STS2 Miata Build Part Deux - 2008

[aMaff]

With the 2007 season over and a 2nd (second) overall, I'm very happy how far this car has come since buying it just about a year ago. However, she's still got a long way to go and will be under then knife for what I can only imagine to be the better part of the off season.

Plans for the off-season include:
1. Take it to Mazcare for a recurring problem with the fuel tank building pressure (in progress)
2. 700/450# springs f/r
3. Bridgestone RE-01Rs (pending testing results of new ST legal and possibly competitive tires)
4. NB rear shock mount conversion fo-cheapsies. See thread. This will give me about 1/2 - 3/4" more shock travel before hitting the bump stops.
5. Brake pads / fluids.
6. The car's 15 years old, going on 16. The stock suspension...everything... is tired and / or broken. I will be replacing all of the stock ball joints / rod ends / dust boots / etc. They're pretty much all toast. Do I have any idea what that entails at this point? Nope lol. I've gotta get under the car once she comes back from Mazcare and get a list of everything that I'll need (off topic: YAY GARAGE!)
7. Poly Control Arm bushings from Flyin Miata. Why? See #6.
8. Rear main seal / clutch et al.
9. After driving kcbhiw's car for a couple runs back to back at the last points event, I'm seriously considering a manual steering rack.
10. Get the injectors cleaned, flow tested and blueprinted by witchhunter.
11. After most of these, I'll need an alignment anyway. Then I've got to find a shop open on weekends to corner weight the thing. Or find someone to let me borrow scales.

Beyond these changes / fixes, I'm still waiting on 949racing's 6UL to come out in the 15x7.5" size. These should be available in April.

In conclusion:
Dory for Champion 2008!

Just keep swimming!

 

[dmitrik4]

that's quite a plan.

BTW: www.witchhunter.com my injectors are going out this week.

 

[aMaff]

that's quite a plan.

BTW: www.witchhunter.com my injectors are going out this week.

lol yeah, that one. Fixed

 

[khaosman]

Sounds like a good plan. I'll be interested in hearing what is up with your gas tank. It sounds like my problem.

 

[moxnix]

5. Brake pads / fluids.
6. The car's 15 years old, going on 16. The stock suspension...everything... is tired and / or broken. I will be replacing all of the stock ball joints / rod ends / dust boots / etc. They're pretty much all toast. Do I have any idea what that entails at this point? Nope lol. I've gotta get under the car once she comes back from Mazcare and get a list of everything that I'll need (off topic: YAY GARAGE!)
7. Poly Control Arm bushings from Flyin Miata. Why? See #6.
9. After driving kcbhiw's car for a couple runs back to back at the last points event, I'm seriously considering a manual steering rack.

5. I used the old cobalt GT's up until a few weeks ago in the rear with stock fronts. I switched to the bhp brakes CR6 rears recently and liked them so far but only have one event on them. I have just been using synpower fluid since it is almost as good as the expensive stuff and it is a lot easier to find. You may also want to make sure none of your calipers are sticking since I have had a few issues with that on my car since I got it.

6. I'll let you know how the ebay stuff is for that. I just bought lower ball joints & inner/outer tie rod ends for just under $70 shipped. The upper ball joint is bonded to the upper A-arm so you either have to try to just replace the boot or you have to replace the whole A-arm $$.

7. I have superpro's half way on my car right now.

9. Don't forget to change your steering wheel to the base crappy one and remove ABS if you have it (don't think you do with as much smoking tires as you do)

 

[autoxes]

i think removing abs is against sts rules...I think...idk, aMaff is teaching me all about following scca rules, lol...

 

[aMaff]

I don't have ABS. I didn't even know it was a different wheel... what...uh... IS the difference?

 

[dmitrik4]

i think the higher-trim packages got a leather-covered wheel.

i think removing abs is against sts rules...I think...idk, aMaff is teaching me all about following scca rules, lol...

if ABS came w/ the power steering and wasn't available w/ manual steering, it's got to be removed if switching from power to manual steering.

i'm dying to ditch my power steering as well...fortunately, i don't have ABS. unfortunately, i don't have a garage or private driveway, either.

 

[moxnix]

AFAIK the base package is the only 92 model to come with manual steering. The base package has the non leather wrapped wheel. It is some sort of nasty crap that falls apart even more than the leather one.

Again AFAIK the ABS was not an available option on the 1992 base model so you would need to remove it (if you had it) if you went to the manual steering in order to have the stock legal base car to build your STS2 car on.

 

[aMaff]

is there actually a difference in the wheels besides finish? If it's only cosmetic (comfort and convenience), and it retains the air bag, could it be argued that it's legal since steering wheel changes are allowed in STS2?

 

[moxnix]

Size and shape I think it is the same but there is a grip difference with drivers interface with the car so I say it needs to be replaced. Air bag wheels can not be replaced.

"D.Alternate steering wheels are allowed except that steering wheels with an integral airbag may not be changed."

1. To get manual steering you need base wheel.
2. You can't replace the wheel if it has an air bag.
3. All US Miata's had air bags.

So you can't have manual steering with leather wheel.

 

[aMaff]

*sigh* that's what I was afraid of. Thanks, oh rule guru

 

[aMaff]

Holy damn it I'm glad I checked Miata.net today. 949racing's doing a limited production run of 20 sets of the 15x7.5s. Same cost / etc. Apparently they didn't have enough orders of one of the 15x7 wheels and he decided to open these up.

1 of 20 sets. Word.

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=257220

 

[TinmanMS6]

There's some interesting math going on in that thread. Maybe useful, maybe just auto-x nerdery. I suspect a bit of both, but likely more of B than A.

 

[aMaff]

one hellova lot more of B than A. Reading that made me dizzy LOL

 

[TinmanMS6]

For sure. Autocross is pretty simple: U drive gud, u go fast. But then again, reducing scrub radii and all is pretty important too.

 

[aMaff]

it's the usual "narrow car vs wide track width" debate blown into terms way above my head. The second I start seeing square roots fractions and variables in a post on an internet forum about autocrossing, my eyes start to glaze over and everything goes dark for a moment lol

This was the moment where I started to feel numb:

The time to drive through an arc is proportional to the square root of the ratio of (turn radius) / (lateral acceleration). Therefore if the gain in tire grip from the extra track exceeds the gain in radius then there should be reduced time to go around a curve. A 6mm increase in a 20' radius is about .1%. So it comes down to knowing the tire performance curves. In any case this is a small number. I think the lesson here is to lower the CG as much as possible. Gain grip without the radius increase. I'm not going to sweat 6mm in increased turn radius.

In essence: you could sneeze and it would have a bigger impact on the run than what they're discussing.

 

[TinmanMS6]

Actually, I kind of shudder to think what would happen if you sneezed in the wrong place on course. I'm picturing cones and corner workers scattered all over the place.

I think these guys' heads would pop if they had to drive an HS car, and had that few variables to worry about.

 

[moxnix]

I think these guys' heads would pop if they had to drive an HS car, and had that few variables to worry about.

You might want to look in the back of your rule book at the national champions before you say that.

H Stock:
1995 Andy Hollis Austin, TX Mazda MX-6

 

[TinmanMS6]

Yeah, I actually recognized the guy's name, which says a lot, but I'm guessing there's a reason he's switched to ST classes in the 12 years since then: He needed auto-x-nerdy physics problems to solve.