shanem

iTrader: (1)

i went out to the annual toy run at eagles canyon raceway near Ft. worth this weekend. I managed to get my gopro out of sync and got one photo of my final session where i set a new personal best. i was testing out a drift hd camera though, even though i was only able to mount it upside down in the small space of the miata. the video is narrow, but the upside is this is the only video i have of the car where you can see the speedo and get an idea how fast I am going.

i have a Solo GPS verified time of 2:02.527. Last time i was out in November i put down a 2:04 and change. The second session I dropped that to a low 2:03. the third session i had massive overheating issues and a passenger. the video above is the fourth and final session. I had some issues in the early laps, but i stuck with it and all turned out well.


it's worth noting that the weather was ~40 in the morning and warmed to ~70. i taped up the hood exhaust vent and the bumper opening to see if it helped my cooling issues. The car rapidly overheated in the morning sessions when it was cool and wouldn't cool down until i was practically at parade lap speed.

i pulled the cover off the hood exhaust vent the next session, it made no change whatsoever. the final session i pulled the cover off that bumper opening and the car stayed cool while i put down PB laps and beat the **** out of the car. the only difference in the car this last session and the last track day out where it overheated constantly was that I got some air out of the radiator.

I can say at this point that the bumper opening does in fact help cooling on this car. i can only surmise that the massive new style FM intercooler blocks so much of that stock opening that the bumper opening helps. It also cooled back down much faster with the bumper open.

Lap times below, i was instructing and doing lead follow laps so some of those are crazy high, the red is my best lap.