Looks like a great weekend! Congrats on the W. Love that clip of Frankie lol

Weird on the tire pressure. I wonder if the centripetal force was messing with the spring in the valve somehow. Glad all the issues seem pretty minor.

 

Congratulations! Awesome update.

 

Your updates are super enjoyable to read. Glad the car is just hammering out laps and minimal drama. That's living the dream right there. And epic shot of your car at the track entrance.

And good ******' work on the win!

 

Congrats! Sounds like a great weekend overall.

This is a good reason why a 'race' group should never be run mixed with the HPDE groups, not to mention the fact that it's unsafe. That 'instructor' should be banned from future track instructing. What an idiot.

 

Yo, thanks dudes! Glad I get to share these updates with y'all. You know firsthand how satisfying this stuff is haha.

So I pulled the valve stem out on my lunch break and found a couple small tears at the base that I think were the cause. The stem I used was a little thinner and less robust than the other stems I have installed so I found a beefier one to replace it with. I think it was centripetal force still, though. Possibly all the extra weight on the end from the screw on sensor was yanking on the valve at higher speeds and it began to wear/tear the dinky little valve stem. I guess I'll hold my tongue until I drive the car again and confirm if it's fixed or not.

You and me both dude. I am going to procure a backup motor here soon (juuuuust in case...) and I gotta put aside a weekend to give the car a full going through along with some preventative maintenance. But all that being said, she just keeps taking it weekend after weekend! Very happy with it.

 

Yo, thanks Roda! Good times for sure.

Yeah, I couldn't believe my ears when they told me what he said. I didn't investigate further (nothing to be gained there), but yeah, that dude was probably self-proclaimed only.

In the organizer's defense (Speed Ventures), their events usually go off without a hitch. They have 3 or 4 TT subseries run through their events (Miata TTC, Corvette Challenge, etc), and each of the drivers sign up for whatever run group they'd be in anyways. I think most of the MTTC folks were actually in intermediate or similar over the weekend. This girl in the blue Corvette (or whoever signed her up) just wound up in the wrong group.

That being said, I'm with you, just depends on the ethos of the event and the crowd I guess. If it were a NASA TT event and we got gridded with the HPDE groups, I'd be pissed. Same way I'm sure the spec classes wouldn't enjoy sharing the track with me haha.

 

Man, I know you've got plans to make the car go faster but I think you should reconsider if that's going to separate you from these guys. I really, really miss the days I had a few years ago when I had some different NA/NB buddies to go to the track day with and we were all similar on pace, swapping lead and chase. It was nowhere near as closely competitive as you describe going on here.

You're living the good life man. Great updates!

 

That is crazy that someone with that mentality is an "iNsTrUcToR".... Still super stoked to hear how much fun you are having with this car! Congrats on the win and the super close racing sounds awesome. Another one of my local buddies just got an NC and his enthusiasm along with your thread have me looking at NCs on marketplace too much hahaha

 

I'd be interested to see the in car footage from the influencer to see what the instructor was saying. My guess is that he was trying to seem cool for the camera.

 

I've seen TT sessions get mixed with HPDE4 occasionally, but it's usually only the warmup or maybe the last one on Sunday afternoon when nobody sets a fast time anyway.

But yeah, one of the things I don't like about TT in general is that it's usually run under HPDE safety rules with HPDE passing rules. Problem is that those rules assume it's not competitive and that the slower car has no reason not to lift to let the faster car by. If it's TT and that slower car is trying to set his own fastest lap time then all that goes out the window...

--Ian

 

If Time Trials are going to run on track at the same time as HPDE, it should only be with the advanced group and with a more intense discussion of passing rules than usual.

the organization should be embarrassed by to let someone on track that needs an instructor to explain passing rules them during a Time Trial, and is driving a C8 Corvette but finds themselves outmatched by a naturally aspirated NC Miata. I'd want to put on my Karen hat/wig and complain.

 

Dunno who you run with, but every NASA, SCCA, and Gridlife event I've run on the east coast has been open passing. Point bys suggested/encouraged to keep things clear, but not required.
The exception being NASA SE usually requires point bys for the first flying lap so everyone has a shot at a clean flyer. Gap yourself appropriately.

 

Competition run groups should never be comingled with HPDE... different rules, different mindset and they don't mix well on track. Nobody would even consider it with W2W, but for some outfits seem to think it's OK for TT...

 

"HPDE passing rules" does not mean "point by", there are plenty of open passing HPDE groups. "HPDE passing rules" mean "you have nothing to lose by letting faster cars pass you, so don't be a dick" ...except in a TT session you *do* have something to lose by letting faster cars pass you, because there's no way to do that without losing time.

Anyway, just my pet peeve about the way TT gets run around here. I stick with w2w so that there's no ambiguity.

--Ian

 

Great points being brought up all around.

Not in the defense of all organizations grouping TT and HPDE drivers together, but rather to add another factor into this discord, I think it should be noted that MTTC is a casual TT race. It’s not Gridlife, SCCA, or NASA. There aren’t any huge contingencies on the line, and most of the people competing are there to have fun and spend a weekend with their friends and other enthusiasts with the same chassis. Put simply, I think very few drivers cared about the run group situation, and even fewer were actually affected by it.

And none of this is to discredit the series. It’s been great vibes and a ton of fun, exactly what the goal was.

 

Couple more fun clips of the three musketeers from the final session Saturday. Mitchel running my *** down, and Frankie sliding around.
(Ok admittedly in hindsight maybe I shouldn't have glorified Frankie's spin as there were more cars behind us than I remembered. I'd still be lying if I said I didn't have a good laugh, though.)

We were trying to figure out how Mitchel overtook me so easily in that straightaway. My car was running hot at that point in the day, going rich and likely retarding timing a bit, but I didn't expect that to cause such a substantial difference in acceleration. Well I drove the car to work Monday and noted the brakes were dragging just enough to be perceivable on the street. Took a quick peek and found my front rotors looking absolutely... stunning.



These rotors have had some microcracks in them for a bit, but they got way worse after last weekend. Hard to tell but the rotor was grooved pretty badly as well. Guess I can't complain though, as these Centric blanks cost $40 apiece and lasted 15+ track days. I bought another set off RockAuto (for $72 shipped this time!) and threw them on today. Did an oil change, tire rotation, resecured the edges of the airdam, and gravity bled the brakes while I was at it. The front brakes aren't dragging as bad now. Maybe a bit but I haven't broken the new rotors in yet. I'm going to drive the car a decent bit tomorrow to get the new pads and rotors acquainted and I think we'll be good to go. I replaced the valve stem on my leaking tire as well and it seems to be holding.

Signed up for that track event at the new Buttonwillow Circuit this weekend and am excited to try and learn another new track! The track's only been open for two months but the baseline "fast" time has already been pretty clearly defined. A handful of my buddies have set times I'd like to chase after as well. Should be a fun Friday/Saturday! Gonna meet Frankie, Lena and @DUDELOL from the MTTC gang to camp at the track Friday night, then on Saturday another couple buddies will be joining us too.

The new track's interesting. It was definitely developed with W2W racing in mind. Lots of long straights and it's paved wide. Doesn't fit the description of a Miata track but I've seen some Miatas, 86's, and S2k's set some respectable times, so hopefully I can do the same!

 

See you there! Stoked to gather some data and fight over Frankie as a coach since he's driven there already

 

Those kinds of rotor cracks are scary. Do you have brake ducting?

 

Yeah man, no bueno haha. They were deep enough to catch a fingernail. Lots of em.

I do not have brake ductung, but the car's got Wilwood Superlites and the rotors are 1.2" larger than stock. I figured I could get away without ducts at at 185whp. The rotors had 16 or 17 track days on them, though, so not like they wore out prematurely.

 

Ducting helped my pad wear and hot brake feel. It also helped with the rotor cracks and discoloration.

Attachment 90085