yuba

I've never had a build thread for a car or motorcycle, and this isn't really a build so much as a journal so I can keep all of my stuff in one place as I regretted it with my last car. I used to track motorcycles but after a couple of crashes at Arizona Motorsports Park and Thunderhill I decided to give the car thing a try in my 330i ZHP sedan daily driver.

I ran four days in it and ended up buying a 2002 S2000 to serve as a street / track car. After four years owning it I've managed to win a local time attack class season, finish second in points my first half year of TT, set a couple of local TT4 class records, and run about 60 events.
Pretty basic car -- Penske double adjustables, Karcepts bars, OSGiken, SA72R 17x10 with RC1s, Stoptech C43 / Urge brakes, ghetto aero, etc.
2750lb / 196whp avg -- bottom of class TT4.



Anyway, while standing at the crossroads of caging the S2000 and attempting to make actual ST/TT4 class power I came across a Miata on Facebook for sale. Having been over the S2000 math a lot over months I ended up sending a few messages back and forth with the Miata owner, wired some money, and drove out to California to pick it up.





Current parts list is as follows:
Engine:
Built BP4W - base ECU calibration is 220 whp, 220 wtq on 91 octane – hardware capable of 350+
Supermiata/Boundary Engineering blueprinted oil pump with billet gears
Supertech 83.5mm 9.5:1 pistons with Wiseco XX rings
Mazdaspeed intake cam
Ported head
ARP main and head studs
Supertech valve seals
ACL race bearings
Manley forged h-beam connecting rods
Supertech valve spring kit– single spring
Supertech intake valves – stainless, oversize (34mm)
Supertech exhaust valves – stainless, oversize (29mm)
Gates timing belt and water pump
36-2 trigger wheel
Skunk2 64mm throttle body
Oil catch can
Supermiata harmonic damper

Turbo:
Trackspeed Engineering EFR turbo manifold, downpipe, cooling,
Stage 8 inconel locking hardware
EFR 6258 turbocharger
Custom v-band 3” exhaust, 6” magnaflow muffler and downturn behind rear bumper
Custom aluminum intake piping, 2” to intercooler, 2.5” to throttle body

Fuel System:
Deatschwerks DW300 fuel pump on dedicated relay
Braided steel AN lines throughout
Earls 10 micron fuel filter
Flyin Miata dual feed fuel rail
Injector Dynamics ID1000 injectors
Fuelab pressure regulator

Cooling:
Supermiata Q-Max coolant reroute
Supermiata crossflow radiator
Spal cooling fan
Custom fully sealed ducting to front air dam
Hawley Performance water pump inlet
Setrab 19 row oil cooler, mounted under RF headlight, ducted out ahead of RF wheel
Precision 350hp intercooler
Singular Motorsports hood vents

Electronics:
Haltech Elite 1500 ECU
o Calibrations set for 220whp on 91 octane or 300+whp on 100 octane via dash switch
Toyota sequential coil on plug kit
Kill switch
Stripped harness
Factory dash and instrument cluster remains in place and fully functional

Drivetrain:
MSM 6 speed transmission
Supermiata Sport Clutch
10.25lb forged steel flywheel
3.9 Torsen differential
Energy Suspension differential mount bushings

Chassis:
Supermiata Xida Race Gen 2 coilovers
1200F/550R springs, spare 1000lb springs for front
Racing Beat #54106 front sway bar
Mazdaspeed rear sway bar
Supermiata adjustable end links
Energy Suspension urethane control arm bushings
Extended lower ball joints
Mazda Motorsports subframe gussets
15x10 949 Racing 6UL wheels, currently with Maxxis RC-1 tires
Mazda Motorsports front hubs + spares

Aero:
Custom front air dam, sealed to radiator ducting
4” birch ply front splitter, extends to front axle centerline
Singular Motorsports rear wing kit with 64” GT250 carbon wing
Fiberglass hardtop with quick release fasteners
Side mirrors removed, replaced with spot and interior mirrors

Brakes:
Wilwood Superlite front calipers
Wilwood 11.75” HD36 front rotors
Rear sport brakes – functional parking brake
G-Loc brake pads – R18 Front / R10 Rear
Wilwood brake proportioning valve in cabin
Singular Motorsports 3” brake ducts

Safety:
Roll cage by Iron Canyon Motorsports
Window net and center net
Sparco Circuit seat
Lifeline Zero 2000 4.0 liter fire suppression system, 2 nozzles on driver, 2 on engine

My general plan for it is to run TT4 with something like 2400lb / 218whp avg / Toyo RR and fill in to ST based on class counts for contingency. I suspect the car should be fairly competitive locally irrespective of class based on how well the S2000 worked for me and how ridiculous these S1s seem to be.

Obviously being new to Miatas I have a lot of reading ahead of me, but my general parts idea going forward is something like:
Replace cam / crank seals
Billet F/R hubs
Wire in a Flexfuel sensor / Turbosmart dual port WG and tune it on E85 for safety factor
Wire in a CAN keypad to replace the existing switches
Replace the coolant pressure sensor wired to the check engine light with a coolant temp / pressure sensor into the Haltech and build in a combined safety light / failsafe
Replace the splitter with a custom templated Racebred just for looks
Add more heat shielding around the turbo
Supermiata OSGiken
MK60 ABS

So far I've ordered a Circuit II seat, replaced the Stage8 hardware with new so I have spares, bought a spare set of Kai M8 inconel studs, bought some spare Resbond, and fixed the Skunk2 TB that was sticking closed.

Anyway, we will see how this goes. First event is Wild Horse Pass West on Oct 4th, followed by NASA comp school at Arizona Motorsports Park on Oct 10/11. Also have Bondurant Looper scheduled for Nov 7/8 and AMP again on Dec 5th. If I can keep the car together I'll be slotting in some other random days in between, I really want to take this thing to Chuckwalla.

I'll probably also run the NASA BW crossover event in 2021 and I'd run Laguna Seca if there is a Miata day up there next year.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

ST4 let's do eet.

yuba

SOOOON. Need to get it dyno'd before AMP

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Sick car dude! This thing looks to be built to the T with high quality parts. Stoked to hear what you think about it once you get it on the track.

yuba

Thank you, we will find out this weekend.

The more I read on these forums the more I am paranoid about running this thing on pump 91 since it has Supertech 9.5:1 pistons, even though it came from California and was run on pump.

Ignore the fuel content slider, it doesn't have a flex fuel sensor yet and is set to run on the 10% maps.

Anyone have opinions on the below?

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

If it's been racing on pump gas just fine you'll be okay for an event before you can get into UMS and get a flex setup going.

If you want a little more insurance mix in a couple gallons of like 100 octane race gas with the pump 91. It's available at the Love's station across the highway from WHP.

yuba

Good call, I didn't even think about that station being so close to WHP.

yuba

Eight laps into the first session I learned about the ABS ice mode in these cars, unfortunately it cost me in the form of a probable reshell, a new wing, and some track fencing as it happened at the end of the main straight with ****-all runoff. I guess this will be a legitimate build thread going forward.

Cory M

Sorry man

Roda

Well, that sucks.

WH West with ProAuto? Clockwise doesn't have a lot of runoff for the end of the straight...

yuba

Yeah, it was West CW.
Come into the corner, get on the brakes, isn't really slowing like it should be, downshift, (weird pop noise), turn in because what else is there to do, wheel jerks left hard, realize I'm going off left, try to aim the car away from the tire barrier, and that's all she wrote.
So what was it? Not sure yet.

Dr.Sep

will be really curious to hear what you find, dang man that is so unfortunate... big F

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Damn man, so sorry to see this.

Zed.

is it that bad? from the photo looks like some panel-work to repair or is it twisted?

Rich.

yuba

I'm having a friend from my fab shop stop by later today, unfortunately the wing mounts being bolted to the quarters tweaked them around. Also got the front right fender and exploded the front bumper / airdam, no damage to the intercooler or anything though. Car appears straight.

Based on what he says will determine if it gets cut up or everything moved to a new shell.

icantlearn

Damn. Looks fixable. Re-caging/tubbing another shell will be a pain.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

Hey man, I know you already shot me a message about what happened but wanted to post here too. That absolutely ******* sucks. That track run backwards has always freaked me out a little because there is almost NO runoff at the end of the straight in the fastest part. That track always eats cars in the other direction too in the sweeper that runs alongside the hot pit area. My very first track day was at that track and I definitely started to get nervous after like 5 or 6 cars were wadded up on the first day in that sweeper section while I watched in between my HPDE1 sessions and classroom time.

Things to keep in mind if you have anything like that happen in the future, let off and re apply brakes, or the emergency brake is an option to pitch the car sideways in an attempt to slow it, aiming for the longest path off the track or trying to follow the pavement of the course for as long as possible since it provides more traction than dirt. But these things are nearly impossible to remember in the heat of the moment. Just an overall shitty situation when you push the brakes and get such an unexpected result.

If you need help finding parts, I did invite you to a good local FB group for finding stuff but message me first because I may have a few contacts to get very cheap replacement parts from.

If you need help working on the car, reach out because I will help. Honestly it looks like it might be salvageable and parts like fenders and doors are dirt cheap here in AZ. I am seriously looking forward to racing against you in ST4 to see how a turbo BP vs. a naturally aspirated K24 stack up against each other.

If the frame isn't tweaked, I've been doing a lot of sheet metal work lately and maybe we can take on a rear quarter replacement project together. I've got a welder capable of doing it. Or it's possible that it could be pulled by a dent repair specialist. The cost of buying a shell to transfer everything over is pretty low but the cost of putting a cage into the new shell is not. Plus all the time to transfer literally everything to the new car is a huge time suck in itself. You've got my info so just let me know what you find out and I'll help.

Also, props for staying relatively positive with the goal of getting back on the horse. I definitely wouldn't have handled that as well haha.

yuba

Hey Aaron, I appreciate the kind words. It looks like the track unfortunately also claimed at least a Porsche Cayman and a Civic on the same day. I actually have a video from the last NASA event that ran CW, the white Focus ST or whatever that went into the wall there happened right in front of me while I was waiting on grid. That one looked super gnarly since it was faster than I was going and it was a diagonal hit into the tire wall.

Looking back through the video countless times I think what happened is the ABS didn't want to slow the car down as it should, I downshifted at higher speed than intended, the rear probably actually locked up from the downshift to third, so when I turned into the corner the car started sliding left, and I probably came off the brakes (not in AIM data), and got spit back the other way really quick as the car gripped up. Just a bad combination of events, unfamiliarity with the car, shouldn't have brought it to this track, and I should have taken it a lot more easily. Basically my own dumbass fault all the way around.

I can't do anything but be positive, on Saturday I lost my AC unit to the tune of $13k then I did this the next morning after having bought it for $20k a few weeks ago. :lol: Just gotta keep moving forward or I'll lose my ****.

Clearly the car is quick disgustingly quick, I was on a soft 1:05 lap before I stuffed it and I hold the TT4 lap record in my S2000 with a 1:03:304 during a very cool day on sticker RC1s. I compared data with my friend's TT2 Exige and it was pretty even with him accel wise until north of 80mph (Jesus Christ). It seemed to like to be driven a lot differently than my S2000 in that there isn't really a big point in wringing it out revs wise and you need to be much slower on the downshifts otherwise overrev city.

Anyway, this is what the car looked like after unloading it from the trailer:








I took today off work because I was planning to have the car dyno'd, but I ended up taking a hammer to the car instead. I'm no body guy, but I’d like to get the car back to trackable form sooner than later. I’ll grab a new door when one in the right color comes up for sale locally and replace the entire passenger quarter / part of the right quarter during the offseason.

I quickly found out that the car had been hit in the front prior as there was a little bit of work done and the fenders had overspray and general signs of being touched. Frame rails look straight and untouched.

Door is passable, for now.


Popped the bumper out with some heat and pushed the quarter panel out where I could get to it from behind


Radiator support was very slightly twisted and pushed down a bit, also the headlight bucket and wing below it, for lack of a better term, were down quite a bit. Straightened out the fender and fixed the gap. Still need to untwist the piece that mounts to the front lower part of the fender a little bit.


The real pain in my *** is the left quarter, the wing mount pulled it down quite a bit and I have no reference for what the area is supposed to be shaped like since both quarters are fucked. This is a bad area since it appears that three pieces of sheet metal meet, realistically it all needs to be cut out to fix it properly.



This is what I came up with after a couple of hours




It isn’t very great, but at least the tail light fits in, I’ll need to buy another Singular wing to see how much more adjustment I need for now.

It looks like the wheel and upper arm kissed the body a little bit at full compression, I’ll need to get the toe plates out and measure the camber once I get it back on the ground. Nothing looks bent to my eye though.


Anyway, that’s where I am for now.

I need to find:
NB2 headlight, preferably with damage since I just need the lens
NB2 front bumper

Next on the list is :
Fixing the area that the wing mounts on the right side of the car (damnit)
Pulling the right quarter out as much as I can with glue / slide hammer
Cut a new front splitter by making an educated guess with what is left of the old one
Cut up a front bumper and attach plastic for the air dam
Rebuild the plastic intercooler duct and bend the intercooler mount back
Buy another Singular wing since it looks like at least one of the mounts is bent, the wing element is dead, and the endplates went missing

icantlearn

Pulling the right quarter dent out is gonna be very satisfying

maplewood

iTrader: (2)

Glad you're OK and the car is getting fixed up. I didn't get a chance to say hello, but was in your group in a (slow) black NB. I had that stomach dropping feeling as I came around onto the straight and saw a giant cloud of dust at the other end. ProAuto used to run both ways, but stopped doing CCW after losing 3-4 cars in one day from the sweeper near the pits. At least one nasty looking rollover (luckily in a caged track rental), a car went through the fence and almost hit someone on the entrance road coming to spectate (in their Ferrari), and I think that was the day even the go-kart guys got into the fun and got one stuck on top of the tire wall there. I think there was a multi-car collision there too. Unfortunately there's just not much runoff at all. Doesn't help there's a decent bump in the CW end-of-straight braking zone that (at least in my non-ABS car) causes some rear lockup pretty much every lap.

The Cayman ended up alright, a dent or two and some tire marks. He posted video of his incident, was quite a bit more subdued:
Again, glad you're alright and the car is fixable. She was quick! Hoping she's back up and running quick.