Eric Anderson's Supercharged SSM Miata
#549
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Chattanooga, Tn
Posts: 1,234
Total Cats: 283
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
Day 1 Cockpit
Day 1 Outside
Day 2 Cockpit
Day 2 Outside
#557
Senior Member
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Chattanooga, Tn
Posts: 1,234
Total Cats: 283
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
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
Last edited by TNTUBA; 09-21-2019 at 04:58 AM.