Thanks dudes! Not too shabby for a car a rattlecanned hood and most of the clearcoat missing, although I guess I'm biased :rofl: Aero will come later on, maybe even after the engine swap. I think I'm going to do a GV lip then mount a splitter and wing at the same time. Diffuser will come later on after a few more projects.

By some stroke of luck, a set of DTC60 front pads showed up on my doorstep last night. Gonna have to see if I got double charged by the vendor or what but at least I'll be able to run front and rear DTC60s for the track this weekend rather than DTC30s in the front and no-name pads in the rear. I also finished up the install of the MadFabWorx oil filter perch and the cooler lines yesterday. No leaks so far and now I shouldn't have to worry about roasting my oil on track this weekend. Luckily the oil pressure and temperature sensor ports were close enough to my previous setup that I didn't have to extend any wiring after the install.

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https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c87c96ef4f.jpg
Old perch and sensor tee in the background.

Since installing the front wheels/tires/spacers, the car's got a mild intermittent vibration through the steering wheel that comes and goes at above 60mph. I checked the wheels and tires for balance and runout this morning and they passed, however the Roadforce machine says the tire stiffness is out of spec. I'm assuming this is just due to the stiffness and profile of the sidewalls and the fact that the tires also have some stretch. I overnighted a set of hubcentric rings (should've grabbed some already) and am going to check the spacers for runout this afternoon. I rotated the wheels and tires front to back this morning as well since I didn't notice any vibration from the rear while driving to SD this weekend with only the rear wheels/tires/spacers installed.

Got the ECUtek app troubleshot (troubleshooted?) and installed on my computer and am now just waiting for Fab9 to send my tune over. I'm not going to follow up on that as I really shouldn't add anything more to my plate this week haha.

For ECUtek, did you buy the full license? I.E. the one where you can actually go in and modify the tune through the cable?

My buddy is running it on his NC2, and unfortunately he bought the base one and we were only able to load the provided tune, and have no ability to modify the tune at all. I wish he would have bought the better license, as I wanted to get in there and play around. Curious to hear your reports on this.

Did a bunch of digging on this before pulling the trigger. The version I have allows for me to tweak the factory tune myself (but not any tunes supplied by an outside source), and has basically all functions unlocked for the end user to play with except for flex fuel, closed loop boost control, external/separate wideband control, and basically anything additional run off the can-bus. If you want access to play with everything yourself, you have to pony up for the $1,800 version of the software rather than the $500 version and at that point I guess I'd rather just buy a Haltech. I'm interested to play around with the factory tune myself but am hoping the prebuilt tune (and subsequent datalogging/tweaks by Fab9 if needed) just works well and takes one more thing off my platter as far as getting this thing race-ready. Fab9's done tunes for dozens, maybe hundreds of these cars, and the general feedback about working with their tuners seems positive. They also messed up almost every order I placed with them while buying parts for my VVT engine build, so I feel like I'm arguably throwing them a bone by deciding to work with them again.

Mini update. I rotated my wheels front to rear on my lunch break and swapped in all of the DTC-60 pads. Realized I installed all of my wheel spacers backwards too (inner chamfer facing away from the hub rather than toward it). I don't think the spacers were making contact with the hub lip at the base of the hub at all, it looked recessed behind the brake rotor, but maybe they were just barely touching with the wheel torqued down, causing a very minor wobble. At any rate, I took it for a short drive and got it up to 75mph a few times. Didn't feel any vibration again yet. I'm gonna take the car out to bed the pads in tonight or tomorrow and will hopefully confirm that said vibration is now gone for good.

You went over 75mph and didn't have a vibration? Time for a part out. This clearly isn't the car for you.

Lol, the PTSD Zak must get when he feels the slightest vibration. :bowrofl:

Ha! Cursed by the vibration gods for eternity. Who knows what I did in my past life to deserve this.

In all seriousness, and I glossed over this in my first post, the car actually did have a vibration when I first picked it up. Got it up to 80mph on the freeway driving home and the tires were slightly out of balance causing a resonance in the front end. I could tell it was a balancing issue but still briefly considered driving it into a wall.

Got the car up to freeway speeds again on the way home yesterday. Vibration hasn’t come back. I’m pretty sure the ID of the wheel spacers were just barely making contact with the inner lips on the front hubs causing a miniscule amount of runout. The car’s officially ready to run laps this weekend.

:bowrofl::fael:

I'm glad to hear that. I can't imagine what thoughts you would have had if a vibration was still present. Looking forward to hear your thoughts after the next event.

Godspeed! I'll be running some laps this weekend as well. May the miatae gods be with us. :party:

Locked and loaded. Only thing I know I forgot to do was install my tow hooks. I’ve done much worse. Signed up for HPDE both days and will have two first-timers to instruct each day as well. Might enter and race TTU class Sunday if I’m jiving with the car, just to get in some sessions with less traffic. Wish us luck!


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Damn dude, Uhaul livery on the trailer looks sick :bigtu:

Good luck out there, make sure to let the students know if's your first day (with the new car)

Haha! Maybe I should get a Uhaul livery on the car and van to match. You think Uhaul does sponsorships?

Alright, I absolutely couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend. I normally struggle with fully using the T1 and T9 corner exits at WSIR but I finally started nailing them consistently this time around. The car ran way faster lap times than I expected and didn't require an ounce of attention over back to back track days. The only adjustments I made were setting the rear sway into the stiff position and dropping tire pressure. Otherwise all I did on the car all weekend was check lug torque and oil level each session.

I'll post up a full recap this week but for now here's the footage of one of my best laps. Ended up running a 1:36.65 this morning, just 1.2 seconds off my fastest time here after I first put the turbo on my NA. Pre-turbo, my PB here was 1:39.95 in the NA (w/ aero but running 205s). I expected to be in the 1:38s this weekend, so that was icing on the cake. Gonna be honest, I'm pretty proud of that T8-T9 line I was holding. Forcing yourself to stay outside at the beginning of T9 is counterintuitive and scary haha. Also, I just realized this but I never turned off the C.O.F.F.I.N. that I was jamming to while sitting in grid. Couldn't hear the tunes while driving but maybe they had something to do with the PB.

Nice! :likecat:

How'd the instructing go?

Isn't that just an amazing feeling?

Nice driving! Looks like you got that last turn down really well.

Instructing went great! It was just like you guys said, super rewarding and helped remind me of the fundamentals as well. I ended up with just one student each day, which was great. Did three sessions in the passenger seat with each and gave them both a ride along in my car at some point in the day.

My first student was in a GR Corolla and was dang near too nervous to talk during the first session. For most of that session, we just worked on getting him comfortable with being on track and towards the end, I started guiding him around the line I usually take. Once he got comfortable, his fundamentals were pretty good. Smooth inputs, controlled heel/toe shifting, not too eager to snap onto the accelerator. Second session he got the line down better and started picking up speed and then third session we started working on acceleration out of apexes and throttle modulation through corners. By the end of the third session, the driver was actually driving pretty well (for someone with only three track sessions under their belt) and much more assertively than before. Super sick to see. I took him for a spin in my car after and he got out and said “Ahh, I see what you were trying to get me to do earlier!” Lol.

I might look into obtaining my instructor’s license through NASA next year. Would love to do this again.

Thanks, Option! Yeah, I've been lucky to have most of my track days go off without a hitch, but I'm usually contending with at least some sort of mild mechanicals by mid-day lol. This was on another level. I kept waiting for some sort of issue to come up and nothing ever did haha.

That last turn has been the bane of my existence since I started coming to this track. WSIR is actually my most favored track compared to the rest of my class as far as lap times are concerned, but I've never had the balls to really stay wide at the entrance of that T9 and track out all the way at the end. I think being in a slower car this weekend actually helped a lot in allowing me to nail it. Was going 15+ mph faster though T8 in my turbo NA and the entrance comes up much quicker at that speed haha.

Woo! Your NC sounds sick and looks quick on track! I know they are fast, like I said my buddy has one, and he's only ~3 seconds off my PB at the track. His car seems to be affected by the heat a lot more, on a hot day we're more like 5 seconds apart, while my times pretty much don't change.

I'm often jealous of folks driving the piss out of slower cars, It's definitely better for training. Hence why I've decided to not run my car on any higher boost levels until I can master it on low boost (still not there!)

How did you like the handling characteristics on the track at the limit? My buddy swears the NC pushes more than the NA no matter what you do, so I'm curious how you feel yours is setup.

Alright, weekend recap incoming. I'm going to try to keep it concise without leaving any details out. There's a lot of items and experiences to list lol.

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I got off work Friday at 5 and picked up the trailer from Uhaul. Just finished bedding in the DTC60 pads Thursday night (first time watching a new set of brake pads shoot sparks, sweet!) and had the van already loaded up and the rest of the car ready to go. I waited for traffic to die down and left home at 8, got to the track at 11. Parked outside the gate and knocked out.

Saturday morning, I pulled into the paddock and started looking for other Miata dudes to shack up next to. I ended up striking gold. Ran across a pair of brothers fielding a pair of forced induction NA8s in HPDE 4. One car with full aero and a TSE EFR turbo kit, the other car was rocking a Rotrex kit. Both dudes were super cool and we ended up hanging out and comparing notes all weekend. Good times.

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I got the car through tech and showed up on time to grid (something I'm not usually good about). HPDE 3/4 wasn't overcrowded as per usual so I took that as score #2. Wound up starting in the middle of the pack, which I was a little apprehensive about as I'd promised myself I'd take a proper warmup session to feel out the car in case there were any handling characteristics I hadn't wrapped my head around while driving it in the canyons. Long story short, there weren't. It's a Miata. It drives exactly like a Miata, lol. I got a few laps in and was comfortable pushing the car. It was immediately very similar feeling to my NA. A little stiffer and more responsive, less oversteery with the current setup than the NA, but still a Miata at its core. No real changes in driving technique required to rip it. I checked over my gauges multiple times to make sure everything was good. Oil pressure was holding. It was about 65*F out. Coolant temps didn't get above 181* and oil stayed at 190* for the whole session. Nice. Battery voltage was still dropping to 12.9V after extended periods above 6k rpm and the battery light would come on if I held it there for over 10 seconds or so. Voltage would jump back up to 13.5v once rpms dropped though and the light would go off. This would continue all weekend but never became an issue and didn't affect how the car ran at all. AFRs stayed consistent while it was happening so I wasn't too worried. I still think this "concern" has to do with the AntiGrav battery's static and charging voltages being different than a regular flooded or AGM, and the fact that it has its own BMS and may be taking things into its own hands as far as charging at high RPM. It's been doing this in the canyons for over a month and still charges and runs fine. I'll grab another alternator in the next couple weeks just to confirm it's a battery-related facet and nothing else. At any rate, it didn't affect or detract from my driving all weekend, even in the slightest.

Later in the day with ambient temps up to 95*, I saw coolant get up to 198* and oil get up to 220*. Naturally-aspirated setups have some perks I guess haha.

I finished my first driving session and checked my lap timer. 1:37.77 PB, with another two 1:37s in there too. Hell yes! I was trying not to focus on lap times this weekend. You know, I'm trying to be responsible since this is a shakedown and all. Still though, I had this thought floating around in the back of my head that I'd be happy if the car ran a 1:38 at some point. Running below that on the first session was just icing on the cake. I pulled off the track at the end of my first session and onto the scales to get my car weighed. 2,602 lbs with 3/4 of a tank of gas and me in it! I'm about 175-180lbs so the fact that this car's just over 2,400 has me pretty stoked. And that's with the A/C still in it.

I mentioned this above, but after my first driving session it was time to link up with one of the Toyota GR first-timer groups and find a driver to instruct. I ended up hopping in with a dude in a GR Corolla and doing all three of his sessions with him. Last week, the NASA directors held a Zoom meeting with all the would-be instructors to review everything we should expect and what we should focus on with the drivers. It was all about what you'd expect. Lots of safety stuff, basic track etiquette, get the drivers to follow the line and use the whole track. Even still, I was mildly nervous that I wouldn't have enough useful knowledge to impart onto a new driver. This proved to not be an issue. I may be an amateur driver, but there's still so many basics we all take for granted that need to be taught to the newbies. We had a super productive day and my first student went from being too nervous to speak during the first session to driving confidently, mostly on-line, and carrying a pretty decent pace by the end of the day. It was a killer experience, and surprisingly fun on my end too. I'm strongly considering trying to get my instructor's license through NASA next year.

The rest of the day went swimmingly. Did a bunch of checks on the car all day and found nothing wrong, until after my last session. I had been doing mechanical checks all day but had been avoiding checking anything setup related, trying to focus on getting used to the car and identifying any mechanical faults instead. Well at 5pm, I finally decided to check my tire pressures. I had set them to 29psi cold on a cool morning the week before, which was fine. However now at higher altitude, and after sitting in the sun, all my pressures had ramped up to 34psi cold. D'oh! I'd been driving around all day basically cornering on the center tread only :rofl: I checked tire wear and this confirmed it. Surprisingly, the NT05s showed almost no discernable wear at all, but the wear that was visible was all on the outer edge of the center tread. I made a note to set pressures lower tomorrow morning and see what times I could pull with actual proper pressures. I also set the rear sway bar to the stiff position, because the car was further toward the understeer end of the spectrum than I'm used to.

With the day winding down, I figured I'd make some dinner soon, but I wasn't hungry quite yet. I grabbed my bike out of the van and pedaled a few laps on the track, jokingly telling myself I might pick up on a secret line or find some unexpected camber somewhere. I didn't, but I did find that the exits of T4 and T6 are much steeper than they seem when you're in the car. Fastest lap on the bike was a 12:16. Maybe one day I'll get into the 1:20s with the car and the 10's on the bike lol.

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Saturday night was pleasant. Cooked some garlic chicken and sautee'd spinach in the van and hung out with the couple from NorCal that was parked next to me for a bit. My newfound homies with the Miatas were staying in a hotel 20 minutes away so I wouldn't see them until next morning.

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The next morning I got to work on my tire pressures. Dropped them to 26psi cold and went out for my first session. Between that, the sway bars, and the lines I was now nailing, I dropped a whole second off of my previous PB. 1:36.77. I was so damn stoked, I didn't think this car would run lap times like that in it's current state. Can't wait to see what this car will pull with 30 more horsepower and some aero. I dropped tire pressures another PSI for my next session. Ambient temps were up 15-20* in the morning and my top speed dropped by a little under 2mph, but I dropped another tenth and PB'd at 1:36.65. Hell yeah dude. Mission accomplished and then some.

The rest of day two went similar to day one. Had a different student in a GR86 that day. This dude was more confident than the first guy, and a little faster off the bat, but had an issue sticking to the line due to the fact that he was more focused on going fast. He also wouldn't use the brakes almost at all for the first two sessions. We worked together on dialing in his line before working on speed, and on getting him to brake harder, and by session three he was driving the track pretty respectably. Another satisfying experience. I took him for a ride along after session two and then he asked me if I would take his girlfriend for a couple laps on my last session, as they were considering getting her a Miata. I took her for two fliers and pulled back into the pits. Upon getting out of the car, she pulled her helmet off and went "Yeah, I'm sold". Hopefully we'll see one of them make a profile on here one day haha.

Anyways, great weekend! Next event is going to be at Buttonwillow with a bunch of buddies on the weekend of 10/20. We'll see what kind of mischief I can get into with the car before then. Frankie with the 2.5 swap NC offered to let me borrow his old Mazdaspeed/Eibach coilovers, so I might do that for gits and shiggles. More good times to come!

Heck yeah, thanks Nate. Yeah, I'm amped on the exhaust note at redline. Not as cool as hearing a turbo, but still cool haha. Funny you'd mention that about heat. My NC seemed more sensitive to ambient temps than my NA did for sure. I slowed down by about 2 seconds towards the end of the day as temps got up to 95* or so. It was noticeable from the cockpit too, both in corners and in terms of power.

As for how the NC handles at the limit, it's not massively different from my NA at all. WSIR might not be the best one to test push vs oversteer on, as most of the turns are on camber and I've noticed my cars have always oversteered less here than at any other track around. My NA for instance hardly exhibited any oversteer here, but was quite oversteery at Buttonwillow and Chuckwalla. That being said, the NC definitely pushes more than my NA with how it's setup currently. I wouldn't call it massively understeery, though. The car still rotates just fine. I ended up switching the rear sway bar from the soft to the stiff position for day two and it became much easier to slide the rear end in low speed corners (you can see this in the right hander at the top of the hill in my video above). I'll continue experimenting, but I don't think I'm going to have an issue with front end push in this car.

Looks like it was an awesome weekend! I'm stoked to see you getting back on the track! Glad that instructing went well too, that's a neat opportunity to get to watch people get hooked on the sport, and to see how far you've come.

Thanks, Sim! Yeah, thank f*cking god, right? It's been over six months since my last time seeing the checkered and I was starting to get scared I'd forget how to drive on track hahaha. Def stoked on the instructing bit too. Watching people learn to drive cars fast is sick.