The Cart Before the Horse: Spec 3 Build

[Senor_Taylor]

The fun thing is that I'm not about just kiss that curb, but instead I'm about to drive completely over it.

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[ScottyB]

stop, i can only get so erect

[Senor_Taylor]

Deleted Window Regulators in the front. Windows are now held in with bolts through the door skin. Pulled more wires and various interior stuff, drilled out the steering wheel lock, even pulled the last bit of carpet that was under the heater core and gave the interior a quick cleaning. It looks much much better in there now.

First pic is when I bought it. Second pic is April. Third pic is today.

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[Kaan]

cage time... get on it.

[rherold9]

Nice, I need to do this as well. I'm jealous. Can you come take out like 20 pounds of useless wiring in my Miata? So. much. wiring from the top trim......

[Senor_Taylor]

cage time... get on it.

There's a reason I'm spending time doing cheap/free stuff.

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[.RJ]

whats up with the red 2nd gen RX7 turbo? asking for a friend.

[Senor_Taylor]

whats up with the red 2nd gen RX7 turbo? asking for a friend.

That's my Roommate, Tyler's car. Used to be Greg's (Rusty Nut/ Dr Nut). Come on by and check it out.

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[Senor_Taylor]

Wow! This car is so much faster at VIR than it was a couple of months ago. Since my last time at VIR, I've dropped probably 300lbs and gained hopefully 3-5 hp with the exhaust and ECU chip. That was good enough for an immediate 2 second drop in times in my first session and a drop of 5 seconds over the whole weekend. All of this on RA1 rain tires instead of the RR semi slicks I ran on last time! This weekend was my evaluation to move to HPDE 3. This consists of a few drills and an instructor evaluation, all while driving in DE3. If you mess up at all, they send you back down to DE2 for the weekend and you have to wait to try again.

First session out, I was black flagged for my hood not being shut. My second session I went off in turn 10. The car is easily 5 mph faster through there now and I tried to left foot brake, did not brake enough, and dropped two tires off over the curbing. Lots of people try to save it there and end up in the tire wall so I let the car go off into the grass on the right side and rode it out. My group leader found me and told me one more mistake and I was back to 2, which really put the pressure on me. The weekend was very hot some times reaching 95 degrees, which led to temps above 110 degrees in the car. This was also my first weekend using a fire suit, so it was pretty miserable some times. I continued to work on my line and awareness with a group comprised mainly of mustangs, corvettes, and Camaros that I was constantly giving point bys to. Overall, I had a lot of fun and I'm glad to be in DE 3 now. This puts me at 18 track days, which means I'm 12 away from being eligible for instructor clinic. (Not that I'm in a hurry).

As for build progress, I've ran out of money for this so progress will slow considerably now that I'm out of cheap things to do. Removing sound deadening and finding a cheap way to add negative camber will be next on the list since I'm destroying the outside edges of all of my tires.

[SlimKlim]

You zigged when you should've zagged!

Can you swap top hats on the non-Ms to get more camber?

[Kaan]

ha! I saw you get out of the car with the suit on... I was like "this kid is crazy... I'd be in my underwear if I could" Its not like I can catch on fire with as much sweat as I had pouring through my skin.

FYI... a DIY cool suit only saves you $100.

[Jake]

Congrats on making it to DE 3! It's important to keep in mind during evaluation rides/weekends that those are never the time to try something new - being slow, safe and consistent is better than "oh I wanted to try left foot braking there." Your evaluator(s) are looking to see that you play well with others and are predictable/safe throughout, which is why you got the comments you did. Not trying to slap your peepee, but it bears mentioning if you go to instructor clinic or for a Time Trial eval.

Have you done the 96-99 top hat swap to get negative camber?

[Senor_Taylor]

Jake, Joey, I have M3 top hats to install. I put them on before and something wasn't right. For some reason they were causing binding issues and the angle they caused the struts to be at made it impossible to bolt anything up. They may be bent or something, so if they don't work when I try again, I'll just add washers or something on the bolts that connect the hub to the strut until I get the big baller camber plates. You can't swap the non M top hates because they're perfectly centered.

[rherold9]

Congrats on DE3! And don't worry I kinda had a mishap too on my TT probation weekend. But they let me in. I just had a minor issue with letting the car go 4 wheels off because the rear got loose on me. It happens.

Hogpen you can stay a bit more left on the curbing and hold your turn in a split second for more speed!

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[D_Eclipse9916]

ha! I saw you get out of the car with the suit on... I was like "this kid is crazy... I'd be in my underwear if I could" Its not like I can catch on fire with as much sweat as I had pouring through my skin.

FYI... a DIY cool suit only saves you $100.

Told you! Too bad I just sold my other cool suit setup.

[Senor_Taylor]

So, I'm trying to install a water temp gauge. I know the M50 and S50 use two separate temp sensors in the head. One for the DME and one for the dash. When people install these on m52/s52 engines, those only use one sensor and have an unused port. I'm assuming I can just take out the sensor that goes to my dash and place my gauges sensor in that port? Does anyone know? I've already pulled my intake so I'm halfway done.

[SlimKlim]

This car is an M50 right? There's a coolant drain plug in the head between cylinders 3&4, my gauge kit included a bung to match those threads.

If you're also doing an oil temp gauge don't do a distribution block on the housing, it never gets as warm there as it does in the actual engine. If I still cared about my car I'd relocate that sensor to the oil drain plug. (And move the fan temp switch to the cold side of the thermostat housing so it'll actually switch on)

[Senor_Taylor]

This car is an M50 right? There's a coolant drain plug in the head between cylinders 3&4, my gauge kit included a bung to match those threads.

If you're also doing an oil temp gauge don't do a distribution block on the housing, it never gets as warm there as it does in the actual engine. If I still cared about my car I'd relocate that sensor to the oil drain plug. (And move the fan temp switch to the cold side of the thermostat housing so it'll actually switch on)

On the intake side or the exhaust side? It was late, so maybe I didn't look hard enough.

[SlimKlim]

Exhaust side

[Senor_Taylor]

I'll take a look. The Spec3 guys claim they found a port on the intake side as well but I can't find anything on the internet to corroborate this. I'm not doing oil temp yet but I suppose I should. Have any example of kits you would suggest?

Also looking for a good guide to delete the heater core since I'm going to pull the dash soon.