The shift to third. :rofl:

Why do you never wear your shoulder harnesses? Your upper body is getting thrown around so much seems like they would help.

We aren't allowed to use shoulder harnesses. We only have a two point lap belt.

Is this an obscure SCCA rule I've never heard of or some weird local club rule? I've never been given any grief for running 5pts down at the local level.

An open cockpit car cannont (and should not) use upper body restraints without GCR compliant rollover protection

You got that thing moving quite well these days. Have you considered adding a roll cage? I know its additional weigh but with the speed and grip you got it kinda makes sense.

At the same time, should a car capable of 2g's ever just use lap belts?

Specialty race car built to a purpose. This is like asking why Indy cars don't have fenders.

Here are a couple videos from the Z-Max national tour at the 4 wide drag strip in North Carolina. I got iced at the line on day one with my only chance at a clean run with any tire heat being the first car out after an unfortunate oil down of the entire course. I was a bit out of it mentally as I didn't know exactly where the oil dry was or how it would impact the car. I got out of shape on the entry into the slalom but recovered well enough to take home the 3rd podium spot in XP behind two multi time National Champions.

Day 1 Cockpit

Day 1 Outside

Day 2 Cockpit

Day 2 Outside

Just uploaded an external video of the car. It just seems to "jump" out of the slower elements now.

Just uploaded a couple videos from Spring Nationals
Day 1

Day 2

God that must be wild.

Y U No harness? I would think it would be much easier to control the car if you weren't hanging on to the steering wheel to keep from falling into the door or passenger seat, lol.

Your memory is short sixshooter.

What were we talking about again?

I think we were talking about how Superchargers are better than Turbos ;)

So, this years Solo Nationals and the weeks leading up to it were a TOTAL cluster.

First, I broke ANOTHER crankshaft. So between the Oscoda Pro and Nationals I had to rebuild the motor and test it before leaving.

Second, due to having no choice but to slap together a short block, I ran out of time to do all the usual Nationals prep. You know....things like getting the car aligned, corner balanced, nut and bolt everything....etc etc etc.

Well. The good news is we got the motor in and made it to Nebraska.

The bad news is...for the first time in 4 years we came home without either a Pro Solo or Solo Championship.

After I got home I started reevaluating a lot of things about the car and about our operation.

I have been spending too much time, energy and effort making the car accelerate and have neglected the brakes BIG TIME(using NA ABS and getting ice mode so often we are all 4 scared of the brakes) and not doing the simple things to improve handling. (When I got to nut and bolt the car after Nationals I found 3 of the subframe bolts finger tight...(that motivated me to finally put a NB subframe in this thing...going in this week)

When we put the Keisler spindles on the car last winter we were pretty fast early on. Beating a multi time XP Champion by over a second at a national event made us think we had "guessed correctly" on the setup and we didn't test as much as we should have.

We built a great tune up for Lincoln at Spring Nationals and when we got out there for Nationals the surface had changed DRAMATICALLY. Randall, Dad and I were reluctant to make big changes for fear of upsetting the car even more at the biggest race of the year. Finally on day 2 after the race was already lost we said effit and made some changes and the car was MUCH better. Morale of that story is we need to trust ourselves more in tuning the car.

All in all it was a year that 5 years ago would have made us proud....but is just unacceptable now.

Back to the basics, fixing some MAJOR ISSUES(BRAKES) and going to test test test for next year.

Oh....and we are building a oil pan to valve cover spare motor so we don't get caught like this again.

We will be back.

#SECONDSUCKS

Why are you breaking crankshafts?

Because very many horse pressures and fastly spinnings.

And because the BP belongs in a tractor and not a car that fast.

"She Thinks my Tractor's Sexy"

I kinda like my 23 year old tractor motor though.

I mean it has its pluses and minuses. I would be nice to drop 80lbs off the nose and stick a modern engine in there that was actually used in a pro racing series.

Is it time for one of these bad boys? https://supermiata.com/Billet-Crank-Mazda-BP.aspx

Or a K swap?**





**I am wildly unaware of classing rules and assume this is not class legal, tongue in cheek suggestion

SSM allows it but with a weight penalty for engines from other manufacturers so probably not worth the hit there. Without knowing enough about them, I always figured that an MZR with the kind of money this BP has put into it, would be lighter and ultimately make more power.

When I started this build the cross manufacturer engine swap was illegal and there was a meaningful "grey area" around the legality of some things related to the MZR.

At this point I can fix this new issue with the BP for significantly less money and effort that it would take to swap to a different platform and the last thing the car needs is more power.

The sole reason for doing the swap would be the weight removal.

And I am considering it, but it wont happen before 2021.

Weight removal is big, but having an engine that doesnt want to destroy itself and everything bolted to it at sustained RPM is also nic. And the proper cooling system routing is nice. But I can understand you not wanting to switch immediately since you have a lot more money tied up in BP specific parts, the only engine stuff I had to redo on my sway was all the exhaust and the intake piping, which was like a grand total of like $1500 mainly driven by wanting to be a 321 stainless baller and having the meme 3.5" full exhaust. I presume you have more into just your supercharger intake manifold than that.

I'm also very strongly considering a move to a manual brake system with dual master cylinders.

The brakes in my car have been horribly inconsistent and I'm ready to make some BIG changes.

I anyone have any real world experience with manual brakes on these car with ABS and big r comps?

Sorry to be a bit off topic but do you know how big the difference is between an MZR and NB VVT short block ?

Contact Emilio. He has the Tilton dual master in Vegas and should be able to tell you what he likes and the drawbacks we have encountered with it.

Assume the manual dual master brakes would be in addition to Mk 60 as well? With the cams and general setup you have, does your engine even have enough vacuum to make a brake booster worthwhile?

So I might be the biggest idiot in the history of idiots.

I was going over the brake system today and realized that when I re-plumbed my brake system like 3 seasons ago....I removed the "check valve" in the vacuum line "feeding" the booster.

I've been fighting intermittent brake boost for about....ohhhhhh 3 seasons.

I went to the back yard and cut the check valve out of the hose in that car...pushed it into the hose in my system....we will see next week if I notice a difference.

#IFeelDumb

Just relish in the fact it is a free upgrade!

How do you like your Bogart wheels? Thinking about getting a set and was curious on your thoughts.

You might be looking at needing a replacement booster as well if that doesn't fix your issue completely, it probably is not a fan of getting slammed with lots of instant on/off boost for years.

It never saw boost. It was plumed into the throttle body manifold before the rotor pack.

If you still want to upgrade, MSM abs doesnt get ice mode (from billy it seems non msm 01+ still can) and msm booster + master has the least amount of boost/firmest pedal. That was my brake setup and it worked really well.

I've actually already changed the ABS unit to something "non Miata" did that and tested at Bristol. It's the magic sauce.

I think I'm still going to go manual over the winter.

MSM and non-MSM '01-'05 ABS is the exact same unit (Mazda part number NC78-43-780)
Unless you know some undocumented MSM secret ...

Maybe I was always just lucky. But running similar setup with similar aged tires on the same course 1 car with known non-msm abs got ice mode and one with known msm abs didnt. Was the ABS like an ECU where the part numbers would be the same but it would need to be flashed by the dealer to your vin?

I've also not gotten ice moded with the MSM unit in my car.

The NB Miata ABS unit is "ancient" tech. If it were possible to flash it by the dealer everyone around would know it.
It was probably just driver's driving style (someone dancing right on the limit), suspension setup, etc.

With the new ABS unit we picked up .23g in braking over the really ancient 1996 ABS.

Not sure what that would translate to in pickup over the new Miata units.

You can feel the 4 channel setup move the car around under hard braking on course. It will take some getting used to, but it will be a massive upgrade over my "all ice mode all the time" old 3 channel setup.

FWIW I've never hit "ice mode" with my '01 3 channel ABS while on track or at autocross. I've had the inside front releasing, and I've had the rears releasing, always as expected with ABS. There is no part number difference in the NB ABS units, there is no way to flash them, I can't see how MSM units could be any different than any other NB ABS unit. They are completely standalone from the ECU and the two do not interact in any way.

First round of off season results were successful. First outing on the finalized new brakes and I think all went relatively well.

I'm off today for Columbus day and I'm starting the work to finally put a NB Subframe in this thing. We will see if it's really worth all the "hype"

I felt like I drove relatively well but was very timid with the brakes on day 1. But was only 3 10ths off Randall on day two(raw 6ths clean). I still say this guy is WAY underrated and still doesn't get all the credit he deserves as a driver.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c8302582de.jpg

Working through the off season and just got the new for 2020 Header. This this is almost too pretty to put under the car.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...be61b85972.jpg

Wow, thats gnarly! What size are those primaries? Look like collector goes to 2.5" then steps up to 3", any reason you didn't go straight to 3" collector?

The Primary tubes are 1 7/8"

And here is some information on the collector design.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/cams-carbs/

I was never able to use the ABS in Acamas on track, I would always pull the fuse. Running that car over curbs while on-throttle immediately preceeding a braking zone would set off the ABS before I even touched the pedal. My best guess was that the small amounts of wheelspin on heavy throttle while cornering was actually setting the ECU into ice mode somehow. I learned my lesson quite quickly. I know the Miata ABS evolved several times over the years, so I don't know whether the '02 ABS in that car was substantially worse than the 04-05 MSM units, but the ice mode was no joke in that car.

You're probably gonna want to turn the volume up for this one

Any a-b data on the header?

yeah, but on the msm's there are 3 different abs ring sizes and I think at least 2 different wheelspeed sensors depending on production date. So, I'm assuming something was updated along the way. It also locks the rears first then moves force to the front. So, if your rear pads go.... hold on tight lol.

Haven't posted here in a while.
We had another successful year.
Won both the XP and SSM National championships.
Not really sure what the next steps or next direction for the car is.
Full XP seems intriguing but I like the car being a real street car.
Seriously considering going away from the Torsen diff this winter.
After breaking the 3rd crankshaft I'm finally going billet, it should be here in about 8 weeks.
Other than that...not sure what to do to make the car faster. Open to ideas at this point.

Damn you won xp in an ssm car?! Congratulations man.

Nice work on the results :bigtu:

Ref the diff, I was very pleased when I moved from a Torsen to a 1.5way clutch type (3J Driveline, made here in the UK, similar to Kaaz). Don't have any back to back timing data but subjectively traction and predictability out of low and medium speed corners felt far better. I felt my old Torsen had an initial 'lurch' to it as it started working whereas the plate style, locking harder as soon as acceleration was applied through the diff, acted quicker and more seamlessly.

How are the cranks breaking? Do you think it is a harmonics thing from high rpm / power or the drive requirement for the supercharger?

Congratulations!

Are you at SSM minimum weight?
Is the engine significantly lowered or set back?
If it does not have drop spindles, in theory at least making a set would allow you to lower the wheel rate while maintaining roll stiffness. Which it would in turn increase mechanical grip.

Overall, the car is obviously very sorted. The first things that come to mind are further mass centralization and reaching the minimum weight if you aren't already.

Congratulations, I saw this earlier this week looking through the results. Very impressive.
Your car is an inspiration to me. This winter I’m going from DP to XP via an Ubercharger.

Thanks man. I appreciate it. I included my answers below.

I talked to Lugod about a OSG. I'm very intrigued about his tune for a "1.1" way setup. I think I am for sure going to try it out this winter. We run a YUGE front bar and don't have the issue of picking up an inside rear, but I do think corner exit is some place we might be leaving time on the table.

The supercharger is breaking the snouts off them.

The one Joe is building has a longer and larger diameter snout.

Eric I think you're underestimating how much weight the MZR saves on the nose. Especially if you do the lighter 2.0 bottom end with a 2.5 head. Remember my car was close to the same weight you are now (I was either side of the turbo 2.5L weight limit depending on which wheels I used) with way way less effort put into pulling weight after the swap and I was under far enough under 51% nose weight that if we started weighing in ssm with driver that I'd violate the 51% rear weight limit. So I wouldnt completely discount it, I think you'd have to do a custom bellhousing or go to a T5 trans though since there's no T10 to MZR/Duratec off the bellhousings that I know of, at least you'd get the exhaust to the side away from the shift linkage. Unfortunately you do have to move the steering rack forward which will move flip the car from having positive to negative akerman (or is it the other way around?), which there's the case to be made at auto-x speed and steering angles is actually beneficial, or at worst just a wash.

If you need any help setting up the blower, just let me know. I ran one of those in years past.

Nothing really to add other than congrats. A couple championships is a nice close to the year.