Roda

Yeah, that looked poorly planned... I agree that cars like this are not good for typical trackday groups, or W2W with doorslammers in multiple class races.

Saw this on another forum... same crash, probably?

Gee Emm

Yeah, one year we had a West or somesuch enter the Supersprints and they didn't want to give him a whole group for himself, so we were the hosts - a group made up of MX5s (normally sedans/sportscars grouped, open wheelers separate, and this thing ...). He went out first, got two flying laps, maybe three, before he caught the tail-enders in our run group, after the first run where he persevered he later pitted after catching us, as he wasn't going to set a good time handling traffic, not to mention that was a recipe for a fender bender or worse. That was on a long circuit, on a short one he was bloody lucky to get two laps.

Used to be that sort of thing was OK, but in later years they had your laps at that circuit, and you went out in strict lap time order to minimise the lost lap time when two cars pass - one, probably both, will lose time that lap.

Running that thing in W2W, that is a recipe for contact, my mind boggles that the race director thought that was ok.

codrus

Well, it is NASA...

That said, it wasn't quite as hairy as it sounds. They're classed in ST2 by power/weight but they're a long way off a competitive ST2 time, only about 3 seconds faster than the ST4 cars. Since we don't have many people running cars ST3 and up here in NorCal, it worked out decently.

The guy in the video was out of place for some reason -- late to grid? spun and restarted? I dunno, but I think it was the only Rush I saw all race. I'm not sure why he was in such a hurry to pass me though, it was the last lap of the race and he wasn't racing anyone within 20 seconds either in front or behind him.

Yeah, that's the same incident. The Rush guys ran with NASA at Sonoma one weekend and then at Laguna with GridLife the next.

--Ian

Padlock

This statement is what solely has kept me from building or buying any "track only" car. In my opinion, the moment you commit to "track only" on your build the single seater stuff starts making more sense. You are out there just to have cheap fun to go "fast" anyways, right? A Rush is going to be faster than a spec miata dollar per dollar spent as example, but there are many other comparisons that could make a Rush attractive or not attractive. If you want a dual duty, lightweight, "cheap" car to have fun in, then that's why I feel a lot of us are here building miatas.

Padlock

Making some tweaks to the other half of the design which you'll see here first shortly, but the production version of the adapter/aiming brackets for the fog lights are done. The wrinkle black powder coat looks pretty good with the aluminum heat sink of the light and OEM hardware for fine tuning on the aim can still be utilized which is a nice feature.

Padlock

I'm jumping around quite a bit here on various small projects, but oh well... New year, new toy and I'm super excited about the possibilities with this one...

Have been a part of one of the many "miata 3D printing" facebook pages for a while now. I enjoy 3D printing from a rapid prototype perspective, but generally dislike the idea of using 3D printed parts for production (or anywhere on my car for that matter). The fit and finish that most DIY printers provide is lackluster at best. Either that, or I'm being picky.

A key part of 3D printing anything is having an appropriate model of what you are intending to mount to or copy. You can measure things back and forth a million times OR you can 3D scan whatever you want to replicate and save a TON of time and costs in iterating. One of the prominent posters on that Facebook page has had some really nice quality scans that he's shared publicly (for slight fee). Check out his NB scans here and his NA scans here. After seeing how nice his stuff was, I reached out to him privately and asked what scanner he used to make those files. I was expecting some $10k+ scanner like I'm familiar with in my professional world, but instead he came back with this $1k Einstar unit. I was surprised he was getting such quality scans for that reasonable of a cost. After hearing positive feedback from him and many other DIY'ers online, I decided to give it a go vs paying hundreds of dollars for someone else to scan items that I needed... so here we are as of yesterday



I'm starting my 8wk paternity leave next week and this will give me a new skill to learn outside of my crash course of "how to be a good dad to newborns 101". Assuming success like I expect, I've got a lot of projects brewing in the back of my head that I'll have some time to begin 3D design work on finally. Many of my ideas are based on VERY specific ideas for the kmiata that may generate interest for other miata owners later, but before I get ahead of myself, I've got a skillset to learn. I'll be sure to post up how it goes!

Padlock

First couple rounds of scanning complete with the new scanner. Took maybe 10 mins to do one side of a NB bumper cover at 1.5mm resolution. I had a NB1 and NB2 cover laying around to scan both. I'm quite happy with it overall. Learning the software as we speak, but the below results are literally the first swags at me trying everything out with "automatic" settings.

HarryB

This is a fantastic scanner for the price. I have been around a few over the last 15 years at work, and Einstar was a jump in terms of what was offered at that price point. The only thing that people need to be aware of is PC specs, as the software is quite demanding (which adds costs on the top).

Padlock

The PC side of it is demanding.. I've been wanting to build a gaming PC for a while now, so this will push that topic harder. In the meantime, one of my close friends has a higher performance laptop that has been running it smoothly, so we are using that.

Padlock

2 month update!

With the arrival of the twins, I expected and planned on this winter's progress to be slow as far as the car is concerned, and that has held true. My full time job is fairly generous as far as paternity leave goes for the region, so from mid-Jan to now I've been on leave just wiping butts and feeding mouths. Everyone is healthy and doing well which is the most important thing. Outside of caring for the kids, the time off has allowed me to decompress from what is a pretty fast paced and stressful full-time job and focus some energy on family and things outside of the "usual".



The first one was... what's the point of living up north in the land of snow if you don't have a stupid toy for snow? If you have been paying attention to the thread, you'll probably remember at post #673 where I picked up a 2007 Arctic Cat F6. The sled was nice. There was nothing wrong with it.... but it wasn't all that fast nor was the chassis known for being the best handling or lightest for the era. Instead of modifying the F6 to make it faster, I opted to sell it for what I had in it and save for an upgrade. Mid-January blessed southern Wisconsin with a pile of snow, so that was when I picked up the new completely irresponsible snow toy; a 2014 Arctic Cat XF9000.

For the unacquainted, this model and its revised model years since then have more or less been the "king of the lakes" in snow country. It has an 1100cc inline 2 cylinder 4 stroke turbo engine that makes 180hp in its ~650lb wet chassis. It doesn't take an engineer to tell you that it's not slow. Being a 4 stroke model, it has its own quirks of being heavier than "usual" 2 stroke sleds. If buried in the twisties, you'd prefer the lighter snappier 2 stroke, but pretty much everywhere else the turbo 4 stroke carries the edge (Power, Torque, Top Speed, Maintenance, Reliability, Fuel Economy, etc...). The improved rider ergonomics, Fox suspension, longer track, studs, and lighting on this newer chassis all blow the old F6 out of the water.


so if turbo power is good, more turbo power is better right? From the factory, the sled makes 10psi of boost pressure to make the 180hp but we all know that's easy to change, so part of the appeal on this specific sled was that the previous owner already tossed a fat stack of money at it as far as mods go. It's a calculated gamble to buy someone else's project, but it saved me thousands from doing all the same work myself with a stock sled and most of the money he spent fixed known issues which is reassuring to me. Below is the list of goodies it has along with my brief nut/bolt check that I gave it after purchase, but to be short and sweet, it has all the right parts to make 230hp on 15psi and 260hp on 18psi with a selectable switch mounted on the dash. I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that my sled makes more power than my miata with 1/4 of the weight, but rest assured, this thing is a freaking missile. SO. MUCH. FUN.




What's not fun is, the winter season is pretty short... As part of the snowball effect of having twins, I traded my avalanche for a 3rd row suburban and lost my open bed for conveniently hauling a snowmobile on. That meant I had to buy a trailer (yay cheap marketplace finds), but also meant I had to find a way of storing a trailer. I temporarily put the sled/trailer in the garage stall next to the miata, but it basically made the garage space unusable as far as a workspace is concerned (hence part of the reason for so little miata progress).


The most logical place to store the trailer is outside along the garage, but I couldn't do that because my fence gate was never designed with fitting a 7' wide snowmobile trailer through it.... So this snowmobile purchase led to trailer purchase which then led to fence gate reconstruction project. You can see the 2 previously used gate posts (5' apart) that I cut off flush with the ground. I basically rebuilt the whole gate system over again only this time using a double-swinging system with some overkill agricultural gate hinges to prevent sag on what is now a 12' opening with both panels swung open.


As soon as all of that was completed (which always takes longer than expected while managing newborns), I was able to store all my new unnecessary things. What I tackled next was something I said I was going to do above, and that was starting to take advantage of the new 3D scanner that I picked up. You'll find a thread specifically about it here , but to be brief, I plan to sell any 3D scans that I take on my website for a modest fee. The first miata specific folder that I have on the website can be found at this link. Now that I have my open garage stall back to work in, I anticipate that I'll start filling this part of the website up with all sorts of goodies in the coming year as I keep scanning away: https://leftlanedesigns.net/collecti...azda-miata-nb1


...and last, but certainly not least, I've finally unburied the whole reason this thread exists from its lonely corner of the garage. The short list of things needed to get done on this before I get it out for the spring are:

• Finish installing lower fender aero panels - just needs attachment to side skirt and fenders
• Install Singular upper fender vents to new fenders
• Instead of rolling these fenders and risk that annoying little kink that can happen, I'm just going to cut the lip off of them for ultimate tire clearance.
• Wrap new fenders in gray to match the rest of the car
• Pull the Konig/RT660's out of warm storage, get them back on, and figure out what I want to do with these Jongbloeds and thrashed RS4's. Toss slicks on them for track days? Sell them? idk....
• I sold the 6spd and GR shifter to a close friend because of my estimated gearing benefits noted previously (and to put some money in my pocket for other things), so I need to remove the 6spd and put the 5spd in
• Finish a new LLD lighting project teased above, but front end needs to be completely installed back together to finish first...
• While lowest importance and not urgent, I do have an interior block-off panel to install on the bottom of the tombstone to finally get my power window switches relocated nicely.
• FIND SOME TIME TO WHEEL THE HECK OUT OF IT IN 2024!!

Padlock

Got the trans swapped out and am back to the 5spd life. Sold the 6spd to a friend in need as we predict his GT2560R Kraken setup is putting his 5spd on very limited time. This 6spd should be a very good solution for him. I should see in a couple months if going back to 5spd makes a notable impact at Road America like I predicted. Wisconsin winter is playing a cruel game with us this spring (like usual). The roads were washed of salt, but nature decided to dump 6" of snow and the city re-salted everything.... so now we wait on the salt/brine to wash off the roads again.

I will say, a trans swap is quite fast with the kswap. All bolts are readily accessible with a standard socket wrench. I recall swearing many times with upper bell housing bolts on a BP car due to hand access, but the K24 being pushed further forward and not having coil packs in the way to remove really gives you lots of hand clearance in this area which is awesome. In total, it took just over an hour to swap out with the help of a friend to wiggle the 5spd back up into place (the hardest part). I'm sure we could get it done under 45 mins if we had socket sizes memorized and used power tools.

Padlock

Have had a productive week building a PC and scanning the 6spd transmission. Post made here:
https://www.miataturbo.net/general-m...3/#post1648139

Having this 3D scan capability will drastically reduce the time for a lot of project ideas that I have for the build

Padlock

Well sh*t, here it is the 1st of June and the car still hasn't see the light of day outside of the garage. I've fallen victim to the busy parent blessing and curse! Looking at the above list, I realized that a huge majority of it was non-essential projects that I wanted to get done (if I had the time) but surely didn't need to get done to have a driving car. Summer is far too short here in Wisconsin, so I made the decision to just get the car back in running shape with the lighting and fenders that I had on it from last year.

The first step, was finding a suitable napping location for my large lanky short haired cat.


With the snoozin' shop supervisor content, I was able to move onto other things.

• Drained what remained of the trans oil in the 5spd and refilled it with fresh fluid
• Installed the shifter with new bronze bushings, inner and outer boots, and found my old OEM shift **** in my 'i dont know why I keep this cheap miata garbage' parts bin.
• Put the interior back together with parts I took out to scan.
• Re-installed the fender that I had on before.
• Changed the engine oil as I couldn't remember the last time I changed it.
• Nut and bolt checked the front end
• Removed the storage wheels/tires and put the Dekagrams / RT660's on
• Tossed front bumper/splitter back on
• Spray waxed the exterior and engine bay to get rid of a few months of dust

All was looking well, until I went to go start it up tonight and got the sound of silence when turning the key forward (not even a *click*!). My 6 year old yellowtop has appeared to have finally met its demise, so you can see it removed in the photo above. I attempted to revive it with jumper cables connected to my truck, but any charge it takes it doesn't reliably hold. Even if it did hold briefly, I wouldn't trust it as I plan to still daily the car. So.... I ordered a new battery and will pick it up in the morning before going on its first trip of the year. Side note, when did batteries get so grossly expensive?!

As far as the first trip goes, this weekend is the King of the Baggers race weekend hosted by Moto America at Road America. As could be understood, I have a lot of HD colleagues, customers, fans, and friends attending so it seems like a great excuse to cruise the 1 hour north with the freshly put together miata and support what will be a great event in HD's home state turf. The race bikes this season have been refreshed just like the production touring models have been. While the race bike is very loosely related to the production bike at this point, the cooling system has been redone with a fair amount of guidance (and new parts) from me. Never gets old seeing your designs successfully 'go fast'. Lots of forged carbon on this years bikes to match with the OEM forged carbon we have on our premium touring model. As of Friday qualifying, Kyle Wyman (shown below), broke the lap record for the bagger class with a 2:19.135 lap time. For reference sake, the superbike (1000cc) class is running about 8 seconds faster and the supersport (600cc) class is nearly the exact same pace, so it is pretty insane seeing how quickly the bagger series has developed in under 3 years with bikes that are ~200lbs heavier with bulky aero and reduced lean angle capability. Without the bus stop on the course, my kmiata only has ran a 2:35.x with the right driver so it's a bit humbling seeing how much faster all of them are compared to what we consider 'quick' in the 4-wheel space.

Padlock

2.5hrs of trouble free miles through some winding roads and the car made it without a hiccup. Feels quite nice having the 5spd back in the car. With the power:weight level the car is at, 3rd pulls really nice, long, and strong, whereas 3rd/4th felt a little short on the 6spd. I'm hopeful this same type of feeling will be good for track duties like I initially predicted. Speaking of, I have some tuning to do on the aero and brakes based on my last track day from 2023, so I signed up for an AutoX at RA the 30th to get that balance sorted out. Looking forward to that.

For the time being, I'm the ultimate "cool dad" by dropping off and picking up my son from school in it. Those kid reactions alone are worth the cost of ownership.

Padlock

If you have a car you track and you aren't doing odd last minute repairs immediately before you go, do you even have a track car? While doing a nut/bolt check the night before the RA AutoX, I noticed my turn buckles that hold the edges of the splitter up were both missing... Not having time to run to the hardware store, I decided that it would be a good day to test the tensile strength of zip ties. Spoiler Alert: they hold great!


With that repair made, we began the 1.5hr drive up to the track.... As much as having a trailer would be nice, having the ability to just cruise with the windows down on a 70F WI day makes for a nice peaceful way to start the day.


Pics at the main gate with miata friends or it didn't happen! These two cars have covered a lot of miles next to each other on MATG trips.


So details on the day, I ran the car in XSB classing. Road America opens up the karting track to AutoX about once per month. It ends up being a really nice way to have fun with friends and dial in details of your car without spending track day dollars. My goal with the car was to get brake bias dialed in as I made a mental oopsie and turned the bias **** the wrong way the last event I was at which understandably threw the balance of the car off at the limit of the brakes. The vanity plate and car overall was a big hit with many people in the paddock.


As anticipated, the morning started off rough... Before my first run I put two full rotations on the prop valve towards the rear to start my fun of dialing in the brake bias, and the front bias was still far too strong. Tire pressures also weren't dialed in and I was admittedly quite rusty from not having ran the car in a competitive manner in about a year, so it took a couple runs to get that better sorted. But hey, the car looked fast so it must have been fast right?


If only it were that simple.... the big hitters in XSB were no slouches for the event. Chris is a nationally competitive driver to begin with and brought his wonderfully modified purpose built MR2 on 18x10.5 295 squares with ALLOFIT to play. He ended up running FTD on the day, nearly 4 seconds faster than me. A dialed car AND driver is a sight to behold.


In a similar manner, Toyer was running his NC about 0.25 seconds off pace from Chris. Peek at those sick fender vents. Marketing plug aside, Toyer has been fast for a long time in the car and it's been great seeing him continue to do well.


So where did that leave me? Well, I still considered the day a success overall. I got the brake balance issue resolved and the car was feeling a hell of a lot better than what it was when I got there. Out of the 9 cars in XSB, I took 4th. #1 & #2 spots in XSB were also #1 & #2 in overall RAW times for the day out of everyone as well, so I have zero shame in not placing higher than what I did. Overall, I placed 35th out of 158 cars with 1 second spacing out me from the top 20. Fun day. Productive day. No ragrats.

Wingman703

I'm legitimately surprised this worked. I've tried simular paddock repairs to splitters and they've always snapped around the 60mph mark. The bigger, 1/2" thick zip ties might hold up better, but even multiple of the 1/4" ones have parted on me.

Stock

If you haven't run zipties as splitter support hardware we can't be friends.

Padlock

I'm sure some of it has to do with your mounting design vs mine. I had 2 metal cables on the front edges and hard mounts on the rear, so these side extensions probably don't see a TON of load... either way, I'll take my luck when I can get it. Got up to ~100mph and they still aren't broken.

I'm relatively convinced that any car that sees a track use has at least a handful of zipties not being used for the originally intended purpose.

A couple more photos were shared from the day over the week, so here's the world's smallest photo dump.