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First thing is first, I got the headlights finished up. The Morimoto LED projectors are phenomenal as there isn't bulb warm up time, HID ballasts to deal with, or relay harnesses to route. Instant on and instant off. Simply plug the projector into the small LED driver and connect it to the OEM H4 bulb connector. The output of higher end LED projector tech has also finally caught up the HID projectors, so the only sacrifice you really are making by going to these is the additional cost. Top it all off with the red LED demon eye chipset that I added to the lights and your left with this for a look. I love it.
Personal life has gotten in the way from finishing up much more on the car from a front aero standpoint for the time being, so i tossed the rest of it together using the same birch splitter I had on last year. Gave it a quick new coat of paint to keep it looking pretty and here we are. More updates to come in the coming weeks.
Car has been lacking proper safety equipment basically since I have owned it which limited me to doing AutoX instead of big track stuff. (I never passed broomstick test). I can finally say that I have that put behind me.
Snagged a set of basically new (lightly farted in) sparco sprints from an MT member. Tried using GS rails I had laying around initially and as my luck would have it, the rails wouldn't allow the seat to sit low enough, so I sold the GS rails locally, went to PCI and ordered a matching pair of the 1.6" set back 1 piece rails from them. Got one set of 6 pt sparco harnesses from David at Kmiata for dealz pricing, and lucked out and found a matching set on Amazon closeout from a UK dealer at an even crazier deal. After much swearing and sweating with a cramped install, I'm happy with my tight budget results. Everything is matching sparco product which I wasn't expecting to do. My OCD is very pleased. This car hasn't had a full interior in it since I've owned it, so it's awesome seeing it all tie together. I have a few more odds and ends to button up before gingerman but for now I'm getting some miles on it to make sure i don't have any surprise leaks or issues.
Got the car back on the rack for the first time since first installing all of the suspension almost 2 years ago now. It was 2240 without me in it back in 2017. This realignment was much overdue.
You can look back at my build thread but since the last corner balance the high level summary is that I added 6pt harnesses, hardtop, barge boards, splitter, and wing. Removed soft top. Swapped from OEM nb1 stuff to lrb door panels, na6 dash, sparco seats w/ PCI brackets, and minimalist center console. The car still retains HVAC and radio. Still has OEM crash beams and bumper supports, so there's still low hanging fruit to take some pounds off in the future while still keeping the car comfy and relatively safe for the street. Overall, I'm extremely happy with only adding on 38 pounds.
2278 without driver and 5/8 tank.
2464 with driver and 5/8 tank. (51%/49% F/R balance in this config)
-3.3 / -2.9 F/R camber specs
1/16" toe out F
1/16" toe in R
Yes, it was a giant mess of 2x4's to get the car on the rack with 2.5" of ground clearance to the splitter, but after a 15 min struggle it went off and on.
Made it to the Kmiata Meetup at Gingerman this last Saturday. Appreciate everyone stopping in, checking out the car, and saying hi. It was my first HPDE event after about 7 years of autocross and 2 years of building this car to where I felt it was safe enough for track duty. Between worn sloppy OEM bushings, brake updates, having to add safety items to the car and myself, and taking care of routine maintenance it's been quite the process to get to this stage.
Seeing as I was running novice class, I took this as an opportunity to absorb all I can from my instructor who has ran Gingerman for 3+ years. Like in AutoX, I realize that having an ego can limit you, so many questions were asked (regardless how stupid I felt they were). I didn't take lap times as I really had nothing to prove. I just wanted to focus on running the proper lines, nailing down braking/shifting zones, learning the car/track, and have fun.
I've admittedly ALWAYS lacked in using brakes to the car's potential, so that coupled with the fact it was my first time running a track pad, made for a great learning experience of steadily going deeper and deeper into the braking zones. Brakes were probably what I gained most confidence in during this event as I started the event touching brakes just after the first marker in many corners, and left the event hitting them right around or just after the 3rd marker. There are a lot of good driving habits learned in AutoX carry over very well to HPDE, so by the end of the first couple sessions I could see my instructor start to relax, gain confidence in me and the car, and let me know where there was time to make up. By the end of the day, we were both laughing with how much lateral grip the car had on street tires (and at how pitifully slow it was in a straight line). No off's or issues, unlike many of the others in the novice group.
The car, for lack of better term, was handling perfect (minus the very obvious lack of straight line speed). It was a "point and shoot" car. Wherever you wanted it to go, it went. I didn't change damper settings, measure or change the AOA on the NLR wing from my initial "this looks about right" eyeball, adjust sways, or even change tire pressure from the moment it got unloaded from the trailer. It was about 50-55 degrees all day and overcast. The NLR wing completely got rid of the exit oversteer issues that I was having with my previous BFW lexan wing all last year, which was awesome to finally fix. The RS4's continue to wear like rocks. I now have somewhere in the neighborhood of 6000+ street driven miles, 200+ AutoX runs, and 1.5 hrs of track time on these 2 year old tires and they keep on ticking. They've lost a bit of traction from being cycled so much and they have some toe and camber wear from the alignment I need to run, but I can’t say enough good things about the bang for the buck you get on them.
In addition, I used this event to test out my prototype barge boards that I’m sure you have seen earlier in this build thread. The only issue was a small piece of optional edge trimming came off the back on the driver side rear which I’ll attribute to just not being clamped on tight enough. No issues with barge board rubbing or flexing at speed, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Now that the barge boards are track-proven, keep your eyes peeled for another Left Lane Designs product release in the next few weeks.
In other news, the Miata finally found its new permanent home for the foreseeable future. Closed on my first place at the end of April and have been doing substantial improvements throughout the property prior to finally moving in this last weekend. it has been nice taking a break from car projects and changing it up a bit on homeowner projects. Feels good to have a place that I can finally call my own. Once most of the big home improvements are tackled, it'll be the Miata's turn for an overhaul. For now, I can enjoy the summer with a fun car that needs nothing other than a full tank of gas.
Was cool to see you made it to the Miata event at Gman. I was out there with my brother and some other friends he has a battleship gray NA K24 miata (we were by the tower.) Wish I would have know this was you I would have introduced myself. I was trying to make it this year with a car but to many other projects to focus on. I plan on being there next year with my newest project maybe David will make it more than a one day event.
Was cool to see you made it to the Miata event at Gman. I was out there with my brother and some other friends he has a battleship gray NA K24 miata (we were by the tower.) Wish I would have know this was you I would have introduced myself. I was trying to make it this year with a car but to many other projects to focus on. I plan on being there next year with my newest project maybe David will make it more than a one day event.
One of my favorite parts of this event is seeing so many good people get to know each other. And yeah, it's 100% going to be a full weekend next year. I'm confident we'll sell it out again, and we have some really cool stuff in mind for next year.
__________________ KPower Industries
Home of the original KMiata Swap
Was cool to see you made it to the Miata event at Gman. I was out there with my brother and some other friends he has a battleship gray NA K24 miata (we were by the tower.) Wish I would have know this was you I would have introduced myself. I was trying to make it this year with a car but to many other projects to focus on. I plan on being there next year with my newest project maybe David will make it more than a one day event.
Small world like always! I'm sure we'll cross paths again at some event. Don't be afraid to say hi. Put faces to a lot of names at the Kmiata event!
Originally Posted by KMiata
One of my favorite parts of this event is seeing so many good people get to know each other. And yeah, it's 100% going to be a full weekend next year. I'm confident we'll sell it out again, and we have some really cool stuff in mind for next year.
I look forward to this, although if its early May again it may be pushing it for me on if my car will be back off the jack stands if plans go according to schedule.
Had a break between home projects to hit the car with a quick wash, clay bar, and wax this weekend. There were so many metal deposits in the clear coat with all the aero cutting done over this past winter. Glad to have them all removed. Amazing how much shine the paint still has in it for a beaten and abused 20 year old car. Doesn't even require a filter to appreciate this last phone photo!
I thought the same. It's been 2 years for this car as well. Don't get me wrong, its far from perfect and the clay was gross by time I was done, but its still a directional improvement haha
Finally had some time this weekend to brush the cobwebs off and start prepping the K24A2 for Kmiata things. The plan is to keep the car as-is for MATG coming up in a month. I've got a few basic maintenance and electrical items I'd like to get sorted before the trip. After MATG, the plan is to teardown the car sometime in late August or September to sell off the items I won't be using any longer, which include the engine, front subframe, transmission, ECU, engine harness, driveshaft, rear end, and half shafts.
I degreased the engine and started prepping it for paint. While I understand it isn't really necessary to paint an aluminum block/head, I think it will look a lot nicer in the engine bay as a finished product as anything doing is worth overdoing.
Promptly after taking the first photo, I began cutting off the boss for the OEM tensioner to make room for where the coolant lines will be running. During this process, I managed to kill my angle grinder, so this project is starting off as good as I could possibly expect. I bought another angle grinder and plan on smoothing out the cut a bit more before I hit everything with a mineral spirits cleaner.
04-11-2019, 10:47 PM
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