I'm sure I did Richard. But even so, I very much would expect 949 to stand behind their product. Obviously this was a failure of build quality.

Btabor, great point. That does seem very likely.

 

Contact us

 

That is a great thinking cap response. However, I must not have effectively explained the order of operations and how the evidence presented itself.

1.) cooling capacity found to be acceptable during upper 70's ambient temp [195F coolant]
2.) cooling capacity found to be marginal during mid 80's ambient temp [205F and rising slowly]
3.) cooling capacity found to be unacceptable during 90 degree ambient temp and 120 deg F track temp [215F and rising rapidly down the straightaway, requiring a full cool-down lap to be at 190F]
4.) about 6 more heat cycles at hot ambient temp
5.) got the car home [143 mile drive], parked it in the garage, unpacked.
6.) 30 minutes -ish later *then* the radiator broke and made a puddle on the garage floor. Found broken brazing.


So, while I totally agree that a failed radiator would impact the cooling capacity due to the lowered boiling point, there was no evidence of mechanical failure at the track or on the drive home. The two situations appeared to be sequential and I'm not sure they were strictly correlated.


Also, email sent to Emilio.

 

Thanks. I don't keep track of lap times, I'm just out there to run clean laps that feel good, and to make sure I'm just slightly quicker than my track buddies. Join me for a track day next year

 

Makes sense! I did one open track day and one time trials at Waterford in September this year. Hope to see you out there next year!

 

But how do you measure yourself against other golfers?

 

But how do you measure yourself against other ********?

I mean, do you deliberately do this, or is it an innate talent? You can make some really abrasive, fucktard comments.

If your post was meant to be satire, tongue-in-cheek, friendly good humor, then I'll go ahead and apologize right now. But that's not how I read it, and I imagine it's not how a lot of others read it as well.

 

It's from Caddieshack (the movie).

One of the characters (Judge Schmells (sp?)), can't comprehend how one of the other characters (Chevy Chase) can play golf and not keep score. It's a hilarious back and forth from a hilarious movie.

Track day people and racers most often fall into the same thinking, how can you possibly not keep score? How do you measure yourself as a race car driver guy if you don't have times to compare.

Honestly and truthfully, it was meant as friendly good humor. It's actually refreshing to hear that someone (Ryephile) can enjoy driving on track and not have to worry about lap times, much the same way that Chevy's character can enjoy playing golf and not need to keep score.

I fall into the previous thinking, and unfortunately can't enjoy myself on track without racing against someone or something. It's an unfortunate disease.


No offense, I know I come off as a d*ck sometimes (most times?), but was just trying to have a little movie reference joke.

Cheers

 

That was a good reference that I totally missed.


[

 

LOL, I got the reference. As you noted, Chevy Chase's character was also the only player on the green that enjoyed simply playing the game.


On another note, I must say I don't mind being proven wrong when it's legitimate. Emilio stepped up his game and not only offered me a refund on the Supermiata radiator, but also emailed me a FedEx label to return the radiator so he can learn from it. I'll admit, I'm impressed. Thanks Emilio.

 

That is SOP

 

ryephile, have you had some kind of bad experience with 949 in the past that would lead you to believe they WOULDN'T make it right?

 

^ This


I think Mobious thought I was trying to make a joke or trying to knock 949 earlier in this thread. I was well and truly just confused.

 

I mean, he just posted that it failed, wasn't up to snuff, and that he didn't expect them to stand behind their product. Seems like that'd have to come from a prior bad experience, rather than just assuming the worst from a vendor.

Either way, glad you found a solution.

 

Just FYI, that Springfield radiator you replaced the SPM unit with is notorious in the Spec Miata world for randomly popping core leaks. Most racers with an SD rad in the car keep a spare in the trailer as well. Watch yours very, very closely.

 

It's less common that aftermarket vendors give two squirts about their rep or aftersales. If a few along the way want to raise the bar, I'm OK with that. No need to read into it further.



As for the SD being notorious, I'm aware. It's also common that those that have failures with them notoriously mis-install them.

How is yours different, given you have what appears to be a competitive product?

 

"I do not expect 949 to stand behind their product"
vs
"I do not expect any vendor to stand behind their product"


"Emilio stepped up his game and not only offered me a refund.."
vs
"Emilio stepped up the game and not only offered me a refund.."

As you posted it verbatim, there is only one way to read into it. I'm sorry the radiator didn't work for you.

 

Finally got Blackbird Fabworx's "all function, no form" spoiler installed. It's certainly rough-style like a Rocket Bunny, but the directions were spot-on with their measurements. I won't have any A/B lap times, but doing some Interstate blasts it does appear to make the car more stable at higher speeds in a similar but less pronounced way to when I installed an improved diffuser on my Exige S. That right there is more positive than I expected, so thumbs-up to Moti.

IMG_7492.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr

IMG_7498.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr

IMG_7503.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr

IMG_7504.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr


The not-so-hot news is it feels like the ACT 6-puck clutch is starting to already give out. It's not slipping, but the engagement slip is becoming less and less consistent [you can get one quality engagement out of it when it's stone-cold, but after that it's a looser cannon than Sterling Archer], not to mention it's generally terrible for street driving, or anytime you have to engage 1st, or reverse. It also honks like an elephant in mating season. Definitely the worst clutch I've ever owned.

 

I owned an HD 6-puck setup in 07-08 because I wanted the light pedal, but it was never a very nice clutch to drive every day. For my '02SE, I did an XT with a full-face organic sprung disc this time around and I am much happier. Same torque capacity and much more streetable, and if you aren't a huge wimp, the pedal pressure is a non-issue. I DD mine in stop and go traffic all the time and it's fine.

 

I just finished flashing my MS3 Basic to the latest firmware 1.4.1 beta 2. All the settings ported back over really easy, but in the long term I'd like to get the new Percent Baro calculation to work, it's on "old mode" right now so my current tune works. Did a short drive with open loop boost and so far so good. I look forward to re-doing the CL boost controller, as that part of the firmware in 1.3.4 had plenty of room for improvement.