Just tell me it will all be okay - ND2 Miata as a daily driver

Boo!

Ha! 

Oct 2001:

$2000 Challenge weekend was fun! 4th in GTN (over-budget, 225 wide tires), plenty of fun-run drifting, and some grudge match drag racing against my best friend in his C5. I feel good about my results especially considering the 340tw Continental ECS I ran compared to 200tw's on most of the field. The Miata compared very well with Jeremy's new BRZ, running within .5s on autocross, same drag time of 14.9, and same lap times at the FIRM.

Just two cool dudes with their blue convertibles.

This was my first full track day, having only done the SCCA track night sessions before. The cheap Rockauto Power Stop "track day" pads worked amazing at the FIRM, though dusty as heck. No brake fade despite running lap after lap, sharing the car with my friend since his Vette didn't meet rollover requirement. I would only do 2 or 3 back-to-back fast laps, with a cool-down lap in between, both for mechanical sympathy and to gather my scrambled thoughts. By the end of the day I got really comfortable with the car. Once I got the guts to turn off traction control, my full-course lap time dropped from 1:30 to 1:27. I had a couple high-speed 4 wheel off events on turn 4, but I kept it under control through the grass and no damage to the car thankfully. And the best part is I didn't work on the car all weekend, not even changing tire pressures. We burned through an entire full tank of gas, tripped the fuel light, scrounged a few more gallons from our cohorts, then tripped the fuel light again. Never skipped a beat. The Miata just does.

The Miata just does.

That is a great line.

More pictures from Challenge

Another round of Road Atlanta

My first oil change after plenty of track work (dealer did the first two)

While I was at it, I swapped back to OEM pads since the dust from the Power Stop PSA is annoying and winter is coming. Not sure how the racing pads will do in cold DD situations.

Fronts look good. Started around 14mm, down to just over 12mm. That was a full day track day at FIRM and 1 hour total at Road Atlanta, plus a couple thousand miles. Still plenty of life left.

Rears wore less, only down to 13.2mm, though one of them got a little diagonal wear (3rd from left). Not sure what happened there.

I put them back in the box and saved for next track day, probably in spring. Not a bad job with a borrowed two-post lift!

maschinenbau said:

More pictures from Challenge

That is a very cool shop - and a cool collection of cars!

dyintorace said:

maschinenbau said:

More pictures from Challenge

That is a very cool shop - and a cool collection of cars!

Agreed.  That's goals right there. 

I wish that was all my collection! It's a membership shop space.

Officially made it past 15,000 miles, which is farther than my Fiat ever went. Still on original water pump, freeze plugs, coolant, etc  I still have no plans for upgrades or modifications, except maybe a hitch for a bike rack. It's just great the way it is!

Mine was around the same mileage when I put it away for the winter a couple months ago. As far as modifications, the only thing I decided was not optional was to replace the sway bars with FM units. The roll with the stock bars is too much for me, but the rest of the suspension is fine as-is.

02Pilot said:

Mine was around the same mileage when I put it away for the winter a couple months ago. As far as modifications, the only thing I decided was not optional was to replace the sway bars with FM units. The roll with the stock bars is too much for me, but the rest of the suspension is fine as-is.

I heard replacing the front sway bar is "difficult "

Yes. 

In reply to BlindPirate :

It was tedious, but I followed the FM video and didn't encounter any real problems. But then I'm used to working on Northeastern cars with rusty fasteners everywhere, so that may influence my definition of "difficult".

20,000 miles and 2 years post. I did the 4th oil change at 18,500 earlier this year, this time switching to 5W-30. More track nights, more autocross, less commuting thanks to moving closer to work. 

Making lots of friends along the way! Random photo dump:

And of course, stablemates!

Love hitting 100+ with the roof off! 

Miata life is good.

Wouldn't Fiat sheet metal fitted to an ND-RF make a cool looking GT?

You'd only be able to fit the front panels, which would make it look a little nose-heavy. Okay, a lot nose-heavy. The Fiat is almost styled on a different scale than the Miata.

I wonder how different the hard points are at the front?

I'd go the other way and try and fit the RF hardtop mechanism to the Fiat. It would still be a lot of work.

It would almost be easier to splurge for the 124 GT carbon fiber hardtop from Europe. It certainly looks nice:

I think it would be easier to fit the Fiat nose to the Miata, there are a lot of changes under the skin for the RF. Even the trunk lid is a different size. Plus you'd have to wrangle the electronics.

That's a good looking hardtop.

Keith Tanner said:

I think it would be easier to fit the Fiat nose to the Miata, there are a lot of changes under the skin for the RF. Even the trunk lid is a different size. Plus you'd have to wrangle the electronics.

That's a good looking hardtop.

Plus that way you have the Miata drive train.  And... well...

In reply to maschinenbau :

20k in 2 years.  Must be nice.

I'm at 30+k in one.

I probably need to schedule some maintenance. 

In reply to ShawneeCreek :

I wonder if that Fiat hardtop matches up to an ND, or does Mazda offer a removable hardtop of their own. 
I liked my NB with the hardtop in the cooler months.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

Given that sales of the removable hardtop for the NC completely cratered when the PRHT was introduced, Mazda probably never bothered with an ND hardtop due to the existence of the RF. I know, it's not a "real" convertible, etc, but it certainly seems to fit the bill.

I don't have a Fiat handy anymore, it would be interesting to see if you could fit that Fiat hardtop to the ND.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I remember looking at an NC with the hardtop and a PRHT side by side. The hardtop was a $2600 option and the additional MSRP for the PRHT was about the same. Not much wonder the sales cratered.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

Yeah, it's pretty easy to see why. They're a pain when it comes to roll bars but that's not Mazda's concern. I asked a Mazda engineer at the ND reveal party how we were expected to put a good roll bar under the ND soft top and the answer was "that's your problem". :)

Track day coming up, so I figured 20,000 miles and lots of track would warrant some maintenance. Trans fluid, differential fluid, brake fluid, and new pads and rotors. Last track day I experienced some brake fading on the Powerstop Track Day Spec PSA's, and I got lazy so I've been commuting on those pads since, so it's probably time to freshen them up. I went with Hawk DTC-60 and new uncoated rockauto rotors. The Powerstop pads were definitely worn out. From now on I plan to be more disciplined about street vs track brakes, and swapping between them. The new rotors will stay matched to the Hawk pads, and the old rotors will get put back on with the OEM pads, which still have a ton of life left. 

The bedding process for the Hawk DTC's caught me off guard. I did NOT expect sparks! But it was quite spectacular at night. They went away as they bed in (just stopping from 60+ mph repeatedly). Apparently the sparks are normal. Kinda rad.

Old Powerstop pads vs new Hawk pads. Yep they're worn out!

Rears had more life left, but I threw them out anyway.

Rotors will have plenty of thickness left, so they will become the street rotors.

Pushed more RBF 600 through the system. Also did a drain and fill of the trans with the "unicorn tears" - Ford Motorcraft XT-M5-QS. It was this or Redline MT-90. This is more of a street car for me so I decided against the Redline. The fluid that came out of the trans was solid opaque gray, but no shiny stuff or chunks. I will honestly claim an immediately noticeable improvement in shifting. I think since new the shifter has slower become harder to use, but it is way better now. I don't know the vocabulary to describe it...smoother? More buttery? Possibly even better than new, but that's difficult to judge from memory. 

The diff got Redline 75W-90, and the fluid that came out was much clearer than the trans. 

Probably the last track day for these tires too, maybe.