For those that follow the One Lap Miata facebook page, this car saw some track time again this past weekend. Now let's see what Andy is up to for 2017....

Is Andy going to the scca majors at Sebring in a week and a half?

Andy was at Sebring this weekend competing in TT with NASA.

Faster than a miata?

2:17.6 best lap...first time at that track...bone-stock car except Pagid pads and year-old RE71R (stock sizes)...156 max speed down the back stretch during the cooler morning sessions...4-5 MPH less during the afternoon, but more surface grip.

For reference, my pro sources say that's about what a Conti GS car does with real aero and slicks (aka Hoosiers)

Will post an in-car video link shortly...

PS: Good to meet a couple of MT forum members and put faces with handles.
PPS: Car is back at the dealership in Houston again for service. Coded out and limped on the 4th session...same circumstances as before. <sigh>

roughly 19 sec under the SM record at that track (on street tires) :eek:

Yep, he was. I had Andy for most of the day. That was a surprise to me, but no surprise he was able to beat my time on the last session of the day. Andy, Great to finally meet you!



When you're looking at the times just an FYI it was a wet track on Sat.
and before anyone pulls out my times. Sunday was phoned in. I did one session and headed home. Even with leaving early we rolled in at 1am :(. it was a great weekend. next time we might run all day Sundays and spend the night at Disneyland :) sebring is a fun track i recommend it.

Nice Miata.

Pleasure to meet you too, sir. :bigtu:

Just as an FYI, all day Saturday and the warm-up on Sunday were on the four-year-old OE Pirelli PZero's. Once I felt like I knew the track, I bolted on the RE71R's and went to town.

There's still more out there for me, as I was taking it easy on the curbing and do not yet have proper speed/confidence through Bishop's. Visuals are really sucky.

As promised, here's the in-car vid. Use the hi-res version and turn your sound down.

HA never being to Sebring before I was doing the same. feeling like I wouldn't be competitive so I brought 2-year old heat cycled rc-1 tires to burn up. After the first session, I looked at the times and noticed I was 6th overall. I said, "hell, lets go for it" i was very happy to land 2nd overall. One of the sessions I was behind you. Your line looked good but just not a lot of speed. I was wondering who is driving this thing? normally supercar owners are all right foot. just get on the gas before them and passing on the straights is easy. But you were getting on the gas like a racer. After the session, everyone told me it was you, then I wondered if the car was broken and settled on the idea that you relly didn't want to wad it up. on Sunday I saw the times falling. that made a bit more sense.

Those old PZeros don't have a ton of grip, but they are very progressive and recover from mistakes easily. I was also driving with some of the nannies on for Saturday...for the sake of learning and unknown dampness. With the nannies off, and the RE71R's on, the car is way faster...but is not tolerant of mistakes. There is no doubt that I will rarely drive this car as hard as I do my CRX or KMiata...too much at stake. But that is also part of the risk/reward thrill when tracking it.

It was sure fun watching you guys run.

Prepping the car for Optima at NOLA in three weeks. Don't really have time to put a big-power 300hp motor back in, so will have to slum it with the stock TSX 235hp motor in it now. Other low-hanging fruit awaits, though. Aero is the big one, and it pays dividends at NOLA through the esses.

To push their "street car" agenda, Optima restricts rear aero to either a low-mounted wing or a spoiler. The latter option is what all the fast guys do. So a quick email and funds exchange with Moti at Blackbird Fabworx, a half-day in the garage and here's the result. It's pretty fiddly work, if you want it to look really good. So we took our time. Digging the smoked glass and black anodized hardware.

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Looks good. When do the wheel wells get filled up with some massive rubber?

I have some openings in my schedule this year to try some HPDE's at NOLA. How do you like that track? It is a 14 hour drive for me, but I don't mind driving.

I re-read the whole thread again. My work blocks 90% of the pics, but damn this is a cool build!

I find it totally awesome that you kept the stock cruise control! A K-swap has been on a my mind for a while, but I thought I would have to lose the cruise control.

I have a 3.9 Torsen in my 01 right now and a 4.3 OSGiken waiting to go in. If I go with this swap, apparently I need to switch ratios.

Machining of the front spindles to accept RX7 hubs has been completed for the five-lug conversion. And I have all the rest of the parts to do the brakes and the rears. Not sure I'll have time complete all of that before NOLA, so I might either run some 245 RS4's on the 15x10's or borrow some 18x11's that are 4x100 for the 285/30-18 RE71R's that I have.

I'd love to see that thing on 18x11s with those big fenders, very cool.

404 Error - 245 RS4's not found...all sold out. So...

Change of plans...Big things happening NOW...finally. Fronts are on, though I have some machining work to fit the new brake hats. Hoping to have rears done today.

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That must be the new, ultra-lightweight transparent aluminum front suspension!

--Ian

Suspension is there...just lacking the brakes.

Did the rears today...Protege5 front hubs press right into the Miata bearing and use the same spline count axles. 2mm more offset, but we'll compensate for that with the brake caliper offset. Rotors will be here Thursday, and hoping to have the machining on the caliper brackets done by then, too.

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Well ain't that somethin'! A five lug conversion easy peasy.

.

Andy, I am signed up for NOLA as well but I'll be in my FRS... Will be cool to finally be able to "race" against you!

First post...you stalking me, bro? :bowrofl:

Wishing I had time to put a real motor back in this thing, but that will have to wait. Way too many projects right now

I love how straightforward the rear 5 lug swap is. Very nice.

The brakes are the tricky part there. Requires some minor machining, and up-sizing to Sport brake diameter.

Once all of this is complete, I'll write up all the details in one post, for easy reference.

Car just came back off the stands...I'm diggin' it, though it doesn't look near as sinister as it did on the 17" XXR's.

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Looks pretty bloody sinister from where I'm standing. :likecat:

Real life Hot Wheels!

Drove it on the track yesterday...the grip level is just stupid. Felt like the car was on Hoosiers.

Definitely soaks up the power, though. I need to get a good motor back in this thing.

Gearing does work better, as 1st and 2nd are now quite usable. But I have to relearn shifting patterns...

No relevant lap times as there was still water present in T8 due to recent biblical rains...

More prep complete. Rerouted upper coolant hose under the intake and swapped stock fan out for a SPAL slimline.

This created more room to install CAI that gets air from the driver's wheelwell, right behind the empty fog light hole.

No more 10% power loss due to 146 degree IAT's.

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Splitter is next...

This is happening right now...leading GTC and 3rd overall in the autocross. Lost a couple points in D&E for back-up light switch in trans busticated, and no radio.

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Gave up on the almost-complete splitter mid-day Thursday when the air dam failed to meet up properly with the fascia, leaving major gaps. Went to the track instead, and found a couple more rubbing issues that needed fixing. Glad I did that.

BTW, the surface on the autocross pad here at NOLA is bizarre. Extremely fine aggregate, and knife-edge low grip. Uber smooth, yet aggressive rules the day.

I read your facebook post- sorry to hear you got dinged in DE so hard. I guess next time you need to bring some neon and big subs.

The amount of WIN here is staggering.

It is frustrating, disappointing and embarassing to not know what the subjective judging expectations are before you get there (or even after), and then failing to meet them.

One of the organizers posted the judging categories on my FB page, and admitted that it was an oversight for them not to be listed in the rules. Had I known, I'd have spent less time building a splitter that I didn't end up using and more time installing audio and cleaning up the interior and trunk.

I''m entered for the Pikes Peak event, but leaning hard towards not going.

I don't FB. What happened?

Click the link in my ..sig and you can read all about it.

The "Design & Engineering" of this car sucks in the eyes of the judges. 53 of 65 cars.

I've watched others document their Optima experience and it's very obvious the D&E section is used to bump up the cars the sponsor would like to see in the final round. Cars with interiors, a/c ect. Getting dinged for no apparent reason. The series is getting built for TV so the car has to have the "personality" they are looking for.

I think Andy could pick up some DE points if he redid the paint with a Deltran sponsorship.

I got a radio from a 93LE that I could let him have, then throw in a GhettoBlaster for speakers. Who on earth could hate on that.

As you all have likely noticed, Photobucket is being stupid. I am in the process of uploading all of the pics to the Facebook account at OneLapMiata.com under Photos -> Albums -> Build.

Later, will go back and update all the links to point there.

PS: There are some behind-the-scenes pics of the flare job that have not previously been posted.

And so it begins again...

Been under the car for the last week prepping it for "Miatas at MRLS". Installed the freshened K24 that had been my NASA TT motor for the CRX (286hp), along with some new design parts from KMIata. Aluminum oil pan and race header shed 20 lbs and clean up the engine bay. The "bundle of snakes in the bay" Lovefab header was melting my wiring harness and fuse box. Wrapped the new one in DEI Titanium, and the stuff around it barely gets warm now.

Working on adding a splitter now...

It also looks like I'll be getting an invite to the Optima Finale at SEMA based on points. Against my better judgement, I am planning on going 'cuz that was the mission in the first place. So I have some D&E work to do in the engine bay, interior, and trunk.

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Very nice. I may do some wrapping myself this winter.

The start and stop of the wrap, is held by what? SS zipties?

Good luck at Sema.

It's just wire...nothing fancy. I take my time and twist it up like safety wire on the hidden side of the tubes.

Impressive build as it always is when Mr. Hollis is involved. I read the whole thread today while I should have been concentrated on work.
My co-driver and I chased you in STS2 more than a decade ago. My co-driver came close a couple of times (he was slightly faster than I) but never could best you.
I sold that car not long after our second STS2 season. I just picked up another NA8 after 10 years without one in the garage.

This is my ideal build, good luck at your next event!

Andy

how did it go at Laguna?
any lap times to share?

thank you

Didn't go. Found an oil leak at the front timing cover which i did not have time to fix. Also, got the invite to the Optima Finale, so decided to take the time to prep for that.

So, based on points we got the invite to run the Optima Ultimate Street Car Inivitational at SEMA. Never been to the show before, so we accepted. But, in order not to get embarrassed in D&E again, we did a bunch of work on the interior.

Found an uncracked full NA dash which we very carefully trimmed around the roll cage. Added back the NB center console to cover up the control box and pile of wires from the electronic shocks. Aftermarket radio went back in, and we were even able to get the dome light trimmed to fit behind the eyebrow bar. All original interior plastic bits were trimmed around the cage and reinstalled. All the trunk carpeting went back in. Installed matching Kirkey to the passenger, which we already owned. Car ended up right on the money for min weight (95% of OE curb weight = 2215) with an empty fuel tank. So no loss of performance.

Pretty happy with the result...


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Unloaded at LVMS...and found we had left some key bits of our newly-constructed splitter at home. Dammit. And since you can't work on the car once it gets put on display, there was no time to ship the stuff. Oh well.

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Here we are on display in Optima Alley, where tons of attendees come through. Had a ton of fun chatting with folks and just watching them oogle. Was totally surprised how much attention this car got, in deference to the American Iron surrounding it.

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Once SEMA week was over, we relocated to LVMS.

Day 1 started off with the autocross...we ended up second in class but were well back overall. With cool ambients (never got above low 70's) our huge RE71R's never came up to temp. Add blowing sand to the mix, and the cone dodging was a challenge.

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That night we did the Road Rally, which consisted of heading back into town through a huge back-up on the freeway...but ended up at the Shelby American plant. As a former Shelby owner, I really enjoyed drooling over all the vintage Shelby Mustangs and Cobras on display.

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For Sunday, we had to bop back and forth between the road course and the Speed Stop. The latter is a mini-autocross with a long straight at the start, a few wiggles and then a run at a too-short stop box. Launch and braking are key to good results. Given the lack of grip, and our lack of ABS...we suffered. Still finished second in class, though.

The outside road course at LVMS is pretty cool, though not rocket science. Each session we dropped about a second off the previous, though traffic management was tough. Lots of folks not playing nice, even though they seeded the field a la NASA time trials. Won our class on track.

D&E results were also announced mid-day, and we finished well back as we had at NOLA. We scored a lot more points due to our interior work...but in the stronger field at the Finale it was not enough. So for the whole weekend, we finished second in the GTC class. The class winner finished no better than 2nd in all the dynamic segments, but did well enough in D&E to overcome that for the win.

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Nice to see this car in action. And the fat rubber with the integrated flares is hawt, don't kid yourself.

One Lap 2018 prep has begun...real aero now on the car.


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