this looks pretty cool!
this looks pretty cool!
Interesting to look at the results from Lincoln and see that STF is still slower than HS. At the beginning of the year there was some concern that the PAX was too generous, but it looks like it might be just about right.
In reply to Andy Hollis:
Looking at your picture, that seems very low. I haven't spent any time looking this up, but do you think you run into bump steer issues being that low? Or any other host of McPherson geometry weirdness?
Andy Hollis wrote:Max_Archer wrote: I've been noticing that my car has a pretty noticeable amount of center play in the steering. It occurs to me that steering rack bushings and maybe aftermarket tie rods would probably cure that, and increase feedback at the same time. Has anybody looked into this yet?Sounds broken to me. Mine has no play at all.
It's not like clicky loose play, just vagueness on center, like something rubbery is stretching. Nothing at all when the car is off, only when the P/S is running though. I'm thinking there's a good chance that it's actually just flex in the crappy stock tires and should hopefully go away when I upgrade.
Max_Archer wrote: It's not like clicky loose play, just vagueness on center, like something rubbery is stretching. Nothing at all when the car is off, only when the P/S is running though. I'm thinking there's a good chance that it's actually just flex in the crappy stock tires and should hopefully go away when I upgrade.
Bone stock car or lowered? If the latter, was it aligned? If so, to what specs?
If you lower these cars, you get toe-in, which gives a really vague steering feel...until you align it.
I run front toe at zero for the street (3/16" out for autox). Feels/works great. Even on the OE tires.
skullsroad wrote: In reply to Andy Hollis: Looking at your picture, that seems very low. I haven't spent any time looking this up, but do you think you run into bump steer issues being that low? Or any other host of McPherson geometry weirdness?
With the stiff springs (550 front), the range of travel is not enough to cause bad bump steer issues. My old STS Miata was worse (and lowered more) even though it was double a-arm.
Don't believe everything you read on the internet about struts. While they are the Devil's work, they aren't as hard to live with as some would have you believe.
Pete240Z wrote:
+1!! I'm digging that 2, looks "racecar"! 
Andy Hollis wrote:Max_Archer wrote: It's not like clicky loose play, just vagueness on center, like something rubbery is stretching. Nothing at all when the car is off, only when the P/S is running though. I'm thinking there's a good chance that it's actually just flex in the crappy stock tires and should hopefully go away when I upgrade.Bone stock car or lowered? If the latter, was it aligned? If so, to what specs? If you lower these cars, you get toe-in, which gives a really vague steering feel...until you align it. I run front toe at zero for the street (3/16" out for autox). Feels/works great. Even on the OE tires.
Lowered but only on Racing Beats, which are less than an inch. Car was aligned after the swap, toe is at -0.05 on both sides.
I'm plenty experience with struts, having owned quite of few B13s. I guess I never liked the solution of running stiffer springs to compensate for crap geometry. But that's because I do back road/hill climb driving, where stiff cars go to die. Autocross is a whole different style.
Congrats on the success by the way. It's nice to see an MZ2 backed by good sponsors and a competent driver.
Max_Archer wrote:Andy Hollis wrote:Lowered but only on Racing Beats, which are less than an inch. Car was aligned after the swap, toe is at -0.05 on both sides.Max_Archer wrote: It's not like clicky loose play, just vagueness on center, like something rubbery is stretching. Nothing at all when the car is off, only when the P/S is running though. I'm thinking there's a good chance that it's actually just flex in the crappy stock tires and should hopefully go away when I upgrade.Bone stock car or lowered? If the latter, was it aligned? If so, to what specs? If you lower these cars, you get toe-in, which gives a really vague steering feel...until you align it. I run front toe at zero for the street (3/16" out for autox). Feels/works great. Even on the OE tires.
Inches or degrees?
Either way, you may like it better at zero. Worth a try
I picked up a set of stock alloys from a forum member recently and I thought I'd measure and photo them before I put tires on them. Not really adding much other than information about the 2 that can be found easily in the future if need be, and allowing me to verify that I know how to measure wheels.
The back of the wheel says 15x6 with an offset of 45mm.
Wheel width is 7 inches (or 177mm) at the outside, and right at 6 inches at the inside where the wheel is measured, just like it's supposed to be.
To measure backspacing, I laid a level across the wheel and measured from the hub face to the level. The picture looks like 135, but that's because of the angle I had to take the picture at, it's really 134.
A little math. Divide the width by two - 176/2=88.5
Now subtract 134-88=45.5mm Close enough for tape measure work I reckon.
So the wheel is the size it says it is, and I spent half an hour learning nothing other than that I can trust the numbers cast into the factory Mazda2 alloys.
Left foot braking issue solved! For the most part.
Following this thread on the Mazdas247 fourm: http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123797796-tuning-out-the-brake-override/page2
Which references this thread on miata.net: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=424402
Gives us this information:
Disabling of BOS
•If the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal to be depressed together, operation of the brake override system can be prevented, if necessary.
Disable brake override operation conditions
•If the following conditions are met for 10 s within 30 s after switching the ignition ON (engine off), the brake override system is disabled until the activate brake override operation conditions are met.
■Vehicle speed: 0 km/h {0 mph}
■Accelerator pedal fully depressed
■Brake pedal depressed
Activate brake override operation conditions •Cycling the key off and back on will re-activate the brake override operation conditions.
Which works! Basically, turn the key to ignition on. Press both the gas and the brake for a 10 count, release and without turning the key back, start the car as normal. It shuts down the brake override. Not exactly super easy to have a 15 second starting procedure in grid for an autocross, but it works. Hopefully there will be a tuning solution in the future as well, but for now, I think we can all be happy with this.
Sorry for the excess of links, I just wanted to give credit to the wonderful folks that figured this out.
Confirmed and run. Six autocross runs today and now I can left foot brake without the engine cutting out. Still teaching my brain to remember how to do it, but small speed corrections are much better. My happiness with the 2 just grows and grows.
In reply to mazdeuce: Did you happen to throw the wheels on a scale before mounting tires?
On my bathroom scale they fall steady in the 14-15 lb range which is what the internet says they are. I need a better scale.
Did you all see the mazda2 versus the wall of death. Pretty cool video!
So what have you done to yours Andy?
In reply to mazdeuce on the BOS disable:
Mega-thanks on this one.
I'm still not 100% on getting it to properly deactivate, but used it at Blytheville on most of the Tour runs. So much niceer to have confidence that the throttle won't kick off on me if I do the "foot dance".
Just did my first oil change on the 2. Took it to the local place that includes a wash with the oil change 'cause we're not allowed to work on cars at my complex, and since it was clean I waxed it for the first time.
The difference pre- and post-oil change is noticeable, actually. The car had been feeling kinda sluggish from a stop for quite a while and it's much better now. I think it's a combination of new, clean oil replacing the break-in oil, and the fact that the Chevron oil that's now in the car is the thinnest synthetic stuff out there.
Haven't done anything really cool with the car lately, though. Hoping I can get myself some new stuff when my B-day rolls around this August. I need tires and a new helmet really badly so I can AutoX it, but I also really want an intake and maybe an exhaust.
Andy Hollis wrote: In reply to mazdeuce on the BOS disable: Mega-thanks on this one. I'm still not 100% on getting it to properly deactivate, but used it at Blytheville on most of the Tour runs. So much niceer to have confidence that the throttle won't kick off on me if I do the "foot dance".
No problemo. I'm glad we have something that works. I have a bad habit of resting my foot on the brake just a bit when I LFB, not enough to slow the car, just enough so that I can feel the presence of the pedal with my foot. It was enough to kill the throttle at very bad times and kept me from LFB at all. I know I can be faster driving like this, and now I can practice without destroying a run.
Congrats on Blythville and the tour, good driving.
Anybody up to anything interesting in the Mazda2 world lately? Mine's just been doing boring daily driving lately. Something's leaking about 10PSI a week in my rear right tire/wheel, and has been for weeks, I really need to get that taken care of. I'm still having trouble getting my alignment straight, and as the tire gets low, it makes me have to steer even more to the left to get the car to go straight. It's really a pretty subtle alignment issue, but it's enough that it totally messes with me, since I'm so used to levelling out the wheel when exiting a corner, and having it off really throws me off.
Andy will probably have some updates on this eventually, but I saw him mention on 24/7 that he'd raised his redline to 7200. A bump in redline has been one of the things I really have been feeling like the car needs, and I'll be really interested in seeing how it holds up over time, because I'd love to tune my car the same way. I'll also be interested to see how the car does on the dyno with the new tune.
On a more extreme level, I'm seeing people getting HP numbers in the 160s and 170s with only 7PSI or so of boost in Southeast Asia, where this car's been out for a few years and is quite popular. Lots of people are apparently daily driving setups like this, and they've been doing pretty well even in the heat and humidity of places like Thailand and Indonesia. I think I know what I want to do when my warranty expires, haha. Hopefully we'll have off-the-shelf turbo kits by then.
Took mine to the local BMW CCA autocross a few weeks ago & both miatame & pseudosport piloted the car. Bone stock with 1400 miles & it did rather well. After the first session some guy walked up to us asking about what was done to the car and said "you have beaten at least 10 cars that you shouldn't have". While I wasn't registered to drive I do have the urge now & plan on picking up a helmet & becoming a club member in the near future.
I placed an order last week for the Racing Beat springs & Power Pulse muffler. Eventually I'll be placing an order for the 6UL wheels & some tires. This Saturday I will be having a Pioneer headunit installed.
Speaking of headunits. I'm not sure if yours is a sport or a Touring, but there's finally a wheel adapter out that lets you install a headunit without "breaking" the touring's trip computer. They were talking about it on Mazdas24/7, I'll see if I can dig the info up if you're interested.
Anybody else notice their 2's windshield loves to attract rocks? I have fixed 3 rock chips since I have owned mine.
Just in case anyone cares... My 2 is sitting at 4900 miles and getting 39 mpg average on my commute. Definitely better than my 91 Volvo 740 which was averaging 20. The difference between what I was paying for gas with the 740 vs what I am paying now is enough to cover the 2's payments!
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