Blackbird Fabworx Moby Dick
 

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376094172

Just finished this one.
Missing some stickers and I still need to wire the brake lights, but it'll be tested tomorrow morning at ACS Miata Challenge round 6.
Hoping to see a few more MPH around the oval, breaking the 130 mark.

Moti

whoa, that's pretty wild looking

I immediately thought about the moby dick Porsche 935 when I saw the thread title. Interested to hear how this turns out.

I love this car. Good luck!

Is that strictly for drag reduction? I'm not to familiar with aero past what I read on LeMans and F1 type cars.

Could you still add a wing for downforce?

Yes, it's all about drag reduction.
The tail was built as an "Auto Club Speedway" special, which is where we race this weekend.
ACS has 2/3rds of a NASCAR oval which is very fast, for a stockish powered Miata it's basically a really long straight, and then the infield is all slow corners which downforce wouldn't help you much.

The tail was designed in such way that I can still run my wing, all I need to do is to cut the two slots for the uprights to go through, the bracketry clears everything fine.

Moti

Perhaps white isn't the best color for a car of this design...:rofl:

Worked well enough for the original Moby Dick.
Besides, it's the kind of shit that you can get away with when your car works well... know what I'm sayin'? ;)

battle of the fish?

I'll let you know when my car starts to work well. :)

Sweet, that car looked awesome, I was honestly bummed that wasn't running...

do want!

As far as I was concerned, you guys had the most serious looking track car out there, and of course I love how you have the "windshield delete" option. :)

Keep it up Blackbird, How did you build it, because I love pics

Clocked 131-132 every lap and 133 on my faster laps.
Yep, the long tail works :)

I want to see a video of it swimming around the track!

What was the previous best? Notice any significant changes in the balance of the car?

Aerodynamics of the 60's works for Miatas too :)
Did you loose anything in the infield part?

Previous top speed was 128.
The balance was completely off at the beginning of the day because the shocks were set to deal with downforce since I normally have a wing on the car.
VERY oversteery!
I took the 3.25" splitter that I had on the car off, and bolted a smaller one instead... The smaller one was 2.5" but I knew it's still going to be too much so I took the jigsaw to it and made it a 1" splitter which reduces drag over not having a splitter.

With the small splitter and after turning some knobs on the shocks the tail settled down for the most part.
I was on NT01s that have seen too many heat cycles already, so mechanical grip in general was suffering... a wing might have made the infield less dramatic (especially T9, AKA the Dickhead), but any time made by the usage of downforce in the infield would have quickly gone away because of the additional drag when driving on the oval.

A few pics from the weekend -
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376412198

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376412198

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376412198

Including a good view from the back :rofl:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376412198

Moti

Awesome!!!! :D Glad it worked!!!


Wasn't there also a Time Attack 240sx running around a couple years back that had something like this as well? MotoIQ build?

If there was one, I don't remember seeing it.

yea, but it was more of a diffuser than anything and roughly 1/2 the size.

That's awesome.

Long Tail
 

Porsche had those long tails before "Moby Dick", and they always seemed to include vertical stabilizers. A cross-wind in those cars (at 240mph) would be a bitch. :)

Yes, I'm aware of that, but the 935 Moby Dick was *my* inspiration because I can already see in my head how Creampuff will look once the wing is back on it with the long tail.
It's going to be much closer to the feel of the 935 Moby Dick than a 917LH.

Moti

Got it. I can see how that tail will end up more Moby Dick than 917. Cream puff? That one I don't understand.:)

My Miata's name -
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376614904

Evil Creampuff? :)

Very cool to see this kind of work being done. Keep up the good work. Any chance you have run a comparable front setup without the tail?

This is the way I'm normally running the car -
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376666669

At times with a front wing too -
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376666669

Now available with a wing!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1380037652

Hmm so you say u had to reduce the splitter a lot to keep it balanced? Does that mean you lost quite a bit of traction on the rear end?

You're mixing it up.
I had to reduce splitter size when I ran the long tail without the wing.
Traction was just fine with the wing and the big splitter back in.

Any plans on diffusing the underside? I was really expecting that. Not that what you have so far isn't awesome.

Its been awhile since I checked up on Creampuff and I wanted to ask. What is the tail mounted to I see the brace bars near the tail lights and does it take the place of your trunk?

Thats going to be one massive diffuser when its built

I believe this is what you are talking about

They look similar, but one is for downforce using the ground effect and the other is a simple smoothing of airflow for reduced drag.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1380128429

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1380128429

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1380128429

Nerd's Eye View: The MCA Suspensions "Hammerhead" Silvia S13

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1380129158
You can see the supports of the tail in this pic.
It is a one piece design that replaces the trunk lid and the bumper cover.

The 240 looks like it has a diffuser and an extended bumper cover on it which was probably meant to do the same thing that my long tail does, only that my long tail is not covering any diffuser (yet) and does a cleaner job tapering the entire rear end of the bodywork down.