miata2fast

iTrader: (2)

That was one hell of a rant you have there.

I can tell you are really stoked right now. Believe me, I know the feeling. Hope it evolves into some killer track times with all your hard work.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

I think that may have been the longest forum post I've ever written.

sturovo

Jonathan +1, there is a killer set of skills going on in here.
Engineering, fabrication, tuning, driving, troubleshooting, the works.
You are officially more than just a pretty face.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Thanks.

More update. Full results are up 28th raw time out of 141. Definitely my best raw time finish ever. With the amount of time I'm off the other national cars and factoring in that almost all devens courses favor small transitiony cars over bigger higher grip higher power cars I think that a near alien driver could give Namer a run for his money at the Devens Match tour with how the car stands now. The trouble is finding someone who doesnt already have a prep'ed car to drive, fits in a 15.5" kirkey, and has enough upper body strength to make it through the event.

Extra random, car seems to be getting ~5mpg while racing, I realized decel cut was still turned off from the dyno tuning.

Leach0789

My rockers look just like yours :P How are you planning on fixing it?

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Buy the $50/side rear skins from rock auto. Cut at the car until there is no more cancer. Replace missing internal metal with some carbon steel sheet metal by welding. POR15 everything inside there that I can reach. Cut section out of replacement rear skin to cover hole + 1 inch and chassis weld epoxy it on. Skim of bondo to make it invisible, primer, paint, rock guard.

Leach0789

I was thinking of using those same panels. Unfortunately I can't do it all myself and can't find anyone to do it! Want to make a few bucks?

Two of my friends race at Devens as well. Warren in a blue Subaru GC and Alex in a new white STI.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

I need to do it to mine first, and then to my dad (which thankfully is not anywhere close to as bad), then we'll see how much I would need to get paid to make it worth my time. Its funny because miatas have been sprouting up in my neighborhood theres two more recent additions that need their cancer repaired.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Caught up on maintenance on the wrx, like doing the timing belt. F that, it takes like 3 times longer than the miata and it a **** load more nerve wracking with the whole interference engine thing. Wrapped the steering wheel in the miata with a new layer of wrap. Looked at my reflection in the spinwerks.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Cut fenders, replaced the ebay hubs that died after 40 auto-x runs. It looks like the spindle nuts loosened up even though they were pinned because they were hand tight when I went to take them off. They were fine after the evo school, because I changed tires (to find out the 15x10s didnt fit) and they weren't loose at all, so they must have **** out on the 6 runs the next day. They're within warranty so I'm going to take care of pressing the studs out and **** this weekend.









Car should be getting AK N2 rear flares and zero fenders, all in kevlar, "soon". They're currently making a set of the fenders in Kevlar to see if I like them, and I will be purchasing pretty much right after I buy a trailer. I have a couple good prospects to look at soon on that front.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

So I took it to a renegade miata even for one last shakedown and learn the car race before the national tour next weekend. The tow rig blew a brake line right after we put the car on the trailer and I was in no mood to fix it. So we put the wheels, splitter and tools in my dads truck and I drove it down with the wing on. Someone posted a picture of me in traffic to a local facebook car group thing, much lols came from the comments.

But on to the race. I wanted to burn the car in the morning, it was cutting out like fuel starve like 20 times a run, it couldnt have possibly been fuel starve I had half a tank. So after 2 runs I switched to the other cam sensor, the one that lasts about a run before its too hot and ***** the bed. That didnt help. I couldnt connect to the laptop because the ******* shitty *** patch harness I got from trackspeed keeps breaking. This is the 3rd time I've had to repair the usb wires and I'm running out of wire to repair on them. If it breaks again I'm going to need to buy another use cable to cut up and use.

It really really feels like fuel starve, but I'm at half a tank. Over lunch I say **** it and throw in 5 gallons. That fixed it. Car then dominated, I was the fastest car in the ssm class even with a cone on my fast run. I ended up with a 1:13 +1 as my fast run, the Davis's in their CSP car were running 1:09's on the course. We got some fun runs and and the Davis boy got the car down to 1:08 something. We did the pax math and comparing him driving it to his own time, which is almost always top 5 locally, the car would need to have been in the mid 1:07's to beat his pax time. We think if he drove it more, if it wasnt on 100 run hoosiers, if the boost control was tuned, and it had a bit more general development work it could be a top pax car with a top pax driver. It makes me feel great that I pretty much built and setup this car from gut feeling and research and its blazing fast out of the gate, not many people can do that.

There was one failure at the race besides the wiring, that breather filter finally melted off so I made a mount for my old catch can from the cavalier and put that on the breather side with some fire sleeve over the hose going to it. Its right above the swaybar bolted to the drivers side frame rail, because that was the only damn spot I could fit it. It'll work for now until I can come up with something a bit more elegant. Sunday I also pulled the fuel pump and tried to mount it lower in the tank, I only managed to get it like half an inch lower. I need to find a serious pump that's designed to be a direct bolt in setup and can flow ~320 LPH @85psi. I guess I'm just going to remember to race it on a full tank.

Other takeaways, car need more front downforce it understeers at high speed.

TNTUBA

iTrader: (1)

If you are on 100 run Hooisers you can learn 100% of nothing from how the car drives on them. DO NOT make setup changes based on how a car drives with old tires. And just saying it "understeers at high speed" is WAY too vague to be able to offer you any feedback. Is it pushing on entry? Middle?, Exit?, Steady State?, in transitions?, On power?, off power? etc etc etc.

The morale of the story is DON'T TEST ON OLD TIRES.

TNTUBA

iTrader: (1)

And just saw Tom O'Gorman is in SSM. That guy is some kind of stupid fast. The FP car he has been driving for most of the time this year is CRAZY.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Well they were certainly a million times grippier than the 180 run hoosiers I ran a couple weeks ago. Car was tight, part throttle steady state and transitionally, for all of the turn, but only at the limit and only in the fast sections (above ~60), it was glorious in middle and low speeds.

And 100 run CSP/SMF take offs is what I plan to run while the car/driver continues to get developed. No point in wasting stickers on a car that only works 60% of the time and a hack driver thats 4 seconds off the pace of the car.

Tom O'Gorman (Sean is the Ogerman, ) is in the class. I'm not sure if he's driving the SM panda (I'm screwed) or the STC+hoosier baby panda (I should win if I dont break, because that car just wants to be sideways). Namer is supposedly going to sign up, which still puts me in 2nd at best.

TNTUBA

iTrader: (1)

If O'Gorman is on a Big Wheel you would have trouble with him.

And seriously....get a good set of tires. You are NEVER going to learn what the car is doing on junk tires. Sure...use a junk set to test your alignment.....but buy at least one good set of tires to set the car up.

My car is as easy on tires as they get...esp now that it has ABS...and I can tell you, from direct experience, because I tried to do what you are thinking you are going to do. It doesn't work.

100+ run Hoosiers are worse than street tires.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Theres no ******* way worn out hoosiers are worse than streets. The 180 run hoosiers on the 15x9s that I took the evo school on were better than streets, without a doubt. As a hoosier ages the peak grip doesnt drop off too quickly, but the "I fucked up, save me hoosier magic, you're my only hope." grip fades away. Thats the grip that happens after the peak grip slip angle. So they just get less forgiving to over driving and ******* up, which is what I really need to work on (and turning in sooner). And you cant tell me that they get that slow, the Dover Evo Shootout was won on 80+ run hoosiers... which happen to be the exact same set I took the evo school on.

TNTUBA

iTrader: (1)

I'm done trying to help you. You clearly know it all and have done it all. I wish you the best.


Ohhh....and you can take your attitude and shove it up your dick hole.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Its a 15 hour tow to prove me wrong and say that to my face. I'll buy your beer for the weekend to make up for it.

TNTUBA

iTrader: (1)

I'll be in Toledo The last weekend of this month, Wilmington Ohio the following week, Linclon Ne for the Pro Finale and Championships and Blytheville after Nationals. I have 100% of nothing to prove to you, I don't want your beer and the first time I meet you I will repeat 100% of this 3" from your nose.

ch blank

So I just need to set something straight here with the tires that Leafy is using. Those tires came off of my car and are not anywhere close to old tires. They have come off of my CSP car and were not at all worn out when they came off of our car. These tires were so fresh that we totally would have still used them pretty much anywhere but nationals or the pro finale except that we already had a set of stickers and another set of used hoosiers and we were flipping tires already. My CSP car doesn't destroy tires except for flat spots which hasn't really been an issue recently. Leafy is right that when the tires with which we won the Dover Evo Super Shootout were 80+ runs and showing no signs of falling off.

Now I won't pretend that hoosiers with 100+ runs are as fast as stickers. But I would say that the difference is nowhere near as people will often say. Now if we were talking about the tires from my old E stock car I would probably agree with you. Without the tire saving camber we would only get around 100 usable runs out of our 225-14s cramed onto the 14x6 wheels.

We might be getting a good comparison of 100+ run hoosiers vs stickers this weekend at the Devens tour depending on how things go. The best comparison that I can give is the NJ ProSolo from this year where we switched from some absolutely ancient tires on 15x9 wheels to some only slightly used tires on 15x10 and the car only really got faster by the margin that we normally expect due to the difference between the wheels. Maybe another tenth of a second over the wheel difference.

Maybe an SSM car with its power destroys tires much more quickly than my CSP car but all I can say is that we are still putting down some really fast times (top pax at all but 1 non national event that the car has been to this year) with old tires as long as we can get a couple runs worth of heat into them. Even as our current "B" tires which we have been running recently at local events (including the one that Leafy mentioned in his post comparing times) now have more runs than the tires on Leafy's car and yet the car still gives good feedback and is putting down times.

Now to finish up this rather lengthy post I will say that after driving Leafy's car for a few runs that the high speed push is a large issue. Because I took the runs in his car at the very end of the day I didn't get a chance to give him much feedback in person which I will do in much more detail the next time that I see him. I have input on much of the "Is it pushing on entry? Middle?, Exit?, Steady State?, in transitions?, On power?, off power? etc etc etc." that was mentioned but really was pretty busy putting my car on the trailer and driving home. The push at high speed I conveyed because of two reasons. First that I was amazed at how well the wing worked and this made me realize just how insufficient Leafy's splitter is (even though it is absolutely huge). Second I realized that there were a couple of high speed sweepers that I know I was losing real time in because the front of the car was just hopelessly sliding while the rear was perfectly planted. There are things that I'm sure I'll discuss with Leafy directly about the handling of his car, however right now the biggest issue that I had with it was the high speed push and developing new aero bits usually have a longer lead time than changing shock settings and changing springs.

-Billy Davis

EDIT- Wow so this got more hostile in the time that it took me to write this post

EDIT2 - typo