Race Car Projects
 

Alright folks, here it is. Have a race car? Are you the quickest? The most nimble? What do you run...autocross, time trials, road racing, drag? Well, I figure why not have a space to showcase our community's race cars (dedicated or no).




**Like the root forum says: Legitimate, non street racing ONLY**
Please keep your 'kills' elsewhere ;)

1992 Mazda Miata - SCCA SOLO STS2
 

Alright, might as well get this started:
Everyone, meet Dory. She's a 'Brilliant Black' 1992 Mazda Miata. I bought the car in November 06 specifically to build up for SCCA SOLO STS2 competition.
So far she's brought me a few local wins, and has been an absolute blast to run both on track, and as a 'weekend' car on the street (with the occasional *short* commute thrown in for good measure).

Attachment 10241

Mods
============
Suspension - Where the majority of the STS2 allowances lie.
Koni Race (f) / Koni Yellow (r) shocks
Groud Control 550# (f) / 375# (r) springs / coilover sleeves
Racing Beat 1 1/8" front sway bar
No rear sway bar
Racing Beat front end links
Relatively agressive alignment: 2* (f) / 2.5* (r) camber with just a hair of toe out front, zero toe rear.

Engine - Not much you can do here
Advanced timing to 14* - premium fuel ftl
Cheapo racing-beat knockoff intake w/ K&N filter
Custom (6 lbs) cat back using Supertrapp muffler dumping under the car, just behind the driver

We fixed a timing problem when changing my water pump. It dynoed at a measly 86 WHP before that. It feels a good deal stronger now. I'm getting it dynoed within the next month or so to see if there actually were any gains.

Other
ATS Complite 15x7 Wheels (13.5 lbs ea.)
Hankook Ventus Z212 (225/45-15) - good tires, decently sticky, but definitely not an RE-01R.
Corbeau Forza seats
Kirk Racing roll bar
G-force 5 point harness (with only 4 points installed so far lol).

Attachment 10242

Attachment 10243

auto x with hscca o7 mazda 3 stock/w 245/45/17's.....last event i beat a stock wrx sti both of us was running in novice..

Well, this thread went pretty far. Only 2?! No one else!?

My car is not a race car, it's a track-prepped daily driver that I drive all over horrendous city streets :)

I take my FD to the track a few times a year. No racing though, just for fun. :)

http://www.moccforums.com/forum/albu...hp?pic_id=1568

Natey, your RX-7 looks like it has eyelashes. She's so pretty!! :D

I've got a fully prepped FC chasis...just no powertrain. I'm trying to talk the wife into letting me buy a RX8 and swap everything over but she seems to think thats a bad idea.

What no Porsche racing?

I don't think my car will ever be a racer - I couldn't afford to damage my daily driver.

lol, the tabs that hold my headlight covers on are broken and if I go over 100mph or so, they begin to shake, like they're gonna fly off. That's why they're taped down.

AutoX - atlanta Region - DSP class for now - '03 MSP - lightly salted.

Future:
92 DX - autox - BONE stock ;)

Edited the picture: (to show best part on car)

hawk brake pads?


:p

why yes, of course!

oh yah.. reminds me... ebc slotted rotors / green stuff pads needed to be added to my "race" car list

I have the best mod of all to add...

the good driver mod !

i prefer to call mine "mad" mod. = my awesome driving.

back on topic: Just ordered these. mmmmmm so gewd

https://015e409.netsolstores.com/Pro...GGlink2.5e.jpg

Gearhead Garage 'short' endlinks for NA/NB miatas.

Were they $69?

nope, but they are sexy enough that they should be...

They look just like my AWR endlinks .. they're great cuz of the ease of removal, but kinda noisy.

yeah...take a close look at the AWRs. There's a reason they're noisy. This one will sit flush against the bar and the control arm (no, not the strut. The control arm, where it SHOULD be lol) because of those 'protrusions' so it shouldn't bind / bang around.

I'd definitely like to hear some feedback once you get them installed. The AWR as I said are phenomenal compared to stock, but I could use a noise reduction.

These are for the miata...not the protege. I'm not sure they'd even work with the protege actually, the layout and geometry is completely different

Well .. there's only way to find out :)

I mean it's not like you have both a Protege AND a Miata right?? :bigthumb:

hmm, you make good point....

well, here's the verdict: No chance in hell that these will work on the protege. The long version MAY work, but I can neither confirm nor deny. This picture is VERY close to actual size (just a little small). These are seriously short. And seriously sexy ;)

http://www.949racing.com/ProductImages/GGlink2.5e.jpg

Hopefully I can get them on the car this weekend. My old links are making more and more noise. I'd like to get these in before something breaks...

Just fyi, I traded my FC for a built FB race car. I now have a fully dedicated SCCA tracker with full RB suspension!

It looks like shit on the outside but it runs like new and has a ton of upgrades to get me started. I'm going to start stripping it down here shortly. I'll post pics next weekend (when it's being delivered).

new FB
 

1984 Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE
13B (1.3L FI Rotary engine)
4 wheel disc brakes
LSD
Sunroof
Power Windows


Aftermarket stuff:
Accell Coils
Cone style intake
Solid motor mounts
Emissions stuff removed
AC & Cold start assist removed
Racing Beat Springs
Turbo II Altenator
Tokico Blue Shocks (New in box, not installed)
Autometer Phantom Oil PSI gauge

^ nice.. i bet it runs ;)

actually looks pretty good for a race car ;). I thought you were looking for a *nice* car lol.

@ Least you know where to get a good cage built...

Yeah it runs. The drivers side is a little banged up around the door skin but it'll track straight.

I was looking for a nicer car but I now have 5 vehicles and all of my needs covered.

(2) daily drivers
(1) pick up truck
(1) track car
(1) high powered scooter

and I still get visitation with my MS6 if I need it!

I hate you.

I have
(1) daily driver
(1) pockmarked downtown rochester roads driver
(1) winter beast
(1) autox/track car

BUT THEY'RE ALL THE SAME CAR lol

p.s... going along with the discussion of endlinks, there's a sale on Hardrace reinforced sway bar endlinks for the 3rd gen protege on www.toprotege.com

http://www.toprotege.com/forums/show...418#post417418

They don't have the racing beat sway bar appropriate rear endlinks made yet, but it's in the works.

Don't hate me because I'm poor white trash!

i wish i had a track/race car... all i have is a ms6, 65 mustang, red 92 miata, black 92 miata, and my wrecked protege. just sold my 99 explorer and my 87 blazer with a 350. i can also use my moms f150 or her 4runner. i actually have to sale everything but my mustang and my ms6.

Keep a miata, cage it, gut it, and you'll have a track car....

thats what i planned to do, but sometimes dont go as planned. lol i think everyone knows that though.

Ok, so it's been a strange (tho somehow par for the course) couple of weeks for Dory.

Part I:
I was fed up with locking up my tires CONSTANTLY after the pads had about 2 or 3 runs in. They pretty much became an on-off switch for me. So, I swapped out some HPS pads (from Kevin's GRM car) for my HP+s. While those work great for R-comps, the HP+s are too much for my *decent* street tires. After the pad change, with newer pads mind you, my brake pedal got LONGER. While we were changing the pads, we noticed both calipers were leaking fluid. Well, THERE'S your problem... Swapped in new calipers (HUGE thanks again Kevin) and bled them. The fluid coming out of the driver's side was milky b/c it was impregnated with air. Gross. I'm a lot happier with my braking now, esp that my pedal works again ;)

Part II:
The part some of you seemed pretty interested in at least... Swapped in the new endlinks. Now the POP from the front every time I touch the brakes is completely gone, and the mid-corner 'uncertainty' from the poly bushings is gone. I'm EXTREMELY pleased with them.

Part III:
New shocks. I had the Koni Race shocks (re-valved w/ more rebound) and shortened shocks up front only. This was before I knew that the BIG place you want more travel's the rear. I got a deal on some Races for the rear and jumped on that ASAP. Shortened shocks = more travel = car can stand to be a little lower. I'm not touching the bump stops nearly as much as I had been in the rear, which makes this RWD wonder a lot more predictable. However, I'm a chassis setup n00b, and therefore...

Part IV:
Shock settings. I ran 1.75 events like this. I'm embarrassed to even admit to this. Laddies and gentlemen, boys and girls, listen close. Better shocks don't mean JACK if they're not set properly. I honestly can not even remember how or when this happened, but it did. After my 3rd (of 4) timed runs yesterday, I noticed a pattern. Right turn: Understeer. Left turn: oversteer. Huh? I check my rear shocks (the only thing that had changed that could cause that, besides wonky ride heights). Right rear: full stiff. Left rear: almost full soft. @%&#(@#%&@!!!!! So, for the last timed run I sort of set them somewhere in the middle and hoped for the best. I ran a 47.2, well off the pace, but good enough all things considered. For my 2nd set of runs (time only, aka fun runs), I worked on dialing the rear of the car in. Managed to get down to a 45.7... that's a 1.5 second reduction just by having my shocks properly set up. Too bad those last runs didn't count, b/c I would have won STS2 by a half second. Oh well...there's always the next event ;)

Part V:

Found a surprise while rotating the tires Friday night before the event. Everything went fine until I got to the passenger side rear. Break 1 loose, break 2 loose, break 3 loo... looo... LOOOSE!? Nope. Turned the bar once, twice, and third times a charm: PLINK! Snapped the stud. Sumbitch. And of course, you can't exactly hammer out the stud and replace it in the rear of the miata, you have to pull the whole hub assembly appart. Well, I didn't have the tools, the facilities or the part, so I bit the bullet and took it to kauffman tire to get it done. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but I have lug-centric wheels, so I didn't really feel comfortable running only on 3.

Part VI:
Scored a deal on a use Racing Beat header. It's the new design (4-1 as opposed to the tri-Y of the earlier headers). This header makes better power / torque than the last one, so I was happy to find someone selling it used :)
Attachment 10189

I see that the leaky caliper was your problem, but have you tried Porterfield pads? I'm really impressed with the RS4s. Quiet on the street, and GREAT on the track. Not too dusty either. :)

Much better than the Axxis Ultimates I had on there before.

I really like my HPSs, they haul the car down and are easy to modulate (a lot easier than the HP+s. From what I've read, a very common and reliable setup to even out the brake bias some is to run HPS up front and HP+ rear. I'm going to give that a shot next and then go from there lol


The leaky caliper wasn't even really "THE" problem, it was one of them lol. They worked fine after being bled until you took them off of the pads and allowed air to get in the boot. It was crazy. My pedal felt amazing until we changed pads. I just need to get a more agressive pad (greenstuff maybe with good initial cold bite) out back. Next season, I'm probably going to go w/ greenstuff's rear / axxis ultimates front (supposed to have better initial bit than the HPS w/o the locking tendencies of the HP+s)

more good news! Since we changed the water pump and fixed the timing, I could have SWORN she was stronger than before, but I only had the butt dyno to refer to. It definitely sounded better, but you know how it is with these things. Anyway, since the header came in, I wanted to get a good reading of where I am right now so I can compare if / how it helped me. Well, just like my hips, my butt don't lie :p

Attachment 10180

BOOM! 16.1 more than HP the last time I had her on the rollers, and 21 more than the very first dyno (77.1 I think with a crudded up air filter, stock air box, bad timing, stock everything, etc).

Torque is another story. Peak only gained about 1.5 lb/ft, however I have b/w 7-10 lb/ft more throughout the mid range, about 20 lb/ft more in the top end. m'gawd man!

It's amazing what fixing the timing will do LOL. Having the water pump give up the ghost is one of the best things that's happened to this car :D

Needless to say, I'm EXTREMELY happy with the results. For a 1.6 w/ 160,000 miles on the clock, she's not doing too shabby (yippy)



And for good measure, a picture of Luke getting a little out of shape. Pictures like this where the car is leaning towards the inside of the turn always trip me out lol
http://www.soloatlanta.com/results/2...s2114_1951.jpg

Uno mas!
http://www.soloatlanta.com/results/2...ts214_2071.jpg

lol tape numbers. So sad. I actually had a set of new numbers that should have arrived on site before we started running...but that didn't quite pan out. By our 3rd runs, we looks a bit more professional ;)