Aha! That's good to know, thank you for bringing that up. Goes to show setup is always a major factor. I'll keep looking at this and see what happens.

After your latest updates about the CR-S, I have high expectations

 

@Roda I just watched their update on the RT660+ with the Falken rep and they were running 1.9* front camber and 2.1* rear? That seems super low. I did see your comment on their older video where you discussed setup, and I agree with you. My car also likes much higher camber than they were running, currently around 2.8* front and 2.5 rear IIRC.

 

They're definitely running an oddball setup... as you saw in the comments, they say it works for them, but I have to wonder if they've tried the more typical Miata setups with ~.5deg more negative in the front than the rear. You'd think too little camber would bite them on tire wear in an endurance race, but I don't claim to know anything about endurance racing??

 

I haven’t worked on the car at all, but haven’t been idle either.

Got the Nankangs mounted on the 6UL. My my do they look the part.


Much excite


Fluff butt playing in the snow

Bought these ramps off eBay for $190 (!!). They look to be very good quality, and weight nothing compared to the steel ones. They also fit perfectly in the truck bed.


New chinesium ramps

May need to make a step between ramps and trailer deck

I had someone question Scooter’s weight and whether it was legit in the class I run it. They’ve also started bringing scales to the track to do random checks. To avoid embarrassment I decided to put it on the scales again since I removed a few more things.

The gas needle is beyond the E mark after the last track day. First pic is no driver, second picture is with driver+helmet+hans


Weight with fumes in the gas tank and no driver


Weight with my thiccness and no fuel

I’m happy with that! To be class legal the race weight/whp has to be greater than 18. Assuming it’s making 130whp then I’m still 30lbs away from the next class with no fuel. Adding fuel I have more margin. I did notice it’s 52-53% front heavy but that should drop to 51% with fuel I would expect. I’ll rescale it again once I put fuel and change the wheels to 6ULs.

I finally saw the results from last event and I did get 1st in class! Next trackday is May 3rd and I’m very excited to try these Nankangs.

 

That's a good lookin' set of wheels and tires! Remind me, these are 15x9 & 225s?

Real respectable weight too, nice!

Looking forward to more event reports from you guys soon now that the weather is getting more favorable!

 

Yep, 15x9 225s.

Thanks. I’m happy with the weight for now, but still would like to find another 20-30 lbs somehow. I also realized I can’t trust the cross weight in my garage because it’s far from level. Will have to use my friend’s shop.

 

Jealous of that weight. 2330 with driver is the minimum for my class. Pretty sure I could get there if I wanted to, but can't quite commit to going full racecar yet. FWIW I'm around 2350 without driver.

 

Thanks. Due to my "post-throttle body" modifications, the car is also in XB with the 2330 minimum weight, so that's what I'm targeting.

It's only a matter of time until you give up and gut it all out haha. There was a time I refused to get rid of AC and power steering.....but this is the way.

 

I'm jealous of the weight too, I think, at least. Need to weigh my car (and Ricardo has the technology), but I estimate mine closer to 2400lbs.

 

I'm so close. In the summer the car runs hot enough that AC will cause it to overheat to the point that AC will kick off due to temp protections, so it's kinda pointless anyway. I remember saying I'd pull AC after last summer, but couldn't quite do it. We'll see how things are looking in July.

 

I was on the fence about pulling AC for a long time as well but after a couple years without it, I've forgotten it was ever there in my Miata.

The key is to pull your AC at the beginning of Fall so that you don't immediately regret the decision lol.

 

You're getting a cat for that.

 

Did the usual checks on the car today and swapped the wheels and tires. I’m very excited to see how these behave. But I’ll be honest, I’m not thrilled with how shiny these look on my car. Nate’s car rocked these super well, but they’ll have to grow on me for a while, or I’ll have them powder coated a darker hue.


A bit too shiny for my taste



Using the new ramps was a thing of beauty. Didn’t drive the truck on plastic ramps like before and the car went up with no hassle, but then heard a bit of crunch. Thinking that a ramp was falling, I glossed it and got it done. Later found it was the frame rail dragging in the dovetail.


Frame rails smashed this vein

No biggie. Will put the truck on ramps like I used to before and bring some wood in case I need extra help.

While I had the wheels and tires off I decided to weigh them too. The black Konigs with Acceleras came in at 31.6lbs. 6ULs+Nankangs, 35lbs. A bit bummed about that but the grip will make up for it.

I also weighted the Jongbloed+Acceleras I use in the street and those came in at 31.6lbs too.

Trackdaaaaaaay here we come.

 

Does your trailer hitch not have a jack? Just have a piece of 4x4 handy and crank it up an inch or two, that’s all it’ll take.

 

It does, but I wasn’t sure if it would be sturdy enough for the job? I’m happy to give it a shot!

 

We do it on our single car enclosed trailer all the time. 1-2 inches higher really helps the tailgate angle, especially with race ramps.

 

Cheater car!

 

haha you know how to hurt feelings.

Nate got ahead of me here, but turns out orange lug nuts are faster than silver lug nuts and I got reffed due to "questionable performance".


Thank you Nate for this pic

Jokes aside, the car was amazing with the Nankangs yesterday. It felt responsive, with levels of grip I had not felt before. Had the shocks about 12 clicks from soft and it was perfect. The only slight deficiency are the brakes starting to get softer and that might be because pads need to be replaced.

A quick recap, first session I set a 1:33.6 with a slippery track and learning the tires. Set them at 25psi cold to start. Second session were consistent 1:32s starting with 24psi lukewarm tires, and third session was also consistent 1:32s once the rev limiter increased (cool oil), this time with 0.5psi less pressure on the right side of the car. The tires stayed warm from one session to the next so not a lot of warmup needed, only had to warm the brakes some. There is still more time in the car. Probably a second a half more. I made a few mistakes still and was also playing with keeping 3rd gear in T3/4 as @BenR told
me and different lines in T6. If I can put it all together I bet it'll be low 1:31s. Regardless I'm ecstatic with it right now, and would be happy if I don't go any faster.


Second session of the day after dialing in pressures and gaining trust with the tires


third session. Lap 1 was with a lower rev limiter and lifting early.

Here is a video of the third session and a clip of a brown pants moment at the end.



On the fourth session I went out with Nate as passenger for fun and also chasing our friend Brian in his NC. We hit traffic after the first hot lap and once he let us by I was on another good 1:33x lap. Once I got to the second hairpin I smashed the brake as usual but this time I found the floor instead! I missed the pedal completely 😂 and nervous laughter ensued after that. Quite the thrill haha.

The wheel color is growing on me, especially with this new performance. Here are some pics.

 

thanks curly. I didn't use the jack this time but will try next time. Truthfully I was afraid of hurting my back further by using the jack. I’ve been having some trouble as of late.

 

Another thing I played with was having the Catalyst AI whisper sweet nothings in my ear. I paired the tablet to my AirPods, set the AirPod to noise cancellation in one ear and left the other off to hear the car. It worked perfectly with no delay, and there is a setting to set a delay if the Bluetooth is slow. It was awesome hearing her say "next left, brake less", "next right, carry more speed", "best yet", "1:32.64" . It was great, although of limited use in our time attack format.

One of the guys that races vintage offered to let me drive with them in their longer sessions which I'm very intrigued for. Their cars and Scooter are similarly paced (sub 2L Alfas and Datsuns). They do not like trading paint given how hard it is to find parts for their cars, so I'll consider it for next year.