Creampuff
 

Figured out I should start a dedicated thread for Creampuff rather than crowd the Morpheus thread or derail the thread dedicated to the Rotrex I'm putting in it currently.

Brief history before we get to current activities.
Creampuff was originally a 2002 LS package, purchased October 2011 and was in an absolutely immaculate condition (and thus got the nickname Creampuff) -
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6238726cfc.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c6cc2c97b5.jpg

That didn't last very long, here it is a few weeks later -

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...41442d668c.jpg


And shortly after -

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...65f923269a.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5f1d6fbc86.jpg

January 2012 at the season opener of the Miata challenge (running in super mod) -

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f9878120e0.jpg

March 2012 was my first win with the car in Chuckwalla, Ryan's 2nd place finish made it a BFW 1-2 which was cool :cool:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e495953aac.jpg

By the time I got to Sonoma a couple months later, the car started sprouting aero bits, like the side fairing, wheel spats, NACA ducts etc.. The door into the rabbit hole has been opened!

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1b6ec7f9c4.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...84bb8ae89e.jpg

Did some fun laps with these beasts at the 2012 Mazfest.
Holy quad rotor sounds!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...742a53d3f4.jpg

Ended up 2012 with a new favorite paper weight -

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4b9a30bde5.jpg

Fun detail - Creampuff was running a bone stock VVT engine the entire time, and by bone stock I mean still factory header and airbox, ECU etc... Only change was header-back straight pipe.

2013 started with more aero!
COT twinsies (Feb 2013) -

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...363cf311f2.jpg

And more aero (Apr 13) -

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2be8667866.jpg

And then it was time to get a little nutty, and try a front wing for Sonoma which is all corners.
It worked, and the otherwise unchanged Creampuff went 3.5 secs faster still on the same bone stock engine (1:53 on NT01) -

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b87f428665.jpg

FWing was was too draggy for the long straights at big willow so it came off for the next round.
Go home Scion, you're drunk.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5756c13f62.jpg

And then came the roval event at ACS and this heppened -

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f73f916a2b.jpg

Found a bunch of MPH on the oval with this, and yes that is an LMP900 Pescarolo lapping with us mere mortals -

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...db825c44a6.jpg

However w/o the wing the balance was off by a wee bit -

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...11a58439d9.jpg

The wing was back for the next round which also included one of the pilot rounds for the newly forming SuperMiata series which I ran -

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...aaffc85302.jpg

Emilio and I might've exchanged styling notes (lightly) :rofl:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fc8a2db29a.jpg

Ended 2013 runner up in SuperMod with Ryan taking top step! Atta boy!

2014 saw a new livery along with V2.0 of the long tail at the opening round of the season.
V1.0 worked well for top speed but was VERY tricky to drive when it was windy, the tail moved the car around a lot.
the new version did almost everything as well as the first one but didn't display the same behavioral issues that the wind caused -

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...98eb8ec26a.jpg

Also made the switch to Penske shocks and never looked back, I designed my own extended travel rear suspension and still use it today.

Old splitter gave way to a new *bigger* one -

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7265ad3746.jpg

MRLS was a lot of fun in 2014, I'm bummed about missing it this year..

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...997ad98b6e.jpg

All the work on dialing in the car paid off by the time I got to the 2014 Super Lap Battle.
Clocked a 1:59.6, first time that any stock powered Miata crosses the 2:00 mark.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c78e7ac594.jpg

Video of the second fastest lap I ran, also a 1:59... as per freaking usual the camera was dead when I ran my fastest lap -

Following the sub 2:00 laps I went to the local dyno shop to see how much power the car actually makes as it was at SLB.
Did 2 pulls, this is the higher one of the two at an earth smashing 101.7 whp / 86.5 wtq.
Hilarious stuff!

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7f21a82456.jpg

After that it went into the mothballs for ~2.5 years, save an outing for the 2015 M@MRLS to give fun rides.
This brings us to 2017, and that's where I'll start the next post.

Thanks for the write-up. It's cool to see which way you brain works when we can see it as step by step changes to the car. I'm a bit surprised that stock 1.8 VVT makes only 101hp, figured it would be at least around 110 or 115.

It's interesting you've went with NB2 for this build, especially one in such a nice condition. I'm thinking about getting another Miata and trying to decide between NB1 and NB2. But come back to the later LS model due to larger brakes, VVT, LSD strut brace and other small bits as something that would already be on the car and won't require additional expense.

By the way is it 5 or 6 speed? Did that mater to you when you were looking for the car?

I'm sure it made 115-118 or so when I started running, but 3 seasons including a few over revs later... ;)

I was looking for a sixer and that's what it is.
In the video I'm running a 6 speed / 4.3 diff combo.

Great aero! I might have to use some of your ideas with my build :-)

Thanks!
It's actually getting a lot nuttier right now, I transferred a bunch of stuff from Morpheus when Creampuff was returned to use back in June, but even some of that is gone now in favor of lighter and more efficient aero.

So with Morpheus going into a long term project (Ferrari V8 swap) I needed a car to get my fix and Creampuff was an easy choice since it's been sitting here collecting dust for 2.5 years (dammit!).
The reveal of Creampuff V2.0 was done as a part of the get together we had at the shop for "Operation Red Pill" -
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...847bcb789e.jpg

V2.0 not only got all the fancy aero bit from Morpheus but also a matched paint job.
I know it's silly, but seeing the cars in a similar team livery makes me happy.

The first race was in June, we eyeballed it to perfection and went for an outing in which the car worked well so that was a good day in my book!

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0d8c37db1e.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...377fc03411.jpg

Rommel from Motolyric caught the car running with the DRS activated, good for extra MPH down the straight!

Then came round 4 for Global Time Attack's Pro-Am series at the infield of ACS.
Shocks came back from a revalve and had to be re-learned and re-adjusted to work the way I wanted them.. It made for a VERY exciting first session in which the car was nervous AF.
No good for lap times, but fine entertainment!


It looked pretty awesome too with the teeth back on!

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a979dbc084.jpg

This event however, made it clear for me that it's time for Creampuff V3.0 despite the fact that V2.0 was barely used for a total of 2.5-3 HOURS...
I was ready for more power, just getting tired of being walked on by e-v-e-r-y-damn-car going down the straight.
Screw it, let's throw a Rotrex on Creampuff and go faster, this crap gets old.

This brings us to these days, and more on that in the next post.

Why V3.0?
Because -

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c61877df66.png

:laugh:

I have this problem too....

Nice build, I'll be watching this for sure!

Fine example of the above -

Me: I'll get CF doors, that'll be the lightest I can go.
Me also: I should cut and sand all internal structure so it's even lighter...

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5d6b6af5c4.jpg

I bet you take laxatives before a race, because that's 8-10oz of weight reduction, amirite? :D

Just curious, what does your car weigh now?

No idea, haven't weighed it in a while... Should've been between 2000-2050 Lbs. when I started working on V3.0, hoping to be in the 18XX's when it's ready to hit the track next time.

I need to show this thread to the little women. Then she can better appreachiate my OCD. I put my level at V2.5, clearly Moti suffers from full blown V3.0 :-)

Creampuff V3.0 game plan -
Goodbye weight, hello horsepower.
Oh, is that you, better aero?
Didn't see you there, c'mon in!

So as the story went, after round 4 I reached my "fuck it" point and decided to go a bit faster.

Creampuff last event was run on a junkyard BP4W w/ MS3, I/ST/H/E and that's about it.. nothing special, maybe 130 whp?
The Rotrex is pretty self explanatory - seeing that people are putting 100+ additional ponies down using similar hardware I figured 220-240 whp should move the car along at a better rate of acceleration.
Yes I can make more power with other recipes but this is simple, easy on the pocket and I'll be entertained for long enough while building Morpheus.

Working with round estimated numbers, at ~130 whp and ~2200 lbs with me I should be in the neighborhood of 17:1 power to weight ratio.
~230 whp and ~2200 lbs puts me close to 9.5:1 power to weight which is a massive improvement but I felt like I'm kinda done holding back on the stuff I can do with the chassis so out came the grinders, the sawzall, the scales and the calculator.

I set a goal that I'm unlikely to hit but something to aspire to - 2000 Lbs with me in it.
Another goal was to try and improve the weight dist as much as I can, so stuff that can be moved around is being moved around and PMOI gets special attention.
3rd goal was to improve on the aero while doing all the above, because I can, and therefore I should.
Tall order, but I was ready to cook some radical stuff.

Easy weight -
Creampuff was still using the stock size battery @ 20 Lbs, I'll be running a 2.5 Lbs replacement unit. Boom, 17.5 Lbs gone.
Steel door skins are replaced with CF skins, that's another 16 Lbs drop (for both).
OEM dual fans replaced with a single high flow fan, -2 lbs.

Not so easy weight -
Bust out the cutting tools and the car lost WELL over 100 Lbs of sheet metal!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ada8e3f60d.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dbcc75b21f.jpg

^ This piece was cut *just* in front of the shock towers and weigh a hair over 38 Lbs, in case you were wondering.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dad093cf81.jpg

Less car, more go fast!

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...133fe8ff40.jpg

Don't worry, the stubs on the braces have already been shortened to reduce the weight.. :laugh:
Added some light structure where most of it went away, should be nice and stiff, weight penalty was kept to minimum.

Time consuming weight reduction (with major aero benefits) -
Redoing the front bodywork with radical tweaks, most of it is going to be CF.
Considering build wider rear quarters from CF as well..
Wider, lighter and big improvements on aero, for example the vented fenders that I used in the pics above are no longer being used (in fact that were sold yesterday..), those narrowed down the front of the rockers by approximately 6 inches from stock.
Rocker panels are now ~19" narrower from stock at the front! Nine-freakin-teen inches.

Other weight related stuff on the plate -
Looking into ditching the brake booster and going manual.
Straight pipe instead of resonator.

More aero -
Going to finish the diffuser before Super Lap Battle. Definitely.

Definitely get rid of the booster. Its only 5 lbs but high and on the heavy side of the car. We went with an 11/16" bore size with stock NA8 brakes and now have the FM LBBK and still feels great. Initially we went with a 3/4" bore which was great when driving in anger but was just a bit too much when street driving with the tire trailer in traffic.

Obviously my autox car has nothing in common with your build but personally I love the feel of manual brakes and thought I'd share.

I like the idea of manual brakes, a lot.
A Tilton dual masters setup would be nice but I'd like to simplify at least one thing for now and just keep everything the way it is minus booster and a quick tweak of the pivot to bring the ratio to the 5.5:1-6:1 area.
From my research is seems to me that virtually everyone ends up changing the MC and I'm not exactly sure why it's needed if the pedal ratio is corrected.. More research is needed.

Missing MRLS this year to concentrate on SLB prep means I'm at the shop stuffing heat exchangers into the nose while everyone's circling Laguna.
It's a trade off, but someone's gotta do it!

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...98a268c829.jpg

Great mods all round. You did similiar stuff to Brendan and I, we both made stock powered MX5's do record breaking lap times with aero and weight loss and some good driving. I am doing the same thing as V3.0 when I get the time ~ end of the year. Having several cars to work on doesn't help. The biggest difference is I am sticking with the fastback.

This is always interesting to watch, and I'd like to make a poster of that pie chart if you don't mind. :D

Did you have to do any unibody modifications for the rear Penskes? I'm interested to know what you're doing back there - also understand if you don't want to go showing your hand.

Oh, and I don't really need to comment on the aero being cool do I... I mean, I think you damn well know, heh heh.

Knock yourself out, send me one too :laugh:
* Some modification required...
The funniest thing about the aero is that the further down the rabbit hole I dig, the crazier the ideas get.
What's happening with the car currently is some seriously out of the box stuff, as if it was anywhere near the box before... I'm pretty much redesigning the entire front end of the car.

I'll let you know once I get a couple of those posters knocked out. Seems too perfect.

Just interested in the Penske solution as I'm doing a build for an SCCA roadrace class, and it sounds like you figured out exactly what I want to do in the rear.

I'm going with tube chassis stuff for an increased-craziness build, but it's really cool to see what other people have in mind.

Tube chassis not allowed in the production based classes of time attack (pretty much across the board), only in the catch all pro/comp class which I have zero interest in.
GTA specs out where the sheet metal needs to stay, I cut a lot of it but there's more to go.

Yep; I'm hooked on the wheel to wheel stuff, even if it doesn't allow as much technical freedom. I can kind of understand why the time attack stuff doesn't go that direction given its roots.

Totally understandable, W2W is fun!
I honestly enjoy the chance to build out of the box stuff so much that I can never see myself just sticking to some build recipe.

Tube frame front end is in the "one day..." category of my build.. nice to see a proper setup done to get ideas from!

Ryan stopped by at the shop today on his way back home from Laguna... He looked pretty excited with all the developments.
Also borrowed a 15x10 from him to do all the fitment stuff with the fenders so that's good :)

Lots of bonkers ideas going on with Creampuff lately. In chassis/aero avenues there's several never-been-done-to-a-Miata things going on, so there's a lot to look forward to seeing completed. Definitely making me jealous of the allowances in Unlimited class for how much you can cut/change, since I am, well, far more "limited" in several key areas in Limited class. Meanwhile I keep yelling at Moti to get the Rotrex on the car and get tuning going ASAP since a running car will beat a non-running one 10/10 times, but he assures me parts are swiftly in the works to make that happen. That's good because even in Creampuff's old state, just having enough power to not get left in the dust would have made the car really quick. But, to quote a favorite of mine - "if less is more then just think how much MORE more will be!" so Creampuff gets lighter and gains more downward forces in addition to the power bump. I'll be up at BFW in a few weeks to put in some long hours working with Moti on more aero for both Creampuff and my car. For science!

I'm excited for all of this!

Me too!
Like Ryan said, there's a bunch of never-done-before-on-a-Miata modifications going in.. Man, I can't wait to see what it looks like when it hits the ground!

Tight packaging between the rad, IC and sway bar -

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...589e940221.jpg

Fender flares?
Hold my beer...

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...57e2ecb493.jpg

I love/hate how you always crop your pictures tight to hide shit that's not ready for mainstream eyes. The tighter moti crops things, the crazier he's getting in the shop. 1/1 ratio.

ROFLMAO!!!

Making decent progress.
Wing is back on the car w/ new mounts and heat exchangers are mostly installed.
Waiting on part to get back from waterjet for the Rotrex install and foam to get here for the forming on the front fenders bucks.
I have yet to try installing the 245's on the back, let's hope it fits, because if not, my to-do list is going to get a good bit longer..

How rolled is what remains of the factory sheetmetal?

A 245 Maxxis goes under a flat rolled NB fairly easily.

Fairly rolled in the back, but I am looking to fit a 245 Hoosier which is probably like a 265-275 Maxxis (if there was one..).

Updated this on the Rotrex thread, but figured I should have at least a quick update here since we reached the point that the Rotrex is on and we're within a few pipes away from having it plumbed in -

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2f269a26d6.jpg

Nose packaging is pretty much done, now onto the million pieces of bodywork that need to be fabricated before SLB -

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fe7ab009a9.jpg

:drool:

Things are happening.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...06ef83f323.jpg

More pics...

All due time.
Working on front fenders right now, hoping to get the plugs for the molds looking right today and start working on the molds tomorrow or something like that..

I saw this on IG earlier. Not gonna lie, it gave me a chub.

Poured expending foam to the base shape of the front fenders.
This isn't the home depot variety foam, it's made for that kind of stuff being sandable and rather solid.
Should be able to start shaping tomorrow morning -

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...be0422b82a.jpg

Had Ryan coming to give me a hand today on Creampuff, drinking some beer and planning our way to world domination! Muaaahahahahahaaa!!
We also did some shaping and sanding on the front fenders, the driver side is nearly done, passenger side has a bit more to go -

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6a2e6ff360.jpg

Wow, you're mounting an intercooler where I barely had enough room to mount a Setrab oil cooler behind the now-vacant MSM foglight:
https://s19.postimg.org/6yl4g66o3/28..._Installed.jpg

I'd love to have a dedicated track car (and fab shop).

Hey, me too.. haha!



But yes, super keen to see more Moti, one day you're doing rear diffusers, the next you're doing front fenders. I almost can't keep up.

I'm still finding foam dust in strange places... :rofl: Glad I could lend a hand, the fenders are coming along great! Excited for SLB and how much the car will have transformed by then, and even more excited for the longer term world domination plans :naughty:

Seriously, if anything has a great shot at world domination it's that dust! It's everywhere :rofl:
Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

Haha, yeah it's crunch time and I have lots of things left on my to-do list some of which I'm unlikely to get to...
The front bumper is probably the biggest piece of the puzzle that is going to suffer the lack of time, it's a huge piece to fabricate and will take a while to shape. High likelihood of that one being some butchered Frankenstein version thrown together for SLB and getting redone after the event.
Mechanically the car is mostly done short of a few little things and dyno time.
The bodywork is definitely the biggest hurdle here, there's still soooo much that the car needs.. I'm probably going to go back to the crazy hours we worked before MRLS last year to finish Morpheus, starting at 4-4:30 am and finish whenever it gets too hard to see or stand.
It'll be glorious though, just wait until you see the full vision :)

excellent thread.

Rest under vacuum, my dear diffuser, I will see you in the morning.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5c5fcbb602.jpg

Creapuff's aero for SLB is going to be epic.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...91fc78319a.jpg

For context above, that is a full 4'x8' table with a total of 50 pieces of carbon, nomex, kevlar, etc.

That is for the first layup.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e144040b8a.jpg


https://imgflip.com/i/1yj5q5https://imgflip.com/i/1yj5q5

I believe this is turned to 11, then broke the knob off and superglued the stub so you can't even turn it with a plier.

It's a battle to the finish line.
SLB is right around the corner and we're well behind schedule on body work...
Some of you might be thinking "why not just use the previous body work?", and the answer is that the vast majority of it just doesn't work anymore.
We're doing new front fenders because we HAVE to do new front fenders, factory fenders can't even be bolted on this car.
The front bumper will definitely have to get Frankensteined for SLB, so expect some rough, riveted together piece. Carbon bumper will be built for the 2018 season.

Anyone has a width measurement of a 225 Hoosier A7 on a 10" wheel?
I'm going to buy the tires today and the rears are going to be a very tight squeeze with a 245, so I might switch down to 225 to avoid needing to deal with the rear fenders for now.

TL;DR - composite bodywork is a huge time suck.

Layup no. 2 before we started, currently under vacuum...

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d11c4eb7e1.jpg

No measurements for you but I did mount a 225 NT01 on a 10" wheel once. It was stretch city.

It's okay, already got a set of 245 A7's on the way, we did some rough cutting and stretching of the sheet metal on the rear quarters.
It looks, ummm, less than awesome, but it should clear the tires fine.
Anyway my intention is to flare and mold new rear quarters from Carbon.

And speaking of Carbon, my vacuum pump that was making some funny noises before I left the shop last night shockingly did not die overnight!
I should be able to get most of the new front bodywork in time, even if not the final versions of it.. The only part that will definitely have to be a Frankenstein patch job is the front bumper since there's no time to fabricate a new one.
Trip to the dyno is scheduled for afternoon today, I'll post results when I have them.

Fresh from the dyno, 274.6 / 227.1 on pump gas -

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...38727b2cd7.jpg

Surprisingly strong. Congrats!

What's with the 5.4 final drive ratio? Are you really running those gears?