Project: 1995 Miata

[Jake]

Summit Point Main - November 5 & 6

These recaps are nice to have. I guess they go along with the "project" vibe.

OK, so in the days leading up to this weekend, I had to track down a rattle that I had around 3k rpm. Got the car up on jacks the Wednesday prior to the event and tightened the two bolts for the heat shield, and fixed said rattle. Also elected to get new brake fluid in the car, since the old stuff (Super Blue) had been in there a while and had a lot of track time in it.

Well, I go out to the car Thursday morning and decide to drive it to work, since the afternoon promises to be good top-down weather for motoring. Get in, start 'er up, get out of my complex and notice the brake pedal feels odd, maybe. I decide to try a hard "panic" stop in the middle of Random Hills and it stops fine, locks one wheel as always, no problem. So then I continue down Random Hills and get in the turn lane for Waples Mill. Clutch in, brakes, I said br-BRAKKEEEESSSS. Pedal had nothing. Managed to stop the car, promptly pulled a U-turn and went back home.

Popped the hood and the master cylinder was almost bone dry. Didn't have time to mess with it, so I took the BMW to work (now featuring Less Heat, story to come). Investigated after work and the right rear bleed screw didn't get tightened all the way. When I panic-stopped on Random Hills, I shot all the brake fluid out of that bleed valve. Oops.

So... throughout Thursday and Friday I re-bled the brakes about six times to get air out of the lines (thank you David and Kaan and Joey) and the pedal felt pretty good again.

</saga>

Track time was good this weekend. Sessions were a bit longer than the norm because of no race groups. My instructor (Adrian) drives a Miata in TTE and really knows the cars well. He had me braking later, not braking at all in a few points, and really adding speed. The brakes felt pretty good all weekend, and Adrian let me borrow his power bleeder to try and get more air out of the system. Not sure if it helped but it was good to do it.

Had an "oops" moment on Saturday, second session. Adrian told me to try and not brake going into T4. He said I could lift, but no brakes. Okay. The problem here is that I got mixed up and thought T3 was T4, when in reality T3 was indeed still T3. So, we took T3 with no brakes at 80-something mph. I ran out of skill and the car ran out of tires.

Went four-wheels-off exiting T3, slammed into the gravel pit (which is lower than the track by a decent margin) and I jammed it back in third gear and kept modulating the throttle as we were bouncing around. Got back on pavement and started a tank-slapper, but I was determined to keep going and not spin. So, we didn't. Got 'er straightened out and kept on keepin' on. Adrian then complimented me on my car recovery skillz.

Didn't do any damage other than smacking the frame rails around a bit.

Got solo'd somehow after that little excursion. Had a great end of Saturday and all day Sunday. Really added speed going between T4 and T5 (the whole no-lift thing from Saturday paid off, once I learned where T4 was) and came in too hot a few times to T5. Thank you, brakes, for working well. I locked dem shits up a few times and it finally got me on Sunday afternoon.

I now have a decent-sized flat spot on the front left tire. Still drove the rest of Sunday, ain't no thang. It's a good thang I was ready to replace the tires with something stickier anyway though.

Thinking I will stay in DE2 for at least a few more weekends. I'm learning a lot each time I go to the track and I'd like to keep that going. The Miata still runs like a top, is still slow in a straight line and has not broken anything on its own.

Oh, and my dad did a Hyperdrive on Saturday in it. He's hooked. Mom is next.