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I wish I could say I was that brilliant but the hood comes with the holes like that from the factory haha. And it's still heavy, like twice as heavy as an NA/NB hood. Thanks for the reminder, I should cut out the rest of that substructure...
I just heard about this really cool new material called carbon fiber. Apparently they can make all kinds of stuff out of it, even body panels
Holy hell, I should've thrown RT-615k's on this thing right from the get-go. The car was hooking up incredibly well today. Dare I say, this might actually be the most traction I've felt a vehicle have since I started going to the track. Wasn't expecting that from another set of B-tier tires. This thing is going to be a weapon with the RC-1's mounted...
Actually in hindsight, this wasn’t my PB lap. This was a 2:01.5. I botched turn 1 by over braking although the rest of the lap was pretty good.
There's something very wrong in this video. Tell me when you see it.
Today was properly kick ***. The weather report last night was saying it was going to rain from sun up to sun down. I really wanted spend one day at Buttonwillow on my street tires before swapping to the RC-1's, just to see what the car could do. I made peace with the weather conditions, though, and was still excited to get on track. Sliding around in the rain is still fun, and it's not like this would be my first time. Luckily didn't come to that, though. The rain stopped around 1 and held off right up until my last lap at around 4:30.
Still got plenty of laps in the soaking wet, though. This Civic and I went at it for half of the first session but he ultimately pulled on me. Good fun.
After two sessions in the wet, the rain subsided. Third session was damp but not soaking wet, and all of the puddles on track were gone. I dropped from the 2:20's down to 2:08-2:10s. Not super fast but we were getting there. Then, on the fourth session, I went out and found the track to be only a little slippery on the first lap. Then it was less slippery on the second, and by the middle of the session I was suddenly running the car at full pace. Holy hell, the braking zones with this thing were so different from last time (more power, more aero, better(?) tires). Even though I was carrying more speed through each straight, the car was able to brake noticeably later than before. I found myself braking too early in at least three corners, and wasn't quite dialed in on track, but finished the session with a 2:01.86.
A 2:01!? On these tires? On a cold track and me driving kinda sh*tty? Dude, hell yes. That's more than I could ask for today. I was honestly going to be stoked if I pulled a 2:02.
Next session I got my act together and pulled that PB down to a 2:01.16. Stoked. That means this car has an easy sub-2 in it with a set of serious tires. That time should've been good enough for me to pack it in and call it a day. The final session was going to be in the rain anyways according to the weather report. However... the report was wrong earlier. I figured I'd stay an extra hour just in case.
I sh*t you not, when I got on grid for the last session, we could see the wall of rain coming for us off in the distance. I had a little personal laugh at how cliche the situation was. Didn't have much gas in the tank at this point, but I went out and gave it my all for about five laps until I fuel starved the car coming over Phil Hill near the end of the track. I figured I might've broken into the 2:00's and there was nothing left to do, so I pulled off. No joke, the rain started coming down just as I got back into the paddock haha. Checked my lap timer and found my fastest lap to be a 2:01.25. Ah well, still a win. I'm currently only 2.6 seconds off my PB in my previous Miata, which is kinda nuts.
All in all, great track day. Didn't do sh*t to the car except drop tire pressures and torque the lug nuts down once. Very pleased. I'll do an oil change on it this week and order the second set of 17x10 Dekagrams so I can mount the RC-1's for my race setup. I have a hunch the car is going to be seriously quick with those tires.
A little bonus pic. Snow level got down to about 3,800ft on the way home. Not common around here, but it made for a more interesting drive back.
Onward!
Last edited by Z_WAAAAAZ; Jan 27, 2025 at 09:16 AM.
Hell yeah man! Congratulations on a killer weekend. Your driving was great and the car looks and seemed great too. I like the WAZ FACTORY RACING decal! Are you starting a side-gig?
I can't tell what's wrong in the video, although I do see that CEL?
That track looks like a hoot. If I've seen right, running under 2 minutes is a big accomplishment for a tuner car there right? You'll smash that in no time.
Seriously, great pace, especially considering the challenging conditions!
Even better, I'm wearing my HNRS but didn't latch it to my helmet! Gracias dude. Couldn't have been more stoked given the weather yesterday.
Originally Posted by Fireindc
Dude, you have some pace in that car! Looks sick too. I'm jealous of everyone getting track time, I shouldn't have pulled my car apart!
Haha, but agreed with Ricardo, I don't see the issue in the vid.
Thanks Nate! Seriously amped on how it's handling. I wasn't joking in my post. As soon as the track dried I was like "Holy sh*t what is all this grip?!" On 225's no less lol.
I know your car's pulled apart but you guys are basically snowed in now where you live, correct? I was under the impression that you guys had a few months of offseason during the winter due to the weather.
Originally Posted by redursidae
Hell yeah man! Congratulations on a killer weekend. Your driving was great and the car looks and seemed great too. I like the WAZ FACTORY RACING decal! Are you starting a side-gig?
I can't tell what's wrong in the video, although I do see that CEL?
That track looks like a hoot. If I've seen right, running under 2 minutes is a big accomplishment for a tuner car there right? You'll smash that in no time.
Thanks dude! When I ordered my decals, the "WAZ FACTORY RACING" perfectly fit the 20-character limit and I knew my friends would have a good laugh at me, so I had to do it. Maybe I can get some stickers made and trade you for some more Caffeinated Cat decals?
The CEL is wrong too, sorta. I never mentioned that in my thread actually. As soon as you upgrade the cams, the ECU sets a P0300 code for a misfire on unidentified cylinder. Basically, there's enough valve overlap at idle that the ECU thinks the engine is misfiring haha. I also deleted the EGR and downstream O2 sensor, but don't tell anybody... ECUTEK allows certain codes to be disabled from setting a check engine light but recently had to change their software so that you can't disable codes related to emissions devices.
And yeah, Buttonwillow is such a good time! Easily the most technical track we have around here. You're correct, sub-2 minutes is the benchmark for a fast "street" car. There's actually a group who runs a website/social media around here called the Sub-2 club haha. If you manage a sub-2, they'll feature you and your car on their Instagram page, and they have a site where you can buy Sub-2 Club t-shirts, hats, stickers, etc. I managed a 1:58.56 in my last car, hoping to match that in this car eventually!
Thanks dude! When I ordered my decals, the "WAZ FACTORY RACING" perfectly fit the 20-character limit and I knew my friends would have a good laugh at me, so I had to do it. Maybe I can get some stickers made and trade you for some more Caffeinated Cat decals?
The CEL is wrong too, sorta. I never mentioned that in my thread actually. As soon as you upgrade the cams, the ECU sets a P0300 code for a misfire on unidentified cylinder. Basically, there's enough valve overlap at idle that the ECU thinks the engine is misfiring haha. I also deleted the EGR and downstream O2 sensor, but don't tell anybody... ECUTEK allows certain codes to be disabled from setting a check engine light but recently had to change their software so that you can't disable codes related to emissions devices.
And yeah, Buttonwillow is such a good time! Easily the most technical track we have around here. You're correct, sub-2 minutes is the benchmark for a fast "street" car. There's actually a group who runs a website/social media around here called the Sub-2 club haha. If you manage a sub-2, they'll feature you and your car on their Instagram page, and they have a site where you can buy Sub-2 Club t-shirts, hats, stickers, etc. I managed a 1:58.56 in my last car, hoping to match that in this car eventually!
Dude I'll send you some stickers any time haha.
ah, missed the HNRS being disconnected. Nice spot @Roda. Interesting about the misfire code. In HPTuners you can take a course that unlocks all codes as long as you pinky promise to be responsible and get an EPA conscious certification from them. Is there not something like that for ECUTek?
I'm sure you will be in the sub 2 minute mark in no time! I would love to take a few laps around there some day. Once I'm comfortable traveling with the trailer, California is up in my list of places to visit.
Ok I might actually shoot you a message about a few stickers later. I'm fully embracing the stickerbomb look this year and need some other good ones to fill up my wing endplates lol.
So in the ECUtek software, there's a menu that shows all the codes in the ECU, and allows you to enable or disable any of the ones you wish. Or there was... as of last year, all of the emissions-related codes are now greyed out and unable to be disabled. I don't know what specific act/agency might have prompted that change. ECUtek is based in the UK but I'm sure they're still subjected to US EPA standards or something like that. When my dad came over to watch/assist with the 2.5's first start, I told him not to worry about the CEL on the dash. His response was "I'd be more surprised if the CEL wasn't on." Lol.
Keep me posted if you do end up making it out at any point! Would love to link up for a track day and/or show you around the local mountains. I gotta do the same thing and try to link up with you and Nate one Summer as well still.
Oh god dammit, not another "I went to the canyons this weekend" post from Zak. Bear with me, there's some fun stuff mixed in this post as well.
Dawn patrol this morning with a couple buddies. Left the house at 5:45 and got to the mountains early enough that we didn't run into a single other car on the road. First time that's ever happened before.
The majority of good mountain roads in LA are currently closed due to the recent fires. This one, however, just opened back up after being burned back in September. Silver linings... The last time I drove it was with a completely stock powertrain on 300TW tires lol. Good times.
Weird, convoluted detail about the road status here. This specific road is open to all traffic, but the national forest area that it runs through is closed. As such, you can drive it, but it's illegal to park in any of the dirt turnouts. I thought this was a joke but had a couple buddies get hounded by Forest Service rangers who threatened to ticket them for parking in the dirt. Land management is funny.
So I wasn't gonna mess with the car much more but a very desirable GWR header popped up on FB marketplace the other day and I decided I had to snag it. I'm currently running an early model GWR header with 1.625" primaries. The subsequent models were upped to 1.875" primaries and they now make a model with 2.0" primaries. I didn't think I'd stay N/A this long and grabbed the early model header back in August because it was being sold for a good deal on marketplace too. This one I'm grabbing is a 2.0" model, which should net a 5-8(?) horsepower gain over my current header, with more gains if I ever build the motor further. I should still come in at under my 182 WHP limit to race TT5 with the header installed. If I'm a couple horsepower over, I'll just add weight. I'll be dyno-ing the car at the first event in two weeks.
"New" header arrives on Tuesday. Pulled the current header preemptively after the drive today.
And found something else while I was in there. Who forgot to tighten that thing?
Which brings me to my next musing. I told myself I'm going to leave well enough alone for a while, and for the most part, I have been. I'm still mulling over what I'll do to the car for more power after this season. My original thought was to bolt an EFR turbo kit to the car and run it on super low boost (6psi/~260whp) on track to keep the ringlands happy and just call it a day. After running the car N/A for a while, though, I'm having second thoughts and am kinda amped on this whole N/A thing too. I've run ten or eleven track days with this car now and basically only checked the oil and tightened the lug nuts during each of them. If I could run a setup this "carefree" but squeeze ~225-230whp out of it, I'd be really happy. A couple of you guys have mentioned it already, but Fab9 makes an all-encompassing kit to build a de-stroked, high-compression Duratec engine.
TL;DR - A 2.3L EcoBoost crankshaft can be dropped into a 2.5L Duratec to destroke it to 2365cc. The kit includes said crank, forged rods and pistons in your choice of compression ratio, as well as your choice of aggressive cams. Fab9 claims these engines can be revved out to 8k RPM (so maybe 7,600 is actually safe?) and that the stock head becomes the bottleneck in N/A applications at about 230whp. High compression, E85, with some bitchin' cams and an additional 600rpm redline would be super fun in this car. 230whp isn't face-melting, but it would also keep me out of drivetrain-killing territory which is a big plus after my situation and "investments" last year, both in time and money. I'm seriously enjoying just driving the car this year and not really needing to fuss with the powertrain side of things so far.
Again, just milling this over because it's fun. What I should really be focusing on is getting ready for the first races of the year coming up. Gonna be at Chuckwalla both days for NASA SoCal/NASA AZ on the 15-16th, then at WSIR for the first Miata Time Trial Championship race on Sunday the 23rd. Gonna put a lot of wear on my poor new RC-1's over the course of those two weekends haha.
Last edited by Z_WAAAAAZ; Feb 2, 2025 at 10:00 PM.
I'm sure those WHP numbers on the BBR page are inflated, but if I could hit 230 via that route and maybe e85 instead of building a whole high-comp engine, it'd still be a bit cheaper. Seems too good to be true though.
The way I see it, going turbo and staying within the power limits of the stock engine means you can throw junkyard engines in if/when something goes, but then you have turbo problems to deal with. Building an NA engine would probably be more reliable but more of a pain if something went wrong.
IDK, you just did the turbo thing so maybe try the NA route? I don't know the rules for the class you run, but you could always focus on weight reduction later instead of adding boost.
That header threw me off for a second. I forgot that these have passenger side exhaust.
That header threw me off for a second. I forgot that these have passenger side exhaust.
Lol, nah man that's the intake manifold. It just pulls air from under the car
Everything you said is exactly what I've been going round in circles thinking the last few weeks. Half of the point of the 2.5 swap was to have access to sub-$500 engines if I were to have a failure. I'm not kidding with myself, I definitely expect to have a failure at some point based on others' experiences. But yeah. Turbo and sub-300whp should last a decent bit of time and be inexpensive if an engine failure occurs. That said, if I spin a bearing on a built N/A motor, it's not like my pistons/cams will be bad and I can still transfer a lot of stuff to another junkyard 2.5. Those EcoBoost cranks are cheap too. Under $300 for a new unit at my cost.
And yeah, on top of it all, I have already done a turbo build with my last car. Would be cool to change direction this time around. Whatever I decide on, I'm going to bump the car into TT3 class next year, where my horsepower limit will be around the 300whp mark on DOT-approved tires depending on weight. TT4 would be cool but there's only about half as many cars in that class and I'd like to compete in a bigger field for more contingency opportunities. Again, turbo lends itself more to this since I'll be able to get closer to my power limit. Still, based on my projected times on these new tires, I think the car will be able to contend in the top half of the pack at 230whp.
TL;DR - F*ck. Lotta things to consider and I'm still split down the middle haha.
Originally Posted by Roda
There's a lot to be said for naturally aspirated reliability... but I'll admit that I keep looking at cams for my K24.
It really is a sickness...
Yeah man, I remember thinking I was going to be good with 210whp forever on my NA. How naive I was haha. Jealous of the capability of your engine with some internal mods! My buddy who I ran GTA with last year has a forged, hi comp K24 NB with cams and was making the same power as me but without a turbo. His car looked and sounded like a total riot.
As a turbo track car owner, I vote all day for the N/A route. Not that turbo isn't do-able, of course it is, but there's something to be said about the lack of heat and extra hardware with the N/A setup. Also for a track car what's more fun than revving to the moon with NA response and linear power. Plus, I really wanna see you do the scalpel build (I think it was I who linked that in this thread before). I'm really interested to see how that setup actually performs, there is very little dyno or real world data on that setup.
I vote no on the ITB's, just out of a cost/power ratio. Perhaps they'd be the cherry on top AFTER the scalpel kit, but I really don't think for your $3k invested you'd see much power gains, and you get all the headaches of ITB tuning on a somewhat limited tuning platform (though I LOVE a good ITB setup!).
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Gracias dude. Couldn't have been more stoked given the weather yesterday.
ECUTEK allows certain codes to be disabled from setting a check engine light but recently had to change their software so that you can't disable codes related to emissions devices.
