Sure. When you have a full cage and have redone your safety system anyways.

 

I may or may not be planning to do this.

 

And ruin your car for the street?

 

Well, kinda. Im not 100% committed yet. I need more seat time before I start w2w. And money.

But in my area at least. Its very stressful to do anything fun in a car. Cops are EVERYWHERE. And I don't really like going on canyon runs anymore because

1. I have so much money in the car that its not worth the risk
2. COPS
3. For me, I have be pushing the car to have fun, and thats not safe on the street.
4. Without a full cage, if a crash were to happen on one of our backroads, I would most likely be dead.
5. The car is getting less streetable with every mod

SO, my solution to these 5 things is taking the car to track days. But I know that eventully I will want to do w2w. Supermiata s1 or NASA st4 is what I'm targeting.

Im having an internal conflict because the car is so nice, and so clean, that its almost a shame to strip it down so it can just get dented and banged up in w2w. But on the other hand, the car is so developed already so it would be a ton of work to switch to another chassis. So the question is would it be worth it?

 

IMHO, you pretty much never want to take a car that you've been playing with as a street car and turn it into a race car. For one, half the stuff you did will turn out to be wrong for the race car, so you'll wind up removing and redoing it. For another, race cars get beat up and crashed, and a car that you've been driving as a street car you often get emotionally attached to.

The best way to get a race car (*) is to find someone who's built it right and buy it from him for pennies on the dollar. The second best way is to buy a car for that purpose and build it right yourself. Turning your existing street car into a race car is a distant third.

(*) I distinguish "race car" from "track car" here. A race car is built for a specific class, with class rules in mind. A track car is just something you play with for fun.

--Ian

 

Thats the thing though. My car isn't that far off of an s1 car. I would need a cage, a new seat, another set of wheels and tires, and a hardtop (which I would get anyways).

I AM emotionally attached to my car, and thats part of the reason why I want to continue to race it, rather than let it sit and neglect it. But at the same time its going to pain me to see it get banged up.

Keep in mind though that this is going to be much later down the road (unless I stumble upon a large sum of money somehow). I plan to enjoy the car as much as I can on the street and at track days. And thats what I'm focusing on right now.

 

There's probably a big pile of other things you'd need to change that you just don't know about yet.

If it's years away, then forget about it. The rules will change between now and then, and the belts you buy today have a limited certification lifetime, so as Aidan says, odds are that they'll need to be replaced before then anyway.

20 degrees is not hard to eyeball. Take a right angle, cut it in half, cut it in half again and you've got 22.5 -- close enough. Take a square of paper, fold it diagonally, fold it diagonally again, now you've got a template.

--Ian

 

Its not just driving on the street. Its driving to the track. So now you need a truck and a tow rig. And then..and then.

 

This.

Even just a dedicated effort with an HPDE car get's expensive. I live in a very cheap part of the country, with a good salary, and some of the cheapest track days around.

Now that I'm no longer married, even just having an HPDE car isn't worth the time/money.

 

Nb2's are still too nice to race imo. Unless you have a beater which is not the case.

 

I see what you guys are saying. And I get it.

Like I said, this is not going to happen any time soon (at least that's the plan). I am going to take this year and probably next year to get the car dialed in. I want to get the car to the point where I've done everything I want to do to it and the next step will be a cage. So, cage will be last.

I could jump straight to a cage right now and go race it, but that's just gonna be a waste of money because the car and I won't be fast enough to podium. Im in no rush to do this.

 

Quit listening to them all talk non-sense. You live in Cali, that means you should convert your car toe ghettocet and rock it daily.

 

Anyone know where I can get conical washers but not from 949 Racing?

I was underneath my car and noticed that one of my sway bar bolts fell out and obviously the "Special" hardware fell out as well.

here is what I'm looking for (sorry for massive pic but I'm lazy):

 

McMaster Carr

 

they don't have them. unless I'm not searching for the right thing.

 

Speedway Motors has them. Search for 'steel cone spacers for rod ends'

--Ian

 

they only have 5/8s. I need m10

 

They probably have 1/2 and 9/16 as well. Metric I have no idea.

--Ian

 

Miata End Link parts

 

AFM, read original post.

HUGE thanks to iDizzle for coming in clutch tonight. He was able to machine the parts for me like a boss.

He wasn't satisfied with the finish but its 98% there. It looks fine to me and it's gonna work, thats all I care about.


My to-do list for tomorrow:
1. reinstall sway bar hardware
2. Finish splitter mounting
3. Wire in oil temp gauge
4. remove old brake ducts
5. Mount diffuser (David lent me his rtheory diffuser to try out)

Splitter is gonna be a bitch but I gotta get it done. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.