Adventures in Miatadom

Well that was quick. I assume the packing/box survived the trip?

My understanding is that making the SS look good kinda needs to start from brand new, and I have never owned a brand new one. I think the best solution is a header blanket to cover it - have you seen how much heat these things put off?

In reply to RedGT:

Yeah, I was surprised it arrived that fast too. It seems to be unscathed. I applaud the creative packing method, especially the Rock Auto box you recycled.

I am considering getting some of the header wrap and just doing that, considering people are saying I'm going to have to use acid. Or maybe shoot it with some VHT Flameproof in flat black. They do throw off quite a bit of heat.

A stainless steel wire brush would clean it up a bit. But, if you want to to be shiny again that's a lot of sanding and polishing.

I've used steel wool the ultra fine grade #0000 and follow up with P21S polishing soap. I use it on exhaust pipes primarily, but I did polish a shift knob with it.

In reply to thedanimal:

Another interesting option. Honestly, probably just going to wrap or paint it. With so many twists and turns and bends, it'd be a real PITA to polish that whole thing by hand

In reply to NickD:

I hear you, it would probably suck a little, but honestly that polishing soap is righteous. It does a lot of the work for you, but I wouldn't blame you for wanting to say berk it and go with the wrap or paint option.

Just read through your whole thread and really enjoyed it. Planning to acquire an NA Miata myself in a couple months and I've made a few notes from your experiences. Thanks for posting and keep the updates coming!

saruken wrote: Just read through your whole thread and really enjoyed it. Planning to acquire an NA Miata myself in a couple months and I've made a few notes from your experiences. Thanks for posting and keep the updates coming!

Thanks, glad to hear that. As Harvey, Swank Force Once and I discussed, try and get a 1.8L car to start with, saves a lot of work. Also, unless you now it's been properly modified, try to find the cleanest most-original car to avoid undoing other people's work.

So, as I said last weekend, the car seemed a little more tail happy, which I honestly was not a fan of. On a car with such a short wheelbase, oversteer can be a little unnerving. It also barked the tires when taking off a lot easier than last year (Where I practically had to sidestep the clutch at 4000rpm just to launch it). When I first aligned it, I couldn't get less than around -2.8 degrees of camber in the rear due to the ride height, and I figure that the camber was reducing the contact patch. Also, I felt like the rear looked lower than the front.

So, ran it down to work and busted out a tape measure and took some measurements from the ground, through the center axis of the hub to the top of the wheel wheel opening. The fronts both checked in at 23.25". The left rear was at 22.50" and the right rear was at 23" even. So the rear was actually lower than the front on both sides and a good bit different side to side. Put it up on a lift, busted out the spanner and put some lift in the rear, coming out to around 23.75" on the rear. Then put it up on the rack and got the camber to -2.0 degrees at all 4 corners, as well as 0 toe in the back and a tiny bit of toe-in in the front.

While I was in there, I decided to play around with sway bar adjustment and backed the rear sway bar off some, which in theory should increase rear traction (I think. I can never keep that straight). We'll see how it works. If I don't like it, I'll go back to the center opening.

No real news on the engine front. I want to get working on it, but just haven't had time. I also need to go buy an engine hoist so I can yank that stupid 307 off the engine stand and put my engine up on it.

First autocross was Sunday. A little hint of what's to come.

There was rain, snow (Yes, really!), 30-40 degree temps, crashes, off-tracks and fierce competition

If it's still loose, has anyone told you to just yank the rear sway altogether yet? 'cause that's my vote.

In reply to RedGT:

I've read that. It was pretty loose at the event Sunday but it was raining pretty good and Cherry Valley has 3 different surfaces (old pavement, newer pavement and disintegrating concrete) with wildly different traction characteristics, so it was hard to tell if it was the new setup or the course. I'm saying the latter because everyone was fighting for grip.

So, Sunday's autocross, here's the recap:

The forecast was calling for nasty weather, and boy were they right. It was raining, flurrying snow, very windy, temps in the 40 degrees. Not exactly racing weather, but oh well, it was what it was. On the drive out there, I racked up the 1000th mile on the new clutch, so I felt okay about the impending launches.

Parked next to this GT6 in the pits

Interestingly the GT6 was rocking velocity stacks that the owner 3D-printed at home, because apparently no one makes a velocity stack for Stromberg Zeniths

We had 31 cars present which worked out to two roughly even run groups, one of which was made up of 12 H/S, 1 E/Mod and 2 STX. The other run group was all the other classes, including C/SP where I am. The schedule was 4 runs for Run Group 1, 4 runs for Run Group 2, split for lunch, 4 more runs for Run Group 1 and 4 more runs for Run Group 2. Because of the weather though, the morning runs became "The Dry Session" (loose interpretation of the term) and the afternoon was the "Wet Session".

So, Run Group 1 went through their morning session and lap times were a little off pace from usual, but, hey, it was 40 degrees and occasionally sprinkling rain, so 68-second lap times were pretty respectable. Largely, everyone was in the mid-to-low 70 second range though. There were a few minor offs but no crashes or damage. They finish and I hooped in and got in line for Run Group 2.

Sitting in line watching Ted's STS Miata and Ed's C/SP Miata getting ready to run ahead of me. While I'm sitting there waiting, preparing myself, Ed goes out for his first lap, hits Turn 1 (A real killer at this track, a combination of mixed and degrading surfaces, able go carry a lot of speed into it and limited runoff room) and goes off into the tires. Yikes. Start getting nervous myself, as his car is very similarly set up. No damage to the car other than some black marks on the paint though.

This is Ed's car post tire-stack and like I said, you'd be hard-pressed to find any damage. I think he was just more irritated with himself than anything else.

I went out, tried no heroic antics and laid down a slow 79.229, just trying to get a feel for where the traction was and wasn't. The last turn before the front straight over the finish line was particularly hairy, thanks to also having mixed surfaces. You'd go in, have grip, then cross to a new surface and traction would just vanish.

Get up the line and the starter reads my car off to the tower as "68 C/SP"> Uh, wait, what? Turns out one of my new magnetic numbers had taken flight. I tell him it should be 168 C/SP, and is 168 C/SP on the other door, and the tower gets things corrected. I slap on one of the extra 1s that they strangely sent me and go back out and this time get on the throttle a little bit more. By now, the track was starting to dry up from repeated passes and the rain almost letting up. Run a 75.022, to Ed's 77.444. Also, the 1 on the driver's door took flight again. Really? The track workers bring me back both of the 1s that they recovered, one of which looks like it's been run over a few times.

Put the numbers back on again and make sure to put them closer together and farther back on the door. By now the track conditions have improved and I go out and throttle on it and run a 74.618 to Ed's 74.805. Turn 7 is still treacherous and the front brakes kept wanting to lock up on Turn 3 (That has been a problem I've always had at this track), but things were getting better. And the numbers all stayed on.

Then comes run 4 and while we are sitting in the pits, it starts snowing and then changes to a fairly hard rain. The next run slowed barely to a 75.031. We head to lunch, come back and it's still raining hard, meaning the afternoon session was slow and standings remained largely unchanged. I ran a 91.201, 89.091, 84.583 and 78.421. This car is not happy on this track in the rain. Still, my morning session was good enough as I won C/SP by a whopping 0.182 seconds.

The car definitely looks nice and flat through the corners though, and the numbers look real snazzy, when they aren't flying off. And, whoohoo, Barbatos gets it's first class win!

And now, the other stuff of the day.

Karl Hughes' old XSTX 325is continues to show no signs of slowing down, despite it's 250,000 miles. It ran a 68.067 which was second fastest time of the day but only good enough for 4th in PAX.

Mike Marchetta had never autocrossed before but that didn't stop his Audi S4 from running a 68.001. That was FTD and good enough for 3rd place overall in PAX and a win in Novice B/Street by a huge margin. The rain didn't affect the AWD Audi much either, as it only slowed to a 70.068 during the "Wet Session". It has been determined that they are bumping him out of Novice to B/S to prevent him from slaughtering the Novice class, but judging by this event's times, he might have B/S covered too.

The GT6 won the class that nobody had ever heard of (Heritage Classic - Race) simply by showing up. He came in 26th overall, 2 spots behind me.

George Poniros won H/S in a V6/CVT Altima on all-seasons by 0.012 second over Gerrit's infamous tricycling Tom Celica, but Tom Celica is definitely more fun to watch

Bill Meyer didn't want to bring his Cobra in this weather, so instead he brought his new DD, a 2016 Volt. It would burn the tires off at the starting line and ran fairly decent times but 240 seconds of autocrossing use will rip through 60 miles of battery range, so he ran 3 laps before calling it quits

Scott not only won G/S, but he won overall with his little white Abarth 500

Jeff Virnoche had a blast in his little BMC Mini. Definitely a fitting track and fitting weather for this car.

Well, tomorrow a local auto body shop (Jeffrey's Auto Body, at 6181 East Taft Road, Syracuse, NY) is holding Corvettes, Cars & Coffee. It's basically a one a year Cars & Coffee and this year the featured marque is Corvette, with some Corvette race cars and drivers being shipped in. But my SCCA chapter is having a tent there and looking for members to go and represent and try and drum up interest. And of course what car represents the SCCA better than a Miata? So, after a little "go", me and Barbatos will be doing a little "show" duty.

Had a wonderful day hanging out at Corvettes, Cars & Coffee with the rest of the SCCA chapter. I brought my C/SP Miata, Ted brought his STS Miata, Mark brought his F/Street Ef46 330ci that he has retired from autocross use, John brought his AA/Street C7 Z51 Corvette and Scott brought his shifter cart

This GT1 C4 Corvette was absolutely monstrous.

Not one, but two C7 Z06 convertibles in yellow. C7s were by far the most populous generation of Corvette present. GM must be moving these things fast.

This C6 ZR1 had full aero, Forgeline wheels with race tires, a cam, exhaust and nitrous. It was hairy.

The C3 had a 427 with the factory 3x2 carburetion.

It wasn't all Corvettes though. There was a Ferrarri 599 GTB Fiorano and a Jaguar F-Type R in attendance

And, most awesome of all, this all-original 1960 Fiat Abarth Zagato Coupe. This thing was miniscule, very toy-like and drew a crowd like no other and the owner was a very funny guy.. The owner also has a 2013 Abarth 500

So, in the past 3 weeks, I really hadn't done a whole lot with the Miata other than put fuel in it and drive it. Took it to a small car show here and there but nothing major. During that 3 weeks, it never rained here in NY, in fact parts of NY were declaring a drought. Then comes June 5th and it decides to downpour all day. Which is of course the 2nd autocross of the season. I woke up and nearly considered not going, but I am in charge of grid and I hated to shirk my duty, plus it was likely going to be an easy points grab. So I tossed an umbrella in the car and headed out to Cherry Valley Motorsports Park again. The rain let up quite a bit as I got out of Rome and over towards Bridgeport, so that gave me hope that the day might be salvageable.

Unfortunately the rain never quite stopped all day, but at least it wasn't 40 degrees and snowy like last time. Attendance was also fairly low, with only 26 people present. Once again, we were split up into 2 run groups and I ended up in the 2nd group. This somewhat worked in my favor as it was still raining moderately through most of run group 1's morning session, lightening for their last run. The rain had mostly let up by the time we started, giving us the driest conditions of the day, although things were still slick out there. I ran an 85.622, an 82.103, an 82.370 and finally a 79.363 in the morning. If those seem slower than last time, the track was never quite as dry as last time plus they had added a slalom between turns 6 and 7 to slow down entry into 7 and keep people from going through the fence and into the grid.

I think the conditions were only good enough for one run to run with the top down (I believe that 79.363 run).

This photo really shows how much rain was coming down at times, and why I hate racing with the top up. This was likely from the afternoon group, when the rain really started coming down. I got completely drenched from head to toe while running grid and folded up my umbrella at one point because it was doing nothing. Lap times slowed way down and I managed a 92.160 and 87.983 and I believe an 83.xxx. The site isn't showing the 3rd run for some reason. I never got a 4th run because a nasty off-track forced us to shut things down.

Overall, I got 21st out of 26 (Wow, C/SP PAX sucks) and 1st in class. I won my class simply by showing up and turning a lap though. I was the only C/SP car in attendance. This gave me a 25 point lead in the C/SP points chase and 17th out of 45 in the overall points. Next race is June 19th at Cayuga Community College, here's hoping it doesn't rain then too.

So, as always, let's cover some of the other going-ons

Bringing the heat in STS was Josh Fowler in his Nissan Maxima. With an automatic trans and 217K miles on the drivetrain, the Mad Maxima ran a solid (for the day) 73.914. Everyone was pretty mystified by how stout this car ran.

Ted brought up the tail end of STS (There were only 2 STS cars) and must've asked me half a dozen times throughout the day "Nick, how am I losing to an automatic Maximia?"

Leo brought his D/Mod Lotus 7 out and ran it in the earlier drier session, running a best of 75.124. Yes, that Maxima was even faster than the Lotus.

Kyle Wilson's blue BRZ on gold/bronze RPF-1s sounded and ran as good as it looked, winning STX. It also had me regretting not getting the bronze Jongbloeds for my car back when I ordered them.

Davey Thai picked up 2nd place for STX. And picked up a screw in the shoulder of his RE-71R that ended his day early. Raw deal there. His staggered numbers are a clever nod to the badging.

Gerrit and Tom Celica won a much-smaller H/Street with a 79.544. I think this may be one of the few times (probably the only) I've been faster than that car.

John Breazzano's C7 Z51 was out there and running strong. He managed a flying 70.983 one run before taking a detour through the grass on the next run. We joked this wasn't NASCAR, he didn't get to do victory donuts after setting FTD.

This screamin' yellow C5 Z06 was absolutely bananas. IT had the craziest exhaust note I've heard, like a jake brake on decel. It managed a solid 72.262 in S/SP.

Scott won G/Street and 2nd overall with his white Abarth.

No photos, but Michael Marchetta set FTD, won B/Street and won overall in "That Audi" as we all dubbed it, with a 70.711 in the worst weather of the day. Yes, he ran almost as fast in heavier rain and with a slalom added into the track. He was definitely glad to see the rain, as his car seems to go faster the worse the weather is.

Removed the rear say bar off Barbatos yesterday. Should have done that Saturday before racing in the rain, but, oh well. But during the process I noticed that my previously uncracked finish panel has developed a crack. Well, haven't spent any money on the car in a while, sooooooo..... carbon fiber finish panel? Or do I want to go to this style set up?

Well, ordered a carbon fiber rear finish panel this morning.

Also, I'd been having an issue with my front tires rubbing under hard cornering with high steering angle, and Ted with the STS Miata had been too. We got talking and I mentioned buying an Eastwood fender roller and letting him borrow it if he wants. Then last night Ted gives me a call and says that there's someone in the chapter who was at the chapter meeting and is looking to get rid of theirs. So Ted set up a deal and the guy is bringing it to the next autocross for me to purchase.

Front tires...look at where it is really rubbing. There's a fender liner mounting tab that protrudes more than the fender and you can bend it out of the way by hand.

Put September 17/18th on your calendar and come down to Pocono Raceway for an autocross on the infield road course. Fast 70-80 second course on perfect pavement, 6-8 runs per day, a good time all around.

RedGT wrote: Front tires...look at where it is really rubbing. There's a fender liner mounting tab that protrudes more than the fender and you can bend it out of the way by hand. Put September 17/18th on your calendar and come down to Pocono Raceway for an autocross on the infield road course. Fast 70-80 second course on perfect pavement, 6-8 runs per day, a good time all around.

I have removed that screw and bent that tab up. It is genuinely catching the fender lip and has actually bent it down in a spot or too. So it needs the fenders rolled. Unfortunately, the guy sold the one before he brought it to the autocross, so I'll have to go shell out for a new one. But better than shredding a tire.

I have heard a lot of good stuff from guys in our chapter about the Pocono region. A fellow by the name of Mark Mangicaro, runs a BMW Z3 M Roadster (Usually 67 B/Street) was just down there and goes a lot, might have seen him before. Might have to look into going.

Yep, Mark was there 2 weekends ago, he was running while I was working so I saw a bunch of that M roadster at that event. That was the spring version of the Pocono Infield course I described and then they have another one coming up in Sept. The Sunday course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKEYhR-vxUg

Yeah, Mark's a pretty good guy, a solid driver and a great photographer. He does have a penchant for murdering cones though. In fact, last year, he averaged a cone per run, so we gave him an unofficial Most Cones Killed trophy that was one we stapled back together.

I had an autocross this weekend as well as my trip to Formula D NJ, so I will have details on that as soon as the SCCA chapter gets the photos uploaded, but in the meantime I will say that removing the rear sway bar did wonders for the car and leave it at that.

So, time to get caught up to speed. Friday June 17th I loaded up and headed down to lovely (not really) Wall Township, NJ to go to Round 4 of Formula Drift, aka "The Gauntlet". Friday was open practice and qualifying.

As I pulled in, some Optima Batteries people ran up to me and handed me an invite. After the event, Optima was holding the first Optima Film Fest along with an exclusive car show and I was one of the 100 cars invited. The car show would be judged by Ryan Tuerck and the films being played were chosen by David Freiburger, Fred Williams and Matt Farrah. Cool, moving up in the world I guess.

This year I was really excited to see Mad Mike Whiddett in the infamous "Radbul" twin turbo, quad-wastegate, 4-rotor ND Miata. Okay, it's actually an NC chassis with ND front and rear clips, RX-8 suspension parts and a body kit using components from an FD RX-7 Rocket Bunny kit.

Note the rear-mounted radiator system.

A real science project under the hood.

Unfortunately, the car went out early. I talked to Mike later on and he said it was running beautifully on Thursday's closed practice and he was really digging the track. Then when he was at the driver's meeting on Friday morning the crew lit it off and he could tell it was missing on one rotor and they had no way of fixing the engine on site. They decided to take it out for a lap on open practice and see if maybe with some RPM and load it might light off. It didn't so he just putted around that lap and pulled into the pits and resigned himself to not qualifying. Then fellow competitor Chris Forsberg ran up and offered this carbon-fiber twin turbo VQ37 370Z to use.

Unfortunately, Formula D ruling stated that “Drivers shall enter and compete with only one vehicle for the duration of the event, which is determined by leaving the starting line in the official practice session. The first official practice session will be determined by if qualifying is conducted on the same day." Which meant that going out for that pass immediately locked him into the car. Still Mike was all smiles and happy to hang out with fans and take photos and sign stuff.

Kyle Mohan was also running the new ND, with a turbo 20B udner the hood that he assembled 3 years ago. It was making 1000hp and sounding great. You can see that Kyle's car is a bit rougher, more of a battle-ready vibe to it.

Notice the freakishly wide front stance, crudely clearanced fenders and hood-exit screamer pipe. Don't be fooled by the crude appearances though, Formula D cars are quite advanced.

Forrest Wang's Hankook Tire/Get Nuts Lab S15 Silvia with a 900hp 2JZ was looking great as always. Sadly, this would be his last-ever FD event, as he retired shortly afterwards.

After struggling with the terrible ARK Performance Hyundai Genesis with a supercharged Lambda V6 that tossed parts everywhere every event, he got back in the ooooold Falken Tire LSx 350Z and has looked pretty solid in it.

Ken Gushi's GReddy/Scion Racing by Toyota FR-S looks stunning. Best scheme on the grid. Not a fan of how the Wisefab angle kit makes the front track so much wider than the rear though.

Andrew Gray, a Scotsman living in Japan, brought over his big JZX100 Chaser to have some fun.

Other cool stuff spotted around the pits, although not competing

An FD3S RX-7 with the R.E. Amemiya Super-G kit

The NSX next to it was also stunning

A beautiful S15 Silvia

A very aggressive, very clean Mistubishi Evo

Drag-tuned STis are not that common, so the one at the Turbosmart booth caught my eye.

This S2000 was also quite tasteful

A Supra with a twin-turbo Viper V10 for drifting? Why not?

This RB25DET-swapped Z32 300ZX looked awesome.

A Coyote-swapped FR-S? Cool

This photo of Cameron Moore's SC300 with the front bodywork off after an incident with the wall shows how far these cars have evolved.

Same with Chelsea DeNofa's E46 sedan with the decklid off. Notice that the rear crashbars are actually on shocks so they don't bend

Qualifying wrapped up with Daijiro Yoshihara in the Turn 14 Distribution/Falken Tires RHD twin turbo LSx BRZ taking first place, Aurimas Bakchis in the Feals Suspension supercharged LSx Hyundai Genesis taking second and Chelsea Denofa in the BC Racing/Chelsea Denofa Racing turbo S50 E46 taking third.

Then it was time for the car show/film fest, which happened to be down in the infield. We got lead in by the Nameless Performance/Gumout 2JZ FR-S of Ryan Tuerck. You can just make out my car over the back of it

The track has 31.5 degree banking and we got to drive on it. Let me tell you, that is steeeeeeeeeep. Being early in line got me front row too, which was cool.

Ryan Tuerck's car at rest

Dai Yoshihara's car. Dai was champion in 2011 with a stout LSx S13 Silvia but has struggled since jumping to the BRZ, and then Falken pulled their big sponsorship from the sport entirely. During the offseason they converted the car to RHD and he says that has been key to his better performance this year

This air-suspended 1 M track car was there and was the best car in show in my opinion

And then we watched movies. All in all, this was a very cool, very chill event. Then I headed back to my hotel, showered and grabbed some sleep for eliminations the next day.