Team Stampie 1994 Miata build

I can swap Miata suspension alone in less than 1.5 hours. Find a group at the challenge and it won't take anytime at all.

You guys are a bad influence. I bought some tubing and plate instead of eating lunch today. Hope to get it all cut up and ready to weld Thursday evening once we get there.

Did some measuring this morning and the only pipe that would fit the springs won't fit the hole in the car. Guess I was over compensating and bought too big of a pipe. Story of my life. So no top hat build tonight but I still need to cover a seat and make my door panels.

I did bring some extra top hats.

I'm going to do a better assessment tomorrow but just a quick post. Handling was great especially given the ride height. Our only mechanical issue was when I killed a cone and bent the heat sheild on the drivers front brake back into the rotor. Not a big problem to bend back out. Sorry to the corner worker as I'm sure I carried that cone pretty far.

It was great to meet you and your son! Nice job out there!

It was great meeting you and everyone else there. Shame that we didn't get a chance to really check out the other cars until Saturday afternoon. I would have loved to have spent more time checking out yours and the others.

OK after thinking it really comes down to three goals. In order of importance we have power, suspension, and lightness.

In reverse order:

Lightness

I really wished that I had focused on this more as it's free and directly affects acceleration and handling. I ran the Challenge with the only lightness added being no top, no carpet, and one missing door panel. I still had all the non working ac components and our manual steering conversion was running the pump dry. I really studied the top two Miatas and what they did for lightness. Interesting enough both left stuff on that the other car removed. It's free performance that just takes a little time. Expect us to be a lot lighter next year.

Suspension

This was what I really wanted to nail this year so you can imagine my heart sinking last Sunday when I discovered that that I was 4-6 inches too high. Even with that I was pleased to place 14th in the autocross. This is going to be pretty simple. Custom top hats to lower it down and maybe some chassis stiffing to keep everything in place. This year I let a pro hot lap the first three runs and then I took the last two just to see what autocross was all about. It was the most fun that I've ever had in a car. Just to do 90% of the course not even touching the brakes and trusting that yes I really can throw the car into a corner that fast was amazing. We ran 450f 250r springs this year. I'm told that taking that up double is closer to what the top Miatas ran. We'll actually save money doing the custom top hats and there may be tricks to double our spring rate and save money.

Power

This is what hurt us the most I think. We placed 26 in the drags iirc. One thing that hurt was our clutch slave was bad. I actually got the car cheap because the PO thought the clutch itself was bad but I wanted to run 1/2 budget so bad that I didn't replace it. I literally was going into neutral in the staging lanes and pumping up the clutch hydraulics so that I wouldn't miss shifts during the run. Easy fix for that. Even with that fixed we need power. Of the top Miatas one didn't make the power they wanted and the other couldn't get their power down effectively. With the lightness added I'm thinking 200 - 225 wheel HP is our target. Right now I'm looking at everything from v8 swaps to turbo systems to NOS to a combo above. This is the biggest question of what we're going to do next year. What's worth the effort and at what point do we stop?

Great showing this year. Nice talking to you and bonus points for bringing the boy with you!

Get that thing lower and start working on your paint now. Prep is going to take you some time and if you don't like the first go around you can fix it before next year.

Also, look at the car and what catches your eye first both good and bad? What can you do about it? Look in the engine compartment, worst eyesore? Fix that. Keep going around doing that and pretty soon you'll have a car that's much more appealing to look at and your concourse score will jump up.

I always wait on paint and body until the last minute, guess what usually goes undone? Heck we didn't even get the build car there. The Metro wasn't even supposed to compete.

See you guys next year.

Yea I was disappointed in seeing my 8.5 concours score but that means I can only improve. I took Sunday off but yesterday I started brainstorming and we have our plans 95% set for improving the concours score next year.

Hey I got a 10 with the lexus, and a 10.2 with the lincoln. You were not to far off my concours score.

Yea but I had a cute kid hamming it up with Al Unser Jr so my real score was closer to 2.

Good point. Also commendable use of child labor.

I wanted to get a baseline of our weight. This is race weight except street tires and wheels. I've got a ways to go but it's easy to just rip stuff out. I'll probably start it up every hour to make sure I didn't remove something that's needed.

I admire your dedication sticking to the same platform. My AADD has taken me a new direction already!

I'm interested in your observations about "weight" in both the Mumpkin and the A&M car.

We have some perceived weight which isnt actually there, and some imperceptible lightness which is pretty significant.

The Mumpkin weighs 1850 lbs wet, WITH a rollbar and the hardtop and the splitter. I could have shaved a little bit more, but not much. People see things like my steel wheels and door structure still in place, and think I have left something on the table. That's not exactly true.

It's easy to see the steelies and miss the lightweight tires, or the near perfect size/ offset (a big performance advantage which is hard to match on a budget with alloys).

It's easy to see the door structure and not realize that my driver has a preference for bracing himself against the door with his knee. Yep, I could have cut 7 lbs, but might have lost a little driver output.

It's easy to see my dashpad and assume it's an intact dash. It's not- there is nothing under it, just a hollow shell.

The fastback added some weight up high where I don't want it, but it gave me some Concours points, and could be an aero advantage with a little more effort. It's lighter than you think- I can lift it easily with 1 hand.

I have actually reached the point where I am ADDING stiffness, and therefore a little weight. Butterfly braces, frog arms, air ducting, flat bottom, rear wing, diffuser. These are performance advantages, which need to be considered.

Colin Chapman could always add lightness, but he sometimes did it a great expense (Not $2K). This is a game of compromises. Every inch of the car is a series of choices and considerations. Make sure you are considering the entire package, not just the next few pounds you can hack off.

SVreX wrote: Colin Chapman could always add lightness, but he sometimes did it a great expense (Not $2K).

Not to mention a couple of dead drivers.

Robbie wrote: I admire your dedication sticking to the same platform. My AADD has taken me a new direction already!

I actually came up with a 3 year plan the day after I bought this Miata. It has changed some but still a three year plan. I'd say we're only slightly behind with the ride height being the main issue.

SVreX wrote: I'm interested in your observations about "weight" in both the Mumpkin and the A&M car.

You have very valid reasons for your decisions. You made a point to me that once you have power you can compromise weight gain for performance gain (steel wheels)

I think the A&M guys went to an extreme to lose weight. I was amazed to see that they remove not only the inner door but also the safety bar and iirc were not running a cage in that area to protect the driver. I would not have built that knowing that someone's life would be at risk.

I think they went into it with the idea of keeping it a Miata while trying to remove every pound possible. I think you went into it with a mature view of really studying of what you wanted to do with every piece and how to transform the car into something better than a Miata. I'd love to drive your car anytime. I'd be scared to drive theirs at all.

In reply to Stampie:

I'd have cut off everything I could and drilled holes in the rest if the mumpkin was still mine.

Leave the maturity to Paul.

In reply to MrJoshua:

Lol!

In reply to Stampie:

I will be autocrossing with Dixie SCCA most months in Moultrie GA. It's about 2.5 hrs from you. You are welcome to drive any time you like.

In reply to MrJoshua:

IIRC, there was nothing about you that was ready to hack more out of the car when you realized the top end of the track was pretty slick.

So today I guess I started getting ready for the 2016 Challenge. A friend of mine works at a print shop and they use aluminum sheets for the presses. Last month I helped him build a wood metal break to make a redneck gutter out of some used plates. It got me thinking so I asked about buying some. They just sell them for scrap to a recycler so here's 50 lbs of aluminum sheet.

Just bought a Craftsman 618 lathe in Orlando. It came with a lot of tooling so I'm happy. Now I can make a steel bushing for the rear shocks and turn down the tubing for the custom top hats.