Well, you managed to tell a story and still not answer where you actually are. You are indeed in Memphis now?

 

Foiled again!

Memphis TN is where I live currently, yes.

 

Well crap! I would have gone up to ABQ just to see it.

 

Sorry I missed this question earlier.

Running bone stock (this car has the suspension package, which is Bilsteins and a clutched LSD) the car was prone to understeer unless you really cooked it into a corner. Unfortunately, the tires are old enough that they are kinda hard and crap now, which is likely the root cause. Getting on throttle to make the ***-end come out typically resulted in snap-oversteer once traction broke. Either you were understeering slightly or you were going ape-**** sideways at best or over-rotated at worst.

With all the braces installed, the balance immediately changed. The car almost always defaults to oversteer, but not in the psychopathic way as before. Rather, it was imminently controllable with throttle and just letting the LSD pull you back into the line.

With the FM2 suspension, the oversteer seemed a bit more pronounced to me. I played with the adjustment points on the sway bars and actually was able to dial the car into some understeer again -- which I didn't prefer. Ultimately, the car is back to roughly neutral now (IMO) but is sorely limited by the old, hard tires.

Also keep in mind that the NC doesn't ride around on the bumpstops like the NA and NB chassis seem to. Mazda gave quite a bit more room for suspension travel on the 3rd gen, so the Tokicos and springs have more room to maneuver without hitting the hard stop. I also started with the Tokico's at the adjustment point recommended by FM, but ended up going two turns softer which significantly helped with street manners.

 

Minor update: ordered a fat stack of parts yesterday from Fab9. Koyo radiator, Setrab oil cooler (the 25-row "big one"), Competition Clutch stage 3 (sprung segmented ceramic) and matched flywheel, along with DW340lph pump and 1000cc ID injectors.

Also ordered a new CNC-milled stainless oil filter plate to replace the stocker cast aluminum unit that is prone to crack and break at the worst times.

 

Pictures of the brakes, installed on thanksgiving and then properly bedded in about a week later. Contrary to some of the complaints on the NA/NB platform, the FM kit uses Wilwood Dynapro calibers instead of the dynalights that get all the complaints...


Also for completeness sake, stock dyno numbers are in: 141hp and 128tq.



And if you want to see the boring video of the second pull...

This was more power than I expected, honestly. I was hoping for 135hp at best, obviously each dyno is tweaked a bit different. I have to assume this one reads just a touch high, but whatever. This is the same set of rollers I'll be using for the final numbers too, so the actually interesting part will be delta between the runs.

 

How does the ebrake work now? I know FM had some problems in the past with cables snapping or something.

Has your turbo kit still not shown up?

 

FM still warns buyers that your eBrake isn't going to be "as effective" compared to stock. They even go so far as to warn you about it slipping on mild to moderate grades... I assumed the worst!

Contrary to what they have said, I find the eBrake to be as useful as it has ever been. I haven't tried yanking it at a 40mph clip to see if I can lock the tires, but it holds just fine when parking on various grades. The total "throw" of the brake is shorter now, but when fully applied, I can't push the car by hand while on smooth, level pavement.

Nope, not yet. No dates were ever exactly communicated. Fab9's thread over on M.Net is actually getting more frequent / timely updates than here. I somewhat poked the bear in this thread to get him to post some updates

I'm in communication with the first 2.0L tester in Texas, it seems to be going quite well. There are some minor hiccups to be expected with the very first of any turbo kit, and Fab9 and Dynotronics are both right on top of it.

I'll be in here later to post the results of a completely stock NC with nothing but an ECU reflash. Sounds like you can get pretty close to 160whp with nothing but some computer fiddling, and I wanted to see it for myself.

 

The snapping cables was with the first version of it (the cables didn't actually snap, what happened was it would rip the ends off). Since then they have converted the kit to use Mazda OEM NC rear cables by using a different actuator arm on the caliper end, and those are strong enough to stand up to the job.

But yes, the parking brake is definitely not as effective as stock, because there is less leverage in the system. I can't push it on flat ground, but it won't reliably hold the car on my driveway with just the parking brake.

--Ian

 

It seriously can't hold your car from rolling down the driveway??

 

Well, obviously it depends on how steep the driveway is, but on a sufficiently steep one, yes.

This is not a stock-like parking brake. It's good enough for most things, but it's not for handbrake turns and it's not for living in San Francisco.

--Ian

 

It's a "be road legal" parking brake. Not a drift hand brake.

 

Yeah. And honestly, they DO warn you about it repeatedly. Actually, I feel that it works even better than is being alluded to here... Once or twice a week, I pull into a local coffee establishment to grab a bit of extra go-juice and their lot has a ~5% grade at the outer edge. The car sits on that grade without issue using only the parking brake, I even went so far as to see if I could further nudge it by giving it a reasonably hefty push and it didn't budge.

So, either mine is just working a tad better than the others, or it's just not as terrible as I had convinced myself it was going to be. Seriously, I assumed it was going to be the equivalent of my four year old's bicycle brake or something

 

I should probably try adjusting mine again, I think it can be better than it is right now.

It also depends somewhat on what kind of rear pads you have installed.

--Ian

 

Both are good points.

My brake handle is freshly adjusted; six clicks to full lock. I also went for the "standard" BP10 compound, since the supermajority of it's life is to be spent on the street rather than strip.

 

Looks like a great start to the build, can't wait to see it come together.

 

I get that, but if a brake doesn't have enough leverage to stop a 2500 lb car from rolling down a driveway, then it isn't a brake at all.

I have always left my cars in neutral and used the parking brake to keep it in place, incline or not.

Apparently, it isn't that big of a deal from the two user's experiences in here, but I would be very cautious if I had it on my own car, due to my usual parking methodology.

 

Yes, you'd have to change your parking methodology.

In fact, I'd really suggest you change your parking methodology regardless. Leave your vehicle in gear when parked, silly.

 

+1. They also make it VERY clear that the parking brake is not as strong.

 

There's absolutely no reason to leave the car parked in neutral unless it's idling to cool down at the track.

--Ian