Project: 1995 Miata

[Jake]

Small update.

I have a second seat coming as Carrie & Joe got new seats for their car and sold off the old ones. I'll have my Sparco Sprint Junior from Scott, and a Momo Start 2007 from C&J. I have not ordered brackets for either seat yet. I want to sit in them both and see which one I want as the driver's seat. The Sparco is pretty big so it could be a good passenger seat. Carrie had this Momo on her pass. side, although she's far smaller than I am.

I can get pre-made brackets for the Sparco from GoMiata.com. Not sure about le Momo. Carrie said I will have to hammer on the trans. tunnel to make the Momo fit, which is fine by me.

Also got a set of bawlin' red 6-point harnesses coming. The guy who sold C&J their new seats passed along the harnesses, and they have no need for them.

So. All of this is coming to me at Summit next weekend, and should be in the car by the October event.

[Maengelito]

Because Rollbar!

After three years and countless "I will, soon!" empty promises to Maeng and others, I finally got a rollbar installed.

I know I'm really late and I already "liked" this on facebook, I just wanted to point out that its no longer an empty promise. Are you going to be driving at Summit next weekend?

[Jake]

Summit Point - August 20/21 Wrap-Up

I got new brakes on Friday night (Hawk HP+ front, HPS rear) and holyshit they stop the car. They can out-brake the tires even at 80 mph. Gave myself a bit of a scare on Saturday morning's pace lap - I locked everything up going down into turn 5 since brakes and tires were still cold - but once they get warm they are great.

The car performed as expected, which is to say, great. My tires are showing their wear and will be due for replacement shortly. They'll do fine for VIR in October, probably November too. Definitely need to have some new rubber for the 2012 season. I am also rubbing the left front tire against the fender liner on hard right turns. It's not hitting the fender so I don't think there's anything to be concerned with there?

It's leaking some oil at the valve cover gasket, so I'll do that before October as well. Not a hard job at all and pretty cheap.

Car keeps running like a top with 110k on it. I have seats and harnesses ready to install so they will go in before October. Then I can stop using the sides of my knees to hold myself upright in any hard turns.

Obligatory photo on track, thank you to David Lonnquest:

[Kaan]

Your head is not below the roll bar!

[Jake]

Your head is not below the roll bar!

It will be the next time you see it in this type of environment

[Jeff]

This little car has come a long way. Are those the same wheels/tires I put on it for you?

[Jake]

This little car has come a long way. Are those the same wheels/tires I put on it for you?

Yes they are... tires are due soon, and I'm contemplating a strip-and-repaint of the wheels in a different color when the tires come off.

[Jake]

I posted this in the ZRT gear thread, but just for posterity's sake, the sticker went on today:

[Jake]

VIR Full - October 8 & 9

I think I put a whopping 500 miles on the car between the August event and this October one. It got a new valve cover gasket and oil change after August, as it was leaking some at the back of the valve cover. I think the leak has stopped (or slowed greatly) so that's good news.

Had a great weekend at VIR. Cannot be happier with how the car did and how much I learned. I am finally piecing together the tidbits I've picked up from each weekend and making something cohesive from it all. My instructor was really solid - he drives a Cayman S, so different power level - but good communication and understood how much of a momentum car the Miata really is.

Some highlights from the weekend...

• The "foamectomy" that Joey helped me with was WORLDS better than totally stock seats. They aren't race buckets, but have some sort of bolstering now. I still had to brace myself a few places, but not nearly as much.
  
  My brakes have a lot more in them than I was initially using. Once they get some heat, they can STOP you, very quickly. This was good to realize, notably for Turn 1... lots of fun to come in there pretty hot, brake very late and get the turn-in right (or close).
  
  Coming out of T1, I was downshifting to 2nd gear to stay in the power band. This helped, but then halfway through T2 (i.e. still in a right hand turn) I ran out of gear. I had a few options... use 3rd all through T1 and bog, use 2nd and shift mid-turn (not too ideal) or use 2nd and bang the fuel cut for a few seconds. I alternated between options two and three with varying success.
  
  Finally got the entrance to the uphill esses pretty good. The difference in speed based on how you set yourself up in that first left-hand curve is amazing. Probably 6-8 mph based on that approach and subsequent follow-through at each other curve in the esses.
  
  Oak Tree is getting better for me as well. I'm downshifting twice there, once from 4 --> 3 and again from 3 --> 2. They showed us more of a "momentum line" in the classroom, which I tried, but still found myself wanting 2nd gear to power out (relatively) of Oak Tree, as the car is just gutless below 4k. It's also gutless on the back straight. Did manage to pull about 110 into the braking zone though... it just takes a long time to get there.
  
  Learned a new approach to T14/14a, where I approached more mid-track (versus far right) and changed the angle of attack for 14a/15. This kept me faster and once I got confidence in that whole process, was effective.
  
  Was solo'd for most of Sunday. Nice vote of confidence (instructor said I was "driving the wheels off this thing") and it's good to be forced to think for yourself, versus having someone in your right ear telling you how to approach things.

So. Good times. I'm more comfortable in the car and its capabilities now, and that does a lot for track confidence. Hoping to drive in November, gotta talk to Felton about that.

Things to do now...

Oil change before November event
Install seats/harnesses
Remove passenger door panel and clean out the oil I spilled down the door/window
New tires for the spring (Star Specs?)
Strip/re-paint the wheels a new color
Wash/wax if I'm feeling really ambitious

[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.

[navin]

Footage of the 4 wheel off is NECESSARY! I think you said you had the GoPro on for that...

You were really moving out there d00d, looking forward to driving more events next year in the same group. I wont pit in either

[Jake]

Footage of the 4 wheel off is NECESSARY! I think you said you had the GoPro on for that...

You were really moving out there d00d, looking forward to driving more events next year in the same group. I wont pit in either

Both times I had a GoPro on the car, it didn't record. It was on the car for the wanna-be-a-Subaru moment and then... fail.

I wonder if Finish Line got any snaps of it. I'll watch for that.

Thanks! You better stay out there next time and not pit right before giving me the middle fi- I mean, point by

[Cody]

I'm bummed the Go-Pro didn't record.. heard you got a good picture of yourself though :lol:

[Jake]

...yeah No video this time. I need to learn to work the stupid camera, so maybe I'll get video one day.

[Jake]

Woo, photo of the Gravel Express:



I really should buy a few pix from Finish Line.

[Jake]

I washed and waxed the car for the first time since, like, June. It's a kinda crappy wax job but the paint is so bad that I don't need anything resembling perfection. I think I parked under the same tree that Joey did, since both of our cars were covered in sap. He did something about it, I uh, didn't. Maybe I will at some point.

It looks pretty good, but it's definitely a ten-footer:



Wheels are going to be re-painted as soon as I get the tires off. Time for a new color.

[Jeff]

Looks sharp in the pics man. Yellow rims.

[Jake]

I needed tires without giant flat-spots on them before the upcoming VIR weekend, and when I was at Evan's place looking at seat brackets, he asked if I needed any wheels. My reply was "with what tires?"

So I bought his ATS Comp-Lites, 15x7 (I think) with some who-knows-how-old Azenis on them. The wheels cleaned up very well. The tires are terrifying to drive on in this cold. I'm commuting on them since I sold the E34 and my replacement DD won't be here for a week or so.

Pic whore time!





The K1's are staying around, too. I need to take the tires off of them, and strip/re-paint with more time invested.

[Goodspeed]

God those wheels are so sexy. I loooove my 6ULs but if I wasn't so poor at the time I would've kept those Complites I got from Maeng. They work so much better on the NA though. Big approve :thumbup: And I stand by my fbook comment, they poop on K1's

[ScottyB]

those wheels are made for that car. nice hookup Jake.