One other update I made before this outing was to remove the NACA duct on my hood. I had originally installed it when I had the intake on the "cold" side for the BP engine to try to get some ambient air to the intake.



I had riveted the NACA duct to the headlight door, so I just drilled out the rivets, and replaced the duct with a piece of aluminum sheet for now. Hopefully that will drop pressure under the hood and help airflow through the radiator and out the hood vents. It hasn't been a problem, but wasn't ideal with unnecessary air being introduced.





I really want to replace the hood with fiberglass (with the headlight doors molded in, and a 'bump' for increased engine clearance), but it's a lot of expense for a small benefit...

 

On another note, the NC turbo kit finally arrived...

 

Congrats on the win Roda! I was going back and digging through your thread and I love how you plumbed in that brake pressure sensor. I will definitely be copying you with a similar design at some point in the future. I need to look into an AIM setup so I can log things better/easier.

 

Quick report from High Plains Raceway...

We ran an open lapping day on Friday, and with PCA on Saturday. No car related problems this year so I could concentrate on driving. The track was a little green on Friday, but much better Saturday. Rain shut things down early on Friday, and run group traffic was the worst I've ever experienced on Saturday... more on that later. I did improve my lap time significantly from last year (when I had one good session), but I didn't consider last year to be representative of what either I or the car was capable of. Anyway, TLDR, fastest lap at 2:04.68... on the first hot lap of the session, and I wasn't really trying to set a fast one, but it ended up the fastest of the weekend due to traffic and rising temperatures.



More to come...

 

Friday morning was gloomy, with fog and light rain, but the track was mostly dry. Even by the time we had the driver's meeting and got on track, it hadn't cleared up much.



The track had several sections repaved since we were there last year, and a couple of them were pretty slick. Combined with the conditions, there wasn't a lot of grip. Light rain fell for the first couple of hours, but never enough to turn on the wipers. Eventually, things dried out, and the temperature started coming up. Friday was an open lapping day, but they split us into two 30 minute 'sessions' with the slower group at the top of the hour and the faster group at the bottom of the hour. After re-acquainting with the track, I ended up with a best of 2:05.3 on the day. We packed up early with weather coming in: severe thunderstorm and tornado(!) warning, with 2" hail possible. We put both cars in the trailer just in case. We ended up being just on the edge of the storm cell, but still got a good amount of rain in the afternoon and through the night.

One of our pit neighbors was running this GT4 Merc... I ******* love this thing. And it was FAST... watching the closing speeds on even the Porsche GT cars was hilarious.



Saturday was a PCA day, and started bright and sunny. We've run a lot with the AZ PCA folks and like their events. This was our second time with PCA Rocky Mtn Region... might be our last. For this event they had 35 cars registered in each of our run groups... IMHO it was just too much, and too much disparity in lap times. Point by required for passing. I was the third car out in every session I ran, behind a 911 Cup car and a GT4 Cayman. The GT4 had around 2 seconds per lap on me, and the Cup car was just gone, but we all caught traffic on our 2nd hot lap in every session. That's right, one hot lap before catching traffic. Tried going slow on the out lap, ran through the hot pits... didn't make a difference. After the first hot lap, I never had more than 1/2 a lap of clear track. And no passing without a point by, so you had to wait until the driver you caught realized you were there and pointed you by... another 1/2 lap usually. This was 1/2 lap into the 2nd hot lap of the first session...



I was running in "DE3" which is PCA's "Advanced" group, so I went to the lead instructor in charge of things and requested to move up to the "Expert/Instructor" group after the 2nd session. Since I wasn't a 'regular' in their region, and they couldn't give me a check ride with an instructor (no passenger seat), they wouldn't move me up. Nor would they move down the problem children from our group, because the slower group was already too large...

My wife even had problems in the intermediate group with getting point bys, and she's not fast at all. She got pissed at one particular poorly driven GT4 Cayman and finally just started running up on and bullying him until he finally pointed her by...



I wanted to go find the ahole and tell him he got smoked in his $200k P-car by a girl in a Miata, and to stop being a D-bag and give point bys...

Not to give the wrong idea, most of the P-car folks we meet at the track are really nice folks who are true enthusiasts. I got a TON of compliments on our NA, and it's pace. But there's always a few...

Anyway, with 1 good lap per session it wasn't the best of circumstances but I finished the day with a lap I was happy with. Looking at the data for that 2:04.6 lap (which I was considering a 'warmup' lap while driving it!), and data for track sections when I had clear track, I have zero doubt I could have run 2:03s without traffic in the earlier sessions. By the third session, temps were up in the mid 80s, and I couldn't get back in the 2:04s, so I called it a day to save tires. For reference, I looked up some NASA results for 2024, and it looks like 2:11s is a pretty typical Spec Miata race winning pace at HPR. Spec record, I think, is 2:09.

The only other Miata present was a turbo street car that was *surprise* having overheating problems...

 

One of the nice things about our stacker is being able to use the lift to work on the car while on the road. I always like to do a thorough inspection on the car after an event, and this makes it a lot easier.



Unfortunately, I found a problem almost immediately with several of my exhaust mounts...



Four of the five high-temp silicone mounts I had used had failed. Not sure if they all failed at once, or if some had failed and I didn't catch them because they were held together by the remaining mounts. Anyway, they only lasted a year. Disappointing because they were ~$12 each from McMaster Carr and I had high hopes. Nothing else I've tried has lasted. The studs are molded into the silicone, and it appears the heat from the exhaust was enough to 'un-mold' them. I guess 300*F is not high enough even for the back end of the exhaust.



Fortunately, I had spares, but only three. I grabbed some bolts at a local hardware today and drilled out the silicone and just ran a through bolt on the 4th one. That should hold for our FM event this week. When I get home, I'm going to look at figuring out a way to use a through-bolt like a bushing for all of them. I was really hoping to retain some vibration absorption, but I also don't want to spend $100-150/ season on exhaust mounts.

We're headed to Grand Junction tomorrow, and everything else looks good. Everything except the weather... it's going to be HOT!

@redursidae and @Fireindc looking forward to seeing you there!

 

Yoo! Nice laps at HPR! I've been dying to get out there and I think the car is finally sorted enough to take the stress of that big track. Almost 120mph in your car tells me mine will nearly top out most likely. Scary and exciting. Maybe we can meet up over there some time.

I'll see you in Grand Junction! You doing thurs, fri, or both trackdays? I'm signed up for thurs and it looks like it will be as hot as last year. Excited to see how the car works in the heat with some of my recent cooling specific upgrades.

 

We'll be running the track Wednesday and Thursday this year. We'll be staying at the track until mid-day Friday.

 

Nice lap, and good job holding off that yellow thing behind you! Was that a 992?

I'll take traffic being the day's agitating factor over dealing with CKP sensor issues haha. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the report.

 

Thanks!

It was a Boxster Spyder (982?)... basically a topless Cayman GT4.

 

I bully every porsche I find on track. Years of being stuck behind the "Well I'm faster on the straights so it all evens out" snobbery has given me no sympathy for them.
Which is ironic because if given the opportunity I would own one in a heartbeat.

 

I don't know if they still do it, but back in the day the local PC stopped accepting MX5s into their track days, even the quick atmo cars (aka me) were giving them stick, never mind the turbos. The ones you find on other occasions are generally pretty quick, and tolerant of us when faster.

 

I really think it comes down to signing up too many cars, and then not dealing with poor drivers. We run 2-3x a year with the AZ region Porsche club and have never had any real issues. They've been very friendly and welcoming, and polite on track. I did find out from one of the instructors that our car is known as "that ******' Miata"...

I agree that I would own a P-car in a heartbeat, if I could afford to do what I do with our Miata with one. I've driven a friend's GT3 and it was amazing. IMHO the Cayman GT4 is very nearly the perfect trackday car. Right up until something breaks...

 

P-cars can do everything well for the price of a mortgage. Miatas can do 75% as well for the price of dinner and a movie.

Life is a series of trade-offs.

 

My first HPDE instructor ever had a FM turbo kit on his miata and his car was fun and he was a quick driver. He told me the year prior he had a GT3 that he tracked. He said the cost to track the GT3 for one weekend was the same cost to track the Miata for a whole season. He said it was fun but just not worth it. Def takes very deep pockets to track a GT3 regularly.

 

Good stuff! Nice driving and glad to hear you've been hurting P-owner feelings

Man, I also love those AMGs. I was fortunate to drive an AMG GTR on track a few years ago and loved it. Can only imagine what those feel like!

I haven't driven a Cayman GT4, but I've ridden in a GT4 RS and it is the second best car experience I've had on the street. I had goosebumps every time it went over 8500 RPM, and the driver smacked the limiter a few times for the heck of it. Induction noise was 10/10 . But my best street car experience has been in a Caterham 485 which costs a fraction of the Cayman.

I'll see you in Grand Junction! I'm doing the Friday trackday. If you're able, would appreciate some pointers either reviewing the Garmin or riding with me.

 

Hey, great build thread. Did you have another thread when the car was BP powered?

 

Thanks!

I never had a build thread here on MT.net, but have one over on GRM that stretches back 10 years and has a lot of the BP related stuff I did. I also had an NB going for a while so that's in there as well as a lot of other stuff... https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo.../124064/page1/

 

Sweet, thanks for sharing. 61 pages!

 

On track with @Fireindc , just a couple of MT.netters representing on track at FM Summer Camp...



We're currently 1 & 2 on the leaderboard for the event, only about 2 tenths between us!