Congrats!

Being able to trailer your car to the track changes everything!

 

Thank you! And yes it will be awesome. I can also travel further as well!

 

Yo, congrats dude! I’m gonna echo exactly what Roda said, the trailer is a game changer. Even if your car is worry-free, you’ll be a hero forever if one of your buddies needs a tow home after a track day.

Sounds like you’ve got some fun projects on the horizon. Stoked to see what else you do to Scooter over the Winter.

 

Thanks Zak. Hopefully Scooter continues being as reliable as it has been these past couple of years but it will be great to not have to worry about getting back home if something happens.

I need to find some motivation to start wrenching on all the cars in this cold weather. Every one of them needs something, but nothing serious and for once in a long time all my cars run well, even the Stealth haha.

​​​​​@Z_WAAAAAZ you asked me to let you know if anything changed after the magic date. I'm happy to report life is good and nothing has changed . How are preparations for your wedding coming along?

 

Yeah, I was thinking maybe I shouldn't have mentioned anything about reliability at all. Seems like all of your vehicles have been treating you pretty well recently haha.

And nice man, congrats on tying the knot! We're not going to be worrying about the wedding until Summer 2026, actually. My fiance's brother is getting married this coming Summer and didn't want us "stealing their thunder" lol. We did just book a trip to Hawaii in April as a temporary celebration for the two of us, though! Things are good

 

Haven't worked on Scooter the past few weeks, but I've driven it to work and around the mountains a fair amount. Swapped to the open air filter for fun and got some really good chuckles with the noises I had forgotten it made haha.

I did find a small issue while swapping to the street tires...


That's not an OEM groove


Who's there?


This is the fuse box bracket inside the engine bay


At least it's not a rod

A bit of a bummer since these seemed to have a few more trackdays to go, but I'll take this as my chance to move to 225 tires and use the 9" 6ULs I got from Nate. I'm considering the new Falken RT660+ this time (Tire rack shows they'll be in stock soon), otherwise the older RT660. A lot of people like them so I'll give them a shot.

I replaced the long bolt with a smaller one that doesn't stick far into the wheel well, but based on the rubbing marks, I suppose I need to raise the front a little. I will be installing sphericals from Flyin' Miata and SuperMiata CHUBs next month, and that will be a good time to mess with ride height again. I'm excited to see what difference those mods make.

 

BTDT. Had the same issue not long after I started running the R-specs, back in the day. Played around with ride height a bit, and after changing back to road tyres wondered about the groove, and lookee, it is only on one side!?! Changed out the bolts, I don't remember if mine were bent. Interesting, my groove was much neater than yours, it was only when I noticed it on one tyre not the other, then looked at the others, that I realised something was wrong - the groove itself was relatively neat and clean, not quite factory but close enough not to be obviously out of place.

 

Yikes... pretty sure that's not the original bolt for that location.

I've been looking at the RT660+, but I think I'm going to spring for a set of the CR-S V2. The older RT660 has developed a bit of a rep for delamination. The speculation is that the RT660+ is supposed to remedy the issue, but I decided to wait a bit and see what happens...

 

Damn, you must be cornering hard if the fuse box doesn’t want to stay in place like that!

Bummer, but glad you caught it. Had the same thing happen on my NA and cut a groove down to the cords after one track day. Funny thing is, the bolt sticking into my wheel well wasn’t even holding anything in place in the engine bay. That poor poor RT660 that got filleted for no reason…

Cant wait to hear about the sphericals! I actually don't think I’ve ever seen a post or writeup regarding that install.

 

ooofff. Glad I'm not the only one that has put a new rain groove in a tire.

Either not the stock bolt, or there used to be another bracket that is now gone. I certainly don't recall touching that bolt before.

I have read about that in some other forums, but assumed it was more an issue with longer stints? Have you had that happen with them? The local spec Miatas use the RT660 exclusively and they run 20-25 minute stints. For our timeattack we run much less than that, maybe 6-8 minutes top, so I'm hoping that helps them live longer. The CR-S V2 does seem to be the fastest tire at the moment, I will keep an eye out for your experience with it.

Ha! I'll take that as a complement. Watching the videos I think I can hear the rubbage in T1 and T14 at Suika Circuit. Very scary because if the tire had let go I would have gone into a tire or concrete wall at speed.

Again, glad I'm not the only one putting rain grooves in tires haha.

Hmmm, maybe I should try to document the process. The manufacturer and FM did post an instructional video of the install on youtube and google drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wv3...ACugOkRkv/view . I've ridden a good amount in a Miata with sphericals so I know what to expect as far as NVH, but not sure how much more directness I will get over the bronze bearings. The suspension should have less resistance and feel nicer though, and I'm excited to not have to grease bushings twice a year, and hopefully fix that odd play that shows up once in a while.

 

I have not run the RT660s myself, just seen discussion of the issue on GRM. There is a K24 swapped NB here in AZ running them in 245 and he hasn't had problems, FWIW.

 

Noted, and that's good to know. I think I'll try them this year in that case.

 

I have run 2 sets of RT660's and haven't had any issues with delamination, but I do know a few people in our autoX club who have had them delaminate. It seems to happen right away or not at all. I've seen some theories about how to prevent it, but I don't put much stock in those. I assume it's just an issue with the manufacturing process and you roll the dice a bit on if your set will experience that. Similar to what Roda said though, I believe that is one of the things the RT660+ is supposed to remedy. I know a lot more people who run them without issues than people who have suffered from delamination.

I think they're a good bang for the buck, and they seem to usually be on sale in late Feb/early March. I will likely be going to a Nankang or a Vitour this season though as those seem to have better overall grip.

 

I've run 2 sets of the 660's, first in 225 flavour, now in 245. Both were driven, often overdriven (and overheated) and held together fine. I got way more life out of my 660's vs the v730. That's my experience, YMMV!

 

Thank you both for chiming in. @SimBa I'll be in the lookout for your update on the Nankangs too.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but a couple of weeks ago I left the car outside in a sub 30F degree night (low was around 25F) to test the cold start with the Antigravity battery, and it was drama-free with normal cranking speed. Another Miata friend had the same experience with his Antigravity the same day, and his car had been outside for a few days. I then datalogged a cold-start when it was 34F to see what it showed, and it was noticeable that the battery suffered a little. These tend to rest around 13V, and it was at 12.6V before I started cranking. It stayed around 8.5-9.0V during cranking, and went up to 14V once the engine started and alternator kicked in. I've started it in cold weather many other times too (~40F), but 25F has been the coldest I've tried so far. I'm not planning to drive the car in anything colder, but if I had to it'll probably be fine a few times.

 

I'll second this. Think I've run through about 5 sets of RT660s (225s and 245s) and had three tires delaminate total. All of the delaminated ones started to do so partway into their first track day. I've heard a couple accounts that they tend to delaminate more if they're underinflated, but can't confirm this either. Our tool truck guy fields a couple track-only time attack STI's on RT660s and says they'll run into delamination issues as soon as they drop pressures under 26psi cold. Don't know what size they're running or whether this is rooted in science, though.

Also seconding Nate here. The RT660s seemed to last a decent bit longer for me than the V730's, although the 730's don't lose almost any pace until they're down to the cords!

I only ran RT660's on my turbo car but always questioned how quickly they'd overheat on a N/A Miata, especially in short sessions like you guys generally run. I'd imagine tire fade with RT660's in your car over a 6-8 minute session would be next to inconsequential.

 

Thanks for that information @Z_WAAAAAZ ! Interesting about the pressures: 26psi cold sounds high for what I'm used to running, but I'll keep that in mind. Normally my car felt best around 26-28psi hot, so around 22-23psi cold with the V730 (I wasn't brave enough to try 20psi cold). Of course, that all depends on track conditions and suspension. The RT660 may be completely different than the V730 for all I know. And you're right about the tire wear and fade. Scooter seems to be somewhat easy on tires with N/A power and reasonable weight. Too bad I didn't get to see how long I could make the V730s last naturally.

I'm getting a very bad itch to go racing at the end of the month, so I'm planning to borrow a set of 225/45/15 wheels/tires from my friend and go test the new-to-me Garmin Catalyst! We'll see if I can find some motivation to get the car ready by the 25th. Motivation has been a lacking resource as of late with the snow and cold weather.

 

Agreed on the v730's which is also kinda the scary thing about them. On my last set I didn't realize they were so close to cording because they were FAST still, and they don't have great wear indicators once you wear out the initial super shallow outside grooves. So even though I checked them before going out they corded while I was out doing a T/A session which resulted in the car getting pretty sketchy. When I came in and saw the cords it was clear what happened.

I agree on 660's overheating. I find by the 3rd full tilt hotlap they are already starting to get too hot for optimal performance. They really like going fast out the outlap though, would be great for autox. And work well for T/A, but would be a bad choice for longer sessions - at least on my turbo car with my hamfisted driving. I've had much better luck after dropping pressures to ~24 cold, they don't overheat as fast - though in that scenario they actually sucked on the outlap until I got heat into them.

 

Ricardo, I was thinking the same thing on pressures. 26psi seems super up there, but I'm really only familiar with Miata wheel/tire combos haha. I'm in the same-ish boat as you. I've found ~21psi cold nets 26-27psi hot on my setup now. Took a while to get the courage to keep dropping cold pressures that low lol.

You're gonna have to let us know how the Catalyst works for you! I'm split between grabbing one of those this year or an Aim Solo 2 DL. Some of the guys on here recommended the Solo over the Catalyst but the Catalyst seems like the easy button (I.E. not having to upload data to your laptop to view between sessions).

I had the same thing with the V730's happen to me that Nate did, lol. Was out at Chuckwalla a couple years ago in my NA. I was running under a second off of my PB during the last couple sessions, then pulled off the track to find that both of my front tires were on threads haha. I was even more of a rookie at that time but was still surprised I didn't notice any performance drop-off.

Looking forward to hearing the upcoming race report!

 

Thanks for all of that information.

I was also divided between the Solo 2 DL and the Garmin, and ultimately chose the Garmin because of the ease of video review right after a session. AIM has much more capability and wider range of uses (can record AutoX and Hill Climb), but I think the Garmin fits my current needs better.

I'll let you know how it goes!