i bought a 1994 M edition track car that has a flying miata turbo kit and a bunch of other stuff about a month ago. it's a mostly gutted track car. The car was a mess on teh outside after being built by a shop a few years ago when the economy went bad and never selling. It had sat around in the garage with no cover and colelcted a bunch of stuff on it. The paint was a mess too, someone didnt use proper wash technique- ever- as far as i can tell. Scratches, swirls and stuff.

Sure it's a track car, but I wanted it to look good. i spent about 6 hours going at it with a buffer yesterday and it turned out really good. or at least as good as a track car should be. This is probably the only time it will be this clean! This is just paint too, i haven't had time to apply sealant and wax the car.

 

I was about to say, what makes that a track car... then I scrolled past the first pic.

 

yeah it was eleventy-billion degrees in the sun yesterday, i skipped the under hood and more interior shots.

 

Looks nice, you going to track it?

 

heavily.

 

Any details on the turbo setup? I'm sure you've read up on this.. but a stock fmII kit isn't going to take heavy track abuse without the turbo falling off. However if it was previously a track car, maybe it's sorted already. Either way congrats! I like it.

 

thanks! it was a shop built project car, they built several identical cars for a turbo spec racing series that never took off. It should be very well sorted for the track. this one has never seen racing duties, but one of the cars serves rental duty with Apex driving academy and the guy who built it runs one that is 99% identical all the time.

he didn't use the iconel studs most of you FM track guys use, they are some sort of heat treated aircraft bolts with safety wire. The guy who built the car is Keith Verges, and he is way (way, way, way) faster than me on the track and has raced his car in several enduro events with the same cooling mods and not had any issues. we shall see how well it works this summer when its 120 on the track in my hands. changes may need to be made. i plan to run it as is for now though.

it has an upgraded race rad, oil cooler, and intercooler. runs 12 psi boost, guessing around 220whp or so. i want to get the car on a dyno just for curiosity. it uses a hydra 2.7 ecm, 15x9 wheels and toyo r888 225/45-15 tires. basically a spec miata suspension, race valved koni sports, eibach springs, and ground control coil over conversion. upgraded sway bars, cage, and lots and lots of cross bracing under the car.

 

*

 

Nice but me no likey the bumper. Who did the cage?

 

not sure, the spec sheet i have just calls the cage the motorsports ranch roll cage. i suspect it was that spec miata outfit that was at MSR-C for a while. i can find out if you really want to know.

i like the bumper, even if its not in the right place for ideal cooling, it looks cool.

too bad you don't have your car, june 23 track day at ecr on the cheap. bring your daily? 5-star ford sponsored $150 and free lunch.

 

cool car man, congrats. sounds like you did it right and got one that someone put lots of time into it. I tried to do the same but my car needed lots of love to get it ready for the track and it is still not sorted.

do you have a 5 speed? wonder what the builder did to make it stand up to the added torque

what was your last track car?

 

yes it's a 5-speed. he told me if i wanted things to last and stay cool, keep it at 12psi or under. i suspect a missed shift or two would do it in, but that is the same with anything. it does have an upgraded spec racing clutch.

 

the general consensus is that 5 speeds don't last but hopefully your luck will be better. my 5 speed blew 3rd session on track, not that my failure means anything.

 

interesting, how much boost you running? the guy that built my car has a 5-speed in his and has been beating the crap out of it for a long time successfully.

 

I don't understand how Keith keeps 5-speeds in these cars, but he does. I've heard he ran a 1:19 in that yellow car. I'm guessing he's super-easy with the clutch pedal. I'm also guessing you guys are making about 230whp on a Dynojet, right?

 

yes, keith is so smooth when driving its creepy. i swear when i rode with him in the yellow car it felt like a CVT, never knew he shifted without lookign at his hands. i suspect my clunky style may be different.

As far as power, he tunes the cars himself and hasn't had one on the dyno. he estimates 220whp, from what i have seen 230whp or so seems to be the norm for similar mods and boost. he said something to the effect of the cars will run 1:22 on the 1.7 all day (assuming you can drive, so not with me at the wheel) he says 1:20 on a perfect day, i would not doubt he pulled off a 1:19 at all, he is REALLY good.

the only difference in his car and mine is he has a FM link and I have the hydra 2.7. he tunes very conservatively. he didn't change a whole lot from the base maps that FM sent, other than reducing boost from the 14psi they had dialed in and adding fuel in the top end of the range.

Edit: a possibility on the durability is that he tunes with the computer controlling boost, i think he sets it where you don't get full boost right away. he showed me seem map where he tuned boost per rpm.

I've not owned a turbo before this, but it takes a while to get all the boost. idk if that is just how it works with a turbo car or not. I've been in a evo before, and the boost was virtually all at once. it takes a good 2k rpm to hit 12 psi in this, builds from about 8psi to 12psi.


Hustler, what are you running at MSR-C and ECR? what sort of power does your car have?

 

I run 22's there but I'm on $$$ shocks and quite a bit heavier (2440 w/ driver). "Really good" is an understatement. Watching that dude work traffic is awesome. He and I played tag once, I lost, lol. I don't know what he does to load the car up on those shitty SM shocks and skinny RA1's but somehow he sticks me in Little Bend, Big Bend, and he has no fear at all going through Ricochet...and the car never looks like its on edge. I'd like to get him to yell at me for 10-minutes in the car.

I'm a little shocked that he's "tuning spark tables" without a dyno but he's probably getting them 90% from a good spark table. He recieves the "artistic license provision" from me due to "extreme masculinity in a racecar, at all times".

 

he does the tuning while driving looking at a computer with a wideband o2 sensor. I'm pretty sure the car is afraid to not go where he wants, hence he doesn't have to turn the wheel. it also helps that he literally lives at the track and is running practically every weekend or more.

he took me out on cold r888's on the 1.3 a few weeks back, his warm up laps were literally faster than the instructor hot laps i had in a CMC 5.0 at the BMW event at MSR-C, and the instructor was good. he was fighting it to hook and we got sideways once, but damn if the car didn't do exactly what he wanted. i keep meaning to ask him what he would charge me for a day of in car teaching, once i get a passenger seat. he did tell me once that he goes off "all the time" lol. i think it comes down to the capacity of the *******, and his holds more than mine.

He is generally on 225/45-15 r888's in the yellow turbo running on 8-inch wheels. and if it makes you feel better or worse, his cars are the exact same weight as yours. he does 0 weight savings this side of what is needed for door bar clearance and pulling carpet. my car with him in it was 2424# with driver and 5/8 of a tank when he corner balanced it.

 

For TTB I have to run 210whp or less. I usually run the car at 12.5psi which makes ~245-250whp and I've done a 1:22 at MSR-C and 2:03 at ECR on Nittos for both places. I'm at least 100lb heavier than I should be compared to SM. I'm also a miserable driver.

 

That is a clean looking race car...

Btw is it me, or is the driver fender a different color from the rest of the car?