'90 Mazdaspeed Miata Rallycross Project

moxnix wrote:

irish44j wrote:

EvanB wrote: In reply to irish44j: John W England took first. He is usually (always) faster than me in his stock Miata.

Interesting. He came for one of our events last year and took 4th in PR (behind the eventual 1-2-3 local class winners) and would have been 5th in MR had he bumped up. Don't recall if he was running gravels or snow tires though. Looks like he got a TON of cones at that event. Frostburg will do that to you, lol. Wonder why he's running MR nationally if his Miata is stock... btw, your car should have a bigger advantage at frostburg. We almost always have "power" courses that favor high-hp cars. One of the reasons I'm starting to get beaten there as more 6cy e30s and turbo volvos show up, lol.

He was on snows when he came out to frostburg. Frostburg chewed up those snow tires pretty good.

yeah, it'll do that for sure. It chews up gravels pretty good in the hot summer as well..

EvanB wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote:

EvanB wrote: In reply to irish44j: John W England took first. He is usually (always) faster than me in his stock Miata.

Do you recall which Miata he was in? One stands out in my memory, but I think it ran a turbo. In the runs I saw you looked pretty smooth too.

He is the darker red w/black hardtop (#87/187), the other red w/ black hardtop (#9something) is Jon Armstrong, supercharged.

Jon's is the one that sounds like an 037.

So did his supercharged Civic, come to think of it.

Just registered for the eastern challenge so I guess now I have to go. Need to decide what tires to bring, I really don't want to wreck my good rally tires but my snow tires aren't in great shape.

In reply to EvanB:

You always could find some full tread yet close to aged out tires that would fit your car. Two sets, so that you could swap to a fresh pair for Sunday's runs.

In reply to Knurled:

Did you get my email? I sent a message to a local guy that might have some used 14" rally tires.

EvanB wrote: Just registered for the eastern challenge so I guess now I have to go. Need to decide what tires to bring, I really don't want to wreck my good rally tires but my snow tires aren't in great shape.

If they're hard or medium compounds you should be ok for the limited runs. With a big field of entrants shoudl be able to keep tire temps down. It's at local events where we're going rapid-fire that the heat and gravel combine to kill tires fast.

I really like this paint you gave me to paint the wheels, how much is it if I bought some...

HOLY BERK

Knurled wrote: I really like this paint you gave me to paint the wheels, how much is it if I bought some... HOLY BERK

It's much cheaper for me...

Loaded the rally tires and a 13b on the trailer tonight. Just need to swap out the seat.

Bad news: Found out today that I can't prereg, and I have to be there on Friday for a walkup registration. And a lot of event is happening on Friday.

And we have an employee leaving this week, and the other tech is on vacation next week.

Good news: I asked for Friday off, and Da Boss said probably.

So, there's maybe a 75% chance I can co-drive! And a 25% chance I'll have to work, then wake up at 2am Saturday morning to get there in time to deliver your tires to you and hang out with nothing else to do.

Knurled wrote: Bad news: Found out today that I can't prereg, and I have to be there on Friday for a walkup registration. And a lot of event is happening on Friday. And we have an employee leaving this week, and the other tech is on vacation next week. Good news: I asked for Friday off, and Da Boss said probably. So, there's maybe a 75% chance I can co-drive! And a 25% chance I'll have to work, then wake up at 2am Saturday morning to get there in time to deliver your tires to you and hang out with nothing else to do.

bah, testing and tuning is over-rated anyhow! I'm just gonna do two runs and then drink beer just outside the property line

irish44j wrote:

Knurled wrote: Bad news: Found out today that I can't prereg, and I have to be there on Friday for a walkup registration. And a lot of event is happening on Friday. And we have an employee leaving this week, and the other tech is on vacation next week. Good news: I asked for Friday off, and Da Boss said probably. So, there's maybe a 75% chance I can co-drive! And a 25% chance I'll have to work, then wake up at 2am Saturday morning to get there in time to deliver your tires to you and hang out with nothing else to do.

bah, testing and tuning is over-rated anyhow! I'm just gonna do two runs and then drink beer just outside the property line

You can't drink beer on the property?

(table-flip.gif)

But seriously, the site I found said walkup registration is Friday only, which bites hard for those of us with jobs and stuff.

Testing and tuning is critical IMO. I give much credit to my win at the GLDiv this year with the test and tune runs that ZB gave me. I never drove my Volvo with good springs/shocks and grippy tires on hardpacked rubber before and it needed some tweaking to get the most from it. I ended up placing faster times with penalties than the other competitors' raw times run per run except for one instance where it was something like 1.98sec faster than the raw.

Although I do have some gravel experience, it ain't much, and I'd mostly want to ride with other people. It's cheaper that way.

No problems with beer on property. Might have problems with SCCA and drinking while cars are still running?

Knurled wrote:

irish44j wrote:

Knurled wrote: Bad news: Found out today that I can't prereg, and I have to be there on Friday for a walkup registration. And a lot of event is happening on Friday. And we have an employee leaving this week, and the other tech is on vacation next week. Good news: I asked for Friday off, and Da Boss said probably. So, there's maybe a 75% chance I can co-drive! And a 25% chance I'll have to work, then wake up at 2am Saturday morning to get there in time to deliver your tires to you and hang out with nothing else to do.

bah, testing and tuning is over-rated anyhow! I'm just gonna do two runs and then drink beer just outside the property line

You can't drink beer on the property? (table-flip.gif) But seriously, the site I found said walkup registration is Friday only, which bites hard for those of us with jobs and stuff. Testing and tuning is critical IMO. I give much credit to my win at the GLDiv this year with the test and tune runs that ZB gave me. I never drove my Volvo with good springs/shocks and grippy tires on hardpacked rubber before and it needed some tweaking to get the most from it. I ended up placing faster times with penalties than the other competitors' raw times run per run except for one instance where it was something like 1.98sec faster than the raw. Although I do have some gravel experience, it ain't much, and I'd mostly want to ride with other people. It's cheaper that way.

I was being sarcastic anyhow. I don't start drinking til the evening and I'm still trying to figure out this car with the extra weight of the full cage and the other stage-related stuff aboard. Plus we haven't run at this venue since event #1 in March (last two events were on a venue similar to where GLDivs were 2 years ago at the dragway), so even the locals will need some tuning up....so yeah, I'll be running until the old tires on the car are corded lol. or until I run out of singles to slip into Batocchi's g-string (don't ask). Welcome to ride along, etc.

moxnix wrote: No problems with beer on property. Might have problems with SCCA and drinking while cars are still running?

yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking, but I guess if people aren't driving or course working can't see why they can't have a brew. Somehow I doubt there will be enforcement anyhow lol.

Pete, maybe you could do a phone-in registration on Friday if someone there (Evan?) fronts the money at the table or something. IDK, just a thought.

irish44j wrote: ... I'll be running until the old tires on the car are corded lol. or until I run out of singles to slip into Batocchi's g-string (don't ask). Welcome to ride along, etc.

Yikes. What exactly did you, him and Ozgur get into at the yard? Never mind, don't answer that..

irish44j wrote: Pete, maybe you could do a phone-in registration on Friday if someone there (Evan?) fronts the money at the table or something. IDK, just a thought.

It's worth a shot to call and see what they can do.

I'll be there by 4pm at the earliest. Unless I decide to take a full day off work.

Before I found out the trailer wiring module was bad and swapped the one from the Subaru...

Dammit Evan. I need to be packing, I need to be maing sure my GoPro is actually charged this time, I need to be sorting and organizing.

Instead I'm going to be rewatching Gone in 60 Seconds because 614 Henry Sam Ocean.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9FAGgg6Rmrw

And I decided to take the full day off work tomorrow so I'm leaving in the morning when I finish packing.

Oh yeah, I'm leaving town tomorrow at around 8:30. Unpaid day off but day off all the same.

Did you take ZB up on his offer of room-share or are you slummin' it in a tent? I'm thinking of getting a bottle of Baltika 9 as a "gift" to whoever is leading MR on Saturday.

Look up the meaning of "gift" in German...

I'm planning on sharing the room.

One of our local MR e30s just had a major electrical fire under the hood today (coil wire shorted on something and fried everything nearby). Unfortunately for all of us, he's one of our back-markers. Meanwhile, we could not get Nick's M3 sorted out in time so he's gonna codrive with someone else in MR. And Orion has a pinched neck nerve and isn't coming. The MR field is thinning....

See you guys up there tomorrow and drive safe. Evan, if you leave at 830 I want to see if you beat us there (that's when we're leaving too, from the other direction)...

Not sure when I'll be leaving yet but hopefully before 9. Google maps says it will take 4.5 hours.