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So I was super excited for today. First race of the Miata TTC. Had a bunch of buddies signed up and even my parents were coming to watch and hang out.
We locked down a good section of the paddock with quick Miatas. Frankie and Mitchel's 2.5-swapped Miatas. My humble ride, @DUDELOL's Rotrex NA, then my buddy Brian's turbo EcoTec-swapped NB off in the back left. Killer lineup. And Mitchel and Frankie were surely going to push me to drive faster and be reliable to bounce some line choice ideas off of. I should be able to set a decent PB today...
Well alright, that's a solid start to the Miata TTC and an unexpectedly fast result at WSIR. Exactly 4 seconds off from last time just by switching to the RC1's and a couple minor suspension adjustments! I didn't think a sub-1:30 was on the table in this car, so that was some serious icing on the cake. We'll see if we can break into the 1:28's and one day beat my PB in the last car.
There were only 3 cars in SuperMod class, but we were all separated by only 0.7 sec. Good fun! Mitchel got me by a hair over half a second with a 1:29.30, and third place was Bryan Z in his turbo NA who ran a 1:30.01. Great fun. I'm bummed I'm gonna miss Buttonwillow next weekend, turnout's supposed to be double what it was today.
All the makings to run quick laps were there today. It was fairly cool until the afternoon, there were only 8 people in our run group, and Frankie, Mitchel and I were all basically driving the exact same car. We tangled for the entirety of the second and third sessions. Holy hell, spec class racing must be so much fun. Running on an even playing field with them was a blast, and I think each of us learned something by watching the others' lines. The amount of banter and jargon in our pit must've been so annoying to the non-car folks hanging out. I haven't geeked out comparing car setup, lines, specs, etc this hard possibly ever haha. We were all on different tires, different suspension, alignments, but the cars were pretty evenly matched.
I didn't bust out my camera for the first three sessions, which I now greatly regret, because after that third session..
Dammit! I pulled in and after about five minutes the car started leaking coolant. We confirmed none of the lines/hoses were leaking, including the one behind the head that's whimsically hard to reach. Luckily(?) we were able to refill the system and found the bottom of the radiator leaking from the very bottom vane. Looks like a rock hit it a while back and it just let go today. Damn, but I should've upgraded the radiator by now anyways.
Only got three full sessions in today but the quality made up for the quantity. Very happy with the result and time, and the hanging out and banter that went on all day.
Massive thanks to @turbofan and @emilio700 for laying the framework for the Miata TTC and overseeing the series. Can't wait to make it to more of the events this year!
Last edited by Z_WAAAAAZ; Feb 25, 2025 at 05:26 PM.
Thanks, Ed! Seriously, it was a great time. Won't be able to make Buttonwillow or Chuck, but I'm planning on making it to LVMS and hopefully Laguna Seca as well. Can't wait for both!
Oh shucks, I was misinformed about the result then! Thought someone told me 3rd was one of the White ND's that were floating around today. Don't take anything I say as gospel haha.
Yeah, no joke! It was pretty killer seeing the 949 guys out there, along with Huevo after following along with that build thread on here. Ed and Emilio were super hospitable and Emilio's expertise helped a ton on track (modified my line through turns 3-6 after listening him talk to another Miata driver).
I'm so pissed I didn't run my camera for the session I posted the 3rd person video of. Would've been prime footage. Luckily the other two guys got in-car footage from that session and I'm sure they'll be uploading it soon. I'll post it here when they do.
Side note, Frankie let me borrow a spare AIM that he ended up with. I need one now. Having heads up lap times and the little green and red lights to show you if you're faster or slower than last lap was awesome. And pulling up race studio and comparing our data between sessions was a blast.
@Fireindc Chuckwalla March 15!! I think that's a fair bit closer for you isn't it?
**lil visit to google maps**
jesus, Taos is way out there, still over 11 hours!!
The hangouts is why @emilio700 wanted this to start up again. W2W racing is cool, but what's ultimately more FUN is hanging out with great people and working together to improve.
I hope as this series matures it can incorporate more of that social aspect from the Supermiata series - maybe some saturday night BBQs, in-car footage viewing sessions, sharing and analyzing data, etc. And yeah man AIMs are a game changer, def gotta get one asap.
@Fireindc Chuckwalla March 15!! I think that's a fair bit closer for you isn't it?
**lil visit to google maps**
jesus, Taos is way out there, still over 11 hours!!
The hangouts is why @emilio700 wanted this to start up again. W2W racing is cool, but what's ultimately more FUN is hanging out with great people and working together to improve.
I hope as this series matures it can incorporate more of that social aspect from the Supermiata series - maybe some saturday night BBQs, in-car footage viewing sessions, sharing and analyzing data, etc. And yeah man AIMs are a game changer, def gotta get one asap.
Onward!
Y'all could always work in a Podium Club @ Atessa or Inde Motorsports Ranch event...
Got a radiator ordered Sunday night. Did a little research and ordered a Megan Racing unit. Really I just tried to find instances of their radiators cracking or leaking but didn't find much in the way of failures. Good enough for me. It was priced right and their warehouse is local so I was able to get it by Tuesday. Could've picked up a GoodWin triple pass for double the cost, but the car's cooling system is already more than enough for the current load being put on it. The stock radiator was keeping the car just above thermostat operating temp on track at up to 85* ambient temps, and I'm assuming a thicker aluminum unit will handle track duty at 100* out. I don't plan on doing another 100* track day anytime soon, but having that peace of mind will be nice.
Ooof, found the culprit. Glad that vane decided to burst after the car was parked and not while it was on track.
Yanked and swapped the radiator earlier this week. Replaced the new Stant thermostat I installed during the 2.5 swap with the original thermostat as well. The Stant unit I have seems to open right above 190* compared to the original thermostat's 180*, which is OEM spec.
In addition to the radiator and thermostat swap this week, I got up to some other car-related activities. Holy hell, data acquisition is awesome!
Frankie sent me my lap data from his spare Aim Solo 2 that I was using last Sunday, and I loaded it onto RaceStudio for some review. Last night, he, Mitchel, and I got on Discord, shared our computer screens, and reviewed all of our data for about an hour. There was so much to takeaway from looking at each of our PB laps. For one, I passed Frankie after turn 1 on my PB lap, and overslowed for turn 2 so badly that I didn't even need to track out at the corner exit. That alone caused a half second loss compared to Frankie and Mitchel. Crazy I lost that much time compared to a "regular" lap for me and still PB'd with that blunder.
We all took slightly different lines through turns 3-6 and I lost a little time through there as well. I reeled both of them in hard through turns 8 and 9 though (***** over skill, baby) and exited 9 with the highest speed of all of us at 103mph. Long story short, we worked out that I need to take turn 2 differently. I brake check right before corner entry where the other two simply let off, and I'm averaging 4mph slower through the corner because of that. I also need to stop late-apexing turns 3 and 4. Should be easy adjustments to make...
My PB lap in red, Frankie's in green, Mitchel's in blue
Frankie's currently 0.3 seconds ahead of me with a 1:29.5, and Mitchel has a 1:29.3. We all had ideal laps in the 1:28 range. We'll see if I can pull that 1:28 off when I make it back to WSIR for the next NASA race on March 15-16.
Another interesting bit we mused on last night and this weekend was car setup between the three of us. We're all running comparable but different components across the board.
Noteworthy bits on my setup:
-Esslinger stage 2 cams
-Xidas w/ 11/7k spring rates
-5 speed/4.10 factory LSD
-17x10 wheels, 235/40/17 RC1's
-RX8 sway bars (medium of the three stiffnesses available)
Mitchel's setup:
-Fab9 Stage 1 cams (slightly less aggressive than mine or Frankie's I think)
-Xidas w/ 16k/9k springs
-6 speed/RX8 4.44 LSD
-17x10 wheels, 225/45/17 A052's (heat cycled to high hell with ~9 track days on them)
-RX8 sway bars (softest of the three stiffnesses available)
Frankie's setup
-Brian Crower stage 3 cams (comparable to my Esslinger stage 2's)
-Shaftworx Bilanx coilovers w/ 14k/8k spring rates
-6 speed/4.10 OSgiken LSD
-17x8.5 wheels, 225/45/17 Supercar 3r's (he also has some 17x10's and 18x10's but needed the narrower wheels to fit in a different class for Miata TTC)
-Progress front sway bar (stiffer than any RX8 bar) and RX8 rear bar
Despite all the differences, our cars are all running neck and neck with each other. Was super funny to look at them parked next to each other and see that their capabilities were so similar despite the wide variance in setups.
Oh yeah, we're all running different wings too lol. Hey and there's Huevo in the background!
Probably won't be doing much car stuff this weekend. Maybe a quick canyon run Sunday afternoon if it doesn't rain. One of my buddies from down south got me to sign up for an event at Streets of Willow next weekend, then NASA at WSIR is the weekend after that. I have a feeling that I'm going to be tired and probably have something broken on the car to fixed after that weekend's over, and will probably take a break for a bit. I think this car has like 12 track days on it now, so I’ve definitely made up for all that lost time when I couldn’t track my NA.
90% sure I'm going to make it to the 4th round of the Miata TTC at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in April, but I'm going to take things a couple weekends at a time for now haha.
Last edited by Z_WAAAAAZ; Feb 28, 2025 at 10:04 AM.
I ordered a triple pass stock car radiator in custom dimensions and with custom inlet and outlet sizes from Four Seasons Radiator from Alabama, I think. It's been a few years, but it was 350 bucks with shipping back then.
The Ford style racing radiators have the inlet and outlet on the correct sides for a BP engine.
I had them weld a flat piece of metal down the leading edge of both tanks so that I could drill for the upper rubber mounts for the na and I used a long bolt and nuts for the bottom stirrup hanger. I sleeved the bolt with rubber fuel line to fit into the stirrup.
Here's a link to the thick, two row, triple pass. I believe I ordered custom length, standard 19-in height and custom size inlets and Outlets along with the mounts and in Ford style. Again, Ford style simply reverses the left and right side for the inlets and outlets. It looks like there is an option for an internal oil cooler in the tank, which was not there back then and might be useful.
Glad that vane decided to burst after the car was parked and not while it was on track.
I'd be super surprised if this DIDN'T happen on track. That looks exactly like a piece of track debris hit it and maybe you didn't notice for a bit until enough leaked out in the paddock. It's practically unheard of for a tube to randomly burst in real world application. Good call on a cheap(er) replacement though. No need to overkill it given how the car is behaving
I ordered a triple pass stock car radiator in custom dimensions and with custom inlet and outlet sizes from Four Seasons Radiator from Alabama, I think. It's been a few years, but it was 350 bucks with shipping back then.
The Ford style racing radiators have the inlet and outlet on the correct sides for a BP engine.
I had them weld a flat piece of metal down the leading edge of both tanks so that I could drill for the upper rubber mounts for the na and I used a long bolt and nuts for the bottom stirrup hanger. I sleeved the bolt with rubber fuel line to fit into the stirrup.
Here's a link to the thick, two row, triple pass. I believe I ordered custom length, standard 19-in height and custom size inlets and Outlets along with the mounts and in Ford style. Again, Ford style simply reverses the left and right side for the inlets and outlets. It looks like there is an option for an internal oil cooler in the tank, which was not there back then and might be useful.
I remember you mentioning that in another thread before. Damn dude those are no joke! Necessary in the FL heat though I guess…
Originally Posted by turbofan
Fun post. Data is neat innit?
That's actually Sonny's daily in the background, Huevo spent very little time at the tent that day haha
Data is way neat! Can’t wait to get my own Aim and start digging into more data. Already spent another half hour today breaking down all my screw-ups haha.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought that car ran every session on Sunday haha.
Originally Posted by Padlock
I'd be super surprised if this DIDN'T happen on track. That looks exactly like a piece of track debris hit it and maybe you didn't notice for a bit until enough leaked out in the paddock. It's practically unheard of for a tube to randomly burst in real world application. Good call on a cheap(er) replacement though. No need to overkill it given how the car is behaving
nice laps!
Oh no, the radiator definitely ate a rock on track. I was following a buddy pretty closely for the majority of the session. I was just under the impression it gave out after I got off. Could totally be wrong, but the ground around the car was dry for about 5 minutes. Then all of a sudden, boom. Big puddle of coolant under the car. Couldn’t find any coolant around the paddock either.
And thanks! Hopefully I actually get some in-car footage to share on the next one.
FYI, JB weld makes a water-curing epoxy. Comes in a tube, roll it up and shove it into radiator leaks, and it sets in 20-25min. I keep a tube in my trackside spares box and it's saved me twice when my radiator ate rocks and sprang leaks.
That’s clutch. I’ll be grabbing a tube of that stuff this weekend. I had some high temp JB weld with me but the setting time on that stuff is too long to be off any use trackside.
Another guy hit me up with a funny idea. If the car’s got cooling capacity to spare, just toss the AC condenser back in as a sacrificial rock-eater. I’m gonna take my chances and continue running everything as is but I thought that was a clever little fix.
Last edited by Z_WAAAAAZ; Mar 4, 2025 at 02:58 PM.
That’s clutch. I’ll be grabbing a tube of that stuff this weekend. I had some high temp JB weld with me but the setting time on that stuff is too long to be off any use trackside.
Well while we are on the topic....
JB weld kwik-weld, I've found not quite as strong or heat resistant as the OG 24hr stuff, but sets up in 10min or so, and is good enough to glue shifters/mirrors/stripped fittings back together.
Combine with Permatex sealant "the right stuff" 90min return to service but holds up after closer to 30min, and you have pretty much everything you need to address water/oil leaks and minor structural failures trackside between sessions.
And yes, I've had to use all these products before, which is why I now keep a fresh tube of each in my trackside spares kit.
Pegasus sells nice stainless mesh that we use on our race bikes to protect coolers from debris impacts. It's a lot less restrictive than a condenser would be and comes in 3 gap densities
Looks like I'm doing some shopping this week. Thanks dudes. That mesh would actually look better in the grill opening than the OEM plastic trim too IMO. Maybe I'll grab some and make the swap. And thanks for the heads up on the various JB weld products, Wingman. I'll definitely be adding the radiator weld and quik weld to my weekend toolkit.
No driving this weekend as I was busy yesterday and it rained in the mountains today. I got after it in the garage this afternoon and tore into the car and one of my bikes, though. Found a crack in the seat tube of my main bike last week and have a warranty triangle coming tomorrow, so I figured I'd make some progress on that repair. More pertinent to the thread, though, I noticed the car's been incurring more body roll with the stickier RC1's compared to my previous blown out NT05's (who would've guessed?). I dialed in more damping when I added the wing back in December, then another couple clicks when I slapped the stickier tires on. However, I know I should probably be running more spring rate in some way, shape or form compared to when the car was running less grippy tires and no aero. I pulled out the RX8 sway bars today and swapped the stiffer Progress bars back in.
Even in their softest settings, the Progress sways are a good bit stiffer than the RX8 bars I have on hand. I'm signed up for a track day at the smaller WSIR track, Streets of Willow, next weekend. Will play around with the suspension setup there and see if I can make some positive changes before NASA SoCal round 2 at WSIR the following weekend.
Miata TTC Round 1 - WSIR
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