While we couldn’t bring the entire shop, we packed what we thought made sense. We also decided to dedicate a separate tool kit to this effort.
After nearly a year of work, our Sunshine Yellow 1992 Mazda Miata was ready for its big debut: ChumpCar’s 14-hour contest at Sebring International Raceway.
Before leaving for the track, though, we had some final things to handle.
First, there were spares and tools to pack and organize. We’ll share our complete lists in the magazine, but we came armed. Plus we had Rennie.
While we couldn’t bring the entire shop, we packed what we thought made sense. We also decided to dedicate a separate tool kit to this effort. Excessive? Well, we’re looking down the road. Every time we leave for the track, we’d rather not gut our primary tool boxes.
While taking a second Miata for spares was tempting, we decided to concentrate on the items likely to cause us grief. Again, we’ll share the entire list in print, but we filled a nice-sized box with a bunch of parts.
The night before leaving for the track, Geoff Thompson aligned the car. He has been setting up our chassis for years and knows his way around a Miata.
Out back, he gave us all the negative camber possible on our car: 2-1/8 degrees. And don’t forget that we’re still at stock ride height. A Spec Miata, he said, normally sees about 2-1/2 degrees. He then gave us 1/16-inch of toe-in.
Up front, he again went for max negative camber: 1-3/4. He also dialed in a bunch of caster (1-3/4 degrees) and and 1/8-inch toe-out.
Next stop, Sebring.
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