emilio700

iTrader: (3)

The NB2's run 14.7 AFR regardless of TPS or load until coolant reached about 110°. Makes them run like **** until then. A programmable ECU will fix that right up.

Xidas are assembled here and serviced in Plano, TX. Just FYI.

Steve Dallas

110C or did you mean 210F? 110C would be approaching scary hot.

Who in Plano does your service? That is right in my backyard and something I did not know.

BTW, one of the main drivers toward FM Fox was that the closest track to me is 2 hours away over some very shitty roads. I often drive much farther over even shittier roads to go to other tracks. I don't think my bad back could handle 700-800lbs springs for that long, no matter how awesome the valving is.

The fetching Mrs. Dallas recently talked me into buying 3 acres outside Granbury, TX, which is about 15 minutes from my home track. Her parents retired to Florida, and her cousins recently moved to Granbury, so she wants to move close to family. She won that argument very quickly--not realizing the proximity of the track. Once the house is built with the huge garage (she doesn't know about that either), there will be a second, hard core race Miata, and it will most likely wear Xidas.

Anyway, thank you for your input. I have learned quite a bit from lurking over your threads and posts over the past several months.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

http://www.inertialaboratory.com/about/

As stated earlier we install whatever Hyperco springs you order. Some customers choose for 450/300 for example. I assure you, Xidas configured with the right spring rates for your usage will not give up anything in terms of ride quality to any damper on the market.

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

I have 700/400 Xidas on one of my 94's. On my other 94 I have the FM Tokico/springs combo. The tokico's are slightly more comfortable over shitty roads then the Xidas. I have tried well over half a dozen different shock and spring combo's on miata's and have to say that Xidas are the only ones I will ever recommend for track use. The high spring rates don't make them feel shitty when DD at all. Whatever Emilio gets done to the Xidas is pure ******* magic.

Steve Dallas

OK. So the guys from Hanchey started up again. Good to know. As it happens, a good friend of mine just had them build a set of coilovers for his S2000, based on Tracktive shocks. I had not put it together until just now. Makes sense.

Steve Dallas

Other Suspension Junk

While I had everything apart, I wanted to take care of some obvious suspension setup parts and adjustments. Those were:

1. Heavier front sway bar
2. Adjustable end links all around
3. Front sway bar reinforcement
4. Front extended lower ball joints

There is a lot of information available on how to set up various Miatas for the track. Naturally, I ignored that information for my NB2 and added FM's NB front bar to my coilover order instead of the specified Racing Beat bar I see recommended everywhere. I figure FM isn't stupid (except for when they make spring perch location suggestions, of course), so this bar can't be far off. Not really. I actually did the math and calculated this bar to be more likely to give me the balance I want for my style of driving with the stock rear. If the car understeers too much, I can always add the MSM rear bar. If it oversteers too much, I can yell at the car for its out-of-control trampy ways and order the damn Racing Beat bar.

It is surprising to me how many people either do not know about or ignore the fact that you need to properly set sway bar preload, when you lower a car. There isn't much to go on about here, other than to say it should be done, if you want balanced, predictable handling. I have Whiteline end links on my RX-8, and they pop and click enough to be annoying. So, having learned nothing about ball joint based end links, I decided to be lazy and throw FM's adjustable links in my cart to see how I like them. FM will start paying me for this advertising any minute now. I just know it. Maybe I need to show some leg first.

The Miata's front sway bar mount locations are weak when used with a heavy front bar, so I ordered Racing Beat's reinforcement kit. I'm sure it works as advertised, but due to the way it is made, it will make greasing the front sway bar bushings a royal PIA. I should have drilled and tapped the FM brackets and bushings for grease zerks. I will do that in the future and/or or switch to the Mazda Motorsports reinforcement solution. I certainly will not be taking all this apart every few months.

Other than that, I installed Bauer extended lower ball joints in the front for 3 degrees of extra negative camber adjustment. One of the frustrations I have long had with my RX-8 has been my inability to dial in more than 2.2 degrees of negative camber in the front--even at a 4" ride height. There are solutions to that problem, but they are imperfect, so I never employed any of them. The Miata's easily replaceable ball joints make adding negative camber cheap and easy. Mainly, I just wanted an excuse to use my BFH.

FM front bar with Racing Beat reinforcement:




FM front bar, FM end link, and RB reinforcement kit. I cleaned the upper A arm, because Jeffbucc spoke to me in a dream:




Bauer extended lower ball joint:


.

Steve Dallas

Alignment

I had a plan. It was a brilliant plan. The brilliant plan was to drive the car 5 miles to the local Firestone for an initial alignment, then wait a couple of days for the suspension to settle, set the ride height exactly where I want it, and take the car to Cobb Tuning for a more precise final alignment. The plan was not so brilliant, as it turns out.

After performing all the suspension work, I tried to back the car out of the garage. Rather than roll, the front tires skidded across the polished garage floor and made an interesting noise that is rather difficult to describe, without invoking unpleasant sounds of wounded animals combined with the mating calls of horny elephants. Seeing and hearing that, I knew the front tires would not make it the 5 miles to Firestone without significant unnecessary wear, so I would have to do a quick and dirty alignment myself.

Using fragments of beer-fogged knowledge I gleaned from reading GRM, I used straight edges, levels, bits of string, newt entrails, and masking tape to adjust the front end alignment to make the car drive-able. According to my crude measurements, the Tramp had about 3 degrees of toe in per side in the front plus about 4 degrees of negative camber, which made for some interesting caster. Wow.

My redneck alignment was not that great, but it was good enough to drive the car to Firestone. Their alignment was not that great either, but I kind of expected that. They were in the rough ballpark of my specs, but putting all the rear total toe into the left wheel is probably not the best prescription for precision.

After Firestone alignment:




I have a new set of track wheels on the way. Once installed, I'll adjust the ride height, then take the car to Cobb this week or next for "final" track alignment (which is really just my first crack at finding settings I like).

Steve Dallas

This is why you don't take your car to Firestone for a precision alignment.

OptionXIII

Mmmm, I'm loving the junk in your trunk.

Clean car, cool parts. Looking forward to seeing more!

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

I get all my alignments done at Firestone. Did you ask to talk to the tech before they aligned the car? Did mention that you would tip him when he is done? I always tip my alignment guys, no matter who does it at what type of shop.

I goto 2 different Firestone's for my alignments. There is one 2 miles away that I get "Eddy" to do all my alignments, he is a bit slow, but generally hits the specs just about perfect. I just have to talk to him before he starts and give him my spec sheet. When I want to sit in the car I goto another Firestone about 25min away where one of my good friend works. Their general manager is much more lenient because he brings in a ton of business. He hits my specs dead on every time.

At the end of the day it is far more of the tech and if they want to hit your specs or not more then the specific shop. Having lifetime alignments at Firestone and 3 miata's that look exactly the same works great for me. As I can bring in any of them and they have no clue. The alignment tech gets his .8 hours of shop labor for redoing the alignment, and then the cash I give them.

Steve Dallas

The Round Things Fairy arrived.



I originally had my heart set on 6ULs, but Tire Rack ran a holiday sale on Advanti Storm S1 15x9s in black ($130) and Toyo R888s ($90) in 225 45 15. That, plus free mount and balance, centering rings, and cheap crappy lug nuts was too good to pass up. I'm accustomed to paying more than that just for tires for the RX-8. Miata = cheap awesomeness.

Rock Auto was kind enough to charge my CC and send me some cheap Centric rotors, too.

Two thoughts on weight. 1. Wide rims and track tires, and still 1.8lbs lighter than stock. Nice. 2. Mazda did a very admirable job of making these OEM rims light and strong.

Steve Dallas

It is a crying shame how little alignment techs are paid.

I'm sure I could find a local shop that would do a great job, assuming the right [cough] incentives are provided. But, I don't need to look for one. I have Cobb Tuning about 30 minutes away from me, and Jaime takes his time and gets it dead-on for me every time. Cobb only charges $90, which is the same as or cheaper than most other places.

I actually checked into the lifetime alignment idea. The Firestone tech told me the car can be brought in once per quarter, and he is only obligated to get it into the green of factory specs. He is also only paid $5 for each re-alignment. I can see why a nice tip would be needed to make that work.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

really good progress. excellent choices (except I'd have chosen xidas :P )

Steve Dallas

The idea that this car might pass itself off as a common Miata is looking less and less likely. So much for the sleeper concept.



I set the initial ride height last night, and it goes to Cobb Tuning for its track alignment and maybe a slight fender roll Thursday morning. I borrowed ride height and alignment settings from 949 Racing (I finally listened to someone!) as kind of a hybrid between their dual duty and full track setups. We'll see if it yields happy tires, or if it needs a bit of fine-tuning.

The initial ride height is set at 4.75" all around, with a full tank of gas, 170lbs of ballast in the driver's seat, and the spare tire in the trunk. When I get to the track, unload the trunk, and start to burn through fuel, I will net some positive rake after a couple of sessions. I calculate that to be up to 1/4", depending on fuel level. I know all the reasons why a lower center of gravity is better, but I have to drive this car to and from the track over some seriously shitty roads, so I am choosing to start higher and go lower if/as needed. My RX-8 is 4" at the pinch welds [a necessity to get as much -camber as possible without resorting to offset bushings], and that is difficult to live with around town.

Alignment settings will be as close to the following as possible:

FRONT
Camber: -3.5
Caster: ~4.0
Total Toe: 0.0

REAR
Camber: -3.0
Total Toe: 0.0625"

Once I finish making changes that affect weight, I will have it corner balanced.

Sadly, the weather forecasts for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are rain, rain, and more rain, so I likely will not be able to explore what the car can do very much. More than likely, I will be taking it with street brakes and tires. If it dries out a little bit, that can be OK. At least I can then check these changes against the baseline I set last month. You are only supposed to change one thing at a time anyway, right?

Also, since Partsmageddon did not go as planned due to backorders and otherwise missing items, I am not able to complete the upgrade of any of the other systems (namely brakes) anyway.

This is why you DO have Cobb Tuning perform your track alignment:




Vanity shots:

Steve Dallas

Brakes

The forecast for the Jan 14 track day suddenly looked better as of the Friday evening before, so I decided to do a basic brake job and swap on my track wheels. I couldn't do everything I wanted to do, because my duct hoses, flanges, clamps, and brake lines did not arrive on time.

Singular Motorsports prawns were installed:


Everything was cleaned and appropriately greased. Centric rotors were installed. Carbotech XP10s went on the fronts, and XP8s went on the rears. Good to go for now.


This is probably the last time those brake pads will be orange, and those rims will be black. 949 lug nuts should arrive soon to relieve me of the Tire Rack cheapies.

Bedding new brakes at 10PM on city streets is definitely what I should be doing the night before a track day.

.

Steve Dallas

Track Day Non-Report

The forecast was for morning rain and a high of 61F. So, I decided to risk it and took her out with track brakes and wheels. Whichever god(s) hate(s) me changed the weather to a full day of dense fog, mist, and a steady ambient temperature of 37F.

I. Used. My. Fog. Lights!

As you can imagine, I did not learn a great deal about the car at the track. I'll get that part over with and focus on what I learned on the way there and back.

The track was cold, wet, and slick. There was some grip to be had on the wet line, but not enough to put any heat into the tires. From what I could tell, the car is fairly neutral--sitting at a good starting place, anyway. There was some understeer and some oversteer, but not a terrible amount of either, and it was all predictable and manageable. That's all I really know at this point. Maybe next month will be better, and I will finally be able to see what she can do.

The 2 hour drive each way to and from the track taught me plenty. What follows is a street-only review of the FM Fox suspension in its environment of previously discussed suspension changes.

I now have roughly 900 miles on the suspension. Most of that has been spent tooling around soccer-mom-hell-suburbia where I live, and it has been mostly smooth sailing. My home surroundings feature mostly new pavement, as my city has tripled in size in only 10 years. Very strictly enforced construction code has guaranteed high quality results. With the rebound set to the recommended setting in the manual (16 clicks from firm), the car has a stiffer, sportier feel than it did on the stock suspension, but is rarely harsh or objectionable. The occasional raised seam, piece of badly broken pavement, or pothole will make sure you feel it, but it isn't bad enough to be concerning.

Things were different on the way to the track. Once I had ventured to the treacherous actual-hell of North Dallas pavement, a painful narrative began in my shaken and battered brain.

^ Massive hyperbole thataway.

After about an hour of that, I stopped and set the rebound 3 clicks lower. Or, at least I think it was 3 clicks. The double vision and numbness in my fingers made it hard to tell for sure. That lower rebound setting helped a tremendous amount.

At the track, I left the rebound there, since it was such a lousy day.

The drive home was much better. At the lower rebound setting, the car had a little more bounce than I would prefer, but it was no longer jarring (perhaps 1 click the other way would be perfect). Larger imperfections in the road made themselves known, but the drive was tolerable in a few areas and enjoyable in most others. All-in-all, I would say FM and Fox did an admirable job of designing and building a competent dual duty setup--at least from the street side. They are not Ohlins good on the street, but they are plenty good if set correctly. The fetching Mrs. Dallas would approve, anyway. Track performance remains to be seen...

On another note, if my novice student had just shown up with R comps for his 1st time out, my track day would have been the pinnacle of misery. He worked hard at it, as it was. R comps would have achieved it.

No photos or video. Not worth wasting the electrons.

.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

Those headlights are screaming to be baked/blacked out. That would complete the look

Steve Dallas

Baked would be pretty cool looking, methinks. I'm probably too old for the blacked-out look.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

when I say blacked out, I mean housing ,not lens. darker housing, like the MSM.
blacked out lenses are for idiots

Steve Dallas

Gotcha. My RX-8 and my wife's RDX both have dark housings and look great to me. The Miata would wear that look well. Good call.