Bracket, btw, is basically two of these made from powdercoated chinese brackets we throw away at work. Drill holes, trim to size, and then twist about the weak point of the slot for precise alignment. It's not pretty but it worked well for mine. Can include a few brackets if you're not the type with scrap steel lying around.
I would need a bracket. And 3" is fine by me. Looks like I might have to remove my FM strut bar to run it, but I'm okay with that.
I'll have something you can play with on Saturday even if not THE one you can take home.
3" works, the filter I have now is pretty ratty. And brackets would be appreciated but I'm sure I can figure something out if you're short on them.
Noted. Printing one today for NickD. You're up next, mid next week. Might actually have one dyno'd in a week or two. Although it should be about as good as the professionally made part, I'd like to know for sure.
I put the loud light exhaust back on the STS car for Pocono. Combined with being 50 degrees this morning, it felt like a dang rocket. 
I just read through this again and thought to myself "You know, I really should keep the crappy Miata and turn it into a rallycross car - all I need is a hardtop." Gotta be advantages to having 2 cars that share parts, right?
We'll see what the spousal unit says.
It has been very useful. Out of curiosity, are you autocrossing with NER Saturday?
Unfortunately no. Wife is 38 weeks pregnant, so we're trying to sneak away for the weekend one last time before D-day. Why?
Today I learned that turning up the compression is a magic button to make the car go faster. I have been running neck and neck with this CRX all season, right up til halfway through today's event - in fact he had half a second on me in raw time - then I started turning knobs and just walked away. By two seconds.
Why the hell didn't I do this 6 months ago? It's like a whole new car. Does things I can't believe are possible. AND THIS IS AFTER JUST TWO RUNS.
Saturday video. (Turn sound down, it is gibberish)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/XouPIdDILSE
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Sunday was just as amazing to drive the car, the course was way better, but I couldn't put together a whole run at once. Data shows over half a second left out there due to glaring errors I knew I was making while driving. Still my 2nd best overall finish at this site. Saturday was my best ever by a mile.
I got to take one run in an STS Miata with Whitener Racing revalved Bilsteins and accompanying monster spring rates on it. Too bad the car lacked some other key parts of the setup the shocks were intended for and was way down on power to boot. So I can't make a direct comparison between that one and mine. I was 2 seconds faster than the car owner in his car, but still 3 seconds off my own pace. Big fast course rewarded power and stability/confidence, his car had neither. However driving that car was quite reminiscent of mine with the recent compression change, except his turned in even more 'RIGHT NOW'. Then due to the non-ideal sway bar and alignment it currently has, it was looser than I would like. But I can see how that setup would work when complete. Might go that direction over winter after more testing if my current shocks will support it. I believe they are close. More research needed.
At the event I picked up an NB passenger seat from a friend and threw it on my NA brackets. This is the lightest OEM seat combo at ~28 lbs and it will still safely carry a child seat on the street or a large passenger at an autocross. (STS seat minimum weight is 25 lbs.)
Then on Monday night I finally got the fiberglass driver seat installed after it lived in the basement for about 3.5 years and I literally forgot I had it at one point. Turns out it fit on stock sliders with one cut and two holes drilled. Super easy. Should have done it three years ago. Were these things designed specifically for the Miata back in the day or something? This one is at 22 pounds right now so combined the seats weight 50 pounds and I don't feel guilty running a local event as-is. Soon I will chop 3 pounds off the PS seat and add it to the DS seat to be fully compliant.
I ran around all weekend with this strapped to my intake to make sure underhood temps wouldn't compromise the ABS plastic intake. It barely got warm even when the aluminum one fully heat-soaked.
A finished unit also spent the weekend on another car with an exposed header and no intake shielding and that one was also fine as far as temperatures were concerned.
It will be a bit of a pain to print the equivalent of the gold-wrapped intake in that picture but I think I will make that my next project.
You're gonna like the racing seat. It's amazing how much easier driving is when you're not trying to hold on too.
My drive to work was super fun today. First event with it will be Saturday. Only 15 minutes in it so far but I learned that climbing out of the car with the top up is not an easy feat. 
Seat install all finalized and cleaned up. Turns out this endeavor doesn't even drop any weight because a stock seat and brackets with an aggressive foamectomy and no speakers apparently weighs just 25# anyway.
Making some progress with learning how and when to turn knobs. Based on pocono setup, made the car a bouncy undriveable mess today and then figured out how to fix it and hoo boy was it fixed. I won first in PAX in a competitive region for the first time ever. Still hate this particular venue. But i can make the car work there now. So there's that.
Need to do something about the seat. On the street it is fine. On course I do like how well anchored I am. But after a few launches and bad bumps, my spine was done. Taking the thigh cushion out and cramming it in as lumbar support got me through the day but more and better foam is necessary.
Finally worked up a plastic intake for myself, to clear the stupid tall NB shock shaft.
Ok, so the above image is right off the printer, with the two pieces just snapped together. From there I take an exacto knife and trim down the excess material where the two parts meet to reduce any obstructions to airflow.
Then I realized I have never glued a part together before. The acetone vapor bath will smooth over the outside and make two parts appear bonded, but it will be at the surface only. After a little research, apparently a mixture of acetone and scrap plastic makes a good 'glue'. I tried it here, painting the two surfaces to be bonded, pressing together until firm and then going over certain portions of the seam with more 'glue' and then applying the vapor treatment to the whole part. As you can see, the right side seam that was brushed with solution is much more well-adhered than the left side which had only vapor.
After this I hacked this sample piece apart to confirm the internal bond was solid too. It was.
So on to better things. I printed an extra test piece comprised of just the joint section to practice applying glue, brushing the internal seams, etc. That is in process on the left here by the glass of glue slurry, the full size print is still in two pieces on the right, and cmcgregor's straight tube is curing after vapor bath on the lid over there :D
That worked out well enough so I went for the whole part next.
And after the vapor bath overnight I have a finished part that ought to be functional. I am pleased with it.
This opens the door to making larger parts despite the 6x6x9 inch work envelope of the printer, which will be necessary for work (like, my-job work) in the near future as well, hence the privilege of screwing around with the printer lately.
I also made a replacement truss for a broken toy railroad bridge for my daughter, and rather than wait a few days for replacement when the wheel exploded off my office chair I just printed one 
The print didn't go perfectly and it's not trimmed or cleaned up in any way, I just peeled the raft off and crammed it on the chair so I could roll again. Close enough!
Tonight it is time to address this mess. 
Roll bar out. Anyone wanna buy a hard dog roll bar? It does fit the soft top and hardtop, it's just not tall enough for me for Solo I use and I won't run it on the street with a stock seat.
'New' soft top in. It's used/free but has an intact and more importantly, zip-opening rear window. Pretty big split right over the drivers' window, needs latches, and some weatherstrip is missing. I've got weatherstrip and latches on the old top I pulled out of this car, and I am not real worried about the one leak spot. On this car the top is meant primarily as 'shade', secondarily as 'oops the weather forecast changed'. From December to March it wears the hardtop, and most of the summer it is stored.
Installing a top is a little awkward as one person but actually not as bad as getting the roll bar out without scratching the car...the other car...the light fixtures on the ceiling...etc.
Oh yeah, some jackass previously cut apart the middle section of the rain rail mounting bar thing in this car. It is visible just to the left of the seatbelt tower in the top picture - that backing bar is not supposed to end right there halfway through the stud relief. Should be about 8" more metal and another opening and mounting hole. So instead of three sections of rail I have five sections and the two newly created ones have just one bolt through each so they kind of do...nothing. Didn't notice this when I took the old top out but it is incredibly stupid and I cannot figure out what the reasoning could have been for doing it. I could probably get away with leaving them out but for now they are crammed in and I can make a simple bracket to hold them in place by the center section's outermost stud.
Autocross on Sunday with the STS car. It was one of the victims of the 'Top Five Challenge' - At the last event the top 5 drivers in points for the season each take two runs in two unfamiliar cars, when they haven't seen the course yet. Best total time wins. Last year I was in it, this year I didn't make it to enough events in this region to be eligible so I offered up my car. 10 back-to-back runs with no cooldown time, just driver swaps. It took it like a champ until the last driver...who is notorious for left-foot-braking the entire course. The front brakes came back smoking heavily but after rolling the car back and forth a bit during cooldown and dealing with them being a little spongy on my first two competition runs afterwards, they seem to be no worse for the wear. This poor thing has Centric base semi-metallics up front for the cold bite and proper bias against the HPS in the rear...NOT a track pad and evidently NOT a 10-run-in-a-row autox pad either.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/2dYO2GjAofc
Everyone found it easy and fun to drive, unfortunately the drying weather conditions meant the data wasn't helpful...by the time my own first run happened 10 minutes later it was starting to get sunny and I obliterated all their times on my first run anyway. But at least the feedback was positive.
I also had a codriver who has never driven an autox car with less than 250 horsepower. He adapted to it very quickly and was only 0.6 back from my time. I finished 3rd overall but a whopping 0.5 out of first. The first place guy was on a mission after I beat him last week and he laid down a time no one could touch. It looks like I had the time to be 2nd (still-drying conditions had me alternating under- and over-driving various sections) but still would have been 0.2 out of 1st.
And that is 18 more very competitive runs on these free tires that were deemed 'cycled out' by the previous owner
Rallycross seems to be dead. The local region scheduled two events, one in Nov and one in Dec and then promptly cancelled them both a week later. And doesn't plan to schedule any more at this time. Sigh.
Rusty Miata needs a brake MC I believe, as the fluid level has dropped from max to min over the course of the summer and it's all hanging out on that tray right underneath the booster.
Had an autocross on Sunday. Meh. 7th overall, behind 6 people I beat last week. Didn't drive well. Plus there was one turn with massive bumps, a blind exit, and a literal stack of picnic tables on the outside of it where I know I was losing time simply due to being a wimp. Think I have a decent setup for that site now, but with a rough (as in bumpy) 2.5 hour drive at 70 mph in the Miata...most likely I will just bring the "STF" car to the next event there in November.
Parts are coming in to try a completely different setup on the STS car for its last event in two weeks. I am hoping the weather holds and I can run Saturday, swap 4 springs & two sway bars overnight, and run Sunday at the same site in the same conditions against the same competition and see if the new setup is worth pursuing further. If not, I believe I can back out of it for a total loss of about $50 after reselling all the parts.
Oh, and gaping rust hole found in 'Rusty'. Despite the name, it didn't have anything more than dents, body rust and rocker rust until now. :( This will probably get half-assed with sealer/encapsularos and an epoxied patch from the bottom to keep salt spray out until I fix it right in spring. Location is floor behind driver seat, at the base of the rear bulkhead. What you see through the hole is garage floor.
Check that your brake mc leak isn't just the grommets between the reservoir and the body. They're cheap and easy to replace.
I'm going to send you a check today or tomorrow for the intake - the baby came on the 5th, healthy and happy and the dust is finally thinking about settling at least.
Also, is that you selling ground control sleeves for konis? Count me interested...
I am selling sleeves but I think they are spoken for locally. I will look at the MC grommets, thanks. Didn't get too far yet, just noticed this the other night.
Well, that was an interesting weekend. I don't really have the time/motivation to type everything out here, but the summary is that the car was a damn riot on Saturday. Blisteringly fast but a twitchy handful to drive. Instead of committing to driving it better, we inadvertently neutered it too much with Sunday's setup. We took 16 runs in the car this weekend. Significant setup changes were made 12 times, I think a lot was learned, and I won both days too! It just became normal that we were crawling around under the car every run. All told, raised more questions than we answered and instead of that being the last event I am hooked on figuring this out and will run 1 or 2 more yet this year if the weather holds. This is fun.
Saturday video. So much wheelspin. So many small corrections.
Slacking on STS updates. Short version: Wacky fast setup was hard to adapt to the kind of surface i run on at 3 regions all year, so it is coming back off the car.
But forget that, it is rallycross season! There is finally a local event scheduled this weekend. I hadn't worked on the car at ALL. So tonight in a 2.5 hour thrash, it was shuffled out of the storage side of the garage, got exhaust, intake, seats, top latches, brake fluid, wheels and coolant installed. Had to jump it off the Vibe. Twice. Eventually idled for half an hour with no issues. Went for a quick drive. It goes, turns, stops. Good enough for rallycross 25 minutes away.
It does slightly pull left on throttle and right off throttle. Had this happen once before on another miata and it was a loose alignment cam causing dynamic rear toe, but that time the change was more pronounced - applying throttle caused a lane change. This is more subtle. Weird thing is it drove straight when parked. Hmm. I'll crank on all the cams tomorrow and see if it helps.
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