What have you done to your Miata today?

[aMaff]

I put the rear wheels back on in preparation for an autocross Sunday.

I also started speccing out the build on some different splitter mounts that'll allow adjustment at all 4 corners, instead of what I have now with fixed rears and adjustable fronts. These will also have sacrificial bits that, should the splitter get hit hard, will be very easy to remove and rebuild. I'll likely build a few sets of them to keep as spares, as I imagine there will be a few splitter-to-ground interference events while I get the new mounts (and new splitter for next year) dialed in.

Basically, instead of them being 1 piece the mounts bolted directly to the chassis, there will be the chassis side mounts, and then a vertical, adjustable (sacrificial) drop down that hooks to the rear of the splitter.

 

[chiefmg]

Sounds good, can't wait to see what you end up with. And here I am proud of my little three-way adjustable rear wing.

 

[bazooka joe]

I put the mounts on the wing. Put it all in place temporarily because I was waiting on my new Allen head screws to come in.

Moved to the front of the car. I couldn't find my radiator lower brackets in my storage this morning, looked around the garage again with no success. Looked in my storage one more time and came up dry. Discovered I apparently need to have my eyes checked because they finally turned up sitting on my workbench underneath some stuff I hadn't moved earlier. Got those swapped out, installed and then filled the radiator.

Brought the front bumper and lip inside, my wife said something about this and I told her I needed to do it that way so things didn't get scratched up. This earned me a wifely look. Put the lip on the bumper, then put on my HD lip. Note that they no longer carry the type that I like, I found some of it at Lowe's instead (Frost King garage door seal). Bumper went back on and I buttoned up all the remaining little items (including the license plate light I picked up on one of my trips to storage).

The mail arrived and I got my new fasteners. I went from the standard hex bolts with lock washers that came with the wing, to Allen socket button head screws with nyloc nuts.

For me it's a much cleaner look, and it's easier to deal with just the nuts instead of a lock washer.

And now, since I know everyone has been waiting for it, some pictures of the finished product:

I like it too! I like that it's adjustable and the color match looks great!


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[bazooka joe]

Finally can post something, installed my JBR rear sway today, I can't believe the difference! I'll do the front over the winta. The front one is huge!

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[aMaff]

Doing the front sway on an MX5 is...not a lot of fun. The longer I work on the race car, the less I like working on street cars.

Taking the front sway bar off of the race car is maybe 5 minutes, if I'm drinking beer. The MX-5s I've had my hands on? So much stuff in the way, between the plastic under tray that needs to come off, all the hoses, fluid coolers, it's just a super tight window you need to feed the legs of the bar through.

I'm getting spoiled lol

 

[chiefmg]

Finally can post something, installed my JBR rear sway today, I can't believe the difference! I'll do the front over the winta. The front one is huge!

I'll restrain myself from saying what I usually do. How do you like your QuickJack?

 

[CTt3P5]

Great idea Andrew. Will this new setup help with times as well?

Nice Mark. I have to agree with Maff on this one. The fronts are no fun. I observed an NC being upgraded to the Progress bar and it looked like a royal PITA. And that was with the car on a lift that allowed you to stand under the car. I wish you luck!

Today I gave her a good bath which included the top before ol man winter visits. Afterwards I swapped the winter tires onto the 3. Had a bried moment where I considered mounting them to the Miata for winter. They are Altimax Arctics in a 205/55/16. Figured it was better to put them on the 3 so Id be less tempted to drive the Miata in really bad weather. Also dropped the summer wheels off at Walmart to have the worn and screwed Hankooks dismounted. Figured they cant do that much damage just dismounting tires. Lol

What we had serious thoughts of doing over the next three days....

Well Tam is a Bears fan, I am a Cubs fan, both of us are Bulls fans and Tam has wanted to eat at RPM Itailian since it opened. For the next three days the stars are aligned just right that we could make it happen and we considered a road trip to Chicago. If we leave at midnight, wed get into Chicago in time to stop at Soldier Field to watch the Bears play Jacksonville at 1pm. Then wed check into our hotel and freshen up prior to watching the Cubs play the Dodgers at Wrigley at 8pm. After the game wed crash and hang out until dinner reservations at 4pm at RPM and then over to the United Center to watch the Bulls play, none other than Jordans Hornets at 7pm on Monday night. Tuesday morning wed start the 11hr drive home.

Total for the 3 day trip would come in around 2K, depending on hotel. Nosebleed seats for the football and basketball games and standing room only tix for the baseball game were just shy of 900 alone. After our excitement and thoughts of "we could really pull this off", reality smacked us in the face. We have a 15yo son at home and two kittens that depend on us. If the Cubs make the postseason next year, we will plan better. A 6hr window just isnt cutting it. Lol

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[bazooka joe]

I'll restrain myself from saying what I usually do. How do you like your QuickJack?

It's great! I had a problem early on with a bad fitting, got that squared away and it's been great! I never could have done the 5 speed swap on ramps!


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[aMaff]

Great idea Andrew. Will this new setup help with times as well?

It'll keep it more consistent. It won't necessarily make it faster, but it'll be a lot more serviceable when the splitter does take licks (it happens), and it'll allow me to dial in the height. It's currently a bit low in the rear, but with fixed mounts I sort of painted myself into a corner. It's all development, and wasn't meant to be a permanent solution anyway. Now I know what works and what doesn't, I can make 'er a bit better.

It's great! I had a problem early on with a bad fitting, got that squared away and it's been great! I never could have done the 5 speed swap on ramps!

I can't wait for you to move down south so I can come ste...borrow those from you

 

[CTt3P5]

Gotcha. I understand why you want to make it more serviceable. Thought some faster times would be an added benefit.

Did you see the new Blipshift tees? I love the cone-sequences one.

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[aMaff]

Did you see the new Blipshift tees? I love the cone-sequences one.

This is one of those things that happens when you know "too much" about something... like watching an action movie when you're familiar with firearms mechanics and handling, or "car" movies when you've done any amount of performance driving.

That shirt shows a DNF, that knocked over the pointer cone. Not even the cone that matters. Harrumph I say!

 

[CTt3P5]

This is one of those things that happens when you know "too much" about something... like watching an action movie when you're familiar with firearms mechanics and handling, or "car" movies when you've done any amount of performance driving.

That shirt shows a DNF, that knocked over the pointer cone. Not even the cone that matters. Harrumph I say!

Lmao. Being an autox noob, I find it hilarious. Thanks for educating me.

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[chiefmg]

Kind of when like I watched "Speed 2." Lots for me to laugh about in that movie.

I had to pull out of the cruise yesterday. As I was getting off the freeway to the Columbus meeting point she died with no warning. The AFR gauge had started displaying E9 just prior to this (which I found out after I got home is low power supplied error), otherwise nothing else gave an indication it was about to do that. Got safely off the road and tried restarting but only got a clicking from the starter. Sent my son across to the group and one of the guys came over with jumper cables. That got her started but since I couldn't find anything that might have caused this I decided it wasn't safe for me to go. Thankfully I made it home with no problems. The battery has started the car several times since with no hesitation so it appears both it and the alternator are fine. I'm going to dig through the car and check all my chassis grounds to see if that might be the problem.

 

[aMaff]

Whoo!

I coned away a 63.180, but a great day

...save for one of my co-drivers hitting either a bump or a bunch of cones and pretzling the passenger side rear chassis mount. But I used my 3 lb Aero Adjuster tool (dead-blow) and the trailer's frame as an anvil. The splitter was rubbing a bunch in the sweepers and over bumps, which tells me it's still a touch too low, so having the adjustability at the rear as I discussed earlier will be a Good Thing for the car (and my nerves)

 

[Reitrof]

Sooo Mark, Nice to see you finally modding the car you said was going to stay stock?

Jeff, you remember the conversation at WG?

 

[aMaff]

 

[bazooka joe]

Sooo Mark, Nice to see you finally modding the car you said was going to stay stock?

Jeff, you remember the conversation at WG?

Ok, ok, but sways are it!!!


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[thejeans]

drove it 700 miles on a little roadtrip to see some friends this past weekend. I recalibrated the o2 sensor and did some pulls/tuning, shes pretty healthy now! (drive2)


went to a Cars and Coffee event yesterday before i left Lancaster, someone liked the car and took fancy pics of it.

 

[aMaff]

I'm so happy to see that thing finally running right

 

[thejeans]

I'm so happy to see that thing finally running right

ill try to get some pull videos soon. this might be the best this car has ever run haha