Slowly stumbling into an SM....

Evan · 09-23-2005, 08:51 PM

jackstands Wrote:where do you get your car aligned at?
What are the advantages of blueprinted hubs?

Curry's in Dulles
its a good alignment (assuming it holds....) just cost way too much

Hubs are a weak point on the miata (actually its the wheel bearings inside the hub, but the bearings themselves are not serviceable)
the grease seperates and drains out of the hub, which leaves the ball bearings to get royally fucked. Ive seen pictures of bearings that are completely flat on one side
The blueprinted hubs (at only $300!) are rebuilt using higher quality ball bearings, better seals, and most importantly Redline CR-V grease. THere havent been any reports of the blueprinted hubs failing (compared to as little as 2 weekends on new factory hubs) so I decided to just nip it in the bud and go straight to the good stuff.

Beej · 09-23-2005, 09:04 PM

I'm gonna play my naive card here, but I had no idea that SM's used GC gear. I mean, I thought the point of a Spec series was to have all the cars be close to identical so that it was a driver's series. I'm sure everyone's setups are close to identical, but that's interesting.

Evan · 09-23-2005, 09:21 PM

I dont understand your question.
Ground Control is the spec coilover. Everyone is running them. The shitty bilstiens too.

Beej · 09-23-2005, 09:31 PM

I dunno, maybe I'm too e30-based.

SpecE30 requires that you have H&R Race springs, with which there is no adjustability. So essentially, all of the cars are identical. With GC, there can be variety in setups (in height), so the driver isn't the only difference between the cars.

Evan · 09-23-2005, 10:08 PM

you have to have adjustability. How else do you compensate for driver weight? You cant corner balance a car, or do much setup. The "spec" is spec components, not spec setup, because one setup is not the same for every driver. What you think is cars being identical is actually making them different

ButtDyno · 09-29-2005, 06:15 PM

evan55.com is NOT coming soon Smile

Good luck with the racecar tho

john

**Mike** · 09-29-2005, 06:33 PM

yeah, coming soon as in a single image page for like a year.

Evan · 09-29-2005, 07:01 PM

:lol:

this is true.
I should at least update the image to a car I own....

Evan · 09-29-2005, 07:05 PM

as for a debrief from sunday,

The car did well, I hit my goal of 1:33s (1:33.3 actually) but just like at shenandoah, the car seems to loose power as the day goes on.
There is still oil in the coolant/water after flushing it 3 times, and the compression numbers were only in the 160s.... *sigh*
I have the worst luck with engines.....

oh but at least I fried a coilpack and killed a battery last night...

Evan · 10-08-2005, 12:44 PM

bling m-effin bling!

[Image: sparco_circuit.jpg]

my ass fits much better in the seat than I thought it would. This thing is even tighter than the corsa, which I didnt used to fit in, so I guess Ive lost weight?
Super snug and probably not too comfy on the street but should be perfect on track. My shoulders and back are a problem though, they dont go back into the seat bolsters, more like rest on top of them. Harnesses should help with that, and hopefully I can stretch the seat out some.

car goes in for cage (and killswitch, and window net, and seat mount) on monday! Smile

ScottyB · 10-08-2005, 01:02 PM

that is one badass looking seat.

Sijray21 · 10-08-2005, 01:10 PM

Evan Wrote:This thing is even tighter than [RJ's sister], which I didnt used to fit in, so I guess Ive lost weight?

fixed your post Wink

that's hot about the progress with the SM. It looked good out there at Summit and i'm hoping all goes well with the Race in October!

**Mike** · 10-08-2005, 08:00 PM

nice seat! selling stars and stripes?

Evan · 10-08-2005, 09:36 PM

yup.
had a buyer before I even decided to sell

**Mike** · 10-08-2005, 09:39 PM

that is what i thought i remembered Sad

John · 10-09-2005, 11:35 AM

Nice blinging seat. Bought new or used?

Evan · 10-09-2005, 11:57 AM

new, rallynuts.com in the UK

actually got here faster than if I would have ordered from the west coast

**Chris** · 10-10-2005, 01:44 AM

:thumbup: nice seat, I'd like to test fit it this coming weekend if thats cool.

Evan · 10-02-2006, 12:19 PM

havent updated my "project" page in a year. (btw, can someone move this to technical)

the technical stuff:
The car has been pretty reliable this year, with zero DNFs despite my own boneheaded moves to try to kill the car (like f-ing up the timing yet again at CMP)
The only hiccup was when a bolt came loose in the cam cover and ripped the timing belt, causing a chain reaction of maladies that ultimately made me miss the shenandoah race much to my dismay.
The past few races I have had trans problems, with lots of mis-shifts (the worst coming at VIR when I went from 1st to 11th on the start)
I think I found a contributor to the problem when I checked the passenger side engine mount this past weekend and it was completely sheared in 2. A new one went in, so hopefully that will help things.
The only other issue is pretty bad midrange power that I cant seem to track down. When I shift from 2nd to third the other cars pull me by about 2 car lengths until my top end kicks in. Hopefully this wont be too much of an issue in the last race.

Over the course of the season I have gotten my head freshened up, got the "hot" exhaust setup that everyone in SM seems to be on, and picked up a GPS Data Acquisition system that I dont use nearly as much as I should (although the digital dash sure looks bling!)
2 new sets of wheels too, and painted gold of course. Other than that its been standard maintenence. Brakes and tires etc. Just preventively rebuilt some calipers last night, and Im going to put a new master on it too.

Quick recap of the season.
2006 NASA SpecMiata Challenge
SM has consistently been one of the most competitive classes in NASA, usually fielding somewhere between 12-20 cars, 2nd largest fields only to 944 cup.

Feb @ VIR: Finished 1st (from pole)
May @ CMP: sat: 2nd sun: 2nd (pole both days)
July Summit: sat: 2nd sun: 1st
July VIR: sat: 2nd sun 1st (pole both days, set track record)
August Summit: sat: 2nd sun: 4th

Going into the last race I am in a great position to win the championship. 2005 champion Doug Griles is right on my heels however, but all I need is a 2nd place finish either day to clinch, or lower depending on Dougs finishing position. I hope the car holds together and the midrange problems dont effect things too much. Wish me luck! Smile

Apoc · 10-02-2006, 01:38 PM

Evan Wrote:2nd largest fields only to 944 cup.

Woo wooooo.... good luck closing it out.

I went back and looked at my finishes after we talked about podiums at the BBQ. I've had a podium in 6 and 4th in another 6 of the 13 points races so far this year. That's not bad considering some of the guys I'm racing against but it's not nearly as good as you're doing in SM. I've often wondered how I'd do in HC but never really gave SM much thought. Do you contribute your success to being a quick study, natural talent, n00b fields or some other intangible? Obviously the easy answer is natural talent but I'm curious what you honestly think is the main factor in your success.

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