TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

No problem. I wanted to see the video too. Damn that thing has torque. Oofff.

You can see the format for youtube video embedding if you quote my post.

{YT}t51w1uaBb_A[/YT] (the first brackets should be [] )

You take the end part of the video link only that you get when you click "share" and put it within the YT brackets.

573

iTrader: (2)

The car now sits at ~1100 miles.

I installed the rear sway bar and it seems to have helped neutralize the car. At least that's my impression from driving it on the street, where I don't push it as hard as I do in competition.

There was some tire-on-fender action during a jaunt down a twisty and slightly bumpy road with many elevation changes. I asked my hipster friend with a slammed Passat to help me rectify the matter. He came over with three hammers, a heat gun, and a block of wood. Seriously, why people use fender rollers is beyond me. My fenders turned out very well and the rubbing has completely gone away.

I finished version 1 of my gauge cluster. Before, the cluster was held in with zip ties and didn't have indicator lights for the turn signals. The lack of turn signal indicators made me appear senile on a couple of occasions.


I was also involved in a shooting in Detroit.

Scrappy Jack

iTrader: (2)

The finished product is pretty unique, even if almost no single element is. Congrats on getting close to the proverbial finish line.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

I want that dash! Or lack of dash. Those bars coming down the center by the shifter do something for me. I've gone back and forth from stripped interior to full interior over the years, and I can;t make up my mind what I want. Simplistic Lotus like interior with less **** to rattle and squeak, or a comfortable full interior.

Love the car.

573

iTrader: (2)

I've been daily driving this car for the past few weeks and I really don't mind the lack of carpet and trim. Wearing ear plugs all the time is a slight inconvenience, but being in something that's so simple and purposeful totally makes up for that.

Here's some motivation to stay stripped:




Oh, and a wild Mario appears:

573

iTrader: (2)

It's been a good week for racing, and both vehicles have taken quite a beating. I started last Saturday by attending a rally-x in the Subaru. Myself and the guy who codrove my car left with second and first respectively in a class of 12. Not bad, and I'd have won if I hadn't hit two cones during my parade lap.


I had an auto-x on the agenda for last Sunday. My original plan was to take the Miata, but the weather forecast motivated me to take the Subaru instead. This was a mistake as the course resembled a drag strip and it didn't end up raining during the first run group. Even so, good times were had and I won in my class of one. They gave me a beer mug.


I went to a track day at Gingerman on Tuesday, and put some work into air management before that.

Radiator ducting:




Under tray and splitter:




The radiator ducting worked great--the temps stayed rock solid no matter how hard I pushed. The splitter worked too well. The car gained a tendency to oversteer and I had to shift my brake bias more towards the front. In hind sight, the brake bias adjustment may have also been required because I was cooking the front brakes.

Then......pretty early on, I went off and met some tires. A combination of my forgetting about a turn that's obscured by a crest and the brakes being too hot to do much with such late notice resulted in an off track excursion. The car is fine, however I lost all of my aero stuff and blew out the alignment. I'm kind of bummed, but **** happens and the car handled better without the splitter. After removing the mangled aluminum and performing a trackside alignment, I was up and running again, and finished the day strong.

Anyway, this car is tremendously fun on the track and I can't wait to take it out again. The biggest problem that I can fault the car with is brake fade, and that should be easy to fix with ducts and some more serious pads. I was running Hawk HP+'s. Here's some video of part of one of my last sessions. Watch the brake fluid reservoirs for a rudimentary G meter.

573

iTrader: (2)

Yesterday, I went to an auto-x in Lansing, and it was about the most fun I've had in this car to date. My strategy for the day was to take it easy, avoid cones, and really focus on my driving. That strategy paid off as I won my class of one(woohoo), and got the second FTD. A guy in an ASP Corvette, with massive Hoosier A6's, was faster by a second. I'm thrilled with the results, although I'd love to play around with a set of 275 A6's.

I'm happy with the way that the car handled, too. I had an understeer problem at the first event I went to. Installing the rear swaybar made that problem go away and the car feels quite neutral now. Throwing the car into turns is extremely satisfying now.







I'd consistently smoke the inside tire under braking. Kind of aggravating as I think it's largely unavoidable unless I install ABS.






Here's a video of my fastest run. I ran a 49.9.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

you need more rear brake.

573

iTrader: (2)

Hmmm, I fiddled with the bias some midway through the event but didn't want to overdo it and blow a run by turning the brake pedal into a drift switch. I'll push it a bit further this weekend and see what happens.

573

iTrader: (2)

ROAD TRIP!

573

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, I also have a Subaru wagon. The person I went with has an Outback and a WRX. What made us think that a freshly swapped track oriented Miata was the best tool for a 1600 mile trip that had a camping element? Well, it's the most ridiculous. Ridiculous often translates to fun and in this instance, it most certainly did.

For the curious, we averaged nearly 27 mpg and I never once had to open my tool box.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

hahaha that's awesome.

Scrappy Jack

iTrader: (2)

That's pretty heroic.

573

iTrader: (2)

So yeah, I've just been going fast and stuff.

I went to a track day two weekends ago, intending to take the Miata, but the weather forecast made me rethink that. After a late night brake pad swap and oil change on my DD Impreza, I flogged it on the track the next day. That was generally a good move as that car is lots of fun in the rain and I pushed it way harder than I'd have pushed the Miata under the same conditions. The problem is the Subaru has drums in the rear and I burnt my brand new pads to the point where I was grinding metal on metal by the end of the day. Oops. haha The good news is I passed a Z06 in a bone stock naturally aspirated Subaru wagon with cooked brakes.


And now onto the real hoon car. I had the Miata at the track this past weekend for another open track day. This one had lots more people and I spent most of the day sitting in traffic. That said, the event was still a lot of fun and I did get a couple of laps in where I wasn't stuck behind Sunday drivers, particularly near the end, after the slowest people had been moved to different groups.

The car stayed reliable although I had to keep the RPM's down to prevent the temp from creeping as I haven't had a chance to remake my radiator ducting. I just left it in fourth the whole day. Also, I really need to install my smaller bore master cylinders and work on brake ducting. My stopping distances weren't what they should be. That'll all be addressed over the winter when I tear the car down for improvements and some finishing work.(a few things were kind of just thrown together so I'd have more time to run the car this season)

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

AWESOME updates. I love GC imprezas, is that what you have? Video is no workie, both the ones you put up.

Your miata is so awesome man.

573

iTrader: (2)

Thanks man! The Impreza is an 02 bugeye. And the videos.......I always struggle with those. They're fixed now, though.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Thanks for fixin em'. LOVE the bugeye man, even in standard impreza trim. My buddy has a bugeye with a hybrid 2.5 sti block/2.0 wrx heads, and a blouche dominator making north of 500whp. It's awesome, though it took out his built PPG gearset recently and is sitting for the time being.

Subie + miata love, digging it man. Props. Looks like the miata ***** on vettes at the track

573

iTrader: (2)

Awesome! I really appreciate fast Subarus. I know it takes a lot to break a PPG gear set, even at 500whp, so that thing must take a beating.

And yeah, I'm not sure how hard the Vette guys are pushing their cars, but I did pass quite a few of them. Hopefully the Vette abuse persists, even though I'll be running with the more experienced drivers next season. I'm still a noob so I was driving in the intermediate group at this event.

573

iTrader: (2)

I'm one day shy of it having been a year since my last update. Weird.

Anyway, here's what I've been up to for the past 364 days.

I tore the car apart at the end of last season to make some improvements. Namely a new clutch to resolve my high rpm shifting issue, a new cooling system to resolve my low speed temperature climb, slightly smaller brake master cylinders to reduce pedal effort, and a few other misc things that I did out of boredom and impulsiveness.

I was off to a good start, pulling the powertrain, buying a new clutch(Monster level 2), buying new brake master cylinders, and getting that **** installed.

New clutch, light weight flywheel, and a very green pressure plate.


This is about the time when life happened. I became very busy with school, work and Formula SAE, and the Miata slipped to the back burner.

We built this thing. It's arguably the most fuel efficient car in the series and also won an award for having the best cost to performance ratio. Not bad for a poor team with a totally redesigned car. The driving experience is remarkably similar to that of my Miata--just faster through the turns.


I got this as a daily


and drove it out west


for a Formula SAE event in Nebraska and to watch fast cars race up this fairly notable hill in Colorado. (Pikes Peak)


Then FSAE comp season was over and I became pretty busy with work, where I drove lots of Mustangs


worked on the Miata some (This is the 1.125" .188" wall tubular Racing Beat bar)


and drove even more Mustangs.


I modeled the bay to determine the cooling system packaging. I recommend this if you'll be changing a bunch of ****.


This is what I ended up with. I switched from an F-body intake to an LS7 Corvette intake.


Cutting up the bumper is one of the impulsive things that I did. To complement that, I cut out the metal well that the OEM jack sat in and welded in a flat panel. Now I have more room for cool aero things when I get around to making cool aero things.


Snug, but it all fits.


Part of my new cooling system is an electric water pump. The pump itself is a Pierberg CWA-200. It's stock on a number of BMW's, reasonably compact, and PWM controlled. Anyway, since I'm not using the OEM pump that bolts to the block, I needed block adapters and 12an Y fittings. I couldn't find anything that I liked so I made these.


This is how it looks all together:




And without the bumper:


Then the car ran(got it going about a month ago). I drove it to Ohio. An inboard CV boot blew up on the way. :/


I fixed the CV boot and drove it from Detroit to Atlanta. The other inboard CV boot blew up on the way back. :/


I fixed the other CV boot and put some track pads on.


Then I took it to the track and beat the **** out of it. No issues. I shaved over a second from my best time last year.




The new clutch solved my high RPM shifting issue. Yay!

The new cooling system, despite being lighter and utilizing a smaller radiator, solved my temperature creep issue. The problem now is actually keeping enough heat in the car. There's no thermostat--temp is controlled via water pump speed and fans on/off. I'm finding that that isn't enough for highway driving on a cooler day. I'm thinking about retrofitting in some grill shutters from a Focus or something of the like. That said, this setup absolutely kicks *** on the track. The temp in the head stayed at 185(that's what the controller is set to maintain) and the temp at the bottom of the radiator never went above 160. Water pump speed stayed around 50% and the fans stayed off.

The brakes feel better too. Less pedal effort via new master cylinders and the Hawk DTC 70's took care of the fade. I do find myself pondering ABS again, though.

Anyway, I'm registered for back to back track days at Gingerman on the 25th and 26th. After that, it'll be about time to put the car away for the winter. Plans for this winter are simpler than last. Coilovers are likely(maybe Xida or Motion Control), and race tires are a maybe(as in maybe I'll order a set if I'm drunk or find a deal).

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

What controller are you using for the CWA200? I spin mine to ~75% when fully warm but honestly never tried slowing it down, and I still run a thermostat.