played out car advice questions
 

i recently bought this car:

https://www.miataturbo.net/cars-sale...9-000-a-76369/

its pretty rad and its way more miata than ive ever had. i was just wondering where you guys would go from here? i cant make use of all the power it has now so i dont think i need power mods (even though i have a squaretop, a turbo and a bunch of other random things sitting in storage). so far the only thing i have purchased is 8 more track days. after my first event i noticed the car understeers often. i cant tell if its because my driving or the way the car is setup but i think there is room for improvement and i was looking here for opinions.

the next thing on my list is a datalogger once i can find out which one to get. i also think my endgame involves 15x9s and xidas but i dont know what could be done to help me get to where i can justify those kind of things by the speeds i can drive. any opinions would be awesome. thanks.

Personally, I think you are wise to be going to the track more rather than modifying the car. You are almost undoubtedly the weakest link right now. Work on consistency. Then, once you have a handle on the driver aspect of things, you can start to make changes and see their impact.

robert

I agree with Robert. I have done 3/4 of a season of wheel to wheel, doing alright (big thanks to LOTS of Rfactor for that) have won a couple of races and been consistantly top 2-5 BUT am only just now starting to appreciate what I dont know....

Lots of track time will make you gel with the car and learn that the car can just offer more and more as you develop.

Problem is a new car built someone else is just quietly begging you to make some personal "mark" on it....I know the feeling!!

I would say go for the 6UL's EXCEPT learning to drive on the skinnier tyres will be the best thing you could do. Skinny tyres and low power (relative to a turbo/supercharger) anyway.

I would also Seriously recommend a good steering wheel setup (logitech etc) and lots of time invested in Rfactor, iRacing or similar....MUCH cheaper than using up the car and a lot to be gleaned.

Awesome car, congratulations!!!

Get out on track and enjoy! :)

car needs a MSM rear bar. 500/325 w/ RB hollow front and stock rear sounds very front biased.

I ran 550/450 w/ the same sway bars and found that to be pretty balanced. I would also move away from the koni yellows before any more power is added.

The reason I suggest the MSM bar is because its more reusable than buying new rear springs. ie if you decided to swap to a certain popular shock setup used frequently here, then the MSM bar + RB Hollow will be a good combo.

thanks for the advice. i did plan on going with the msm bar after seeing how much sooner the front gave way than the rear and that was kinda confirmed by playing with the suspension calculator. i would love to ditch the yellows but im not sure i could put the xidas to good use just yet and i dont want to really spend money on some intermediate setup. i plan to stay on my 15x7 and 205s until that becomes a limiting factor and then thats when i plan to move to the 9s

yep, that's what I have done for the last couple of years. good luck!

Hi Anthoni- I think we met briefly out at Streets of Willow last month- I'm Dave.



Sounds like you've got a good plan, maybe invest in a rear sway bar and some instructor time as well. Otherwise- drive the wheels off that car, then spend money on suspension once you've figured things out a little more...


I'm trying to do the same thing- wait a while and drive on cheap suspension until I figure out how to drive more consistently.

(I may have missed it somewhere in the list of equipment but,) I think you mentioned some form of data acquisition, and I would definitely consider that.

I also agree it's wise to work on getting yourself up to speed in the car, and just working on seat time. Data acquisition is a very nice tool to help you get more out of your track time.

Congrats on the car.

oh hey man, i remember you. i really do think that a sway and a datalogger will be enough to get me to where i can be held over for a significant amount of time. i think my fastest time of the day was a high 1:38 at sows ccw so im sure im leaving tons of time on the table. i guess it wasnt too bad for only having the car for a week and being new to the sport.

im trying to squeeze in a trip to big willow soon and im planning on heading out to chuckwalla for a weekend in march. i guess i will just go from there.

Cool. I'll probably see you out at Chuckwalla- you going the 22nd/23rd?

Even using a smartphone timer app like racechrono has helped me a bunch. You get immediate feedback each lap and even down to certain sections to see if new techniques are helping or hurting. Way easier than trying to remember what you did on each lap of your last session.

nah but i wish. i ended up buying a bunch of track days with that extremespeed group because they ended up giving me a deal i couldnt pass up. i plan on being there april 5 and 6. im just excited to have a plan of attack and something to aim for.

Well, that is a pretty damn awesome car. I'd call TSE up and ask them what they think, it looks like they basically built that car.

yeah im pretty pumped on it still. i spoke with them briefly but they didnt have much to say. what had me most interested would be small upgrades with long term benefits. thats why things like the rear sway and datalogger are high on my list. the minute i think xidas would make me faster than $2000 worth of tracking would, ill make my move. as for now, im hoping that a sway bar makes for a more neutral setup but either way its hard to complain about the situation im in.

Nice car and builder, just leave it alone and drive it for a year.

Worry less about your fastest time and more about the spread from best-to-worst. As you get consistent, the speed will come naturally.

This! You can't fix an inconsistent driver. Work on being consistent. I run laps that are within tenths or even hundredths of a second between them. When you overlay data, they're practically indistinguishable. That's a driver that can try new things, whether we're talking about a new line or a new tire or a new engine, and really see what difference it makes.

Consistency will bring smoothness, which will bring speed. Speed comes naturally, it isn't something that can be forced.

robert

i get that its important. i only brought up the time frame to show that i was leaving some serious time on the table. i only had two sessions on the day so i didnt expect to have any sort of consistency. i guess ill see what happens when i can devote an entire weekend to the track day.