I am planning on going efr once I build the engine which may happen within the next year. I live in clearwater, work in carrollwood, and attend grad school at USF so I am all over the place.

 

Hell yeah you are haha, damn man.
What's in Carollwood? I haven't heard of that place-very much.

 

Carollwood has a lot of nice housing for old and rich people. Thats about it. I am an auditor at a small cpa firm there.

 

The track day was a great success! I am now addicted and will be going back to Sebring in October. I only took two pictures and they were right in the beginning of the first day of the opening straight and my car in the garage area of the paddock.





The first session out on the track was incredibly overwhelming and I felt as if I had made little progress by the end. I started in the middle of the grid and almost every other car had 100whp+ advantage on me which caused me to not completely focus on my driving and worry about not holding up traffic. My line was bad, my shifting was bad, and I wasn't sure how fast I should be pushing it because my instructor wanted me to go fairly slow and learn the lines.

After the first session I went to the download meeting and then had 30 minutes to reflect on my performance. I went out to grid for the second session and when I got out on the course everything just started to flow. I was so much more comfortable on the course and pushing the car that I was able to focus on my line and not everything else happening. The rest of the day was spent steadily improving. The car ran very well and had no overheating issues at all on the first day. My instructor on day one was a good guy and seemed to know what he was talking about but we just didn't click.

On the second day I was assigned a new instructor, Charlie, because my first instructor left Saturday night. Charlie and me clicked instantly. On the first lap of the first session out he had me show him the line I was taught on day one and evaluated my skills. Once he started coaching me everything just seemed to come together. I was no longer being passed by anyone on the course except for the 750whp mustang, GTR, and the R8... not that I was passing everyone else either but I was holding my own and making a few passes.

The first two sessions went incredibly well and Charlie was actually pretty impressed with how well I was doing for someone with no performance driving experience of any kind. We had noticed that the sidewall felt like it was flexing on the rivals when I was running 32psi hot temps so we upped it to 36psi hot for the third session.

Charlie started teaching me a much more aggressive line from the school line because I was making good progress and the tires were gripping a lot better now. The new line for turn 17 threw me off and I was having trouble getting it right, on one lap I came in too hot and then turned in too slow and had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the back wall :(. I also started having a heat problem 3 laps in to the third session because it was super hot out and I was pushing the car harder. I started taking it easy and focusing on the line.

Charlie took me out in his s2000 to show me how he drives 17 and a few other turns to clarify some other parts of the course. When we came back for the last session I nailed the line for the entire track perfectly 4 times in a row. It got to the point that Charlie was just sitting next to me clapping and laughing because I was so on point that session. I was pretty proud of myself but I won't let it go to my head because I still have loads and loads to learn but it was definitely a great success for my first weekend. I will be working with Charlie again next time I go.

So that track session really changed my priorities with the car and I will be suspending all power mods until I have completed all safety and reliability mods. Before October I want to have proper radiator ducting, seats, harnesses, and the new springs and sleeves I've got installed on the car. From there I will probably replace my radiator, install an oil cooler, and a reroute. I want to be able to push the car as hard as possible on the track without worrying about it failing. The rest of my money will be spent on seat time.

 

Cool writeup man, makes me itch for some track time. Good call on focusing on reliability over performance, that's a crucial step many of us mess up on when building turbo street cars.

 

Great to hear your first experience was a positive one. It's more fun spending money on the instant gratification of power mods, but reliability and safety stuff should definitely take priority.

I am dropping my car off tomorrow to wrap up a few things and should be ready for some more seat time. There is a PCA Roebling event in October as well. I'll have to check the dates and see if I can do both or will have to choose one.

 

Sounds like you guys had a good time out there. I know it was probably hotter there than it was in Tampa, and it was hot in Tampa that weekend.

 

Saw you coming on base while I was leaving them again while I was coming on base with your girl?Looking really good man, I want a hardtop for mine.

 

You sure you saw me? I don't go on base, I'm not military. I am also currently single. I think there is atleast one other black mica msm in the area.

 

Haha yeah it wasn't you it was a white miata (FrankB) hahaha My bad.

 

Haha, wrong again... I have a titanium grey miata and its currently in Gulfport, MS. I have also been in Norfolk, VA for two past two weeks..

 

Strike 2.

 

Well **** fellas!
It's one mean looking white NB.

 

Awesome, cant wait till im done with school to buy real suspension and do some track days at Sebring. Koni yellows with 450/300 makes organs hurt. XiDA.......i needs

 

Got a great deal on a complete 01' VVT motor that I will be fully building in my spare time. That is all....

 

Hey Ryan, are you still stock turbo? Would you mind sharing with me your current tune? Do you change back and forth for cold/warm weather?

 

I am still on the stock turbo. I only have one tune for cold and hot weather. I will give you my tune but I will add the disclaimer that all motors are different and don't just run my tune on your car. I also have yet to completely dial in my idle with A/C on.

 

I think a good idle, coast back down to idle, stop and go traffic all with A/C is a pipe dream with our ECUs.

Mazduh. I recently spoke to Reverant about the hot/cold issues. He gave me his most recent MAT correction table that he uses. It's much different that the one that came with the computer and seems to have helped some.

Which would look like this. Sorry for spamming your thread Ryan.

 

So I picked up my new engine today.





It is currently sitting in my apartment living room. Why? BECAUSE BACHELOR...I also have no garage. I will be doing all of the cleaning and diassembly/assembly in my apartment with a drop cloth/tarp underneath it like a boss. I will layout my exact build plan soon.

 

Bring it to Plant City.