Figured out I should start a dedicated thread for Creampuff rather than crowd the Morpheus thread or derail the thread dedicated to the Rotrex I'm putting in it currently.

Brief history before we get to current activities.
Creampuff was originally a 2002 LS package, purchased October 2011 and was in an absolutely immaculate condition (and thus got the nickname Creampuff) -




That didn't last very long, here it is a few weeks later -




And shortly after -





January 2012 at the season opener of the Miata challenge (running in super mod) -



March 2012 was my first win with the car in Chuckwalla, Ryan's 2nd place finish made it a BFW 1-2 which was cool



By the time I got to Sonoma a couple months later, the car started sprouting aero bits, like the side fairing, wheel spats, NACA ducts etc.. The door into the rabbit hole has been opened!





Did some fun laps with these beasts at the 2012 Mazfest.
Holy quad rotor sounds!



Ended up 2012 with a new favorite paper weight -



Fun detail - Creampuff was running a bone stock VVT engine the entire time, and by bone stock I mean still factory header and airbox, ECU etc... Only change was header-back straight pipe.

2013 started with more aero!
COT twinsies (Feb 2013) -



And more aero (Apr 13) -



And then it was time to get a little nutty, and try a front wing for Sonoma which is all corners.
It worked, and the otherwise unchanged Creampuff went 3.5 secs faster still on the same bone stock engine (1:53 on NT01) -



FWing was was too draggy for the long straights at big willow so it came off for the next round.
Go home Scion, you're drunk.



And then came the roval event at ACS and this heppened -



Found a bunch of MPH on the oval with this, and yes that is an LMP900 Pescarolo lapping with us mere mortals -



However w/o the wing the balance was off by a wee bit -



The wing was back for the next round which also included one of the pilot rounds for the newly forming SuperMiata series which I ran -



Emilio and I might've exchanged styling notes (lightly)



Ended 2013 runner up in SuperMod with Ryan taking top step! Atta boy!

2014 saw a new livery along with V2.0 of the long tail at the opening round of the season.
V1.0 worked well for top speed but was VERY tricky to drive when it was windy, the tail moved the car around a lot.
the new version did almost everything as well as the first one but didn't display the same behavioral issues that the wind caused -



Also made the switch to Penske shocks and never looked back, I designed my own extended travel rear suspension and still use it today.

Old splitter gave way to a new *bigger* one -



MRLS was a lot of fun in 2014, I'm bummed about missing it this year..



All the work on dialing in the car paid off by the time I got to the 2014 Super Lap Battle.
Clocked a 1:59.6, first time that any stock powered Miata crosses the 2:00 mark.



Video of the second fastest lap I ran, also a 1:59... as per freaking usual the camera was dead when I ran my fastest lap -

Following the sub 2:00 laps I went to the local dyno shop to see how much power the car actually makes as it was at SLB.
Did 2 pulls, this is the higher one of the two at an earth smashing 101.7 whp / 86.5 wtq.
Hilarious stuff!



After that it went into the mothballs for ~2.5 years, save an outing for the 2015 M@MRLS to give fun rides.
This brings us to 2017, and that's where I'll start the next post.

 

Thanks for the write-up. It's cool to see which way you brain works when we can see it as step by step changes to the car. I'm a bit surprised that stock 1.8 VVT makes only 101hp, figured it would be at least around 110 or 115.

It's interesting you've went with NB2 for this build, especially one in such a nice condition. I'm thinking about getting another Miata and trying to decide between NB1 and NB2. But come back to the later LS model due to larger brakes, VVT, LSD strut brace and other small bits as something that would already be on the car and won't require additional expense.

By the way is it 5 or 6 speed? Did that mater to you when you were looking for the car?

 

I'm sure it made 115-118 or so when I started running, but 3 seasons including a few over revs later...

I was looking for a sixer and that's what it is.
In the video I'm running a 6 speed / 4.3 diff combo.

 

Great aero! I might have to use some of your ideas with my build :-)

 

Thanks!
It's actually getting a lot nuttier right now, I transferred a bunch of stuff from Morpheus when Creampuff was returned to use back in June, but even some of that is gone now in favor of lighter and more efficient aero.

So with Morpheus going into a long term project (Ferrari V8 swap) I needed a car to get my fix and Creampuff was an easy choice since it's been sitting here collecting dust for 2.5 years (dammit!).
The reveal of Creampuff V2.0 was done as a part of the get together we had at the shop for "Operation Red Pill" -


V2.0 not only got all the fancy aero bit from Morpheus but also a matched paint job.
I know it's silly, but seeing the cars in a similar team livery makes me happy.

The first race was in June, we eyeballed it to perfection and went for an outing in which the car worked well so that was a good day in my book!





Rommel from Motolyric caught the car running with the DRS activated, good for extra MPH down the straight!

Then came round 4 for Global Time Attack's Pro-Am series at the infield of ACS.
Shocks came back from a revalve and had to be re-learned and re-adjusted to work the way I wanted them.. It made for a VERY exciting first session in which the car was nervous AF.
No good for lap times, but fine entertainment!


It looked pretty awesome too with the teeth back on!



This event however, made it clear for me that it's time for Creampuff V3.0 despite the fact that V2.0 was barely used for a total of 2.5-3 HOURS...
I was ready for more power, just getting tired of being walked on by e-v-e-r-y-damn-car going down the straight.
Screw it, let's throw a Rotrex on Creampuff and go faster, this crap gets old.

This brings us to these days, and more on that in the next post.

 

Why V3.0?
Because -

 

 

I have this problem too....

Nice build, I'll be watching this for sure!

 

Fine example of the above -

Me: I'll get CF doors, that'll be the lightest I can go.
Me also: I should cut and sand all internal structure so it's even lighter...

 

I bet you take laxatives before a race, because that's 8-10oz of weight reduction, amirite?

 

Just curious, what does your car weigh now?

 

No idea, haven't weighed it in a while... Should've been between 2000-2050 Lbs. when I started working on V3.0, hoping to be in the 18XX's when it's ready to hit the track next time.

 

I need to show this thread to the little women. Then she can better appreachiate my OCD. I put my level at V2.5, clearly Moti suffers from full blown V3.0 :-)

 

Creampuff V3.0 game plan -
Goodbye weight, hello horsepower.
Oh, is that you, better aero?
Didn't see you there, c'mon in!

So as the story went, after round 4 I reached my "**** it" point and decided to go a bit faster.

Creampuff last event was run on a junkyard BP4W w/ MS3, I/ST/H/E and that's about it.. nothing special, maybe 130 whp?
The Rotrex is pretty self explanatory - seeing that people are putting 100+ additional ponies down using similar hardware I figured 220-240 whp should move the car along at a better rate of acceleration.
Yes I can make more power with other recipes but this is simple, easy on the pocket and I'll be entertained for long enough while building Morpheus.

Working with round estimated numbers, at ~130 whp and ~2200 lbs with me I should be in the neighborhood of 17:1 power to weight ratio.
~230 whp and ~2200 lbs puts me close to 9.5:1 power to weight which is a massive improvement but I felt like I'm kinda done holding back on the stuff I can do with the chassis so out came the grinders, the sawzall, the scales and the calculator.

I set a goal that I'm unlikely to hit but something to aspire to - 2000 Lbs with me in it.
Another goal was to try and improve the weight dist as much as I can, so stuff that can be moved around is being moved around and PMOI gets special attention.
3rd goal was to improve on the aero while doing all the above, because I can, and therefore I should.
Tall order, but I was ready to cook some radical stuff.

Easy weight -
Creampuff was still using the stock size battery @ 20 Lbs, I'll be running a 2.5 Lbs replacement unit. Boom, 17.5 Lbs gone.
Steel door skins are replaced with CF skins, that's another 16 Lbs drop (for both).
OEM dual fans replaced with a single high flow fan, -2 lbs.

Not so easy weight -
Bust out the cutting tools and the car lost WELL over 100 Lbs of sheet metal!





^ This piece was cut *just* in front of the shock towers and weigh a hair over 38 Lbs, in case you were wondering.



Less car, more go fast!



Don't worry, the stubs on the braces have already been shortened to reduce the weight..
Added some light structure where most of it went away, should be nice and stiff, weight penalty was kept to minimum.

Time consuming weight reduction (with major aero benefits) -
Redoing the front bodywork with radical tweaks, most of it is going to be CF.
Considering build wider rear quarters from CF as well..
Wider, lighter and big improvements on aero, for example the vented fenders that I used in the pics above are no longer being used (in fact that were sold yesterday..), those narrowed down the front of the rockers by approximately 6 inches from stock.
Rocker panels are now ~19" narrower from stock at the front! Nine-freakin-teen inches.

Other weight related stuff on the plate -
Looking into ditching the brake booster and going manual.
Straight pipe instead of resonator.

More aero -
Going to finish the diffuser before Super Lap Battle. Definitely.

 

Definitely get rid of the booster. Its only 5 lbs but high and on the heavy side of the car. We went with an 11/16" bore size with stock NA8 brakes and now have the FM LBBK and still feels great. Initially we went with a 3/4" bore which was great when driving in anger but was just a bit too much when street driving with the tire trailer in traffic.

Obviously my autox car has nothing in common with your build but personally I love the feel of manual brakes and thought I'd share.

 

I like the idea of manual brakes, a lot.
A Tilton dual masters setup would be nice but I'd like to simplify at least one thing for now and just keep everything the way it is minus booster and a quick tweak of the pivot to bring the ratio to the 5.5:1-6:1 area.
From my research is seems to me that virtually everyone ends up changing the MC and I'm not exactly sure why it's needed if the pedal ratio is corrected.. More research is needed.

 

Missing MRLS this year to concentrate on SLB prep means I'm at the shop stuffing heat exchangers into the nose while everyone's circling Laguna.
It's a trade off, but someone's gotta do it!

 

Great mods all round. You did similiar stuff to Brendan and I, we both made stock powered MX5's do record breaking lap times with aero and weight loss and some good driving. I am doing the same thing as V3.0 when I get the time ~ end of the year. Having several cars to work on doesn't help. The biggest difference is I am sticking with the fastback.

 

This is always interesting to watch, and I'd like to make a poster of that pie chart if you don't mind.

Did you have to do any unibody modifications for the rear Penskes? I'm interested to know what you're doing back there - also understand if you don't want to go showing your hand.

Oh, and I don't really need to comment on the aero being cool do I... I mean, I think you damn well know, heh heh.

 

Knock yourself out, send me one too
* Some modification required...
The funniest thing about the aero is that the further down the rabbit hole I dig, the crazier the ideas get.
What's happening with the car currently is some seriously out of the box stuff, as if it was anywhere near the box before... I'm pretty much redesigning the entire front end of the car.