Looks good. Curious to see your coolant temps on track.

Another successful track day in the books. Heres how things went.

Saturday was GTA round 2. So I drove down a little early to check it out and root on Ryan Passey who won his class. On the drive down, I thought my car was bottoming out due to having no more bushing preload. But as I kept driving, I kept hearing it even over smaller bumps. I was confused, but didn't want to stop so I just kept driving all the way to the track. Once I got there, I got out of the car and was about to go say hi to the Hooligan crew when I turned around and looked at my car and low and behold my exhaust was drooping down. Shit. I quickly stated scouting the paddock looking for anything that I could use to suspend it back up. I found a hood latch/throttle cable in a trash can and Ryan gave me some safety wire. Thanks again Ryan!
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1e3dac6a6f.jpg

The track was closing gates at 6 so I had no time to work on it there. It got to the hotel and immediately got under the car. One of my exhaust hangars broke off. So this was the solution I came up with.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a6c69867cf.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ab01f389cc.jpg

With nothing left I could do besides hopes and dreams I called it a night. Next morning I headed out to the track. First session out was wild. I was not used to running sans aero. I had to re-calibrate myself to adjust for the different driving style. I couldnt enter braking zones as deep and the car was less forgiving of aggressive inputs. Very tail happy overall. I need to play with the damper adjustment a little more, it was too soft. I was surprised how tail happy it was considering how aggressive the rear alignment is. Rear toe in defiantly helped with putting power down. Tire pressure was good. So im gonna play with shock settings more. I may raise the front a tad. Surprisingly the hood cable help up for longer than I thought (4/6 sessions).

I managed to find some shade with my other track buddies. Surprisingly relaxing considering how hot it was (85*). I managed a 2:02.3. I REALLY do thing if I had a cooler track there is a sub 2 in the car sans aero.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...20305661b6.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ef5b17feee.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...27f7b80b0.jpeg

I have footage but its boring. I mounted the go pro too low. Its pointed straight at the dash. :facepalm: BUT. My friend let me take his e92 m3 out for a few laps. Its stock except for a tune. First couple laps im just getting a feel for it. I get going after. And yea, I told him to put the phone down if you watch the whole vid.

Why did you not have aero?

And now that I see how low your car is, Im not surprised you couldnt get any less than -2.7 rear camber. Looks like 3.5ish at the pinch welds?

Video correction: you cooked the tires, the traction control cooked the brakes! M3s of all eras are great on track, e92s sound especially good! Just tell your friend to be careful of the rabbit hole, he's only suspension, slicks, diff cooler, and rod bearings away from a reliable and fast track car!

Hopefully your AFR's are good now, sounds like you had a good time.

I wanted to get the chassis dialed in. I was fighting bad understeer with aero. So I just want to get the car balanced again so I know the chassis is set up well.

I turned TC off after 1/2 lap. But my friend never turned it off (1st track day) and this was the 6th session. So he/car cooked the brakes before I hopped in. Still a really fun car. Makes me question what im doing with the miata to be honest. I did a 2:05 in that car. With just good tires and pads/fluid I bet I could do close to a 2:00 or sub 2. And here I am chasing sub 2 with a pretty much fully built car that sucks to drive on the street and will never get me my money back. I get the whole cheap to run thing, but I cant help but wonder where I would be with a different platform....

AFRs are good indeed. And I had a blast. Thanks Carlos!

This.

Then buy a comfortable daily.

The best advice I ever heard about doing track days. Never run a car you can't afford to write off.

Quoted for truth. Been there, done that.

After years of telling the newbs exactly that, I gave an unplanned practical demonstration of the rule. Sad day, that car had given me over 300k kms of on-road and on-track fun.

My work has prepped a number of e90 m3s for track use. If you'd like, I can send you over a quote for suspension, brakes, rod bearings, wheels, and tires. That would probably make you feel much better.

I should know better than to ask this since I have seen parts in your garage, but have you ever worked on a European car. They suck to do anything to, rod bearings, :eek4: sounds like a total nightmare job.

Well, regardless, dibs on your mazda.

My miata isn't going anywhere. My goal with this car is w2w. I cant afford w2w in an m3. But the m3 would be nicer as a track day car rather than race car.

Anyways, im re-shimming the head right now and I noticed something kinda strange, there are huge variations between the shim sizes. Is this normal for a 20k mile head?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1bedd79f75.jpg

Yes, it's not about mileage, just fixing inconsistencies in the manufacturing process.

also notice how I crossed out some of the numbers. I was struggling to get a consistent reading. So hopefully the rest are actually acurate numbers

Are you using a micrometer?

Wait, I'm confused. Are those shim sizes you wrote down, or gap sizes?

If they're shim sizes, what are they measured in? Because the smallest Mazda shim is 2.8mm and the largest is 3.4mm (at least from what I've seen looking at the parts list on mazdacomp), so that's only a ~25% difference between the smallest and biggest, but you have a 400% difference.

If they're gap sizes that the numbers make more sense -- gaps are supposed to be 0.18 to 0.24 mm on the intake, and 0.28 to 0.34 mm on the exhaust, with the engine cold. So if you measured gaps, then you have a bunch that slightly out of spec, with a few exhaust ones that are WAY out of spec.

I'm not sure how you measured gaps with a micrometer though -- usually you use feeler gauges.

Also, a micrometer seems to be more accuracy than is really required for measuring shims -- they only come in 0.05mm increments, so the 0.01mm precision of a decent set of digital calipers seems like it would be more than adequate?

--Ian

Edit: This is all for NB1 heads -- maybe VVT heads are different? Or are these aftermarket SUBs instead of OEM shims? If so, then ignore me. :)

Those are the shim sizes measured in mm with a micrometer. Checked twice. This is why im very confused.

Regarding micrometer vs caliper, ive heard both sides, most people say only use micrometers. But I totally understand the caliper side as well. I just figured using a micrometer cant hurt, but now im realizing its becoming a headache. Ill try using a caliper and see what happens.