Officially registered!
Probably need to finally get it finished....
Officially registered!
Probably need to finally get it finished....
Dusterbd13-michael said:
This is utterly absurd and I love it. You need to tell us more about the weekend of autocross.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Will do once i get more caught up! Three days at the track and not at home....
Hopefully by the time i go to bed tonight i can sit down with the laptop and write something worth reading
Just now leaving the office. No update tonight, need to be a husband and father.
Heres a video of my first run, from a dad and his kids that cane to spectate! Awesome of him to sebd them all to me....
Three cones and a lost side skirt? Badass. 
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I SUCK at driving. In all forms but street....
And none of us can figure out how a cone ripped the side skirt off.
My Datsun would LOVE that wide open course. I would definitely need 3rd gear for that.
Ripped off skirt should negate 2 cones
In reply to Patrick :
I hit the rev limiter in third on my fastest run.....
Dusterbd13-michael said:
Dad took my cardboard and duct tape spoiler idea, and spent some time with scraps of paneling and 2x4s. We now have ALL the downforce. Still need to do the tension wires befire testing.
BWaHahAHaaaaa !!!!Tears.....my side hurts .....yur killin me SMALLS!!!!!
In reply to 759NRNG :
It worked. I can make it prettier!
I pulled second place in novice a!!!!!
I think you need to use the entire 4x8 sheet of plywood 
In all seriousness, you probably have enough time to do a front splitter and rear spoiler to allow you to tune the down force and improve your times. Lots of examples out there of aero adds on NA and NB Miatas to model something up. Rear spoiler with an angle adjustment would look better and probably give you better aerodynamics like the example below.
In reply to dherr :
Ultimately, i lpve the looks of that type of aero. However, challenge budget being where it is and my life/work/family/etc timeline, i doubt it will happen. It may, but dont hold your breath.....
A front splitter should be nearly free if you ride by a few new house construction sites and grab the right scraps
In reply to Justjim75 :
Oh, i have been.....
But its all been osb lately. Not ply. Cheap bastards....
Stop with a few cold Gatorades and youll leave with the kitchen sink,
Properly built, OSB should be fine, because Challenge
Having done some street testing with the splitter on the Accord, I'm against it. I think it will help at the Challenge but it can be a bear to live with day to day when you do fun drives. Watch out for creep at this point in the project.
I would make it easily removable and agree it is definitely just for the challenge or the occasional autocross. Would not last long on our streets. I drive my NC once a week on the GW Parkway and it becomes dodge ball with the huge pot holes. With a splitter that low, it would not be streetable. Michael, if you watch your video of the autocross runs, it appears you can see the downforce from the rear spoiler, a front splitter should help to balance the car and give you more front traction to attack the turns.
I have templates for a splitter, and hardware. Just no plywood.
However, without testing, im concerned about the results. I know tge rear spoiler makes too much downforce, and isn't anywhere near class legal. We already cut it down to class limited 10 inches tall.
Our focus right now is to finish detailing and cleaning and tidying up before the challenge, and practice our presentation. The only other autocross i could reasonably attend is the day after surgery and i don't think it would be a good idea.....
mazdeuce - Seth said:Having done some street testing with the splitter on the Accord, I'm against it. I think it will help at the Challenge but it can be a bear to live with day to day when you do fun drives. Watch out for creep at this point in the project.
With the tow bar the way it is, I don't think a splitter is the right answer. But, keeping in mind the bolded above, which is why I'm keeping my mouth shut.
Cut down the spoiler, pretty it up. Apply a theme... and then keeping minor tweaking and improving the driver mod. == Win
The flat tow setup will be removed for the challenge. I was able to line up a truck and trailer to bring it. However, it is essentially a permanent object for the cars intended life in my ownership.
Splitter attached to the tow bar? It could work...
Tow the car to the event. Take splitter out of truck bed and attach with a couple pins. The rest is details.
SplittSplitter may still happen, but is nowhere near even the middle of the priority list.
Maybe ill gat time today for a writeup. Almost done with my work appointmentsfor the week.
so, you'll notice the budget is missing. I've finalized it, but want to play some of my work close to the vest before the challenge, and it would give it away.
Anyway, in the last full update I had sucked at drag racing, sucked at autocrossing, and bought seats that ultimately didn't fit.
I've made a few small changes since then.....
step one was cleaning up the property some. I loaded ALL my extra miata crap in the back of the truck, and headed down to h&s miata parts (kannapolis NC 704-724-8010). Goal was to see if any of it was useful to him before I dropped it off at the scrap metal yard, and buy a side marker lens for the back bumper to fill the hole from where one was missing. Wound up unloading my truck there, and pulling black carpets and scruffy NA seats from a couple of cars headed to the crusher. He was happy to get parts that are in demand, I was happy to get stuff I wanted for life after the challenge.
20190731_143829 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I also went ahead and used the hole plugs I bought from the internet for cleaning up the engine bay some more. Used the proper sized plug, driven into place with a mallet and chunk of oak dowel. Then a fresh coat of brush paint. Looks much better now.
20190730_095204 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
my previous roll bar did not clear a soft top. At all. No matter what. So I put it up for sale or trade in a few places. I was contacted from facebook marketplace by a nice young guy from greenville SC. He offered me a hard dog deuce, a soft top on a frame for a straight trade. I agreed.
Screenshot_20190805-192938 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
by the time I left his house, I had a canvas top on an NB frame, stock NB seatbelts, the roll bar, a good used rain rail, and the rear interior plastics and body metal parts for the top.
20190806_080109 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190806_080654 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I wasted no time in the next steps. Used some of the can of white brush paint, dregs from a rattle can, and got busy.
20190804_110325 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190806_182742 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190807_172654 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I called my better half to help trim the black package tray carpet for roll bar clearance. My last attempts left MUCH to be desired. Shes awesome.
20190808_124626 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
tossed the NA seats in, and called it good enough. I really like the contrast between the black carpets and tan interior. I will need to find GOOD seat covers for the NA seats after the challenge in tan. Preferably cloth. I like cloth. But the seats are comfortable, and more importantly, kid friendly! I took the car right after this picture for a road test. By road test, I mean I picked the kiddo up from YMCA camp and proceeded to pound 40 some odd miles on the car going up to the top of morrow mountain and back.
20190808_130946 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190808_131122 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190808_173855 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190808_173901 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
calling that a MAJOR win. This is what I want to own, more or less. A torquey, good handling, neat looking drop top. This one is coming close to how I imagined the perfect miata.
Anyway, hot on the heels of this success, dad and I loaded up and went drag racing again. This time, I left the street tires on. Focused only on using all the track, shifting properly, and launching. Essentially the muscle memory of drag racing, with very limited variables. We only got three runs in. also, I had readjusted the shift light and tach to be visible, and they made me run with the top and windows up. My window switch died that night.
20190809_203731 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
last run, it got hot enough to puke, and I lost steering. I honestly think part of the problem with the slicks that night was the quick release wheel coupler starting to loosen up. It came completely undone this time.
20190810_103013 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
dad and I counter drilled the set screw locations, so the set screws now thread into the steering shaft itself, cleaned everything, and broke out the good locktite. Dad then spent a few night putting a wrench on every single bolt in the entire car except bellhousing and flywheel, due to them not being accessible. He was able to get ¼ turn out of some, none out of others, and generally checked all our work with a fresh set of eyes and a magnifying glass. Im grateful he did.
I went ahead and flushed the cooling system, getting all sorts of nasty crap out of it. Probably will need to be done again. I blame dexcool being the factory antifreeze in the rondevous the engine came out of.
Dad took my cardboard, duct tape, and sharpie spoiler setup, some scraps from a construction site down the road, and made the ginormous spoiler. Its actually a really well engineered piece, and only two holes were drilled in the car for nutserts in the rain gutter channel in the trunk. Whole goal was easy to mount at the autocross, easy to remove to drive home. We hit it. The aluminum tube was curved and found in the front yard of one of dustins neighbors, the wires and eyebolts were bought at ace hardware. The wires run through a couple small pieces of angle iron held down where the Frankenstein bolts would go.
20190815_190908 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20190816_165544 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I also got a 3 position toggle to replace the dead window switch. Because challenge budget, both windows now operate with one switch. So, up, down, or unequally in between are now the options. No picture, because it looked really hack, but needed done due to....
Screenshot_20190814-095914 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
going autocrossing!!!!!
had a two day event at zmax this past weekend. Ran in novice A, and sucked. But got faster with almost every run!
So, saturday morning, got through tech, pumped the spec miata slicks to 40psi, mounted the spoiler, and went to run.
20190817_084605 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
First three runs were rough. But the car felt more planted under throttle, and was definitely able to lay down the power in the long sweepers. Keeping a higher base fuel level made the hesitation/flat spot issues id had previously go away. I set the alignment to all the negative camber (2.5 degrees) front, 1/8 toe in, 1 degree negative with zero toe rear. Car was stiff with the spring rubbers, but not bouncy like we had feared. It honestly felt like I had no grip at all, but then I would overdrive and understeer. Left foot braking was much more predictable. Let an instructor take the car for a run with me riding along, and he beat me by 5 seconds. First time he ever sat in the car. So, I know the car has a lot more in it than I have as a driver. We later dropped tire pressure, and it made a difference in ultimate grip and balance. I did rip the passengers side side skirt off in the first run, so you'll see that in the videos. Videos, by the way, are courtesy of a father and his kids. Dads name was david howell. Nice family! On track pictures courtesy of luke woessner.
FB_IMG_1566137715251 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
FB_IMG_1566137768594 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Sunday, we tried removing the spoiler and playing with tire pressures. I also had another instructor run, with the top CSP miata driver that was there. He was insanely fast, and I almost hurled. Very rarely do I get motion sickness, but I did that time! Forget the guys name that did that run, but he gave me good feedback. The results of Sunday were that we know the spoiler is helping, however, its unbalancing the car. So we will cut it down to legal limit of 10 inches for XP (currently 19 inches tall). Toe out will be a big help in autocross, he recommended 1/8. he also mentioned that the slicks never really bit like they should. When he got out, he checked temps, which he said were fine, but the tires are rock hard. He recommended doping them for the challenge, and scrapping them form cheap r-comps afterwards. I need to learn about tire sauce. After the two days, I was incredibly sore on monday. In talking with dad, an old road racer, he said it was from trying to hold myself in on the stock seats. So we need to build a harness bar and put the butlerbuilt back in for autocross work.
Anyway, here are the autocross videos! Car is currently torn back apart for the last thrash before the challenge, where I hope to pull top 10 overall, and maybe win concourse. Maybe. Its kind of a pile. But dammit, its MY pile!
yall have a god weekend, and love your family.
Also, feedback is ALWAYS welcome. Especially if its on any of the lingering questions/suggestions/ideas/etc. I love community interaction with this stuff.
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