Miata Challenge website
 

Does anybody know what's going on with the Miata Challenge website/forum?

It says it's been under maintenance for months and hasn't been updated for three months. The forums are completely down.

Just curious, I don't know who keeps it up usually, but being a newcommer to the MC series and being so excited about it, I'd like to see more and more guys coming out to these events, be able to follow the standings after each race, etc. With a non-functional and out of date website it's kind of less than encouraging..

Anybody in the know?

-Ryan

While I'm not in the know, I too am curious. No website updates, no race reports, no standings, no results = not a way to build a series.

Moreso than the website being dead, I'm wondering if MC is dead? :confused:

I sure as hell hope not... there are those of us who are very excited about it. Heck, I'm even probably bringing one or two other newcommers into the series soon... but I can't deny that I've wondered the same thing. Yesterday, there were two Unlimited cars - Gordon (trackdayhookey) and another, three Mod cars - myself and two others, and a few street classers. Off the top of my head I can think of six "usuals" who were not there, including Emilio..

Keep it alive!!!!!

SuperMiata and 949 Racing
 

Website is being rebuilt. My host, Network Solutions, lost the entire archive. Never backed up, no explanations. I did get a refund but that can't rebuild all the forum archives that vanished forever.

New website will be better integrated, much faster, backed up in two locations and generally make more sense. 949 Racing and SuperMiata will be all new sites. MC will remain a page under SuperMiata.

15 cars at Chuckwalla Miata Challenge this weekend in searing heat. Texas and East Coast going strong. Screwed up website notwithstanding, the series is doing fine. When the new sites are built, we can get back to growing it.

I started the series but have no real time to devote to promoting it. Sonny posts event announcements on all the forums. It's grown rather organically, word of mouth. Always on the lookout for a marketing assistant just for MC. Someone to maintain the site, update forum, find sponsors, bask in the glory of a job well done, etc.

Emilio - thanks for the update! With the website down, and I might have missed it but didn't see Sonny put up an announcement for Chuckwalla anywhere, I was just concerned. You're right though, MC is driven by each individual who has a passion for these cars and the track, so unless they were to all vanish, MC won't either. Looking forward to the new website!

There must have been 10 cars in street class because the results page taped to the side of the trailer had only two Unlimited and 3 Mods.

And amen to the searing heat. In 90* my temps are solid.. I don't know how hot it got but by the fourth session (~1:00 PM) it was so hot that I could only get two fast laps in before needing to do a cooldown lap. Hard as a rookie to find the rhythm when changing the pace back and forth like that.

I'm a newcomer but if there's ever anything I can do to help, I'll always be available.

-Ryan

Ryan, what are you using for a radiator? It's pretty easy at this point to set up a turbo car to run in 110*F heat with no problems.

37mm Koyo, 20-80 antifreeze/water mix + a bottle of water wetter. Your old trucool oil cooler setup + ducting.

I actually noticed because coming down the front straight I heard pinging. Looked down at the OPG first and it was twitching. Looked at the gauges and oil and water were both in the 230's. :crx: A cool down lap brought water back to 210 and oil to 220, and then no pinging.

Are you saying it's time for the dual-core? :D

I can ship one today. ;)

http://trackspeedengineering.com/sto...ator-p-83.html

Well it looks like at low boost the ATP turbo studs are holding, so I had better save a bit and put my money into the radiator.

Glad to hear it's not dead. I guess no new is good news afterall :laugh:

I hope when I make it back there will be more people in the unlimited class running regularly.

Seems like the nature of the beast - Unlimited cars are so tweaked that they are often under the knife, either for repairs or changes

*cough* Sav *cough*

Pretty soon people will be forgetting what his car looks like ;)

...Although I guess Emilio takes the cake. When was the last time the OGK was at a MC event?

I have to drive over to the shop to remind myself. Its ok, my project car is just as slow as his and my DD is even slower.

my Unlimited car is now down to Mod. so one more bit the dust.

I was at 230whp, not like I would have a chance against Sav or Gordon's beasts.
this past month, trackspeedengineering has convert my car into an Enduro (will be running Thunderhill 25 hours race) race car, now making 140whp......

but at 140whp, the car is very competitive in Mod class (my old SM never had a chance). In its first shake down, just days after Sav went through it. Car went 1.5 seconds below SM record :) . there is another second in it with more fine tuning.

Good lord that's awesome. So it's the NB, but naturally aspirated? Still any aero? What brings the motor up to 140? I'd be interested to see what you chose to keep and what to toss to bring it down to Mod.

I was planning on making it to Chuckwalla, but I had a couple of customer projects to finish and deliver, and there wasn't enough time to properly prepare my car for the event.

I'll be back for Laguna for sure, though. New motor is assembled and ready to go. Going to spend a LOT of time on our chassis dyno getting it dialed in - 400whp or bust :D

stock motor, but with cold air intake, header, exhaust, square top and ECU. it is not tuned yet, so not making over 140whp yet. hopefully another 5whp once I get it tuned and with a stronger motor (old 100k miles motors has had 3 years of track time on it, 1/2 of that FI. it was going through 2 quarts of oil per day)

no aero (but will do a NB2 nose and lights, for better lights for enduro), not enough points to run them, but very tempted. doable if I install OEM sway bars (NASA points).

and typical suspension mods. XIDA, sway bars, 6UL, and a Giken.

it is one ugly car right now. green front bumper from one donor, white hood from another, white top and trunk from Gordon, primer rear bumper.

Wow what a transformation. Great, another Mod class car for me to lose badly to :) and an ugly one at that.

With 140 whp, that car is only down ~40whp from me, which when you factor in the weight difference, is not much of a gap. I've got nothing!

years.. sigh

I focus on the business, everything else takes back seat. The OGK doesn't make money or time, it sucks it like a damn vacuum cleaner. So it sits in the corner collecting cool parts that never get bolted on. Meanwhile, other simpler builds come and go.

Finally got the Whammy™ 2.0L motor for it from my engine builder. It basically has every single trick I know. CNC ported, big valves, custom cams, every surface coated with either WPC or thermal rejection, etc, etc. Built for a C30-94 Rotrex and should comfortably make 375-400whp on E85 at about 8000rpm. Builder says it's safe to 10krpm but I don't plan on finding out. Probably make 210whp N/A too. I'm now looking for a way to get a sequential transmission in it.

It will run on a track again. It will make beautiful noises and shatter lap records.

Is this on E85, 93, or race gas? If you do make 210whp, I will hate you and you don't want that. I'm kind of a big deal.

Seriously though, I hope you do get to that point and we can start making some serious N/A power. I know you aren't going to spill everything on it, but what are you doing for those levels? I am going to retune mine and hopefully be in the 165whp range, but we will see. It's basically the OGK motor with 11.5:1 pistons.

Glorious.

And I don't think anyone blames you for being so busy - that's a great sign for the miata community. Can't wait to see the OGK decimating once again some day.

Haha so your telling me Gordon is they only one in unlimited right now? I cant even put my car back together until my doc clears me to be able to walk again so I don't think Ill be able to get to the track anytime soon.

Hell, at least you have an excuse.

That would be on E85 too. We know 165whp on pump gas is easy with 100% Mazda OEM parts. A bit o' cam, compression and E85 brings that to 185 or so. The extra 30whp comes with whole bunches of cam mostly. The coatings, big valves, displacement, head work also add flow and friction reduction.

Nothing terribly innovative though, just standard race motor building stuff (lots of it). EP motors are near that on mostly stock parts. GT3 motors way past that.

So I thought I would bring this up again as the miata challenge website is currently out of existance... I wanted to look up something in the rules for the series and found that it's completely gone. I presume this was done because a new one is coming and the old one was very out of date, but I'm wondering what the ETA on the new version of the site is - we at least need a list of events with the dates...

Bumping this up for more info.

Will there be an East-Coast schedule for 2012?

Would be great to get an update

i know what your saying. i ended up making a page on facebook for Tx region. seems like that would be the easy way to go for now.

Continued issues with hosting provider. I hired a website builder/IT guy to extract whatever content he could from the server. I guess I'll put up a single page with the rules for now. I didn't have a copy of the 2011 rules on my computer so I'm crossing my fingers he was able to save it.

We're working in the new site now. It's very complex and will take a while to build. Integrated CMS for Supermiata (All Miata parts and activities), Miata Challenge (division of SuperMiata), and 949 Racing, (wheel stuff only). Blogs, galleries, forums, dancing girls, you name it

Dancing girls? ...worth the wait.

Thanks for the heads up. A quick page with the current rules would be fantastic.
I'd like to compete in quite a few of these next year - I want to get the car sorted through the winter.

2011 Miata Challenge Rules hosted on our server until we have the new site ready.

Thanks Emilio!

By the way... has something changed in the points system? Perhaps in the points allotted for wheel widths? Used to be that I was 15 points with no rear aero and full doors, now I added it all up and with rear aero (diffuser and wing) and gutted doors I come in at 15.25... which is EXCELLENT because I want to run in mod - my car has no chance in mod, but even less chance in unlimited... but just checking because I think it used to be different...

-Ryan

Rules have not changed since January.

For 2012 we're looking dropping Mod by 1-2 pts then creating a new "Super Mod" class at 14-17pts, 17.5 or above would be Unlimited. Too many lightly modified daily driven cars with R compounds having to run against trailered F/I cars.

While the new CMS sites are being built, we'll relocate the forums and bring them back online. Hope to have the forums back up in about two weeks.

Thanks for the update emilio.

To making 4 classes, I say "meh"... unless the classes are just getting swarmed with too many cars..

The trailered F/I cars are all in unlimited, and no lightly modified R-comp street car is going to be running in unlimited. Myself for example, yes I am F/I, but to be so and stay in Mod I have to run a disadvantaged (non-R-comp) tire and cannot do as much gutting. That 5 points for the turbo really limits other things.. the hot car in Mod right now is a 15x9/NT01, caged car with full suspension/torsen and N/A 150 whp. I think it ends up being pretty even... if only I could drive well enough ;)

Here's the problem we have now:

Street class winning times: ~2:10
Mod class winning times: ~2:05
Unlimited winning times: ~1:55 and dropping fast

A class for cars like my race car circa early 2009, or VagaXT's MSM, makes a lot of sense - cars that are 2300+lb machines with ~220whp that are capable of a 2:00 or a high 1:59 in the right hands.

I bet there are a lot of guys who would bring their street-driven turbo car out to play with us, if they had a class to play in. Right now they feel like they are bring knives to a NATO conflict :giggle:

Well yeah, why do you think I removed my diffuser to stay in Mod? ;)

If making a "super-mod" class might draw more people out who are currently on the fence, I'm all for it. I retract my previous statement.

My car pencils out around 16 points but it would be a lamb to the slaughter against some of these caged monsters. +1 to a class that lets a turbo car on NT01s and coilovers avoid the big boys... :inout:
-h

In TxMC, the turbo cars running NT01's and coilovers "are" the big boys :bowrofl: