PAdutch's misadventures in Miataland

[PAdutch]

Well long story short, no miata made it to autocross saturday. The wife and I did take the Genesis out and had alot of fun. She is making good progress and the more I drive that car the more I like it and makes me wonder if it would make a good STU car (I think it would).

Black Car -
I thought it needed a steering rack tension adjustment (miatas have an adjuster in the steering rack for gear wear) but that was not the problem. It needs rack mounts and I found out to late to make it right for sunday. That should be the last thing it needs

White Car -
it was still running quite rough when warm at idle, even after a fuel filter change. I was suspicious of the fuel system since it was the only thing remaining from the shell. Last night I opened the tank and found this:


Looks like there is some rust in the tank. I'm going to fix this. Not sure if Ill just scrub it and clean it as best I can or swap a tank (which means dropping the rear subframe). At least I have a target now.

[PAdutch]

After a little hiatus getting married in Punta Cana, I'm back! (All inclusive resorts rule!)

White Car
Has the new gas tank swapped in and is running much better but still has intermittent low rpm + low load stuttering. I'm not sure why, kind of seems like a grounding issue maybe. Otherwise things are good with that car.

Black car
Installed new poly steering rack mounts but haven't had a chance to make sure that solved the problem but judging by the lack of play in the steering while stationary I'm thinking it did.

I also mounted my battery in a much better way. All with stuff I had laying around.




There is a big autocross at Pocono raceway this weekend I plan to attend.

[DocWalt]

Congrats on the marriage!

See you at Pocono!

[mckpat03]

Wheel and tire fitment

[PAdutch]

Originally Posted by DocWalt

Congrats on the marriage!

See you at Pocono!

Thanks

Took her for a test ride last night, all seems well. I am now officially signed up. See ya there!

Originally Posted by mckpat03

Wheel and tire fitment

I like wide tires

[DocWalt]

I saw you! You looked fast, haha.

[PAdutch]

Originally Posted by DocWalt

I saw you! You looked fast, haha.

Thanks, it felt fast haha. I meant to catch up with you but never got around to it (I also wasn't sure which blue RS you were in). I was working when you ran, those cars look like fun.

To say the autocross was a success would be a gross understatement. I expected to maybe get a few runs in and have some sort of failure. After warming up to the car for two runs I really started to hammer on it and it performed awesome. The results speak for themselves, 3rd fastest fendered car there and 21rst in pax out of 161 people.

A CSP miata has to the most fun you can have in autocross without having a crazy budget. I am hooked now and committed to making it as close to fully built as I can. That means:

VVT Engine
Tuning solution (megasquirt)
Aero (Front and rear spoiler)
proper rims
seats
brakes
various other little thiings

Expect things to be happening. For now I really need to get the wifes car 100% so she can get out there.

The only pic I took, hopefully a few more surface.

[DocWalt]

I was working while you were running too so I didn't get to say Hi. Oh well, next time!

The fact that you did that well with such little prep is impressive Super technical course too...

[PAdutch]

Originally Posted by DocWalt

I was working while you were running too so I didn't get to say Hi. Oh well, next time!

The fact that you did that well with such little prep is impressive Super technical course too...

Yeah def wasn't the typical pocono but I enjoyed most of it except for the friken start. Its going to take some getting used to how the miata just fits places that other cars cant and how it carries so much speed.

[PAdutch]

I was not impressed with the brakes out at the autocross so i picked up some HP+ pads


I also chased down a pretty good deal on a 01 VVT engine (long term goal)


I also bought a smashed NB with a torsen rear end to swap in. Hopefully I can sell some other parts off of it and basically get a free dif out of it (if not it was cheap enough). 26k miles so should have plenty of life in it.



I also bought this steering wheel and quick disconnect from amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They are just generic cheep stuff but out of the box they feel pretty good and serve 2 purposes. Make ingress and egress easier and move the steering wheel closer to my chest. Ill post pics when I install it.


White Car
The white car is now streetable and made its maiden voyage last night with no issue. The wife is registered for the pocono autocross Jun 17-18.

[DocWalt]

I hope to be there, I'll have to say hi! I'm waiting for single day registration to open as I can't make Saturday...

[PAdutch]

Originally Posted by DocWalt

I hope to be there, I'll have to say hi! I'm waiting for single day registration to open as I can't make Saturday...

I think alot of people are as I expected it to be full by now. I think fathers day is messing things up. Ill be there Friday for the test and tune as well. I'm actually hopping to get both car there for some shake down runs.

If you miss registration show up anyway, Ill take ya for a ride!

[PAdutch]

Picked up a passenger seat kirkey for $25. Cant beat that.


[url=https://ibb.co/iK35kv]

Also installed the ebay steering wheel. Initial impressions are pretty good, fitment was okay but they could have used some better hardware and instructions. I wanted closer to my chest but that might be to much, Ill have to see when I get my seat mounted.

[PAdutch]

Got the driverseat kirkey Mounted to the stock miata seat mounts. It could use some tweaks, needs to lean back a little further, but is good for now.






I also start on a rear spoiler, Ill have better pictures soon. The plywood is only temporary to get the function proper, then I will us it as a template to make a lexan one. It is pretty much complete at this point, I forgot to take a picture. Hopefully I can get a splitter done for pocono this weekend to balance out the aero.

[PAdutch]

Originally Posted by DocWalt

I hope to be there, I'll have to say hi! I'm waiting for single day registration to open as I can't make Saturday...

Single Day is open!

The spoiler is pretty complete, it just needs some weather stripping at the bottom to take up the air gap.





Started on the splitter, it is much further along, I just didnt take pictures, and should be finished up tonight. That is the last piece for the pocono AutoX this weekend.

[DocWalt]

Good luck up there! I can't do the "get up at 4 AM" to race on Sunday. Might go up to Devens though.

[schaffer]

Blah Blah Blah....look at me with my fun Miata...

[PAdutch]

Well I've done a poor job updating this and taking pictures but here it comes.


Black Car:
Ive done 3 autocrosses since the last update:

NEPA SCCA Pococno Regional 6/17-6/19: Was a great event to get to know the car better. I got ~20 runs in between the three days. I went in with high expectations but completely screwed up saturday, which ruined any chances of FTD and PAX. Sunday was much better, probably near the top in PAX and coned away a .4 second faster time.

LCCC 7/1: A much smaller tighter course where power is not such a big player. I was .08 sec from FTD and nearly the same for PAX. Extremely rewarding considering the car I was behind is a nationally competitive CSP car/driver. Gives me hope for the future.

Pocono 7/13: It rained. The car sucks in the rain, all I have is slicks. Even when it dried out a little it was still moist enough that I could not get heat in the tires.

Overall thoughts: The car is pretty good right now and I'm getting pretty quick with it, but not consistent. Most of that is because of the manual rack in it. Once it gets a little out of sorts I can't save it fast enough.

Priorities:
1. Get the powered rack in from the NB shell and put it in.
2. Get the torsen rear diff in
3. Tire blankets to keep the heat

Recent purchases
Hard top
ITBs (did I mention I buy things I don't really need)

[PAdutch]

The wife has autocrossed the white car twice and has gotten significantly better with it. No breakages, the car has been enjoyable. We even drive it to work and on the street otherwise a bit.

NEPA SCCA Pococno Regional 6/17-6/19: The car on the Falken 615k+ tires and has a significant amount of grip. The wife drove pretty conservatively. She is still learning but the event was good for her as she kept getting faster. She was about 3-5 seconds behind her fellow ESL competitor in the region.

LCCC 7/1: She found her groove her driving much smoother and beating her fellow competitor by 3 seconds. Much better driving and was ~2 seconds of pace of the ES guys.

Given her improved driving, it may be time to make the car a little better. It is on old bone stock suspension. I am keeping an eye out for a good deal on swaybars, shocks and springs.

[DocWalt]

Progress! woo!

Seriously, glad to hear you're already so competitive in the CSP car! Also great that your wife is enjoying the white car and picking up pace. Making it a family activity is much more fun