sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

I've done champ at Sebring. And I've been running a turbo Miata there for years in various iterations.

Turbo sounds like a bargain on the points. It can be very reliable if done right but you must eliminate failure points. I'll be happy to help.

Midtenn

iTrader: (15)

As a fellow Miata driver in Champ Car (RPM) I'll give you a few things I have learned to make a Miata competitive from our experiences and others.

1. Reliability: The car has to be there for the entire race. If something breaks, improve it, don't just fix it. For example at NCM this past year we found that our crank angle sensor had died. Tried others and the issue persisted. So we found that the OE connectors are problematic. So we pulled all that stuff out, went with much nicer connectors, new wires all the way back to the ECU, and reinforced/supported the crank angle sensor harness/connectors better. I missed the first two or three years the team I am part of ran, but overall we spent 3-4 years with an unreliable car just fixing and improving things. It takes time. Most of the top Miata teams (or teams in general) have been racing for years.

2. Fuel capacity: Miatas are slow, so they need to make up time on the track while the fast cars are in the pits. Maximize your fuel capacity to get a full 2hrs driving 9-10/10ths. Simple things first. Swap to a 1.8 car tank and move the vent to the top of the fuel pump assembly. This will net you about 13.75gal of usable fuel. 14gal to totally dry. If you need more it'll take some work. Surge tank (0.5gal) and moving the fuel filler to the passenger side (0.5-1.0gal). With a 100% legal system, we can put 15.5gal of fuel in our car. Dry race, we can make 2hr stints driving flat out with 135-141whp (BP4W). Rain? We have stretched the car nearly 4hrs on a single tank of fuel. Its a much talked about and even copied by Momo Champ.

3. Team: Consistent drivers and crew are really overlooked. We have 4 drivers and 1 crew with us most of the time. During a pit stop, we all have one set of duties, so there isn't much wandering around wondering what needs to be done. We can do driver changes (from pit in to pit out) in around 3 mins. Only about another minute to take full fuel load. Driver skill really helps too. We aren't turning the fastest laps, but we're fast, consistent and reasonably easy on equipment.

4. Worry about power: That is where we are. We've gone from being a team that was usually in the top 5 if everything went well, to fighting for the top 5 with perfect races. We ran a 140whp BP4W (on Champ Cars dyno, so we aren't afraid to share it) for two years. Other teams are going much faster. We have some ideas to get more power and retain our 2hr fuel window, but its taken us 5 years to finally decide to focus on power.

WastedAccounts

Good stuff. Thanks.

1. Our car is reliable right now. Like, unbelievably reliable for a newer team (only 2 seasons) and I'm very hesitant to make any changes.
2. In will look into this. Only getting 1hr 40m right now.
3. I believe this. I wish I could get a solid team. New drivers and renters every race is a huge problem if you're looking for consistency.
4. Who doesn't want more power? I've been playing with the rules a lot lately and a turbo is the only way to get more then 160hp and be under 500 points. Complexity adds problems though.

Midtenn

iTrader: (15)

We've discussed turbo's a few times, but the BP isn't really fuel efficient to start, so adding a turbo is only going to make it worse. We have a few ideas we're still tossing around with the focus on wanting to retain our 2hr fuel window at our current pace with the option to have more power when need to push or defend.

ryansmoneypit

iTrader: (6)

a pit stop for fuel is a guaranteed 2-3 lap loss each time. if you only made it1.5 hrs per fill up, you would be 4-6 laps down, minimum, If everything goes perfectly. Just from refuel. closer to 10 laps if you catch some bad yellows.

making it 2 hrs is paramount IMO.

Midtenn

iTrader: (15)

In a series that mandates a 2hr max stint time, for sure. We could just eek out 2hrs with the modified vent stock tank (14gal total capacity) driving at 8-10/10ths for the fuel stint. Yes, we currently have to push the whole race to do well. We'd like to reduce the need for that and hopefully limit out driving errors.

x_25

You are gonna want to go read up about the Frankenmiata. It's been running Lemons for over a decade using a flipped stock manifold, turbo out the hood, junk built 1.6, bipes, rrfpr, and putting down 189hp to the wheels. It is totally possible to make a reliable endurance turbo car with proper care. (The secret here is they have two garrette engineers and several other auto industry engineers on that team and spent a lot of dyno time getting everything dialed and set up nicely).

If I remember right, the initial motor, which was built from 4 smashed together junk 1.6s, lasted 130h on the track.

ryansmoneypit

iTrader: (6)

they have also had about 10 years to figure that platform out.