Good to hear its not just me. I'm going to drive with the existing setup for a season and see how it goes. Car has zero alignment other than being set to zero toe front and rear. I do want to set the camber after this weekend for my next race.

 

Extended tophats can sometimes help, if that's part of the issue.

 

It might. I would think it might eliminate the need for the helpers. I have it on the list to upgrade the rears. I could try it in the front too. I do have a welder and I'm not afraid to use it.

 

Had a fun day at Buttonwillow last Saturday. Certainly felt outclassed with my Lemons car with all the nice Miatas. I also felt pretty slow in comparison. Fastest lap was a 2:15 on 13CW. I know there is a lot more time left on the table, but I didn't feel comfortable enough to push more, especially seeing a M3 go over a tirewall approaching sunset corner.



Suspension certainly needs more refinement. I lowered it as low as I can go with the current springs/helpers, but I don't know if it is optimum. It is a about zero toe front and rear, no idea what the camber is. As next steps I ordered some extended front ball joints and extended rear top hats.

It is also insanely loud with the slingshot headers, 2.5" exhaust with a single magnaflow 4 x 14 inch muffler. I could use some suggestions to get the exhaust sounds to a comfortable level. Vibrant resonator?

I also need to work on better aero. Closing up the holes in hood and front bumper, maybe some easy DIY aero.

 

At the suggestion of my local exhaust guy I had two of these installed Vibrant Performance 1792 Bottle Style Resonator on my NA's exhaust (I linked the 2 1/2" size to prevent confusion but I actually used the 3" variety since that's the size of the exhaust Sean fabbed for the car.) Originally the car had a catless exhaust with a Dynomax Ultra Flo SS Muffler and it was Really Loud. After adding the two resonators it was quiet enough that I was willing to start it in the mornings to drive to the track without worrying about being lynched by my neighbors, but it was still too loud in the cabin to hold a reasonable conversation or hear navigation prompts from my phone's GPS. YMMV of course.

 

Thanks for that link. I was actually looking at that same resonator. So you did two inline? Did you keep the muffler too? I have no cat.

 

Great meeting you Saturday and glad to hear the rest of the day went well. Car sounded great from across the paddock but I can see it being a little much up close

Can't remember, were you going to try and make it to some of the other MTTC's also? I won't be at the next one but am loosely planning on making it to Chuckwalla on 3/14.

 

The exhaust guy added the two resonators in where he could fit them - both before the muffler. We kept the muffler as well since the Dynomax is a straight through style and doesn't really restrict airflow too much (or sound, tbh.)

As a side note I'm having a drop floor put in to my NA Miata right now and I'm going to have to get one of the resonators moved (or removed entirely) since it's hitting the new floor. >.<

Drop Floor Clearance Issues

 

Maybe later in the year. 3/14 is the weekend before my Sonoma race, so I will be prepping for that.

Thanks and good luck with the seat drop. So far we haven't needed one of those, but my cage is very high.

 

So I thought my fuel leak problems were over. I guess not.



Fuel bladder container bottom shouldn't look like that.

 

So my existing fuel cell bladder has a leak. It is out of date and I didn't feel comfortable trying to patch it. The fuel cell that came with the car was a 24 gallon ATL Super Cell 100 with a ballistic nylon bladder. Basically it was really expensive. After a week of trying to get a price I was told it was about $2900 for just the bladder with the internal trapdoor surge tank. Alternatively a FIA ATL 22 Sports Cell complete cell was less than $1400 shipped. So I went with the 22 gallon Sports Cell. Unfortunately the Sports cell is a little wider and deeper, so I will need to cut out the old frame and build a new one. Meh.


Here is what it looks like with the old cell removed.


Should be enough room to accommodate the new cell. As a bonus the new cell is about an inch less tall. I plan on using the top plate from the old cell.

22 gallons should last longer than my personal bladder.

 

I don't think this is how a fuel cell bladder is supposed to work:

 

It’s aliiiiive!

 

Our next race is a 25 hour and 1 minute race at Thunderhill with 24 Hours of Lemons on Memorial weekend. Need to replace the leaking cell, make a few upgrades and add some lights.

After many weeks of waiting, my new fuel cell was shipped. It arrived dented. Ugh.




The ATL 24 gallon fuel cell was 24.5" square and the 22 gallon is almost 26" square. Everything that was in place for the fuel cell had to be cut out. Ugh again.


Built a new base and welded it in.



Made a protective cage. It will be strapped from the top to the angle iron base. I ran out of welding gas and had to stop.



The right rear corner suspension was "off". The bushings in the upper control arm were pushed to the rear of the car and the control arm was actually rubbing the subframe. I tried to figure out what was wrong before my first race, ran out of time, and just sent it. @Z_WAAAAAZ came down on Saturday and I put him to work on it. In about 30 seconds he had it all torn apart, diagnosed the lower control arm was bent, and replaced it with a spare I had. He also added an extended top hat. That would have taken me all day. I think he has a device the slows time down so that he can finish things with amazing speed.

Fifth gear of the $100 facebook marketplace 5 speed I have is crunchy. You can get it to crunch less if you double clutch, but thats not fast or furious. Thunderhill 5 mile course has a couple of really long straights and we are going to need overdrive. Based on the experience @Z_WAAAAAZ has had, I ordered a 6 speed from the UK. Hopefully it gets here before we leave.



Added some driving lights, going to need some apex lights.

Still lots of things to do, but almost have the minimum done to race.

 

Damn, that dent is way bigger than what I pictured when you were talking about it haha.

Had a great time hanging with ya on Saturday! Don't give me too much credit on the bent LCA. Would've taken much longer to figure out if you didn't have a spare laying around haha.

Hopefully that 6 speed does arrive before Memorial day. I'm game to help slam it in if it does!