Finished the swap back to the 5 speed. Even on the test drive I was a bit surprised by how much less shifting I was doing with the 5 speed... the 6 speed had been in the car for almost 8 years so it's been a while since I drove the car with 5 gears. Transmission shifts well, so I think it's good to go. I do need to go back to my notes and figure out how I set up the math channel for gear indication for the AiM dash. IIRC it was an RPM/Speed thing, and it's now off... LOL

We're signed up for the PCA event at INDE in two weeks, so I should have some data that I can directly compare to some laps with the 6 speed.

 

Miata is pre-flighted and ready to go for the track day this weekend. I had to go into the ECU and figure out how to change the gear signal to reflect the 5 speed that's now in the car, but I think I got it figured out and the dash displayed the correct gear on a quick test drive.





Also moved some trailer gear that was still in the stacker from our last trip to the single trailer, and cleaned it out. If you're considering what kind of floor to put in your enclosed trailer, get a 'coin' floor, not a 'diamond plate' floor. The diamond plate is much less cooperative when sweeping and requires a vacuum to really get it clean.

 

Well... ****.

Trackday canceled due to Flood Watch announced by the NWS. If their predictions hold to pattern, we'll get .1" of rain....

 

Sounds like the Tsunami Watch alert we got earlier this Summer.

Sorry to hear man. I was going to drop a comment earlier about being amped for our track season to start up again.

 

Sounds like you need to K Swap a NC. Then you will have a boat ready for those flooded days!

On a serious note, do they put your entry fees for the track day towards a future event?

 

Well, our NC is a member of the FM Yacht Club...




We're supposed to get a full refund, still waiting for it to process, but it's been less than 24 hours.

 

I've been piggy-backing off of my dad's idea and use a battery powered leaf blower to clean out trailers, works really well on most floor types and takes no time at all. It kicks a bit more dust up in the air but the trade-off in time saved is definitely worth it.

 

Good idea on the leaf blower... I'll have to try that! Have a cat

So of course the weather was perfect on our canceled track day. LOL. Canceling was the right decision, though... parts of the state got well hammered and had some serious flooding even if we (and the track) were in a band between storm cells and didn't get much. There are several spots on the (only) road to the track, that could be bad in heavy rain.

I'm going to take the NA to the local AutoX on Sunday, so at least all my prep wasn't for nothing. In the meantime, some non-Miata content... well, maybe some Miata 'hand-me-down' content:

One of my projects for the summer that didn't get done was updating the seats in my Capri. When I bought the car it came with some janky eBay "sportscar" seats, and I've long been intending to install the Corbeau FX1s that came out of our NA when I made it a single seater. So I finally got that done, and while I was at it made a dead pedal for it. The other project was to retrofit hinges to the lift off fiberglass hood ( I HATE lift off hoods!), and that also is complete. It still needs some work, but it's a hell of a lot nicer to drive now, and the 'new' seats allow the use of a 5/6pt harness. But it's still a 1960s design, and pretty awful compared to a Miata when it comes to driving dynamics. It's amazing how spoiled we are by how good our Miatas are!









The Miata is for sure the better car to drive, but the Capri is cool in a way the Miata may never be. Old n' new...

 

I know we've talked about this, but damn I love that old capri. Really cool car that I'd be psyched to see on track>

I know what you mean about it not being as good as the miata driving-wise, but one thing I've found is that most cars, especially old(er) ones can't. You just have to love it for what it is. That's where I'm at with my 323GTX, I love the damn thing and had dreams of making one a track car (i have a 2nd) but in the end even with a ton of time/parts/labor it will never compare to a basic *** NA/NB as far as drivers cars go. So I've learned to enjoy it for what it is, which makes me enjoy it even more.

As for the capri, we discussed this before, but have you looked into a steering quickener? https://howeracing.com/collections/s...er-1-5-1-ratio

Cool stuff that could really make those old steering boxes come alive if done right.

 

Thanks for that link!

I haven't got to the point where I'm seriously looking yet, still have a few other items to check of the list, but I'll save the link for later. That would definitely be easier than swapping in a different rack.

 

Bummer about the cancelled event and the weather, but looking forward to your Sunday event and overview!

The capri does have the old car cool locked down. I don't recall ever seeing one of those before, definitely not like yours if I have. Do you have any footage of it getting sent at an event?

 

Sorry, no video of it... I've owned the car for almost three years, but it has yet to turn a lap on-track. I've been working on updating things after it sat for years, getting the carbs dialed in, brakes refreshed, re-gearing, etc. But it was mostly on back-burner status, and for a year of that I was moving and/or doing the K swap in the NA. I did take it to AutoX once, but accidently overfilled the dry sump system and it puked some oil out of the tank breather. I didn't want to get our AutoX group in trouble for oiling down the city owned pad, so I cut it short after one run. Now that it has decent seats and belts, I feel more confident about taking it on track, though there are still some issues to solve. I may try it again at the November AutoX for a shakedown...

 

Since we didn't get to race last weekend, I took the NA to AutoX again yesterday. Better than not driving, right??

It turned out to be a pretty good day. Weather was nice, in the mid-80s with a bit of a breeze, so not as unpleasant as our last AutoX. I ran in the A group again, so had the disadvantage of cleaning the course off for the B group. The whole course was 2nd gear except for the start. With the 6 speed, I would have been on the limiter at the end of the slalom, but I don't think the trans was a factor. Even with the longer gearing of 2nd in the 5 speed, I could light the tires anywhere I wanted. The good news was the all-conquering CAM-C C5 'Vette that usually dominates wasn't present, so I figured I had a shot... and I took it and ended up with the fastest overall time of the day.

No pics, but here's the video. The AiM camera restarted itself halfway through the run again, so I think I'm just going to have to turn off the auto start/stop for AutoX.



The run looks pretty sloppy, and it was, but it was what the car wanted yesterday. My smooth runs were all slower than being super aggressive and over driving the car... which is the opposite of what I usually see.

 

Not much going on with the NA... getting ready to pull the engine to deal with an oil leak, and maybe change motor mounts. In the meantime, here's a non sequitur:

Yesterday, I autocrossed my Capri. After 3 years of fixing a bunch of stuff the previous owner did that I wasn't happy with it was nice to finally drive it in anger. The process took a lot longer than I had planned... tuned the carbs, re-geared it, seats, harnesses, went through the brakes, wheels/tires etc. I attempted to AutoX it earlier this year but had over filled the dry sump tank (no such thing as instructions/specifications!) and it was puking oil out of the breather. This time everything went right. It's quick, and has good grip but the ergonomics are a little off. It's still a 54 year old car, and drives like a dump truck compared to the NA... 20 years of automotive progress makes a difference, I guess! Judging by other regulars I can compare myself to, it was about 3 seconds off the NA's pace at AutoX. But, it ran well, and nothing broke, so I'm happy.

 

Not the update I was expecting this morning, but a welcome one nonetheless

I didn't realize you had time for another project vehicle in addition to the NA and the turbo battleship lol. How long have you had that thing?

 

I don't... which is why it's taken me 3 years to get the Capri on "track".

I've had it for 3 years, and it was mostly as it sits (it's been a race car since the 1990s) when I bought it, but a some of it was kind of half-assed. I added the Minilites and new tires, went through the (wilwood) brakes, changed out the janky ebay seats to a set of Corbeaus that were a hand-me-down from the Miata so I could put harnesses in that weren't petrified and had sub-belts. Also re-geared the rear, and a bunch of other little stuff. Tuning the carbs was fun. Not. LOL... It's now to the point I'd consider it safe to take on track, but there's still a number of things to address to improve ergonomics and performance (EFI, T5 trans, etc). It's just always playing 2nd or 3rd or 4th priority, so progress is slow. It was nice to finally drive it in anger.

 

Love to see the Capri out. Such a cool old car, and looks pretty quick all things considered. Thanks for including this in the update!

 

Dude, that Capri is awesome! We had a guy who ran a 64 Nova for a while with our club and it was always one of my favorites. There's something really enjoyable about seeing those older cars get thrown around.

 

I took my 68 LeMans convertible to an autocross once and was approached by someone who was impressed with my times between runs. I laughed and admitted I skipped a couple of cones in one section. My friends were running the event and it was just for fun so it didn't matter.

 

I did beat the other 'old Ford' there by about a second...





Thanks, there is an early Nova that runs with us and it's very fast. Usually in the top 3... Just realized I don't have a pic of it, I'll have to take a few next time.

On another note, this little guy surprised me today walking out to my shop. At first glance I thought it was one of our ground squirrels... I'm hoping he was lurking around to dine on the ground squirrels!

Apologies for the cell phone pics... didn't have time to grab a real camera!