Starting my build thread after having already done a lot, but I'll update here as I update the car.

I bought this car almost completely stock from a guy in Florida in January 2022. Original goal was a (default goal incoming) nice weekend car that I would occasionally track. Having helped my twin brother turbo his track car with the TSE EFR6258 kit, and seeing how much it took to keep everything cool and happy, I didn't want to go F/I. But then I kept eyeballing the TDR Rotrex kit, and eventually went with that after I was happy with where the car was N/A.

Powertrain:
Original motor, ~100k miles as of this post.
TDR C30-94, 90mm pulley
MSLabs MS3, Innovate PSB-1
DW200, FF640s
Fluidampr
Supermiata reroute and crossflow
GWR header and cat
Custom 2.5" exhaust with the Magnaflow 12578 22" muffler
Supermiata 1.6 sport clutch and light flywheel
Original 5spd
4.1 Torsen
A/C and PS
Made 220whp/185wtq on Advanced Engine Dynamix's Dynojet, CA 91 fuel

Suspension, etc.
Gen 2 XIDA 700/400
Supermiata front/rear sway bar kit (I forget which of the tubular fronts I have)
Carbotech R12/R10 pads for the track, GS-1 otherwise
15x8 6UL with 205 RT-660s.

Interior/Misc
Car Make Corn's carbon seats on stock sliders
BBFW NB GT3 Rollbar, SFI padding underneath the Bethania Garage leather cover
330mm Nardi Deep Corn-Rev9 white stitch version, daikei hub and spacer, Revlimiter horn button
Revlimiter warbird gauges and HVAC panel, white LEDs
MiataRoadster tall/angled short shifter, satin black
Retrosound "Grand Prix" Radio, 3rd Millenium door speakers
Autometer "Stack" Oil temp gauge, using one of those drain plug adapters
Autometer "Stack" Water temp gauge, tapped into the Rotrex fluid reservoir to monitor the traction fluid temps
MiataGear reproduction STO floor mats
BBFW fire extinguisher mount
LED light sun visor deletes
IL Motorsport center console
FM Morimoto headlights, and FM LEDs for every other bulb

 

In case anyone was wondering about the miata it's parked next to, it's my twin brother's that we put the TSE EFR6258 kit on, stock motor, 227whp, 210tq:

 

I figure it's time for an update, hopefully with some useful info for other Rotrex owners.
1. After I installed the fluidampr, I had issues with the belt skipping forward one rib on the SC pulley. Loosening and re-torquing the SC bracket didn't help. Eventually (seemingly) the forwardmost edge of the belt wore down a bit and it stopped skipping ribs. I did 6 or so track weekends throughout the year and thoroughly enjoyed the car.
2. Around august, the Rotrex started getting louder. The noise is a bit hard to describe, but imagine the sound of a cricket's chirp. It progressively got worse and the belt was slipping at higher rpm (evident by making less boost), and eventually it got so loud at idle it was intolerable. Thankfully it was still within the one-year warranty window and TDR handled the entire warranty process with Rotrex in Denmark. Suprisingly, Rotrex found an internal failure (not much other detail given) and sent me a brand new C30-94, fluid filter, and a 1L bottle of traction fluid. I removed and cleaned out the entire SC fluid system prior to reinstalling the new unit.
3. During the warranty process I mentioned my belt issues with TDR, and they sent me washers to place between the SC bracket and the engine, along with the new replacement supercharger. This worked perfectly and I haven't seen any belt dusting at all, even with the brand new belt. Car is back to being nice quiet.
4. Got the Supermiata FESK and a new alignment and shook down the car at Chuckwalla last Saturday, and the car performed excellently.

Now onto the current state, updates since my first post:
Got a hood, added singular vents, and had it painted to almost match lol. Also a BX-11 and sport rear adapter.


I'm stoked to be competing in the new Miata TT Championship this year, and I found out I can squeeze into super street if I go down to 195s (lol). So I got 195/50 A052s and put those on the 15x8 6ULs. Luckily the stretch isn't ridiculous. If i end up hating the car being unbalanced between power and grip I'll move up to the modified class and add some aero and grippier wheel/tire setup. Or I can make my problem even worse by going to E85 and picking up even more power without adding any MTTC class points.

 

I love the feel of a Rotrexed car. Yours look awesome and I look forward to Miata TT updates this season!

 

Hey, I didn't know you had a build thread on here! Subscribed now haha.

See ya this weekend

 

Keeping up with yours made me want to actually post on here more. And yeah I'm stoked for Sunday! Glad you're not in superstreet with me haha

 

It's been a busy couple weeks. Rounds 1 and 2 of MTTC separated by work trips to Florida during the week, anyways:

MTTC Round 1, WSIR:
As probably seen elsewhere in this forum, having a Miata time attack series in California again has been awesome. Putting usernames to faces and cars, providing and receiving help with repairs and driving, talking ****, all impeccable. Arrived and parked with @Z_WAAAAAZ , Mitchel, Frankie, and a bunch of other MTTC folks. Got used to the 195 A052s throughout the day and PB'ed with a 1:37.3, which I figured was maybe good enough mid-pack, hopefully not dead last. There's a lot of very competent drivers and potent builds, and I think everyone was surprised with the times being achieved, especially in Modified and SuperModified.

Then the awards ceremony started, and I got 3rd place!! The top 2 were both in the 1:35s





All in all an awesome event and got me really stoked on the rest of the year.

MTTC Round 2, Buttonwillow CW13:

The last (and only) time I drove Buttonwillow was sometime in 2018 or 2019 when my brother and I first turbocharged his car. So with 15-ish laps from 5 years ago under my belt, and a MUCH bigger turnout, I wasn't expecting to podium again. Which is good because I didn't lol, 8th place out of 16 with a 2:08.2. Conditions were tricky with periodic high wind, rain, and even hail at one point. Still had a ton of fun, 4th session was very wet so I just slid around while most people were packing up.


But the Clifford family's MTTC 3rd place domination continued because my brother managed a 2:04 in the turbo car in the SuperModified class. There were 4 entries in SuperMod, and one driver's car decided it didn't want to run anymore while gridding for the 1st session of the day. The top 2 were both in the 1:59s.



Next weekend is Round 3 at Chuckwalla, a track I'm much more familiar with. It'll be CCW though which I've never done before, so I'm excited to see how it goes. Overall, no issues with the car or its new Rotrex (knock on wood). The A052s seem to really make up for the narrow width I'm running with more grip than I was expecting, so it's on me to actually improve and get better at pushing the car towards its limit.

 

Hell yeah dude, good stuff. I have faith one of you will secure another 3rd at Chuckwalla this weekend!

Buttonwillow looked like fun. A wet track day once in a while is probably good for us since we never drive in those conditions. Hail though... maybe not so much. Lol.

Good luck this weekend! I'll see you guys at the next one.

 

MTTC Round 3, Chuckwalla CCW:

So I was dumb and didn't register soon enough for this event, and it sold out before I got around to it. Got on the waitlist but never made it off the list. Thankfully another competitor (and insanely fast driver), Ger Xiong, offered to sell me the 2nd half of his day so I could put up a time. Super nice dude and thankfully he was recognized for this during the awards ceremony.

This created an interesting scenario for me, because I have probably 8-10 track days at Chuckwalla, but never CCW. MTTC only counts sessions 2 and 3 for the competition, and I'd be starting on session 3. So I had 20 minutes total to figure out the course and set a time. I rode along with Sonny in 949's Huevo in the morning to see what CCW was like, and that helped tremendously.

My previous best running CW was a 2:06 or 2:07. So I set a goal of at least matching that. Ended up surprising myself with a 2:04.372!

...and the streak of collecting 3rd place MTTC plaques for our garage continued:


What was really surprising was just how close the margin between me and 2nd place was: 4 hundredths of a second. Brandon managed a 2:02.7 in his K-swapped NA for 1st place.

Overall another fantastic event. The more frequent track days are definitely improving my driving and comfort at the limit, and of course all of the help and advice from the rest of the MTTC friends. Looking forward to another new track in April for MTTC round 4: Las Vegas!

 

Good stuff dude! I watched Sonny's lap in the ND. Dude was flying! Bet that helped out a ton.

2:04 on 195's your first time running CCW is killer! Usually we come up with anything we can to cover why we were slow. You had actual excuses and still killed it! Haha.

 

MTTC Round 4, Las Vegas Motor Speedway Outside Road Course CCW:

First off, prep and changes before the event. My power steering was on its way out, and a big puddle of PS fluid under my car a week or so after Chuckwalla finally pushed me to just get rid of it. So I ordered a prepped and depowered rack from Miata-Source, along with poly rack bushings and new inner tie-rods.

Since the TDR Rotrex bracket uses the power steering pump as part of its mounting, I had to order their PS delete block and a slightly shorter belt as well. Fortunately, it's an easy system to take apart and I was able to get the Rotrex zip tied out of the way (so I didn't have to drain/refill/prime the supercharger once it was back in), and removed the PS pump, lines, and steering rack.


Also put in front and rear Supermiata CHUBs, which led me to my next discovery: my driver's side rear caliper had rusted and seized to its slider pin. I've been battling strange rear brake issues for a while, mostly the rear brakes beginning to drag after track sessions, which was only solvable by backing the parking brake WAY out. It's not fun to do this on the side of the road in the middle of the desert after a long track day. So I ordered a set of the rear calipers that Moss Miata sells, and put those on, paying special attention to grease the slider and guide pins with the good high-temp Permatex stuff.

After putting those on my Supermiata sport brackets, I noticed the rotor wasn't sitting centered in the caliper bracket on both sides of the car (the rotor was too far outboard, or another way to see it is the caliper bracket is too far inboard):

I had noticed this before I changed the hubs, and decided I'd address it if it was still the case after installing the CHUBs. Got an assortment of M10 washers from Ace Hardware Racing, picked out the thinnest ones, and put them between the rear upright and sport rotor adapter to shift the caliper bracket outboard.

Nice and centered.
To be clear, this wasn't the cause of my rear brake issues. But after dealing with this for a while I just wanted to make sure I can be done with rear brakes.

Managed to bleed and then re-bleed the brakes, get the steering rack installed, and got an alignment a couple days before heading out to Vegas.


Once again, a fantastic event with the always-rad group of people who have been competing in the MTTC series. Myself and a bunch of others all threw in on an airbnb in North Vegas near the track, which was a great cost-saving move considering Wrestlemania had made hotel prices almost F1-level inflated. Obviously this led to more fun too since we were all hanging out and enjoying the weekend together.

If you've read Z_WAAAAAZ's thread you already know that LVMS was new to just about all of us, made even harder to prep for by running CCW which is apparently pretty rare. There was only a couple videos to reference and try to glean info from before Saturday's event. High speeds, heavy braking zones, and tall curbs made for an exciting day.

Fortunately I had no issues with my car, and managed to set a time of 1:53.1 in the 3rd session after having a very scary off-track spin in the fast left-hand corner on the back straight at the end of the 2nd session.

...And this was good enough to end my streak of getting 3rd place because I got 2nd this time!


Matt got 1st with a 1:51.9 in his ND, and Brandon was only a couple tenths behind me in his K24 NA (on mega-swag Oni 3-spokes nonetheless).

My brother was also in attendance competing in the Super Modified class with the turbo car, where he got 3rd with only 0.3 seconds separating him from 1st. Bonus points if you can guess what car/driver we got the skin-only hardtop from.



Can't stress enough just how great its been to have a series like this in California again, tons of new memories being made with new friends. Looking forward to the last event before the summer break: Laguna Seca!

 

Loving these updates, you are living the dream man. Super jealous of the MTTC events happening out West, that looks like a friggin' blast. Your brothers car also looks super mean, what are the details on that? Does he have a build thread somewhere?

 

It's basically a supermiata S1 clone, without a nice full cage (yet). Unfortunately we don't have build thread for it, but it's been in its current configuration for 5 years or so and hasn't given us any issues. Honestly it can sit for 4 months and cold start better than my ford fiesta. We just change the oil every 2 full track days and make sure to keep the turbo hardware tightened, and it runs flawlessly every weekend we take it out.

Here's a brief rundown:

Original NA8 motor and 5 speed, 4.1 torsen. Maybe around 100k miles by now? Not sure.
TSE EFR 6258 just using the wastegate, so ~10.5 psi of boost.
Rev-built MSLabs MS3
221whp/210wtq on CA 91
FF640 injectors, DW200 pump
FM intercooler
Supermiata XIDA 1200/600, 863 bushings, and F/R sway bars
Renderos racing splitter/airdam/oil cooler/ducting
Supermiata reroute and crossflow
Singular GT-250 wing
15x10 Konigs with 245 BFG Rival-S 1.5
Gutted everything, weighs ~2050lbs

 

Epic weekend dude! Way too much fun. Glad you were able to get everything dialed with the car and congrats on the 2nd place!

 

MTTC Round 5, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca:

Of all the tracks on the MTTC calendar this year, Laguna Seca is probably where my power advantage over the other SuperStreet cars makes the biggest difference. That being said, and knowing that this was event 5 of 8, I got a fresh set of 195/50r15 A052s and had those mounted before heading to Monterey. This set should last me through the end of the season. Aside from that, I bit the bullet and ordered a Garmin Catalyst (should have done this a long time ago, I love it).

As to be expected, the MTTC group made this another awesome event. Saturday night after loading in we all had a BBQ courtesy of the 949Racing guys, which was super fun despite the colder-than-expected temperatures and wind.

Sunday came, and as to be expected at a place like Laguna Seca, it was very crowded. Most of us had issues with traffic throughout the day which meant putting together a good lap wasn't as easy as a Sunday on any other track. As a reminder, MTTC only looks at the 2nd and 3rd sessions for the competition lap times. My goal was sub-1:45 which I managed twice, once with a 1:44.99 in the 2nd session, and once again with a 1:44.95 in the 3rd.

And it paid off! My first P1!



Sorry about the potato quality, not sure what happened here lol.

Here's the results table for those interested:


Ryan Raduechel nearly beat his own Miata-chassis lap record here on an old set of tires. That guy is insane and it was fun to watch him pass GT3s all day.




Now that it's summer track-day break time for us in Southern California, I have a couple upgrades that I'll be installing in the coming months:

• Flex Fuel!
  • I already have a DW200 fuel pump and FF640 injectors, but I'm moving to ID1050X just to be sure I'm not injector-limited
  • Also ordered the DIYautotune IGN-1A kit to be sure I won't have any spark blowout issues like Zitro Racing on youtube encountered with an identical setup to mine.
  • My local tuner recommended the GM flex fuel sensor, and luckily my MSLabs MS3 has dedicated wires on the pigtail to tap into for this. I'll be calling him tomorrow to go over my plan. Hoping for ~240whp but we'll see.
• Suspension
  • Moving up from 700/400 springs to 900/500
  • I'm currently running the thinner-wall 54105 RB tubular front sway bar, so I'll get the thicker 54107 variant

I'll be sure to document the E85 dyno results and post them here.

 

Really cool, and good work out there. If MTTC is still happening next year, and I hope it is, I gotta make it out there. What a group of miata legends!

 

Yo, good stuff dude! I didn't realize the Superstreet podium was so tight. Congrats on the W and the sub-1:45!

Stoked to see what develops with the car over the summer. You're gonna be closing the gap on Jack come fall time haha.

 

MTTC is here to stay

 

Alright I've been lazy so a quick recap of the last 3 events of MTTC:

Round 6: Streets of Willow (new, long skidpad)
I got 2nd place! Which was better than I expected given my car is heavy on power and low on traction.
My rival for the season championship, Matt Davis, got 1st place.



Round 7: Buttonwillow Circuit
Back on top! This was a sunday event, so myself and @chuckieho took the opportunity to register for Saturday as well for some practice.

David got his 4th consecutive P2 at this event, and Matt Davis got 3rd. This set up a Netflix-worthy championship battle that would be decided at the final round.


Round 8: Buttonwillow CW13
Unfortunately my quick search of our group chats and Instagram didn't turn up any pictures of the podium. But that's alright because I wasn't on it anyway, I got 4th. David ended his 2nd place curse by getting P1, Matt Davis got 2nd, and Kendall "can't ever sub-2" Barr got 3rd place by not going sub-2 again.
Matt Davis secured the SuperStreet class season championship, I got 2nd, and David got 3rd.


Given I've never competed before, I'm beyond stoked with how the season turned out. I got way better at driving, made a bunch of great new friends, and after all the effort that goes into committing to a competition series I'm eagerly awaiting round 1 of the 2nd season of the Miata TT Championship.

...time for upgrades to bump my car up to modified class for next year (next post)

 

Quick summary of upgrades currently underway (will detail in subsequent posts):

• Singular Motorsports APR GT-250 wing
• ChathamCNC intake manifold
• ID1050x injectors and FlexFuel sensor
• Whiteline poly bushings
• 900/500 springs up from my current 700/400
• 15x9.5 Konig freeform wheels
• Big splitter with professional awesome racing's quick release mounts
• Sabelt X-Pad seat to replace the Sparco Sprint I've been using
• Soft top delete

And since I didn't want to throw the usual airdam on the car (we already have one on the turbo car, works great, looks ehhhh), back in March I started looking for a front bumper with a lower bottom edge that would be a decent fit to throw a splitter directly underneath. Ideally I wanted one with a decent opening and ducts so I can feed all of my heat exchangers (intercooler, radiator, oil cooler, rotrex cooler).

I really liked the Garage-Hundred-One "Narrow" front bumper, which unfortunately is unobtainium here in the US. I asked a local Japanese parts importer, Get-JPN, if he could order and import one since they don't sell it to any stateside retailer, and he said he could. I placed the order in April. Jakob at Get-JPN is awesome, super communicative and transparent, provided updates on when his buyer in Japan had the part in-hand, when it was loaded into the shipping container, when it arrived stateside, etc. 100% if I ever need another #rare part imported I'll be going with him.

I'm glad I ordered it at the time since it took a couple months for GHO to make it, and then another couple months for the ocean freight to make it here to California. I picked it up Oct 19th:


Now if I'm slow at least I will be out-swagging the competition, which is really what time attack is all about.

Once the manifold is on and I confirm nothing is leaking, I'm going to take it back to Advanced Engine Dynamix to see what the Rotrex will make with the ChathamCNC manifold and E85. Hoping for 200lb/ft of torque (currently flat 185 from 5500-7000rpm), which my guesstimate suggests would be somewhere around 250 to 260whp if it makes it there at all. Regardless, I'll post the results here. Fingers crossed!