Really? Another Miata thread....

[rherold9]

i think novice/retiree drivers in purpose built cars are the most dangerous combo, even worse than noobs in overpowered stock cars.  there's just too much size/speed/commotion inside the cockpit of those cars for people like that to deal with anything else outside of their sphere of concentration of just keeping the thing on the road.

sucks and i hope they slap him with a penalty.  for a while there you guys looked like you could have put the cruise control on and just draped your arm out the window to catch a breeze.

I mean yes, I'm sure things can be more busy in different cars but if you can't handle it and be track aware then you are not qualified for TT, not even HPDE3 if I'm being honest. 

Scott Blair said "wow, that's pretty bad". He will be talking to him and his father in the orange truck which is a little faster but still causes similar issues for faster cars.... His father isn't nearly as bad, imo. I've been behind and around the orange one but didn't have too much of a problem in comparison!

I'm not the fastest, but shit I'm sure as hell track aware of all other cars. I'm pushing myself to get better at flaggers. I never miss a flag but I could for sure practice seeing them sometimes even sooner. Sometimes in a session I get in a zone and have to tell myself to look ahead a couple of turns for flaggers as I realize I'm not. I usually always am looking at the flaggers one turn ahead. IMO, awareness is 100% more important than any type of speed. It's a rampant problem that seems to be getting worse as time goes on.

Edit: I will say when I did HPDE3 in Great Lakes I did not have a single problem. Their drivers are what I would expect out of HPDE3 drivers. Fully aware of everything. It really is not hard to predict and see either a) how fast a car is approaching b) what type of car it is c) what your strengths are and how you can easily let them by without causing any disruption or how you can push and leave them in the dust in certain places. I will say Great Lakes region is doing HPDE3 right! Mid-Atlantic is starting to come around and I think the event at PittRace in July with Great Lakes significantly helped that

[Kaan]

Other than being ready to bust people back down to group 2... I'm not sure its really helped anything. Then again some of my issues were with comp school cars in the "cross over" sessions.

every time they run a drill, we end up in a train.... because the disparity between the cars is high and there is no fixing that (as a guy in the slower car). But I guess that's why they only make us do it for two laps lol.

[rherold9]

Obligatory on track pictures

The Miata driver in his natural habitat on the straights



Exit of T10 but missing the curbing on slow Saturday laps



Body rolling into T9

[Goodspeed]

So pretty, want to touch the hiney

[rherold9]

This season prep/preventative maintenance list:

• New plastic rear window
  
• Strip weight
  
• Front/rear class + number stickers
  
• Diff fluid change
  
• Transmission fluid change
  
• Oil change
  
• STA-BIL in gas tank
  
• Eastwood rubber brake line mounts
  
• ARP Wheel studs + open-ended lug nuts
  
• RX8 front hub upgrade + new rear hubs
  
• Rain tires (maybe good street tires? Yokohoma ADVAN A052?)
  
• Chassis bracing
  
• Good Win Racing stiffer motor mounts
  
• Flyin Miata exhaust hanger replacement
  
• TDR Super Cool Kit (moves everything  behind radiator fan out of the way to provide better cooling and includes lightweight battery)
  
• Brake ducts (c6 z06 fog light ducts + awr hub ducts and ducting)
  
• Singular hood vents
  
• Rear bumper cut to crash bar
  
• Sell stuff to make money back lol
  

Mid-season/as money allows:

• Ride height adjustment + alignment when current tires wear out and switch to take-off Hoosiers
  
• Full replacement of all bushings with PowerFlex Poly + new ball joints at the same time
  

Future seasonas money allows:

• 2.5 swap + cams (cams for upper rpm power)
  
• OSGiken Diff + 3.73 NC Miata European pinion + gear
  
• Possible new exhaust
  
• Dyno detune for smooth power band (~160-165 whp average range based off my weight)
  
• Aero + minor alignment changes
  
• Cage it + race safety + fire + race care accessories/extras
  

Doing it is this way gets all the minor things out of the way to support the major upgrades in the future!

[Evan]

FWIW, A 2006 MX5 qualified on pole an finished 2nd in T4 at the SCCA Runoffs this year, finishing 2nd to a 15 time runoffs champ.

[Senor_Taylor]

Didn't the rear window come messed up when it was delivered with the hard top? What's the story there.

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[JPolen01]

Didn't the rear window come messed up when it was delivered with the hard top? What's the story there.

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It looks janky in the photos above, but I am not sure what it is supposed to look like. The black trim doesn't seem to follow the shape of the window.

[rherold9]

You can see on a past page when I got the hardtop the day of Hyperfest it was hazy plastic. I tried cleaning it with a headlight kit and it got worse. Just been using the tinted blue convex wide angle side mirrors I put on the car for glare purpose when I used to DD it. They have worked well on track for the wide angle as well. Not necessary to do but might as well get it done!

[Scott]

• Cage it + race safety + fire 
  

This should be your winter priority.  It's a dedicated track car and you are going fast enough that putting in a cage should be the first thing you do this winter, long before any performance upgrades.

[Senor_Taylor]

You can see on a past page when I got the hardtop the day of Hyperfest it was hazy plastic. I tried cleaning it with a headlight kit and it got worse. Just been using the tinted blue convex wide angle side mirrors I put on the car for glare purpose when I used to DD it. They have worked well on track for the wide angle as well. Not necessary to do but might as well get it done!

It came defective. So you should contact the vendor?

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[rherold9]

Got bored, enjoy:

[rherold9]

Got off my ass and did something to the car after it was sitting for 3 weeks...

Got the car on stands. Track wheels with sticky tires are stowed in garage. I then decided to start just removing stuff:

Fog lights
Passenger seat out
Passenger 6 point out
Factory 3 points out
Random metal pieces
Bose Amp(this thing surprised me with how heavy it is for it's smaller size)
Windshield/a-pillar plastics + heavy metal soft top center mount piece
Center speakers on roll bar
Soft top release on roll bar
Bluetooth Module
Removed glove box
CD from previous owner that somehow got behind plastics
Airbag is almost removed except the only two screws holding it in didn't want to budge... The 4 bolts for the brackets holding it came out fine of course... I'll probably be drilling the screws out. Not wasting more time on that crap. I had a ratcheting wrench and screw driver on it and wasn't budging, just kept popping off the head

I think overall I probably pulled out 70-90 pounds of junk tonight, not including the fog lights as brake ducts will replace those

Still a good amount left too:

Passenger airbag
Headunit
Random plastics under and around dash
Carpet
Sound deadening
Door plastics
Door speakers
Door whatever I can remove behind there
Glass side windows

With lightweight battery this season I'm hoping for 2480 or less with driver and 1/4 tank of fuel. To benchmark, this season I was 2630 with 1/4 tank

There's also still soooo much extra wiring from all this crap from the Grand Touring model. I'd bet 15-20 pounds of wiring easy can be removed as well. I may have a professional shop mess with the wiring. Don't trust myself to not mess that up. I'm cool with audio wiring, etc. But removing things from main harness scares me. I may wait on this until I cage it too

No fog lights:




Good bye passenger seat:




Test fitting the new driver's seat for ultimate weight reduction:




Before:






After:






Hidden gem from previous owner:




No idea what band this is. When I looked it up they are from Cville. I bought the car in Waynesboro so that's pretty cool I guess:




No glove box feels weird. This is getting more race car like:




Race car?:



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[Jake]

Niiiice. It's fun to pull stuff apart like that. You'll make a decent bit of money back if you sell the interesting bits, too.

[ViPER1313]

Removing stuff from a harness is easy. Cut / disconnect, turn key.... does it start? Great... continue. No? Hook that ish back up.

[Kaan]

this is a slippery slope. make your long term plans now. to include how much more you want/need to remove stuff from this car.

[rherold9]

Niiiice. It's fun to pull stuff apart like that. You'll make a decent bit of money back if you sell the interesting bits, too.

That's the end goal. I already know a couple pieces people want and I haven't even posted anything for sale. Just posting I was removing weight out of the car on the NC Miata FB page... Hopefully can get most of it sold since it's nicer Grand Touring stuff

Removing stuff from a harness is easy. Cut / disconnect, turn key.... does it start? Great... continue. No? Hook that ish back up.

That sounds too easy. I assume audio wiring will be easy. Other things will make me a bit nervous

this is a slippery slope. make your long term plans now. to include how much more you want/need to remove stuff from this car.

What do you mean? You talking about wiring or what? What things would I need to plan for?

I'll be doing as much wiring as I'm comfortable with once the dash is pulled and ready for cage building next season. Don't want to touch wires until I know where they fully go through the firewall, etc.

[Kaan]

wiring and everything... will this car meet a long term driving goal for you? remember trying to sell the Mazda3? Selling a dedicated track car can be at least that frustrating.

[Senor_Taylor]

wiring and everything... will this car meet a long term driving goal for you? remember trying to sell the Mazda3? Selling a dedicated track car can be at least that frustrating.

X2. Selling an NC cobbled together won't be the easiest thing. You're about to cross the point of no return.

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[rherold9]

I'm set on the car for now with the next couple seasons. I'd like to see this car through. It's doing quite well for how under-prepped it is with a low experience driver.

I'm not putting the car back together to try to sell it. That was a previous mistake that sucked ass. I already made my decision when I pulled the soft top, that it was track/race car time. If I bin it, depending on how hard it is, next season (don't plan on it) I'll part with what I can and either try to sell it as a roller or send it to the junk yard.

No idea about long term goals. Just run what I brung in what the car fits in so far. Long term goals are just would like to get a car to the rule book for once and see what happens from there. May or may not stick with the car forever, who knows.