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It's a Modena V8, not Italia... I'd love to get my hands on the Italia engine, but there's a ~$30K difference in cost between the two..
But to your point, yes, the sound in my face is one thing I'm looking forward to, and funny enough it's one of the things that are better on the 355 and 360 Modena than it is on the 430 and 458 Italia.
Meanwhile I got Creampuff back up and running so I have something to drive while Morpheus is down for the swap, went to GTA round 3 this weekend at WSIR and had a good shakedown.
This is the first time I'm running anything competitive in this car since 2014 and first time running WSIR at anger since 2013... I did a fundraiser day at the big track with Morpheus just a couple months ago, but it was mostly with passengers in the right seat so no real go-fast stuff.
It's hard to define the differences between Creampuff and Morpheus, on the one hand it feels right at home, but on the other hand it feels different... The seating position in Morpheus changes the feeling because I am much further back.
Also the air flow over Creampuff's front cowl seemed to be kicking me around more than it does in Morpheus.
Ran a 1:35.9 in the first session just feeling the car out, I was happy with it and thought it's a good start for the day since I knew I was being very conservative.
As it turned out, the harder I ran in the next sessions, the worse the conditions got and I didn't get a chance to improve upon my first session time.
Bummer, but I know I drove better as the day went and got much hotter (mid 90's) and windier.
Had one scary moment coming into the braking zone of T1 and had the car completely out of control all of a sudden, nearly chucked it off track!
With the thought I must've broken something I limped it back in and started looking around when I found out that my pit neighbors lost a front main seal on their engine in T1 just a few seconds before I got there and coated the track with oil.
All in all, a good day!
Pics courtesy of Amanda Gift / SNAPS Studio, enjoy!
Using the DRS down the front straight -
BTW, I ran out of time to redo the teeth on the new front bumper, but they are coming back!
It won't be a crushing disappointment, just a slight touch is all. I personally think the front end looks a little cleaner with no teeth. But its just my opinion so, you do you Moti!
Running this weekend with GTA @ ACS, and (as usual) the car received some updates.
This time it has a new suspension tune being tested, a divider between the air filter and the rest of the engine bay and a new paddle setup replacing the DRS button -
... not fussed about the teeth but those eyes need work, how about these with the iris in Blackbird Fabworx Blue?
... or given the nature of this forum:
GTA rd. 4 is in the books and I'm ready to move on to having more power, just getting tired of being walked on by e-v-e-r-y-damn-car going down the straight.
Screw it, we're going to throw a Rotrex on Creampuff and go faster, this crap gets old.
Few additional takeaways from the event -
Revalved Penskes were so off in the first session that they made the car VERY difficult to keep pointing in the right direction with the tail trying to take the lead in almost every corner.
Made for an entertaining video though (uploaded in 1080HD)
I did dial the shocks back into submission as the day progressed and the car was mostly back to its usual grippy self by the time everything was said and done.
Paddle style DRS switch works much better than push button, but we're going to ditch the electric actuators.
I had an actuator failing on me during the first session which screwed me up for the entire day.
I did some minimal amount of diagnosing track side and came to the conclusion that the actuator failed internally, eliminating the DRS function for the day... Sadly, it seems that the advertised capabilities of the actuator to withstand the harsh environment is not on par with the reality.
It's a shame as the DRS would have been very helpful in the long run of the front straight.
The positive take away from this is that the fail safe mode we designed into the system to default to the high downforce config worked exactly as planned, so there's that.
The Stoptech brakes are unbelievable.
I ran out of tire before the brakes felt like they were even close to being maxed out.
It's hard to overstate how impressive those are, and that's with the 11" rotors that seem to get some flak here for not being 11.75"...
If you're going to track a Miata and allowed to run those in whatever class you're going to run, buy yourself a set, they are well worth the price of admission.
Also nice was the fresh disco ball helmet design.
Yeah, it's a silly thing but I had a little laugh every time I looked at it...
Pic above courtesy of Snaps Studio, thanks!
More pics to come!
Nice. Curly has a Stoptech kit now on his Smurf as well. But, his ability to make brakes cry for mama is somewhat suspect ... but we still eagerly await his review!
Have a couple options on DRS actuator, still weighing the benefits and downsides of each version.
The good news here is that most other options don't require changing the rest of the system, it's nice to know that we nailed the packaging part.
Rotrex stuff arrived at the shop and my initial thoughts on how to set it up seem to package well.
The C30-74 will be located at the bottom of the engine bay right above the steering rack (the bracket may become a future product, for now it'll be a one off).
Why not using an available bracket you ask?
Because ain't nobody got time to stick a chunk of metal at the top of the engine bay!
The intercooler is going to be packaged on the right side of the bumper at an angle, making the piping run rather short and with very few bends -
IIRC the reservoir needs to be mounted above the blower which is obviously not going to be an issue, and everything else would be a piece of cake to locate above, below or inline with the blower.
06-05-2017, 08:39 AM
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