ehodder

Been meaning to start a thread for a while but difficult to justify taking the time! Working overnight qualifying new equipment, seems as good a time as any.

This will hardly qualify as a "build" at present, more of an assembly and driving thread, but maybe some day I'll need something Supermiata doesn't already sell.

Quick background, leased a new WRX in 2016 after finishing grad school. Discovered autocross shortly thereafter and found I didn't completely suck. At some point I swapped cars for a run with a BRZ driver and discovered the joy of dropping 500 lbs and two driven wheels; knew I needed one when the lease was up in 2019.

Other half's hobby is horses so instead of buying a BRZ I wound up with a 2011 Silverado and just enough cash on hand for a scruffy 1.8 swapped 1990 Miata with Koni Yellows and lowering springs. I autocrossed that car for a year on an open diff and old Falken 615s on yellow daisies that had been stored in an unheated barn. Low grip, soft springs, all the bump stops - very entertaining in the wet.


Eventually added a roll bar, Bride seat, a well-loved set of FCM Bilsteins, swapped in a 4.1 Torsen, depowered the steering rack, removed A/C, and mounted 225 Rival 1.5S on 15x9 wheels - car finally felt halfway competent. I attended my first HPDE in the car at Club Motorsports in Tamworth, NH and realized I wanted more. Lots more.



During the second year driving that car I realized the body repair work, performed under prior ownership by a high-school shop class, wasn't really worth continuing to put money into. The patched floorpan and rockers started to come apart again, so I started casually looking for a cleaner chassis.

Before I was really prepared to buy, a 1992 Miata with a hardtop popped up in Mass that looked like the ticket. First owner lived in New York, put 70k miles or so on the car in 5 years. The next two owners only added another 30k miles or so over the following 20 years. The seller was a young Subaru tech who had blown up his 700hp STI motor roll racing a Vette on the highway a month before he was supposed to meet a group of friends to drive the Tail of the Dragon. He needed something cheap, reliable, and fun to make the trip so bought this Miata off his father's friend. He performed all the appropriate preventative maintenance, installed a roll bar, a used set of Flyin' Miata V-Maxx coilovers, 15x7 Konig Dial-Ins with 205 RE71s, and a few other odds and ends. Made the trip in the car, hit a couple tracks over the next year, and then listed the car so he could jump on an FD RX-7.

Aside from some flaking white paint, a crack in the dash, and the cheapest double-din stereo I've ever seen, the car was real clean and ready to rock. I bought it, hit a couple more autocross events for the year, and finished the year with "Miata Day" at Canaan Motor Club (for those not familiar, it's a 1.3 mile track designed and managed by David del Genio, one of the Spec Miata founders - it's a sweet little Miata track). The green car went back to some blown out factory dampers and was retired to winter beater status. It's now been the winter daily for two years, and a particularly entertaining one as I never bothered to realign after swapping the coilovers for stock shocks; it's got real funky toe settings and the rear likes to dance around any time there's a traction differential from left to right. Keeps me sharp.


Over the winter PayPal Credit enabled me to earn my Club Orange membership with Supermiata and it's all been downhill from there.

The car received:
A name, "Momo", after the flying Lemur from the Air Bender series (we're suckers for heartfelt animated series in our house)
Supermiata Xida Race 700/400
1.125" Racing Beat Tubular Front Bar
14mm Supermiata rear bar
Bauer ELBJs
1.8L Non-Sport Brakes
GLoc R10 Front / R8 Rear brake pads
Racing Beat Header and Flyin' Miata Cat (header and cat sourced locally for $155 brand new, some poor guy's brother in law was tired of having them taking up room in his basement!)
Racing Beat resonated Midpipe and Power Pulse Muffler
I also moved the Bride Vios III over from the old Miata and picked up a Zeta IV to go with it, wish I would have been able to track down another Vios at the time - that seat fits into a Miata so easily!
I sold the 15x9s to one friend, the 15x7s to another, and bought two sets of Konig Hypergrams from Dan Howard, 15x7.5 with 195 R-S4s and 15x8s with Maxxis RC-1s.
Also invested in safety gear: Schroth FHR, mid-range fire suit, shoes, gloves, socks, balaclava, and an HJC SA2015 helmet to replace the old Shoei motorcycle lid I've been rocking for 10 years.


In 2021 I attended 8 HPDEs, primarily with MassTuning TrackFest.
I opened the season with Palmer CCW, running a 2:02 on the R-S4s.
Followed that with a TNiA at New Hampshire Motor Speedway running the chicane/chicane layout, 1:26 on the R-S4s.
Ran 3 events at Canaan Motor Club, managing consistent 1:08-1:09s with a 1:08.0 best on the RC-1s.
3 events at Club Motorsports as well (happens to be one hour from my front door) working my PB down from 1:54.4 in June to a 1:51.9 on a cold November afternoon to wrap up 2021.





I realized early in the year that my biggest hurdle was lack of instruction. I love the MassTuning folks, and they offer the cheapest track time in New England, but they do so because instruction is minimal. You're lucky to get an instructor if you've got more than one HPDE under your belt. I knew I needed to do something to ensure I wasn't pissing money away driving in circles without learning anything, so I invested in a Gen 2 Apex Pro unit which, although I underutilize the data review while I'm at the track, has been valuable for helping me find and stay near the limit of the tires and post-event data review. I just wish more folks in New England used them so there was more data available for comparison! Ah well, all in good time.


Which brings me to 2022. Although I hadn't run into any issues with the car yet, I decided to take measures to prevent any lost track time. I also missed the direct steering of the depowered rack in the other Miata, so decided to focus on reliability and further refining the handling.
With that in mind, my 2022 Gifts to Momo:

BroFab Front Hubs
MiataHubs Rear Hubs
Jerfspeed Brackets (I was passing the rollbar-windshield broomstick test but I think we've all seen what can happen to Miata A-pillars, so I wanted to get as low as possible)
Supermiata 863 Bronze/Poly Bushing Kit
Supermiata Q-Max Reroute and Crossflow Radiator
Depowered Steering Rack
Removed A/C
Removed Cruise Control
Replaced Hardtop Side Latches with Mazda Motorsports Plates (seat interference after mounting lower and further aft)

Sold the Power Pulse midpipe and muffler to a friend - it's the perfect volume for a street car, but fades into the background on track. Replaced in with the RB unresonated pipe and Race muffler - a touch too far the other direction as I still daily this car, I've gotten used to it over the last month but have to wonder if the resonated pipe with this muffler would be the ideal combo...

I'd also picked up a 4.3 Torsen the prior year that I installed but promptly removed after it exhibited an odd vibration under cornering load. Bought all the seals and bearings to rebuild it, but that got descoped from preseason prep - I'll get to it at some point...

Decided that, while I liked the feel of the RC-1s, running a set of 100TW tires without real tread was a silly move at this point. I decided to give the new Conti ECF a go this year, having driven on R-S4s for a potion of 2021.
205/50R15 Conti ECFs went on the 15x8s and a set of 205/50R15 Conti ECS on the 15x7.5s for street and rain use.



So far this year I have attended Miata Day at Canaan, only managed a 1:08.9 on the sticker ECFs. I think the car should be able to go sub-1:07 as is, but it felt more prone to understeer than last year and I'm not in love with the ECFs yet. They are VERY noisy at the limit, and the Apex Pro suggests they've still got a little more in them.





I suspect I may be running a bit too much camber for the tires, and the amount of caster I've got may not be helping. I let my buddy who aligns my car (our local STS Miata hotshoe) talk me into leaving the caster maxed out, and I think the overly heavy steering that results is reducing the amount of fidelity I have for steering feel and minor corrections at the limit. Alignment is -3.7 Front, -3.2 Rear. Just a hint of toe-out in the front and a hint of toe-in in the rear. Regret not checking caster while the car was on the rack, with the ELBJs I'm probably running something like 6 degrees of caster. Need to actually break out the pyrometer at events, but Miata Day was a fun day with buddies so car setup wasn't a focus. I invited a friend to co-drive my car, so it saw about 3.5 hours of track time and didn't skip a beat.


Just hit Palmer CCW again yesterday, my parents joined me for the day so again it was mostly about being relaxed and having fun. Found a young woman in an NB who was running a similar pace in the morning so we spent the afternoon sessions doing lead/follow around the track and learning from each other. It was a hot day, 90+ degrees, but the car kept going with no issues and the tires took it in stride, even if I haven't quite figured out how to drive them properly.

There were a couple corners I was attempting to emulate the line of some fast TT Miata drivers, but I didn't have the cajones to carry the speed they were, most notably in Turn 1. Taking a wider entry resulted in a significantly higher exit speed for me, which then carries through turns 2 and 3. The VLSD, if still functional, isn't limiting much slip through 4 and 5, on cold tires it's a one-wheel-peel all the way through that section - gotta try and get that Torsen in the car this summer.

Had fun taking my parents around most of the day, but kicked them out for the last session to see if I could break the 2 minute mark. First flying lap was a 1:59.85, then I caught up to a new Supra and hounded him for a lap before getting a point by onto the front straight. Timing of the pass was pretty good, only lost a few miles per hour down the straight, and set me up for a 1:58.79 which I was content with.

COMSCC T30 (TT class in which my car would fall) Miatas ran 1:53-1:56 last year, I think with the Torsen and a set of Super-200s I would still fall in T30 and might get into that range. Certainly possible with some proper instruction - once again I was having difficulty staying right at the limit of the tires, still had a red light or two on the Apex Pro unit in most turns.



Rest of the season is a bit up in the air - we're moving to Ohio, just south of Cleveland, in July. I'm registered to run Novice with GridLife at Mid-Ohio August 5-7, and plan to spectate the GridLife event at Lime Rock August 19-21. Nothing else on the calendar at this time, though Nelson Ledges and Pitt Race are both within spitting distance.

I'd like to get my foot in the door with NASA Great Lakes region this year, but the August Mid-Ohio event is already full for HPDE1. I may commit to making the trek to Autobahn or NCM in October, but I'm giving up my trailer in the move and 5-6 hours in the Miata doesn't sounds like a good time. Scott did the OLOA in his Miata for multiple years though, so maybe I'm just soft and need to buck up.

Next year I'd like to do some Time Trials and possibly a Lemons or ChampCar race if I make the right friends and feel my driving warrants it. I occasionally fantasize about GLTC or NASA ST, but I've got plenty of work to do before my driving is at a suitable level. Big thing in the near term is to get instruction -

So there we are, another slow driver in a slow Miata trying to get less slow! Through my own journey I've hooked two friends/coworkers who subsequently acquired their own Miatae. Wedding Card I made for one of them, whose spouse is also an equestrian - please excuse the quality, I cannot locate the original file.



And because this is MiataTurbo.net after all:

Quigs

iTrader: (2)

Awesome work so far. Quality parts definitely make for a nice build and it seems you are putting them to good use. Looking forward to following along.

ehodder

Thanks, the path is pretty well established by folks like yourself - all I have to do is read a few threads, buy stuff, and turn a wrench!

Sorry to read your work is getting between you and driving this year, hope whatever project you're working wraps up soon - I'm just nearing the end of a 2-year capital install/upgrade so I certainly understand how such things can go, particularly with the supply chain and cost issues we've been experiencing.

Take care, and good luck with the rest of the 2022 season.