Project Track Rat: 1990 Miata

[SlimKlim]

The HP+ take time to heat up, which is a complete waste on an autox course. Your braking force will change during a run, which is especially hard to get used to without ABS. I highly suggest a compound that operates at lower temperatures. It also wont squeak as much and dust as much. IMO lots of people use waaaaaayyyy too aggressive compounds for autox, especially considering there isnt much braking in autox with an m3, gsx, etc, I imagine a miata doesnt even use them aside from taps, so id rather have a compound that worked at much lower temperatures.

Yeah, my intentions are to eventually use this car mostly on the track. However, it 's probably going to be next season sometime, and I can just buy a set of HP+'s then to throw in there if I want to. Until then its going to be street/autocross use, and probably the circutcross in october if I've sourced a roll bar by then (if stock seats and belts still). I'm probably going to go with the HPSs for now. They should be great for autocross/street use and ought to stand up to a circutcross or even a few sessions without complaining.

Since I don't have the means to do them for another few weeks anyway, I'm probably going to wait and go ahead and do SS lines now too. The slightly firmer pedal feel will be nice, but something about relying on rubber when I'm slowing down for turn 1 at Summit sketches me out a little bit. I'd rather have something that doesn't swell or wear or crack, and could get accidentally nicked with a power tool and not kill me.

[.RJ]

Since I don't have the means to do them for another few weeks anyway, I'm probably going to wait and go ahead and do SS lines now too. The slightly firmer pedal feel will be nice, but something about relying on rubber when I'm slowing down for turn 1 at Summit sketches me out a little bit. I'd rather have something that doesn't swell or wear or crack, and could get accidentally nicked with a power tool and not kill me.

You know the SS lines have a rubber lining inside, right? And they often arent as durable as OEM lines, require more frequent inspection & replacement?

If there isnt anything wrong with the stock lines (swelling, dry rotting, cracking, etc) then I wouldnt worry about them for street/autox use. Just because its shiny doesnt mean its better

[Kaan]

Just because its shiny doesnt mean its better

pot... meet the kettle

[.RJ]

Learn from my mistakes?

[D_Eclipse9916]

Since I don't have the means to do them for another few weeks anyway, I'm probably going to wait and go ahead and do SS lines now too. The slightly firmer pedal feel will be nice, but something about relying on rubber when I'm slowing down for turn 1 at Summit sketches me out a little bit. I'd rather have something that doesn't swell or wear or crack, and could get accidentally nicked with a power tool and not kill me.

You know the SS lines have a rubber lining inside, right? And they often arent as durable as OEM lines, require more frequent inspection & replacement?

If there isnt anything wrong with the stock lines (swelling, dry rotting, cracking, etc) then I wouldnt worry about them for street/autox use. Just because its shiny doesnt mean its better

Agreed unless their using a different lining inside (check). And if your getting SS lines, make sure their teflon coated. I only changed out my lines cause I had 146,000 miles on them. I keep em in my spares box though as they all looked good coming off. I dont know what my next set of lines will be though.......

[SlimKlim]

Learn from my mistakes?

I'll learn from them but if I go off track cuz I lose brakes you get to 'esplain it to my family.

I guess I'll save my $100 for now, do the spec miata guys run an SS line or do most of them use OEM ones?

[.RJ]

I would expect most of the SM guys replace them with SS of some form or another, if you're building a race car and replacing everything, then its just one of the things on the list that should be done.

That said I've tracked plenty of cars with OEM lines and SS lines, and I dont really feel like its a 'must do' for a street car. The lines I used on my old racecar were Stoptech, and 'seemed' very good quality to me.

[SlimKlim]

I would expect most of the SM guys replace them with SS of some form or another, if you're building a race car and replacing everything, then its just one of the things on the list that should be done.

That said I've tracked plenty of cars with OEM lines and SS lines, and I dont really feel like its a 'must do' for a street car. The lines I used on my old racecar were Stoptech, and 'seemed' very good quality to me.

Eventually this is going to be a track car that gets driven on the street sometimes, so the focus is going to be mostly on track stuff. I've been mulling over whether or not I want to cut to the chase and go ahead and rip the carpets out, and I'm deciding if I even want to keep the head unit. So I think I'll hold off on the SS lines for right now and put some FM or Stoptech high quality SS lines in there when I start doing more track days than autocrosses.

[Jake]

You should keep the head unit, or those 5-hour drives to VIR are gonna get mighty lonely.

[V1GiLaNtE]

^ and with no carpet they'll get mighty noisy.. and no thanks to the freshly removed headunit.

[Kaan]

I miss my AC on trips... Not when I work on the car. Pick your battles and keep the radio!

[Ken]

Unless of course, with Joey's luck, he finds a $1000 pickup and trailer combo. Knowing him, it will happen.

[navin]

hrmmm - those garages look familiar. I think you guys are down the street from me, if you needs or an extra hand let me know

[Kaan]

hrmmm - those garages look familiar. I think you guys are down the street from me, if you needs or an extra hand let me know

waaahhhh? i dont see your honda parked at the reserve!

[navin]

down the street = figure of speech Kaan

I'm in a townhouse in Fair Chase, live with Nick from DCsportbikes

[SlimKlim]

Update:

I got a pair of used front calipers with the brackets, sliders, and a set of pads with about 70% life for $31 shipped. I replaced the seized caliper and put the non-ruined pads on and the brakes are WAY better.

I drove it to work for the first time today and I have to say I love this little thing. Its sort of like driving a sewing needle, it just goes wherever you want it to. The world becomes your racetrack when you have no horsepower too, I find myself taking racing lines out of the apartment complex. There is a slight shudder at highway speeds, but I'm going to hold off judgement until I replace the wheels.

Other than that it feels pretty much perfect. I love this little motor, its super quick to rev match and the revs fall really quickly. The power band seems pretty healthy, it pulls with all its might from 4,500k to redline. Speaking of which, does anyone know what my redline is? There's a "soft" red on the tach at like 6,250, but it doesn't turn all red until 7k.

I got let out of work early for the holiday weekend, so I came home to play with it. I've always liked the sleepy eye look, and I found a way to do it for super cheap, so I went to radio shack and picked up a couple of switches.

I snipped the wire that closes the lights and ran them to a toggle switch in the dash. I wired a momentary push button in next to it. The idea is that you can leave the toggle on and use the lights normally, or flip the switch to the other position, use the car's control to close the lights (which it won't do because the circuit is broken), and then you can use the momentary switch to half close them.

HOWEVER, scumbag radioshack strikes again and the fucking toggle switch breaks as I go to put it all in the dashboard. *twitch* Of course, it breaks after I've glued it into place, so now I'm up shit creek until I can find another blank switch plate to do it all again. Thinking quickly, I clipped the tabs off the back of the toggle switch and just shoved it in anyway. Now I every time I turn off the lights I have to hold down the momentary switch until I can put a new toggle in.

Anyway, pics!







It looks a little goofy now rockin its shitty wheels and monster truck ride height, but it'll be pretty sweet when it all comes together.

This weekend I'm going to keep working on cleaning it up. I gotta degrease the engine bay, clean the interior again, repaint some trim, and hopefully I'm going to borrow a good buffer and really bring the paint back to life.

[Jake]

Redline is like 7,200 or something. Fuel cut is somewhere after that. The tach goes optimistic that high.

I like the sleepy eye concept but I think you'd be better served with them a touch more open. They look sorta broken right now.


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[D_Eclipse9916]

Congratulations you ghetto modded to put a ghetto looking mod on your car. Sorry hate it.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Congratulations you ghetto modded to put a ghetto looking mod on your car. Sorry hate it.

[Goodspeed]

Ehhhh....dislike. Never liked the sleepy look, it always looks broken, IMO.