speed rear rebound.
2. Too little front vs too much rear roll stiffness.
Add spring rate and a bigger front or smaller rear bar.
Your initial inputs were fine, didn't cause the spin. Your reaction when the car started to over rotate were glacially slow and late however. Learn to snap that correction in violently the instant you feel the car over rotating. SNAP. Not, I think something bad is happening what do I do now
I have the benefit of the data here, and I attribute that spin to debris (grass, dirt, mud) on the track (and driver error for not noticing and compensating for it). Since none of us had driven the track in that direction in the dry in at least 6 months, a lot of people were leaving the track in that spot. There at least had been debris there earlier, and there most likely was some when I had my Spinderella moment. I was right at 1G at the time, which was not enough to spin the car without some kind of outside influence.
My reaction to the spin was indeed slow and ineffective. I'm usually faster and more aggressive than that, but it was very hard to feel what the car was doing, since I was sliding around in the seat. I was also tired and driving at only about 70%, so I did not expect any misbehavior, since I had not experienced any all day at much higher lateral Gs.
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Last edited by Steve Dallas; 02-20-2017 at 10:00 PM.
01-27-2017, 02:46 PM
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