Sounds like the old run wd40 as wheel bearing grease to qualify faster SM trick.

I went looking/asking around!



Last comment of "mitigation with fluid" refers to that method I mentioned.

My intention when passing this info on to Marcus, was to remedy a wheel spinning, internally slicked up, old Torsen. The DN alcohol, ATF and refill has a specific procedure and is only done as a last resort; not as a way to turn a Torsen into an OSGiken.

The Miata Torsen does have two critical thrust wsshers which function like clutches.

Titan completed it's maiden voyage to CMP and back! I borrowed a buddy's trailer and it's 100x better than sitting in the rattle-box for hours and hours.

Attachment 233939


The miata also stayed together! It definitely felt different than before, much less mid-turn push, and I got it to rotate on throttle a few times where I normally could not(because of pushing).

Attachment 233940

The tires were around 20 heat-cycles and by Sunday morning they felt pretty bad. CMP is notorious to be hard on tires and not have much grip in the first place, so I'm only taking what the car was doing wrong with a grain of salt. I should of gambled and put stickers on for the weekend, ended up 3rd on Saturday, 2nd on Sunday, top 3 were within about a half a second of each other. I feel like my normal competition stepped up their game too, last time I was at CMP running about 6-8/10ths faster than this weekend I was a solid 1.5-2 seconds ahead of them. Though, in reality it was a mixture of..... competition going faster, I drove like poo, my tires were worn out, and I'm still being timid in a few places. The wreck in the Z still seems to linger, so I'm working my confidence back up and it does seem to be getting better after every session.


Here's some video, pretty uneventful though, wasn't driving all that hard, but I'd like to have it on here for my "car diary". First lap is a 1:54 something, second lap is a 1:52.7xx which was my fastest of the weekend. My PB is 1:51.9xx.


It's fairly obvious where I was going slower vs my PB and where I'm losing time all together. Little improvements everywhere, but the elements that stand out for me are:
-Too much lift for T3.
-Dive into T5 faster, trail it out to the edge some more.
-Too tight in "T6" which is in the middle of the carousel.
-Brake later in T8.
-Over-slowing and getting on the throttle too late in T11.
-Brake later in T14.
Attachment 233941



As I was gathering everything together for the weekend, I quickly realized I lost my communicator. Johnny at OGRacing came through and let me borrow one for the weekend, so a big big thanks to him. I know my student and I both appreciated having it, lol. I've already received my new communicator and it's going in the special bag with other track essentials(the first place I looked for it when I lost it)

I have enjoyed reading through your build. I almost had my car ready for the CMP event, but didn't make it. I'm hoping to get out to Road Atlanta next month. It's nice to follow someone local to the SE region to help me get familiar with the tracks. I've got a lot to learn.

Thanks! CMP is actually pretty damn hard on cars. Eats tires faster than any other track, hard on brakes, but it does have it's mix of elements.

I'll be at Road Atlanta next month as well, putting stickers on for that event and hopefully keep the e30 and sentra that are all around the same time behind me! If you see me around feel free to holler! Will you be in DE1,2,3, or 4 or maybe TT?

Man, the more I do this the more I realize there's ALWAYS so much to learn.

Oh, I'm a total noob. This'll be my first year so it'll be a slow upbringing from HPDE1, and I'm sure I'll get addicted enough to move into TT later on. I absolutely have a ton to learn. Have been doing a lot of reading and research lately. I'll definitely hit you up at Road Atlanta to check out your setup etc.

turn 14 your good at. i wouldn't enter that any faster.
turn 8 you're using my braking marker. you're losing a ton of speed there.

PS sweet gloves/wheel ;)

Ah gotcha, well I'm more than willing to be your instructor for DE1 if you want. PM me your name and I'll let Laura know to set it up.

Yeah, I need to be braking past the 3 or the lil messed up pavement coming into T8.

PS you got any of them cool fuel jugs? I realized I need multiple jugs when I had to add 4+ gallons of fuel to two different cars......only to gain 95lbs after the scales were "fixed". :vash:

yep got plenty of them. the Square jug is nice. easier to strap down and takes up less room than the round ones. Use your Instructor discount.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4c01e0796a.png

How's the prep coming along for RRR?

I did a handful of things before RRR.

-Singular Motorsports louvers.
-MiataRoadster shifter
-Carbing shift knob (street credz yo)
-Mounted fresh set of R7s

The install on these louvers isn't horrible. They look cool, but the decreased air pressure in the engine bay was the biggest allure for me. I snagged them bnib from a FB page.
Attachment 233935

Forgive the shitty pic...... this shifter lives up to all it's hype. I basically planned this purchase out for when I needed to "rebuild" my shifter. So new boot, new bushings, etc. 10/10 would recommend. The delrin Carbing shift-knob is surprisingly useful too. The rough imprinted area makes it easy to grab, doesn't get too hot nor too cold.
Attachment 233936

Also, I apparently shift WAY too hard. The bronze bushing I put in years back was hammered against the turret. We won't mention how I got it out, but the picture can tell the story.
Attachment 233937


The car did great at Roebling! My buddy James was having issues with his M3 again so we did a Car Ram Rod entry again. Scroll up to my Barber post if you need a reminder that he's an alien-type driver.
Attachment 233938

I didn't do as well I wanted to. I think I have some sort of mental block from the wreck that is causing me to suck. Only ran a 1:23.7xx, which is a second off my PB. I did it on my first session of the weekend, 11AM-ish session. Afternoon session I struggled to get low 25s, but the track was baked. Sunday morning session I went out around 10ish and clipped out a couple unofficial high 23s, low 24s. TT session from Sunday was around 11am again, but barely managed a high 24. I think at that point I was over thinking a lot of things, which lead to messing up simple tasks like the correct line.

For my "diary" I'll post my session from Saturday morning. I got a new suit too! OMP First Evo, this was actually my first experience driving with a suit. It wasn't horrible, but the temps didn't really get over 80*


I will say, the new changes have made a difference, BUT for whatever reason....I can't get over how the car will feel like it's about to push, at least how it use to feel on the older setup before it was about to terminally push. After this feeling I realize that it's not going to push and I could of thrown more steering angle at the wheel, but it's a little late by this point. I don't know why the car feels that way, maybe a mixture of the higher spring rate and the big jump in camber? The feeling is mostly at turn-in and right before the car takes a set. It's probably all in my head :rofl:


James clipped off a couple of crazy laps over the weekend, resetting the TTE record at Roebling. Old record was a 1:22.6xx, James managed a 1:22.2xx during an early afternoon session, 65*, not much cloud cover. Then on Sunday morning he managed a 1:21.7xx and a 1:21.9xx, then..... he went off, DOH!


Some pretty damn good driving.....he really just needs to ditch the M3 and buy a miata. :party:



Next event is at CMP again, May 5-7. I'm planning on getting another set of 15x9s so I can have scrub R7s, newer R7s, and the RS3s. Do the morning sessions on the newer R7s, then get some seat time on the scrub R7s in the afternoon. It's apparent I need all the seat time I can get to shake off that damn sub-conscious fear and gain my old confidence back.

Back from another weekend at CMP. Towed down there with my new trailer... 18ft, wood, tire rack, little tool-box, 09 model with new hub, bearings, brakes, and tires last fall. Seems to be a good purchase thus far.
Attachment 233930

Before the weekend I finally remove my SRS airbag light! This helps with my A.D. squirrel! D.
Attachment 233931



I got back down to a new PB.... just barely. Another 1:51.953, previous was 1:51.984. This was actually Saturday morning second session. Several mistakes and I could of driven in deeper into the fast turn before the back straight. Probably a few tenths in that turn alone. It is nice to be back towards my old pace, pre-wreck. So confidence is coming back. Squeezed by Sandro in the TTE E30 in this session by a tenth, I think he got DQ'd for something that session though. Sunday morning was great conditions to go faster, but I couldn't get focused for some reason..... rushing to the track, scrambling to get the gear and car ready, etc. I didn't even crack into 1:52s that session, but I was able to run mid 52s the 2nd session Sunday, which was a few hours afterwards, once I chilled out for a bit.




Overall it was a fun weekend. I went down with a few friends, including my buddy's e30 which developed a weird misfire issue mid-day Saturday. So we rolled over to SE30s for help.... they obliged with offers of $200-$300 for the entire car :rofl: They actually seriously helped, this picture and caption is spot on for SE30......the owner of that 458 runs SE30.
Attachment 233932


And the culprit for the miss fire! Silly rocker arms, what is all this non-sense?! He snagged an extra rocker arm from SE30 fellas, punched two holes in his firewall, and swapped it out Saturday night/ Sunday morning.
Attachment 233933


That 458 Italia is a gorgeous car though......
Attachment 233934



If anyone still reads my thread, tips on going faster at CMP is appreciated :party:


Heading to Road Atlanta next month hopefully with positive results as well!

Hrmmm, what do I do with all these weird looking pipes?!

Attachment 233929

You make a torque or two.

Boig header?!?

Nah it's a Stahl.

Loud pipes save lives, or something like that.

Went to Road Atlanta this weekend for the June Jam. Weather looked troublesome at first, but turned out clear skys all weekend until Sunday afternoon. I really wish there was more cloud cover for the weekend, though. It was blazing ass hot because of the sun, which lead to slower than usual lap-times for everyone. Since my car isn't ideal for Road Atlanta I put on new tires for the event, honestly with my fingers crossed that 4 other ppl would show up so I would even have a chance at contingency.

During the practice session I was really timid mostly because it was my first time back to the track since my wreck there last Aug. Though on my 3rd lap I managed to put down a pretty easy 1:44.9xx, which was extremely encouraging. The rest of Saturday I couldn't reproduce that time, laptimer indicated I lost ~0.400 sec from T5-T6 and then another ~0.500 sec from T7-T10. I guess the heat ate 1-2 desperately needed HP. Only managed a 1:45.7xx on the 2nd session of Saturday, with the usual competiton in the 47s, so it looks like the heat was hurting everyone. Luke(Efini) mentions he might put the R7s on for Sunday to see how his car stacks up. I, of course, immediately forget that he says this. :rofl:

Sunday we only have one, 1, uno, single session in the morning :vash:. So I try to make it count, but lap timer still says I'm losing a little from T5-T6 and a majority of time from T7-T10 to put down a 1:45.464. I do end up with an optimal time of 1:44.4xx for the weekend, so I was able to get pretty close to my PB of 1:44.2xx. If conditions were better I feel like I could have ran something similar. So after a couple of laps after my 45.4xx I shut it down because I only see 45s. I see Luke coming up on me so I figure "fuggit I'll give him a draft down the back straight." As I'm getting in line for the scales I notice his tires "oh shit he put the R7s on" :facepalm:

It was close times that session! :party: I had a sigh of relief when I saw these results.
Attachment 233928

My fastest offical lap of the weekend. I tried 4th gear in T3 basically all weekend.....iirc my 44.2 was using 4th, but it sure as shit doesn't seem faster..... nor as fun lol.


Two major changes to the car since last time at RA, 800/500 springs over 700/400 and -3.4ish front camber over -2.7ish before. It no longer pushes out of T10B and seems much more composed in T12 and T1.....which means it was probably just on the bump-stops before :D

Oh, I got lazy and didn't finish the Stahl header install. I'll be doing that before the next event which should be at Barber. Doing a full 2.5" exhaust with it, which will likely be louder since I'm ditching a resonator.

I'm not gonna lie...I'm still pretty peeved about those 0.013s...

Oh well...next time.

Wait, when is next time? I guess it's NCCAR for me. Was originally planning on running VIR in August but I have to travel to Iowa that weekend.

Appreciate the ride along flier, like last time I was able to gain ~1sec on my PB. Hope to join you at NCCAR in September with a better sorted car haha.

I'm on the fence for NCCAR.....it's 7hr drive for me.

Of course, anytime! Hopefully you'll be driving around in TT with us soon enough :-D

Finally got around to putting this new header in.... along with a new exhaust system.

Attachment 233925

This thing goes WAYYY back!
Attachment 233926

New 2.5" system that a buddy of mine made me. Used another Borla Pro XS muffler.
Attachment 233927



Going to Barber at the end of the month the weekend before MATG!

What header did you go with?

EDIT: Nvm found the answer on the previous page.

Time for an update! I did Barber last weekend and was at MATG most of last week/weekend.

Saturday at Barber was good. I put down a pretty timid lap in the first timed session of a 1:46.0xx which was good for first place out 9, but also reset the TTE record.

Attachment 233923


And two laps from that session, I really think that second lap was going to be in the 45s, but hit traffic. mid-low 45s is was what I was aiming for that weekend.




Sunday morning I was pretty focused on getting into the 45s. It was much cooler out, track was rubbered in, and I felt confident. Unfortunately not everything goes according to plan!


Yes! I forgot my hans hook-up :-\ I was doing my normal routine, which consists of me out of the car putting helmet, glasses(or sunglasses), and hans on. During which time an anxious car almost hit me so it threw me off.....that's the only excuse I got besides being dumb.

I noticed a vibration Saturday afternoon in the last session, but I chalked it up to an unbalanced wheel since I swapped to my older set. Well..... on lap 2-3 of the Sunday morning session I came around T16 and noticed it was wobbly and thought "oh shit I think my wheel is coming off" finish that lap, brake soft and early for T1 and went for a spooky understeering ride. Hoping to limp it back to the pits, but..... didn't make it. I was fortunate enough to only be doing ~30-40mph when it popped off.



Did MATG as usual. Morning routine is as pictured.....
Attachment 233924

Drove a little, ate some good food, and drank a lot. Good times.



Heading to Mid-Ohio at the end of August! :party:

Man...wish i could make it to Mid-Ohio. Really good PTE and TTE field.

Do eetttt! We can rep the souf together.

Another day, another beer!


So not that any of us had any doubts, but Dan is a fucking wheelman.....man.



This was a new PB for him, previous was a 1:41.8xx I believe? I was just happy to see my car being competitive! Keeping in mind the record was reset the session before this with a 1:40.8xx by Neumansis. Seriously though, good job Dan.

There's some obvious short-comings from my car as well. These aren't as apparent on most of the track I run, I'd say Barber is the closest to Mid-O for what I've done and I've noticed these thing, but not as bad as they are at Mid-O.
1. My torsen sucks, I need to flush it again(and again? j/k I need an OSG)
2. I need to install my prop-valve. I've never had this much rear lock-up issue. It even did it coming into madness.


Anddd here's my timid ass going around the track. My best was a 1:44.3xx on my 3rd official session in the late afternoon. I honestly can't wait to get back up to this track, it's a BLAST! I actually properly depowered my steering rack before this event. So I was still getting use to the incredibly light steering, I never realized how stiff it was before.





Side-note, here's the sticker on the dash...... guna have to get a new version that you can see better:
Attachment 233922



Unfortunately my weekend was cut short. Had some rod-knock after my last session on Saturday.....actually you can see the tach jump from what I think is a miss-fire. I suppose the rod had enough slop in it to cause this? I honestly thought about having Dan SENDING IT one session on Sunday morning, but decided it was best to try to save this engine for a rebuild. The knock is only present around 2500rpm and on an increase in rpm, it does not knock on decel nor at idle. So I'm hoping the current damage is minimal.

I'm leaning heavily towards a 0 point rebuild on the engine. I realize it's not the best $/hp ratio or the best route for ultimate n/a hp, BUT I know it will be more reliable and should allow a decent power range to run PTE, S2 w/ SPM. or even PTD if I put my 5A cam in it and square-top manifold I have sitting around.

10:1 83.5mm OEM pistons, oem weight Manley rods, ARP rod/main/head studs, ACL bearings(hopefully standard size), ST light double spring kit, oem valves, new seals, machine work on the engine to allow for new pistons, possibly balance rotating assembly(?), other items I can't think of right now....... OH qmax reroute(finally) and since I would be dropping quite a bit of money on the engine I will want an oil cooler setup as well..... most likely TSE since it's the nice easy button, I don't have to brain, and I apparently hate money.

I'd modify my current intake to have the bend down further away from the TB inlet, run my current Stahl header, full exhaust, and ECU (+9 points here). I feel confident with that engine and these mods I could make a consistent 140rwhp on 93 and even more with e85 if I actually go that route. Hopefully with a relatively flat power-band as well. To fit the ecu(+3), I'd swap back to stock sways(-2) and run SM7s(-1) OR stock sways (-2) and stock intake (-1), but that also means I'd have to swap hoods since my louvers count towards intake points. I also wonder if there's power to be had in the intake piping. I recently found out I can NOT claim SM7s with my NASA Hoosier contingency *cry*

The other option is to source another junkyard BP4W. Not a terrible option, since that's what this engine was. It lasted about 2.5 seasons, the first 1.5 seasons I was actually driving the car to the track with tire-trailer in tow, many auto-x's in there, and ~10k street miles. Since it was in unknown condition when I got it, I suppose I can't complain. The problem with this option...... I can't seem to find a sub 100k BP4W for under $1000 now :td:

Updates!

I went up to Indy for frens and engine....

A wild Hater appears! :party:
Attachment 233915

Went with the dudes to a dyno and the shop had a car with this setup....
Attachment 233916

In this car...... which is basically a death-land-barge. :giggle:
Attachment 233917

Had this cider, which is definitely the best I've ever had. This also means I'll probably never find it again.
Attachment 233918

Came home and sold STU Z ver 2.0. Guna miss having a Z around, but it all worked out.
Attachment 233919


On with the actual car. Here is it's current state.
Attachment 233920

So I bought a good condition short-block from Cameron(vteckiller) that I'll using with my current head. The goal is to have this engine last until NASA/Greg figures out ST6/TT6, so HOPEFULLY no more than two seasons. Doing new valve-stem seals on the head since I knew they were leaking quite a bit. They were likely a large portion of my oil loss. The engine actually came back with good compression(wet/dry) and leak-down numbers, which was encouraging. Shim clearances were all within spec, with one exception on one #3 intake. I ordered Supermiata Qmax reroute, so I'll finally have a reroute! Qmax, clutch hok, and all seals/gaskets will be going on this week. Installing the reroute while the engine is pulled should make it easier. Also installing my prop valve for the brakes.... finally!


When I drained the trans fluid I noticed how uhhhh funky the magnetic plug is looking.....
Attachment 233921

The trans doesn't do anything out of the ordinary, besides it whining a bit more. I chalked that up to the AWR engine mounts since that's when the noise really became prevalent. Either way I should probably source a spare transmission soon :rofl:


I'm planning to have everything buttoned back up in time for CMP on Nov 10-12. Hopefully my dad will be out there running the car in DE3/4 as well. There might even be some MKturbo shenanigans going on at CMP too!


Scheduled cage install with my local shop for January/February, depending on his schedule. I'm the most excited about getting into w2w with the car. It's a goal I've set for a long while and I think I'll enjoy it a lot.

Damn is that a drift Miata? Bet it's got some heat under dat hood!

W2W is best.

I look forward to racing against you next year good sir.

Gah, all this W2W talk has me jonesing to rip my miata apart.... Thanks guys. T-minus one month until CMP!

W2W is best!!!

Hillclimb is best.

https://i.imgflip.com/nsmwr.jpg

Yeah!

Hrmm I'll try this, but trees......



OooOhhh shiny
Attachment 233911
Attachment 233912

I think I need a catch-can..... I cleaned this out on the last engine swap(~3 years/8k miles)
Attachment 233913
Attachment 233914

Random update!

Uhhhhh....... wtf have I done?!
Attachment 233906

Junkyard head still looks like vomit, keep in mind this head has been on the car the past three seasons.
Attachment 233907


I used the same tools Gordon mentions here and sourced some Felpro valve stem seals. The Lisle 36050 is pretty damn handy and easier to use than I initially thought.

Taking a hammer to your head is quite.....nerve racking. I had to get a buddy of mine to do the first one cause I was skurt. I tried both the hammer and compressing "techniques" with the tool. I found it easiest to hammer it to get the keepers off and then compress(a bunch) to "clip" them back in. This is a given, but worth saying.... you need to do this on a sturdy bench. I attempted to press the first one in on a typical fold-out table, it wasn't happy about it. I ended up relocating to the floor with a bunch of cardboard, towels, and paper-towels under the head.
Attachment 233908

For reference, the keepers can only go into the retainer one way, the keep on the right in this pic is oriented correctly. I put the keepers into the retainer, since they can't fall out of the bottom of the retainer, and then press them in with the Lisle tool. It took quite a bit of force, but made an affirmative *CLICK* once they were in correctly.
Attachment 233909

Here's to hoping my valve stem swap was a success! (moar shiny orange parts!)
Attachment 233910

Going to button up my engine and install it this weekend. Finalize the rest of the car of next week, like the... clutch hok, prop valve, trans fluids, and hopefully get an additional hanger put on my mid-pipe. Currently, the header-to-midpipe flange gets hung up on my trailer :(

Anyways, CMP in two weeks!

Sitrep? CMP in one week!

Week and a halfish!!!

But ummmm progress?
Attachment 233905

I'll be buttoning it up tonight until this weekend. Hope to drive it around a bit on Sunday.

Back from a really fun weekend at CMP!

Attachment 233901


Got everything buttoned up over the past two weeks. Thursday night I was hunting coolant leaks, the first one was easy just needed some teflon on the big plug on the waterneck plate. Second leak was coming from the actual housing, so I figured I didn't use the correct amount of sealant between the two pieces. Redid it, still leaking. So then I felt under the temp sensor and yup, it was leaking.

This cooper washer got mangled up at some point, it's kinda big actually
Attachment 233902

So I looked through my spare parts and found a properly sized oil plug washer to use instead. Put it on, no more leaks!
Attachment 233903


CMP event was good, especially considering it was the shake-down event after the engine replacement. I had two issues during the weekend, both my fault but caused no harm and I didn't miss any sessions.
1. My throttle cable came off the bracket, I didn't tighten it properly. It popped off at the end of the warm-up session. I pull off race-line thinking it was completely disconnected, but thankfully I saw the checkered flag and tried the throttle and it worked! Just barely, limped it back into the pits to get a qualifying time.
2. The accessory belt stopped spinning, the alt got tilted all the way towards the engine, I didn't tighten the tensioner properly. I noticed it when I was in grid and walked around the car to tighten the gopro mount. Heard the squeak, popped the engine, saw the alt and waterpump pulleys not moving, puttered it back to my paddock spot, tightened it, went out 1 lap down.


My previous best was 1:51.9, but I've always been there when it's HOT. This time it was fucking COLD low of 37 high of 50, so the afternoon sessions turned out to be optimal.

First timed session got down to a 1:51.6xx, sweet new PB! But Luke did a 1:52.2 on old tires, too close must go faster!

Second timed session is when my alt belt went to shit, but still got out there in the middle of TT1/2/3 Vette traffic, trying to get out of their way, but managed to get a semi-clean lap on the last one, down to a 1:50.8xx even better! But Luke is down to a 1:51.6 and I notice an unknown entry down to a 1:51.4, who is this?! I go snooping around paddock and find the car is a SM being driven by a 13yr old kid....made me feel real old, lol. Found out he did a 1:50.7xx in SM qualifying, holy shit must go faster!!

Third timed session and the kid is behind me, Luke behind him. I get red mist "I WILL NOT LET THE KID PASS ME!!!" Thankfully it worked and I got down to a 1:50.3xx, Luke and the kid in the SM car both actually slowed down. I felt really good about that lap because the standing record is 1:49.8xx. Right before this session I started putting fuel in my car, I was at around 1/4-1/3 tank after the last session and I figured they would weigh us soon. I put about 2.5gallons in the car then hear my friend say "wait! I already put in 5 gallons!" So now the fuel tank is FULL and I'm over weight ~60lbs, whatever..... send itttt?
https://youtu.be/2WdYa6CSyVg



In all seriousness, that kid in SM has some great talent. He beat the standing NASA SM record there by 1.2 seconds and was legitimately running in TTE with RRs. His dad told me he has 10,000 track miles in the SM car, which is way longer than my last engine lasted :rofl: It seems like he pushed the rest of the NASA-SE SM group too, because a few that are usually 1.5-2 second back from me were running low-mid 1:51s by Sunday. Goes to show that competition is great and will encourage people push the envelope, which I enjoy a lot myself.

So with a new SM time of 1:50.7xx, I wanted to see if my car was way off pace or not. I could have put on fresher tires and gone out there to hopefully run mid 49s, but I already won and it's easier for me to just stick my alien driver friend in the car to see what happens. As expected, by his 2nd lap he turned a 1:49.7xx, 3rd lap he messed up the fastest section of the track, but on the 4th lap he managed a 1:48.5xx. This resets the record and makes me feel real slow :rofl:. Either way it was good to see him benchmark the car and he noted some of the recent changes really helped. The properly depowered steering rack allowed him to slip around much easier, the prop-valve let him brake deeper, and the car had more power/torque since the last time he drove it(which was pre-stahl header/pre-fresher engine). This also matched all my thoughts about the changes as well, yay.

Here's his 1:48.5xx lap!



On Sunday we mounted up purple crack to this happy mug @black bandit :
Attachment 233904

Excellent.

Look at the excitement on that kids face! Hahaha, thanks again for letting me thrash around with some real tires. Too bad my spring rates are garbage and couldn't hang.

Back from Road Atlanta, fun event and several things went down!

First, new TTE record, my alien driver friend James driving my car:



I never put together a decent session, mainly because of this:
Attachment 233899

I've never heard of this happening, so I sent Dan a msg when I first saw it. Apparently it's semi-common on SM7'd SM cars or cars that see lots of r-comp load, like T25 cars? I'm not 100% on when this failure started, but you'll notice in the video above James is having to compensate for some pull and darting under brakes. :eek: I do know the car felt fine session 1 in warmup and I was VERY surprised to run a low 1:45, James did two sessions, then I did the 4th session and it was super sketch. Honestly sub-frame cracks aren't something I check for, but I guess it's going on the list haha.

Anyways, I'll be putting together a letter to make front sub-frame reinforcement legal for OEM miatas in ST4/5 and PTE/F. It's allowed in SM in SCCA & NASA, it's only like $17.70 for the part, and I don't see any performance advantage behind it. I also could really use this community's help in getting it passed as well :party:

I was guna hop out in the golden session Sunday morning, but I about blew chunks as I was getting ready for it after riding with my student :rofl: Told James to hop in and go run 41s, this was before I found out the sub-frame issue. Unfortunately he ran into traffic and didn't get any clean laps and complained about the alignment being "kinda" off.

My normal competition, Rensel, ran a 1:43.0xx that session. I'm pretty confident I can hit 1:42s in similar weather, which puts James at mid 1:41s. I imagine more time is to be had with a better alignment and a functioning torsen.


In other news, I got dyno complianced on Saturday as well. Unfortunately, I wasn't at the dyno when they ran my car, I was out with my student. So I wasn't there to supervise them to not yank up the e-brake, because the right-rear sometimes gets hung up. They attempted some pulls, but ending up catching my RR caliper on fire :vash: . I replaced the caliper/rotor that night, thankfully the pads looked fine. (Thanks to black bandit for offer parts on that) Went back to the guys at the dyno on Sunday after lunch and they said they could get numbers. When they were backing my car up towards the dyno my friend and I noticed my FR was SLAMMED. This is when we discovered my cracked front sub-frame.... with the car already half-way up on the dyno I told them to just go ahead and get some numbers.

Three pulls as usual, same dyno from early last year, those numbers were 130hp/117tq. Since then I have added the Stahl long-tube header, 2.5" "cat-back" exhaust with a 2.5" Borla pro XS muffler, swapped in a good-running short-block(140k) with good wet/dry compression numbers, replaced my valve stem seals on my head, and added a SPM qmax reroute.

I'll have a better pic of the graph in the next few days, but this will due until then:
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These numbers were very encouraging and aligns with why my car is faster at CMP and RA now. All my engine swap work was worth it! On the other hand, I'm not tempted to add a MS3, square-top, intake cam, and maybe have my head worked over to make enough power for ST5/TT5 :party:



So the car is planned to go down for a cage in Jan/Feb, also adding front sub-frame swap to that obviously, lol. If everything goes according to plan I'll be back out at Road Atlanta in March, then comp-school at Roebling in April which will also be my first event in PTE!

Great power numbers! And that's an awesome lap from James.

Sorry you had to deal with the brake and subframe issues. But should feel good to have that record in your car!

I see lots of places where I lose time when I study that video. He's flying. And the car definitely grips well.

R.I.P!

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My e-bolts were also trashed.... I replaced these last Jan/Feb. It seems like I can't get anymore than a season before they start slipping, the "V" on the washers get smushed in. This pic is actually from last year:
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I pulled my roll-bar out and sold it finally, no turning back now for the cage! It should be getting installed end of Feb til beginning of March. I don't think I'll have it ready for Road Atlanta on March 10/11, but I'll give it a try. I'll be at that event either way, though. I'll be hard pressed to make competition school at Roebling in April, funds for the car budget are running thin between the cage, required safety equipment, and entry fee. Logic says to just hold off on w2w until later in the season and continue to do TT, but the urge is strong to get into w2w sooner rather than later. No promises.... but we'll see :)


New garage setup with 90civichhb!
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Here' my long and slightly optimistic list for this year:giggle:

• Custom 6-point cage w/ ~200* viewing inboard mirror setup
• OMP HTE-R 400 seat
• PCI seat mounts
• OEM mazda rear hubs w/ new bearings and ARP studs
• Torsen type 2 rebuild
• SadFab delrin diff bushing install
• TrackSpeed Engineering oil kit install
• Oil temp and water temp gauges with my stock BP4W ECU
• Removeable front air-dam (for SuperMiata S2, https://www.facebook.com/groups/SupermiataEast/ )
• Blackbird Fabworx spoiler (or something similar)
• Lexan windows front/rear
• SadFab delrin NASA package install(no sphericals).

I should be able to do a few of those, at least.....


Still awaiting official confirmation on the technical bulletin on the reinforcement plates. I did receive a "likely to get approved" so that's encouraging, but still want it official before I go welding plates onto my sub-frame.

Trust me...you want to w2w ASAP.

I giggled a lot at this, maybe too much actually.

I learned that after one event. When the highlight of my Grid Life South TT weekend was pulling a pass on a Mustang through turn 1, I knew W2W was for me.

This is when I knew I definitely wanted to do w2w :D

I feel like I've done a bunch of work and don't have much to show for it yet, lol. The cage build got pushed back another month, it'll be finished out at the end of March. So in the mean time I've been gutting the car!

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I went a little cut crazy on this door, lol.
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I also put on the Mazda front-subframe reinforcement plates.
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Reinstalled new reinforced subframe along with new e-bolts for the entire car. The plates look like they should have been OEM.
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Got myself a new in-date halo seat. I'm extremely pumped about this thing.
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Along with some awesome Jerfspeed seat mounts to make life easy!
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Next weekend I'm heading down to Road Atlanta to hang out with the NASA-SE and do some test and tuning with Lars in his MKTurbo time-attack street-mod car :party:

Those seat mounts look pretty nice. Do you happen to have a link?

JerfSpeed! @jpreston

Yep. Dan Howard got the first set a couple weeks ago and now Marcus is tester number 2. I wasn't super serious about selling them but there's already been a lot of interest. Not sure if I'll become a forum vendor or what yet, but anyone interested can PM me for now.

Progress! I'm excited now!!!

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Picking up the car this Saturday so I can get more pics of the cage then. It's a very straight forward design, built to regulations for the most part. I asked the builder to carry the harness bar over to the passenger side and had the same nascar door bars for that side as well. This is in anticipation of instructing potentially requiring student ride alongs and no right-seat instruction.

I also had the builder remove my rear seat humps on the driver side, fix a bigass hole in my floorboard, weld in the harness eyelet bolts, and mount my seat down. Since the builder does some body work as well, I had him pull out that annoying dent on my driver's rear quarter panel. No more golf-ball aero going on with the car :rofl:


In other news, I was beta tester for SadFab's MR-S rear hubs.
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I was the one that discovered some unfortunate dimensions while assembling, you're all welcome!!! :party:
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I 100% thought Genesplicer already had a set mounted so I figured I messed something up when it didn't fit while I was reassembling everything.


I've some things to tidy up on the car, reassemble, add convex mirrors, align it, and it should be good to go.

Upcoming events I'm planning on:
May 19/20 ViR - TTE
May 26/27 Mid-O - TTE
June 16/17 RA - TTE (and maybe aero testing, budget pending)
July 28/29 Barber - TTE
Aug 2 AMP Miata event before MATG
Aug 3-5 MATG
Aug 24-26 Grid.Life RA
Sept 21-23 Roebling - Comp School & PTE!!
Sept 29/30 NOLA SPM
Oct 5/6 ViR - PTE (yeah 3 weekends in a row :rofl:)
Oct 27/28 NCM - PTE :party:

Those seat mounts already have 3 ST5 race wins, 2 TT5 wins, 4 track records. There's now a set in Sonny's car too, watch out world, Jerfspeed picked up a #sonnymod.
They rock, I've never been so comfortable (seated low and perfectly centered on the wheel) in my racecar before.

Those require rear hump removal only?

They don't require it, but it makes it easier getting the seat lower. The OMP HTE-R has a pretty deep section in relation to its side mounting points. So ditching the rear humps is almost a requirement with it.
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The Jerfspeed mounts will clear the oem humps with a rear bolting point behind them.
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Come to CMP! I'm hoping to get out there by the end of the year and could use an instructor. :noob: Although, Roebling's not too much further for me...

Car's coming along nicely. You gonna keep it tagged so you can still go on some mountain runs?