Hi K24, as i said a year or so ago, i love your car. You haven't or couldn't do a walk around video of it would you?

Probably a pain to do but would love to see some more detail of it and the fastback etc from all angles.

Dyno plot looks great, I am amazed at the steep curve/line up the revs...

 

I work on some better pics of the car. It now sports some fresh matte black paint.

 

holy Jesus, this thing is just ignorant.. i love it!

 

Wow, one heck of a build!

 

Thanks guys!

With the latest round of improvements the car is faster than ever. Dean Thomas wheeled it to a 1:41.6 last month at Sonoma Raceway on Hoosier R100's. I have been slowly closing the gap on his times. I will take some updated pics when I am at the track next weekend.

 

This thread needs updates. Badly!

 

absolutely!!!

 

Current holder of Fastest Miata at Infineon/Sonoma. Awesome car.

 

I am real happy with the car in every way. It's been getting some good use this year. With slicks the car is a monster!

I had some minor hick ups with the new motor. After 10hrs the intake valves needed to be changed because valve spring pressures were to light. We changed em out and shimmed the springs. The new seat pressures should eliminate that problem.

While the head was out being serviced I opted to make some changes to the brakes. I was real happy with the 11" 949 fronts/1.8 & 10.90 rears but I wanted better pedal feel. In went some 11.75 rotors, sport rear calipers with gutted e-brake adjusters and 1" 929 master. I also drilled the dynalite calipers for bridge bolts (from the dynalite narrow calipers). I am hoping for a epic pedal with all those changes.

I am out of town on business through October/November. When I return I am going to work with Tony at TC Design fine tuning the suspension and overall setup. The new 245 A7 will be out by then along with cooler weather so I am to break into the 1:30's with the car.

 

Do you feel like there's room for improvement in the rear brake setup? I've been wondering about a vented rear rotor and a non-floating caliper in the rear - not to dramatically increase the friction potential, but more to keep pad pressure even, rotor temps lower, (pad cost decreased too probably)... if anyone would be seeing limitations to the common sport rear setup, I'd expect it'd be you. Thoughts?

-Ryan

 

I have not collected rotor temps but based on pad life I am not worried about it. The biggest problem I found was caliper flex from the 1.8 rear calipers and the e-brake internal adjuster. Having full sport rears does increase bias quite a bit and is best matched with 11.75 fronts and larger MC. I had the 15/16" and regretted not going 1" right out of the gate.

 

You wouldn't look at mounting a suitable willwood on the rear and moving away from oem completely...?

I think that if I didn't need a handbrake for road use I would be looking at that.

 

At some point I will look at the FM powerlite rears or the upcoming TSE offerings. I had the sports on hand and still have pads for them so it does not make sense to change rite now. The sport rear calipers look much stronger so it should solve the outer pad taper problem.

 

Only reason to go Wilwood in the rear is to shave weight. Vented rear rotor is totally unnecessary and adds a huge amount of weight (like 3lbs per side).

 

I know, I have vented 11" rears right now. The only great part about it is rotating rotors front to rear same as you would with tires, just buy 2 new rotors each time, put them on the front and move the old fronts to the rear

Is TSE working on a rear wilwood for solid rear rotor setup?

-Ryan

 

With handbrake........😀

I think noticed a new willwood caliper with cablebrake capability..?

 

It exists but it is for a vented rotor thickness, $250 per caliper, and I don't think pad selection is very good for it.

-Ryan

 

Hustler spoke otherwise (although bbundy tended to agree with you). I think Hustler mentioned wanting brake ducts as an alternative...(for the rears).

I can't imagine Hustler is hitting higher speeds than bbundy with a TTD car. Maybe track differences?

 

I think the faster you go the less the rears matter. With sticky tires (slicks etc) & high speed the car transfers more weight to the front during braking. The backs are doing some work during the intial application of brakes but once weight transfer happens there is not much grip back there.

 

Speed is not necessarily a factor for weight transfer (its not at all, unless the driver makes it so). The force applied on the car will determine your weight transfer and that is generally grip limited. Read here if you need a quick explanation...

With that said, I am not so sure I agree. even if bob is running A6s vs. R6s or NT-01s, the rears definitely do some work. Have you tried turning the prop valve in all the way and seen how much longer it takes you to brake? Its definitely considerable, I haven't tried it completely, but with my prop misadjusted I easily added 75 ft to a 115-45 braking zone. That's on street tires, so its probably 350-400 ft of braking normally.

Not saying weight transfer isn't a factor here. If we are talking identical suspension setups, gripper tires will transfer more weight forward...That would tell me would need stiffer front springs, do more braking in the rear, and figure out how to dissipate the added heat.