turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Re: Tire wear

Last year, Aidan and I ran exactly the same alignment specs.

3.0* front
2.6* rear
and I believe both of us ran the same 1/8" total rear toe.

He dailied his car, I ran mine only on track (maybe 50-100 street miles all year). The track we spent most of our time on, Oregon Raceway Park, is really hard on the outer edges of tires.

His tires wore the inside and outside edges at almost exactly the same pace. My tires wore the outside edges much more than the inside edges. His inside edge wear was as a result of street use. Since my car wasn't driven on the street hardly at all, the inside edges were fine.

The 949 race alignment is even a bit more aggressive, so yes, you will see significant inner edge tire wear using that alignment setting on the street.

Padlock

For my reference, any estimate on how many miles Aiden accumulated on the street?

I had 2.5*F/2.0*R on my NA6 with 205 ZII's and with over 20k mixed twisty/hwy miles, multiple AutoX's, and a few lapping day events before they finally were shot.

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

I'm sure he would know, right @aidandj

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

Quite a few. Don't know if I have exact numbers. I can check later.

KMiata

Regarding your tire questions:

On a higher horsepower Miata, the 245 on a 10 will of course be faster than a 225 on a 9. However, I think I remember reading something from Emilio that with a stockish engine, the 225/9 combo is the same or faster, due to less drag and rolling resistance. In my opinion, 9s are the better choice for an N/A BP powered car, but I could be wrong. Affordable 10s didn't exist when I had a BP powered Miata. Can anyone else chime in on this? Any data out there?

The wider wheel and tire also makes the car a little harder to keep straight on the street too, if you care about that.

Padlock

I'm planning ahead on this one. I'm a bone stock BP motor now, but I dont anticipate it to be that way for much longer than a year where then the car will be a minimum of 250whp N/A with planned room to grow from there.. 245 on a 10 vs 225 on a 9 would be some interesting data to see. x2 on if anyone has that data available somewhere. The option thats sort of picking my brain right now is buying 9's and putting a 225 on them for this season while i'm stock BP power level, then once they wear out and I'm at higher power level replace them with 245's. I haven't heard much about 245 on 9's either though. I know people have done it. Devils advocate: I don't want to be stuck with 9's either if I know I can make this 10 setup work within reason. I know 245 on 10 is better but then I'm back to tire wear woes on a daily driver due to alignment specs necessary for wheel fitment. Tire wear may be a compromise I'm just forced to make.

Link to photos of 245 on 10's that I'm considering:
https://www.miataturbo.net/wheels-ti...3/#post1321236

Maybe with a heavier pull on the fenders I can squeak by with a less aggressive alignment with 245/10's. I suppose that's an option too..

Padlock

after many diggings... i found my answer:

Link to the discussion start:
245 VR1 vs other 225

"I read the GRM article, what I found interesting, is that the 245 gave up 4 mph and 0.7 seconds to the 225 on a 2.39ish time. Sometimes, especially for stockish power levels, smaller is better."

^may be due to drag on a stock BP power level more than anything though

Another with time comparison:
245 on 9 vs 225 Rival on 9

Padlock

*order to Moti complete*

Lightweight Strap Style Tow Hook
SD Rollbar

My wallet is sad, but I iz very happiness

KMiata

I think you'll be really happy with that bar. Congrats.

Padlock

Hoping so!

waiting on paychecks is fun.. gives me far too much time to plan. Based on more recent research and feedback from some of you.. I've got the following revised parts list picked out to get picked up within the next couple months.

Wheels/Tires:
15x9 S1's wrapped in 245 R-S4. I know the 245 would benefit from a 10" wide wheel, but on a DD I refuse to run the aggressive alignment necessary to clear the 10's so a 245 on a 9 will do. S1's are lighter, cheaper, don't have near the fitment issues, and in my opinion better looking than the 6UL so that's a big win in my books.

Coilovers:
Xida Gen2 800/500 with helpers. Are the coaxial tophats something I'm going to regret not spending the money on now? Planning on using NB tophats otherwise to use that money on other things below.

Sway Bars:
RB 1.125" Front Bar. With the 800 front spring rates I don't think the 1.25" bar will be necessary as it will already be quite stiff for what will be a DD.
Front sway bar mount stiffeners to prevent deflection.
Stock Rear Bar. If more is required I'll upgrade to the MSM bar later.
949 Endlinks. If they clunk I'll just deal with it. These seem well reviewed.

Bushings:
Sadfab Delrin Control Arm Bushings
Delrin Diff Bushings

Padlock

Had a few beers last night... and Moti offered the Black series lexan spoilers up for sale... drunken decisions were made!

Padlock

previous owner appeared to lack in metal cutting skills from the previous hard dog double hoop rollbar that was installed.. Sharp edges everywhere! water must have gotten back here at once point as well because there is surface rust in a few places. Seeing as the top has been replaced, I'm guessing the OEM top was likely leaking bad at one point causing this.



decided to fix it and just do it clean. blew the dust off and put the spot weld cutters to use. i also properly trimmed that bent piece of the shelf in the back and washed out all of the dirty mess that was existing back there. I want to paint this area all black once its warm outside



happy i just kept with the black. Moti FTW



Car is looking pretty good so far. Really like how these headlights look on the car. I have a few tiny projects on the exterior I want to touch up on once its warm out, but for now this works. I need to get the coils, wheels, and tires pronto.. Havent had any luck trying to sell these wheels even with new tires (surprisingly)

thumpetto007

iTrader: (15)

Care to post a picture of the beam pattern and output now that the headlights are on the car? Maybe I missed it, but what bulbs and ballasts are you using?

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier, I would have tried to convince you to get different rims/tires. 205/50/15 RE-71R on 8 inch rim is even faster than the 225 rival s on a 9 (anything less than 250whp). On a racetrack, anyways. Autocross the wider tires win. Also, I hate the feeling of a soft sidewall, not properly triangulated or whatever its called. 205 on an 8, 225 on a 9... Turn in response is really important to me.

Cool car.

Padlock

In other non-miata updates.. been working on a few other projects to keep me occupied while waiting on parts

Retrofit a Chevy Cobalt set of headlights for a friend. Turned out pretty minty. The work is pretty standard as this was probably my 10th cobalt I've done. He wanted the OEM+ look, and thats what he got.



Then for my crown jewel of headlight projects to date. Decided to tear apart my 2004 CBR600RR headlights as the OEM light output is mehh and decided to tackle my first LED projector project. Found a salvage set of 2015 corolla LED headlight housings with good internals and drivers for cheap on eBay so I decided to dive in head first with them.

Projector donor vehicle:


Current status:




Theres a lot of tedious work and thought process that goes into this LED projector swap behind the scenes buts its turning out pretty good. Lots of test fitting to still do before I'm done. One of the best parts is that the LED bulb drivers require no additional relay harness like an HID setup would, which makes packaging easy on a bike from a wiring management standpoint, plus its less weight. Physically fitting the projectors in the housings is a completely different story..... Below is a quick light output comparison between OEM honda cbr and the toyota projectors. To say its a huge difference is a "small understatement". Tons of additional forward light and a huge improvement on beam width to see all the little critters in the ditches. Very excited to see how these perform for my first night ride this upcoming season

Padlock

I definitely forsee this car eventually being higher than 250whp, which is the sole reason I'm between the 9 and 10. 10's have some alignment necessities that im wary to take on a car I'll be DD'ing 60+ milse a day in during the summer, so with that I think I've decided to give the 245 RS4 on a 9 a shot even though the sidewall stretch isnt "perfect" and its more tire than a stock BP powered miata needs. I think they'll last me well over a year and I plan on having more power during next winters build, so that tire/wheel plan is moreso in preparation for that upcoming aspect of the build

Beam output was posted earlier in the thread, but i'll save you the clicks. I wont have full output shots outside until the salt is off the roads here in Wisconsin. Its Mini H1 7.0 Projectors, Morimoto 35W Ballasts, and Morimoto 5500K Bulbs.

Padlock

More progress. More Blackbird Parts. More piktars.







Just to spite Moti because he said the stock badge cant be used..
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and i was too lazy to clean up all the residue under the badge..
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and the deleting the badge leaves ugly holes
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*insert Dremel wizardry here*
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Slowly starting to look more racecar... need the wheels and coilovers desperately.. cracked tail light is also annoying

Blackbird

You really showed me with that dremel!
Looks great!

Padlock

rediculously warm temperatures in WI this weekend allowed me to go HAMM on some projects. I had another drunken idea for my tail light crack fix so I decided to give this non-conventional concept a try seeing as custom lighting has grown to be my sort of my thing. i bought these horrendously ugly eBay altezza LED tail lights for about the same price as what I could find a clean set of used NB OEM lights. Pictures dont do them justice on how ugly they are, but here's one


Took an hour per tail light to open them up. No idea what sorcery the Chinese used to seal these buggers together, but it was NOT fun


First step... Get rid of that awful reflector



Disassemble the LED reflector


Fast forward through some paint and I came out with this.


Tossed the lense back on.. and whaaa-laaa...


Seeing as the weather was a balmy 65 degrees, I finally got to hitting the interior with desperately needed paint after the roll bar install


while waiting for paint to dry on the tails.. decided the bumper needed a bit of trimming to show off my fabulously stock muffler #weightreduction





And the end product after a long day of messing around. First ever black housing LED NB tails made to my knowledge! LED plate lights and LED tails tie together fairly well. Blacked out all the side markers as well so they dont stand out like a sore thumb. Not 100% sold on the tails as being "as awesome as I planned", but I dont think they look bad either. They are definitely better than cracked OEM ones. Just need to get LED turn signal and reverse bulbs now to finalize things from a cosmetic standpoint, then its full steam ahead with functional modifications as I'm happy with how the exterior looks. Taking it to work for the first time in 2017 tomorrow morning

acedeuce802

iTrader: (1)

Tails look great! I've always wondered why there was no good solution to the taillights.. at least one that I liked.

Padlock

Agreed. I was thinking about going with a GV style tail lamp, but on the NB version you would lose the reverse light functionality and even replica housings would cost nearly 3x as much as this custom LED job did.