Swank's Miata #5: Track Beater Edition

At least i had enough hope left to move them to that garage.

MX6s take priority this spring/summer.

LMK I'm down to help out.

Tom's should be pretty straightforward. Mine needs.... an entire body harness. Le sigh.

Got some things. Wilwood 1" master cylinder, and not pictured, a Racing Beat 1.25" hollow front bar with 3 piece brace kit so i don't tear apart my subframe.

Have a 1.6 7lb flywheel and clutch on the way, should be here tomorrow.

Supermiata Wilwood Master Cylinder by concealer404, on Flickr

This thing is BEEFY.
Supermiata Wilwood Master for scale by concealer404, on Flickr

hmmmmm. I like that master. 1" you say? I wonder if It could work with my crayp. Hate my mushy pedal travel.

You have the same booster i do. Not sure how nice it'll play with non-sport brakes, though.

My guess is that my pedal will be a bit stiffer than most prefer.

No real major updates. Still cold and E36 M3ty outside, so haven't done any actual work.

Flywheel and clutch are here. I don't trust the clutch, so i'll order a new one. Looking at a 1.6 Clutchnet Stage 1 solid disk unsprung. Rated for 199ftlbs, and stupid light, which is what i want. Clutch/flywheel combo should be right at 20lbs. No pics.

Got a titanium (for weight reduction!) key and Revlimiter keychain. No, i has no trubo, but i liked the keychain anyways.

Titanium key for weight reduction. by concealer404, on Flickr

Looking at what i'll do for the interior, since i hate the consoles in NBs and i never use them for anything anyways. Found the source for the tombstone cap and window switch panel, will order tomorrow. I can do the carpet and shift boot ring myself.

Starting to wish i had ordered the bootless version of the shifter i ordered, but this is ok.

I'm beginning to think that someday I would really like to have a Miata. The Mrs. and I could leave the kiddo with friends, cruise around with the top down, maybe even park somewhere. Looks like too much fun not to get one.

They're pretty fun, i have to admit. I still like the MR-S better, but for my current uses, an NB1 was a pretty great fit, with much less remorse if i wad it up.

Anyways, got some Spec Miata sleeves/perches to upgrade my Bilstein setup with.

Spec Miata sleeves/perches by concealer404, on Flickr

Looking at the picture of the interior, the fuel door and trunk release levers are in a really odd place. Behind the driver's right elbow? Is that stock? My Miata exposure is quite low so this is new to me.

Yup, that's stock. Normally they are inside the center console area.

Any reason i would regret running NT01s instead of RS3s or R1Rs?

They don't heat up as fast and are more expensive? I'd imagine for some light track duty use, the others would be just fine and 95% as fast on a hot lap.

3/11/2015

This car didn't have working brakes, so let's fix that.

Rear brake caliper was E36 M3ting brake fluid everywhere. This seems to have blown out the wheel seal and cooked the wheel bearing. Got to remove it all with hand tools only. YAY. Got a new one pressed in for $32. Bad rear wheel bearing. by concealer404, on Flickr

Sport brakes don't really fit with the non-sport brake shields. Mild customization required. "Customized" brake shield for Sport brake by concealer404, on Flickr

Rear Sport brakes installed. Rear Sport brake installed by concealer404, on Flickr

Front Sport Brake installed. Front Sport brake installed by concealer404, on Flickr

A whole lot of FML. I think i need to get a proportioning valve and stop trying to integrate race parts into a street car system. So stupid. Bane of my existence by concealer404, on Flickr

Anyways, car still doesn't have working brakes. I have two leak points right now caused by faulty hardware. Front wheel bearings actually turned out to be fine, but my driver's front upper balljoint is toast. Le sigh.

3/14/15

Threw the old Momo Competition and a Carbing High Grip in the car. Still working on brake lines. Going to Earl's after work today and should finish them tonite.

Momo Competition, Carbing High Grip by concealer404, on Flickr

Making headway on the brake situation. Ended up throwing the entire install kit except for the adapter plate and the 3-way female M10x1.0 tee in the trash. This is going to be much cleaner and involve no adapters other than the 1/8npt to 3/8-24 inverted flare stuff necessary to use the Wilwood parts.

Would have been done last night, but i herped, derped, and forgot how to use a brake tool effectively. Will finish up tonite. Also installed new clutch master, clutch slave, speed bleeder in the clutch slave, and 949Racing extended braided clutch line. Shiny things in a E36 M3ty and dirty stock engine bay. So fun.

Brake progress by concealer404, on Flickr

We finished the brakes last night finally. One fitting is leaking very slightly, the annoying part is that this is the ONE that we didn't flare. Will address that this weekend, but it was safe enough to drive home.

Impressions/findings:

1) EBC Yellows are pretty much berkeleying awful for the street.

2) I need to get the actual caliper/brake pad hardware (shims and E36 M3) for the Sport brakes. The hacked up normal stuff we used i think is making some annoying noises.

3) The brake pedal feels berkeleying awesome. Extremely stiff, but still easy to drive on the street, despite the EBC Yellows not stopping worth a berkeley until they're nice and hot.

4) No way in HELL this car has a stock clutch and flywheel. Revs stupid fast, and the clutch is pretty grabby. I was going to swap them out this Spring with the 1.6 setup, but i think i'll just let it ride for this season, go to some pimp E36 M3 when the next motor goes in over the winter.

Pics. I can do a complete write up for the Wilwood install along with dimensions for new lines and fittings used if there's interest. I don't want to see anyone else go through what we did for this setup.

Brake lines for Wilwood Master cylinder again by concealer404, on Flickr

Brakes finished by concealer404, on Flickr

View of brake hydraulics by concealer404, on Flickr

Dammit swank, your making me want a miata again.

Looking forward to seeing what you do next.

I think next will be the interior swap, wrap the hardtop black, get new tires so i can install the new wheels, and install the suspension stuff i just finished ordering.

In no particular order.

Ordered today:

2x Hyperco CO6-600
2x Hyperco CO6-400
4x Hyperco CS100
4x Wide Open Motorsports tender spring perches
4x Energy Suspension coil spring isolators

I'm not sure the Bilstein setup could be called "budget" anymore, but it's still under a grand and should be stupid fast. And will set me up nicely for revalved shocks later.

I kinda like the 2 tone interior, especially after changing the steering wheel.

I could maybe live with it if i removed the rest of the wood and chrome stuff.

BUT. This interior is nasty. It's dirty, worn, and stinks.

Patented soft top remove method:
Making it better. by concealer404, on Flickr

Just pull REALLY hard.
Soft top removal, man style. by concealer404, on Flickr

So disgusting. There is no reason for a car with under 100k miles to be this disgusting. I'm pretty sure there's ashes in my transmission. So disgusting. by concealer404, on Flickr

Let me play for you the song of my people.

Autoplicity sent me the new style Hyperco springs, despite paying old style prices, so that was nice.

Hell yeah. Brown Santa came.

Hyperco goodies by concealer404, on Flickr

Poor man's Xidas by concealer404, on Flickr

I'm having a bad time finding Sport Brake hardware.

Probably the wrong brake shims. by concealer404, on Flickr

That is one nasty interior

Nice work