Really? Another Miata thread....

[Evan]

let me know how you like 'em.  that's the go-to pad for the Si people that track a lot so i'm trying to feel out if they'd be worth it some day on mine for occassional track use.

Hawk has a new pad the Street/Race which is a tweaked version of the DTC-30. IMO it would be a better hybrid pad for a light car with occasional track use.

[ScottyB]

let me know how you like 'em.  that's the go-to pad for the Si people that track a lot so i'm trying to feel out if they'd be worth it some day on mine for occassional track use.

Hawk has a new pad the Street/Race which is a tweaked version of the DTC-30.   IMO it would be a better hybrid pad for a light car with occasional track use.

cool i'll check it out.  60's are likely overkill for my skill and power level for a good long while anyway.

its not a light car though, easily 3100 lbs with me in it compounded by poor front rotor airflow and undersized discs.  but that's a story for another thread.

[rherold9]

Two days from leaving for Summit I thought I should probably get my butt in gear and do things. I noticed my Stoptech Sport pads were getting lower on pad life after a quick look with the wheels on, pedal having to travel further, and the red ebrake light flashed (low brake fluid according to online). I checked on Monday for low brake fluid and yup sure enough the brake fluid was low. Meaning the Pistons are extended far = low pads.

Without inspecting I ordered new pads and new rear rotors. I had new front ones already.

Rotors and pads got here this week. Decides to go out around 7:40 to get started. Jacked the car up, took all 4 wheels off, and went to town.

When removing the front current pads I noticed how low on life they were haha.



If I was lucky those would probably be one HPDE3 weekend and would have literally no material left.

I noticed also how scorched/hot the pad got and how some of the pad was slightly crumbling (I noticed them slightly crumbling in the same edge spots after the first hard HPDE3 weekend).



I did not get a chance to do the rears tonight but they have a little more material left. Easily one HPDE3 weekend and maybe half of another.

Overall, they lasted 3 weekends (22 total sessions that are 20 minutes long) and about 2-3k street miles before replacement. They held mostly together with some good abuse of late and hard braking not dragging my brakes. They could have lasted about 4 weekends if I pushed it. But I like not worrying about losing brakes on track . I'd definitely recommend these for lighter cars dual duty (street/track) or beginners! I had no problems with fade but they sometimes had inconsistent pedal feel.

Got both fresh rotors on and got the new DTC-60s on for the front and called it a night around 9:00 after a quick front bolt check. My only thoughts are I hope the 60s last more than 4 hard weekends or some brake ducts will be in order. Seems like that's a lot of wear. I've been thinking race pads should last close to a full season or at least 3/4 (~8-9 weekends)? Would rather not be replacing pads on a Miata more than once a season...





I'll be finishing the rears tomorrow, along with finishing a bolt check, adding some rubber tape to where the brake line hoses were rubbing, and fixing the hard top to have a small amount of weather stripping, and clearing the hard top rear window. This is so I can transport the Miata with the hard top on to and from the track if it's raining and have the interior not get totally soaked! There is a gap between the side windows and top I'll hopefully mostly be able to seal

[Goodspeed]

This was looking mighty fine (and fun) at Summit at Saturday. Keep it up!

[rherold9]

This was looking mighty fine (and fun) at Summit at Saturday.  Keep it up!

Thank you and thank you for the pic!

Recap:

This weekend I decided to ask for a TT check ride. Edgar hopped in my 2nd session and we were only out 3 laps before he said I was good for TT. His shortest check ride he said. I'll take that for a good ego boost. The rest of the weekend was uneventful and I had a blast. I gave ride-alongs to Brandon Itkin and Ryan Allen.

Saturday evening basic sunset pic between T9 and T10:



I decided to send the car on the 1st session on Sunday morning and was running some consistent low 1:27s. With the fastest of a 1:27.1x. That's an improvement of 1 second from April Summit and I still have areas I can improve on! Just to put that into perspective, that's on par to what Spec Miata and SE30 guys were running. I'm running 2690 lbs with a half tank of fuel and ~155whp peak (vdyno estimate)



[video=youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN-TIBPqwg0[/video]

My only goal for the weekend was to focus and push hard in T4 as that turn has always been my weakest link. I mean it's the fastest turn and the one with the most margin for error and carnage if you get it wrong so most people take it easier there. Well, on two of my faster laps below in my YouTube video I hit 100mph and 103mph through T4... Some other fast laps I was hitting 98-99mph. In April I was hitting 95-98 max. A significant improvement which made me very happy and now I know I can consistently push through there that fast without a hiccup. Now I just need to realize I have to brake harder for T5. Plenty of brakes to do it as well.

Only issue I found this weekend was there is an easy 1/8" camber wear on my driver's side outside tires. The outside is basically a slick and the inside as about 1/8" more tread haha. This is after I increased my front tire pressure 2psi as I felt them rolling over. 31 cold front. 27 cold rear. I need a lot more camber! Time to call Kevin @ FlimFlamSpeed as he has not replied to my email. Need more cambers asap. Also going to flip the tires to save them as long as possible.





It started raining in the middle of the 2nd session on Sunday. After it was done I decided to pack up and call it a win even though there were two sessions left. Rather take the weekend with stride as I knew I achieved my goal and pushed the car pretty well to lower my times. It's only halfway through the season so I don't want to play too much and risk anything especially with my tires turning to no tread.

Side note: First time loading the trailer in the rain not on pavement aka wet grass and rocks. Just don't even attempt it... My rear tires shot out the wood from under the car and the car would not grip wet grass at all. After my second attempt I decided to just pull the trailer onto pavement to load and headed out.

[rherold9]

Entering T3:



Booty exiting T10:



So much body roll through T10:



Smooth sailing through T9:



Oh snap that's Chris pointing his camera at me. I should say hi. What do I do. Throws up hang loose...

[JPolen01]

I like the two tone look on this car. You should paint the top white or silver if you're still going to paint it.

[rherold9]

I like the two tone look on this car. You should paint the top white or silver if you're still going to paint it.

You are the 3rd person to say that and I totally agree. I was surprised that it looks good in just the shipping primer white. Doesn't match anything but gives it a good contrast and just works for some reason 

[Scott]

Having just spent the last weekend around several of NC T4 cars at Summit, paint it body color, they look amazing.

[Evan]

two tone miatas are the best miatas.

[ScottyB]

looks pretty good as-is, but man i'd love to see that top in a charcoal or carbon wrap.

great shots btw, this continues to be my favorite NC miata

[rherold9]

[rherold9]

A little update as PittRace approaches in July I wanted to knock some things out with the amount of time I have between track weekends.

Whiteline Camber Bushings came in:



I've talked to FlimFlamSpeed and he said he could get them in on time for PittRace in July. I'll be calling him again to get an appointment setup. In the mean time I will be lowering the car as said and try to get all these parts on!

I've been constantly monitoring temps at each track weekend to be sure I'm not going to kill the car. At Summit Point in June I saw a 221F coolant temp peak but averaging 215-218F most of the time when I was consistently beating hard on the car for 20-25 minutes. Ambient temp was 86-88F on Saturday. As I know VA can get upper 90s and even low 100s during late summer I decided I should probably just get a new, bigger, race radiator now vs waiting until it's too hot and I can't finish a whole track weekend in the coming few months of heat. This will for sure give me peace of mind about temps. If I'm already hitting 221s I bet I'd see 240s in super hot conditions which would pretty much mean my oil temps would be in the 290-300 range aka rip engine.



It's so pretty. Almost don't want to install it and just hang it up somewhere. CSF "race" radiator. Definitely won't be having any issues with cooling.... Core thickness of 32mm, header thickness 37mm, 2 row, and I'd bet double the fluid capacity over stock. I will of course be running distilled water and water wetter



And last but not least I decided to move on from my current header in the car. The GWR Street Header has been perfect for what I originally intended but even though the catalytic converter is high flow, it is robbing some hp. It's also always in the back of my mind the cat is slowly melting away over time due to the heat of track abuse and eventually cause a problem which I don't want to deal with. I was planning on picking up a race muffler and a uncatted double resonator midpipe but after a quick call with GWR they said there is no point. I wouldn't pick up anymore power compared to the current HH midpipe and street single. I appreciated the honesty a lot!

Luckily a few days after calling GWR, the same header I was going to buy from GWR popped up used. This one was their ceramic coated version where I was going to get the standard max power header. It was also cheaper than a new GWR regular max power so I said why not and snagged it. Here are the pics before it was sent to me. Looking forward to getting it on!

[ScottyB]

nice score, dem pipes is purty. whats the new expected power level? will the stock ECU play nice or are you intending to get a dyno tune for it?

[rherold9]

nice score, dem pipes is purty.  whats the new expected power level?  will the stock ECU play nice or are you intending to get a dyno tune for it?

No idea, dyno's for these cars are all over the place. I'm just hoping for another 3-5 hp. I currently have a remote tune aka street logging tune or 3rd gear pull logs. I'll check up with my tuner with some 3rd gear logs to see if he'll update anything or not

[Goodspeed]

Mmm, super pretty radiator & header. Looking forward to any dyno results, of the real or butt variety

[rherold9]

Mmm, super pretty radiator & header.  Looking forward to any dyno results, of the real or butt variety

I'll do 3rd gear pull logging to vdyno. Should be close enough to show delta gains at minimum. Just need to be sure I'm at the same fuel level for same weight so I'll be sure I'm at full fuel level.

[rherold9]

Quick update, no pics, just words.

Oil change with 5W-20 Castrol Edge Extended Performance full synthetic and K&N filter. On first pour my funnel fell over and dumped oil on my header, header blanket, and alternator. Smelt good when letting it idle to check oil level

Next, I decided to lower the car as mentioned previously. It now sits at 12.75" driver's side static. ~12.65-12.7" passenger' side static. 13" static driver's side rear. 12.9" passenger's side rear. It may drop a hair as I drive it more but I think it will mostly stay where it's at. Stance looks good now. Waiting to wash the car and borrow Cabell's DSLR for some pics.

Header is still on it's way from Texas. USPS is so slow. I ordered from Good-Win-Racing in California the same day the header was shipped out and the 02 extensions already arrived via Fedex ground. Le sigh... I will start working on the radiator this weekend sometime and get it done when I get it done. I will remove the old header while I'm in there working on the radiator. I assume the header will arrive next week (I hope) and immediately just install it when it gets here...

I will send the car to FlimFlam hopefully by late next week and it should be done just in time for PittRace

[V1GiLaNtE]

Waiting to wash the car and borrow Cabell's DSLR for some pics.

Ricer shoot Sunday? Plenty of edgy old buildings by the house.

[rherold9]

Waiting to wash the car and borrow Cabell's DSLR for some pics.

Ricer shoot Sunday? Plenty of edgy old buildings by the house.

Depends if the vehicle is on jack stands or not haha. Or on fire from doing the radiator install. Since it looks like a pain in the ass