I think my track season is over, barring any trips south to the wonderful land of California and its plentiful racetracks. Im extremely pleased with what we accomplished this season, the car is to my knowledge the second fastest Miata around Portland International Raceway sitting only behind Bob Bundy's beast with a best time of 1:25.5
lots of winter upgrades planned including:
a weld in half cage with door bars,
AWR engine mounts
cleaning up the tubing and wiring under the hood
Send my Gen 1 PNP out to get a tach output circuit put in so I have a tach.
Miata Roadster SSK for the 6 spd.
Install Recaro SPG on drivers side, move Sonic Motors SPG rep to passenger side and add a harness there as well.
Install Plexiglass rear window so that I can take the car out in wet weather, will be removable for track season.
Figure out a big brake kit using Lotus components hopefully and mount my ducting more efficiently.
Also started mocking up my splitter and tire spats.

 

a couple shots from the Alfa Club track day, I spent the day stuck behind slower cars in the corners for the majority of my sessions

 

took laz to cars and coffee this morning, you can see the newly added Treasure Coast Miata Lexan rear window, fit is great, would highly recommend it to those looking to replace their broken hardtop glass or looking to shave some weight. I bolted it in so I can remove during the summer if I feel like it.

 

God I love this car. I sometimes wish I didn't go ***** out restoring mine so I could **** with it and not care. I wish I could force myself to buy a miata and turn it into a "no ***** given" track rat but that would mean the end of modifying my current car.

Wish I would have seen your clutch issue sooner. I have an ACT XT organic "street" clutch sitting in a box that I'm not using.

Also have a pair of TSI's if you want them. Give yah a great deal!

 

Thanks for the kind words, means a lot coming from you. The car is very much an ugly duckling but has some ***** and cornering ability to back up the looks.

I previously had tsi's bit since I have my headlights there now I have clear lexan installed instead. I appreciate the offer.

 

I may be crazy OCD, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a function before form track rat. My car WAS perfect(superficially), but the more I mess with it and dent/scratch/drop tools on body panels, the less I care about fixing those issues. In my mind, I made it perfect once, and it isn't a show car, so no point fretting over rock chips, scratches, and dings.

What is your damper solution going to be? I believe I have one from my old 1.6 motor laying in the garage somewhere if you aren't going aftermarket.

Also, explain to me what the duct behind the front tires function is again? Can't seem to recall.

 

He already threw a new OEM damper on the front. 1.6 has V-belts anyways, Laz converted to NB belts with the MSM motor swap.

The ducts are to release pressure from inside the wheel wells, whether or not it works is questionable, but it looks awesome.

 

It really does look awesome Curly, especially how you guys rolled the fenders in as well. Your Smurf is looking great too sitting next to the Lazfab, I never get tired of how clean yours is. I'm contemplating painting my side skirts black again to match the OEM rockers.

So Martin, are you getting Blackbird Fabworx to weld in your cage or are you just taking design cues? I'd love to be able to drop my car off at his shop and get a proper roll bar put in along with door bars that are tucked in closer to the doors/away from the deadpedal.

 

It's a local shop, not blackbird. Tooooo far.

Jeff, black rockers are always the way to go. They hide the imperfections on the sills really well.

Get up close and personal with your sills after you've taken a jack or two to it, and you'll see it's quite ugly.

Quick google search:



Dark blue or black (of course) are the only colors that can get away with painted sills IMHO. Our smurf blue, red, and white especially look poor in my book with body color painted sills.

 

Jeff,

I wish I could afford to take Lazarus down to Moti and have him weld in the cage but the cost of transporting the car there and back and paying for Moti's craftsmanship is something that is currently outside of my budget. I merely am using Moti's halfcage with doorbar design as a reference point for a local fabricator who has done cages for a few of my friends and I am pleased with the quality fo the work Ive seen and he is giving me a deal so it was difficult to pass up.

Ill be leaving Laz there this weekend after I pull the rollbar out and hopefully I will have sweet photos of halfcage goodness for you guys sometime next week.

 

 

A pretty big update, Lazarus now has a welded in half cage with door bars done by Russ at Racetech Fabrication here in Portland OR. I plan to paint it white, here are some shots of the cage. Just driving the car back home the change in chassis rigidity is instantly noticeable.

 

Looks freaking awesome. Can't wait to see it painted.

 

Did some quick and dirty painting to keep the rust away since I have some wet track days this weekend. I plan to mask the cage off this winter and paint the interior black.

 

How much was it (if you don't mind me asking)

 

I'm guessing there is reinforcement plates underneath the door bars-floor weld?

Looks clean as hell, looks like you could have given your seat another 1" or so of clearance though on the door bars? Or is that picture angles going all "white girl on facebook".

 

Yes there are reinforcement plates under the door bars, there is more clearance to the seat than appears in the photos.

 

Love the painters tape ghosts at rear diagonals thru the parcel shelf.

It'll look great once you get the interior sheetmetal painted all black. Metallic black might be a good idea; it hides dust a little bit over solid black.


...oh, enjoyed the Espirt content in the background.

 

Not that you care Martin, but a Mr. Clean Eraser is great for overspray when you don't care about minor marring/scratching. Really makes wiping it up a breeze without buying a clay bar.

 

yeah, I thought I was going to mask it better when I initially started, I then realized that I wanted to paint the interior anyway so there is no point in worrying about overspray too much, hence the tape lines. Fortunately most of the overspray is inside the cabin so that should get covered up with black shortly.

There has been a change in plans, Curly and I will be painting the interior black tomorrow seeing as the car is already apart at this point our Halloween will be spent playing with miatas. While my paint dries we will be doing motor mounts on Curlys DD.