More poor life choices #3(and possibly #4)

Nice work on fabbing.    Just curious, all tire pressures were the same while doing alignment?  If that matters or not, considering the pull to the left.   May be a slight tweak to the frame.

In reply to Dirtydog :

Thanks! It doesn’t actually pull, the steering wheel is just offset. I’ll probably shimmy underneath & give both tie rods a turn, and see if it straightens out the wheel. Though I think it’s a sign either my measurements, or something on the car, are off. 

I spent a little time on correcting my alignment tonight. I decided to get medieval (or at least old-school) to correct the crooked steering wheel. 

Ok, so mostly I was hoping not to have to jig up the car again..

I found there was a slight bit of toe in, and since the steering wheel was offset to the left, I toed out the LF wheel until there was barely a bit of toe-out. I also checked the rear wheels, and the toe was ok on them. A test drive verified the car tracks straight & the steering wheel is straight too, so I think it’s successful. 

On a separate note, I got a call from Discount Tire yesterday. The RE71Rs are back in stock, but they only had 3 wheels in the same warehouse as the tires. So they’re shipping a 4th wheel in, then will send them to me next week after they’re mounted & balanced. 

Small projects today.

I’d been driving around without a spare tire, partly because I don’t have the factory lug wrench, but also because I could t find the hole to bolt down the spare. In better light I found out it was plugged solid with rust & crud, so I cleaned it & chased the threads. Problem solved.

Next, I’d removed the panel on the left side of the trunk that covers the filler neck & vent hoses, so I could install the shocks, and I’d left the panel off so I could reach the adjuster on the Koni. Per STS rules you’re allowed to cut an access hole for shock adjustment, but this is a bit different since what you need is an access hole for your arm, so you can get to the adjuster.

I ended up cutting & folding the panel to gain access, without removing any material, so hopefully that counts as legal

Bolted into place.

Now I just need to find a lug wrench.

New shoes arrived today. 

They didn't have the color I wanted, so I ordered these sight-unseen. Being matte-black I was expecting something closer to primer in texture, but really they’re more of a semi-gloss. 

That's a nice wheel! I remember you saying those came from Discount Tire, but do you remember what they called them?

In reply to Mr_Merkur :

Thanks! They’re Drag DR-21 wheels. 

I got out in the garage early to beat the heat, and did the foamectomy on the diver’s seat. No pics because it’s probabky been done a half-million times by now, but I removed the lumbar pad completely and cut off the entire lower bump. I really liked the seats in my ‘96 after doing the same, and already this seat feels so much more comfortable and secure. 

I also tried out my redneck CG lock(would that be an RG lock?). It actually seems to work really well. 

I registered for the autox at NOLA on Sunday. It’s only supposed to be 94* that day & it’s a 104-mile drive each way, so that should be a fun day without a/c...

I’m registered for the Nola autox tomorrow, looks like it’s me & a 95 Miata in STS. Forecast high is 97*, so that should be fun...

I checked over the car this morning for the 100-mike drive there & got everything packed. I picked up a new PCV valve yesterday to hopefully cure the random oil loss I’ve experienced twice. Unfortunately the old PCV valve snapped in half, making it a bitch to get out. The shop vac did a good job of removing all the remaining pieces though. 

I figured out a way to mount my camera, so hopefully I’ll have some vids this time!

Can't wait to see them -- good luck and have fun!

I miss my autocross days, though if I can ever get this XR of mine out of the garage I may try it again. SCCA doesn't like it, though, when you try to autocross in a Jeep!

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I've been a passenger across Lake Ponchartrain w/o a/c on a hot August day. 

nutherjrfan said:

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I've been a passenger across Lake Ponchartrain w/o a/c on a hot August day. 

At least speeds on the bridge are often approaching 90 and there might be a breeze off the water. Getting stuck in Nola traffic will suck. 

In reply to Mr_Merkur :

Thanks!

I’ve known of at least 2 autox Jeeps, so I wouldn’t give up home completely. 

Pete Gossett said:

nutherjrfan said:

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I've been a passenger across Lake Ponchartrain w/o a/c on a hot August day. 

At least speeds on the bridge are often approaching 90 and there might be a breeze off the water. Getting stuck in Nola traffic will suck. 

Last time I went across the Pontchartrain bridge in my old 911 I was nose-to-tail with a Boxster S, an M3 and me. There was literally no traffic, mid-afternoon. I finally backed off when I was doing an indicated 145. Oh, those were the days.

In reply to Ovid_and_Flem :

I’m confident I won’t have that problem in the Miata!

The car made it the 100+ miles to Nola fine*, did 6-runs, and made it back home, so I’d call that a success. The only possible issue is after getting off the interstate I noticed the car was doing a “putt-putt...” thing that I’d never heard before, and seemed to be running slightly rough. It cleared up by the end of the day, but returned by the time I got home. I’m not sure what it could be?

There was one other Miata in STS, though not very well prepped, who I beat by a couple seconds. For the most part my times dropped throughout the day, progressing from a 38.7 to a 38.010 - though my I overdrove my final run & was slower. However I was only 16th in both pax & raw times, and was 1.5 seconds behind an Street-class ND Miata, so there’s more time out there. 

Unfortunately my damn camera didn’t record a single run. I need to start researching camera/data-logging setups for next year. 

Here are the pax results. Hopefully I can start closing this gap with a bit more time in the car. 

Well, for consolation purposes, you had the most vintage Miata,  and aren't really familiar with the car.  Glad you made it there and home without issue.

Dirtydog said:

Well, for consolation purposes, you had the most vintage Miata,  and aren't really familiar with the car.  Glad you made it there and home without issue.

And you kicked a Porsche's arse. 

Stampie said:

Dirtydog said:

Well, for consolation purposes, you had the most vintage Miata,  and aren't really familiar with the car.  Glad you made it there and home without issue.

And you kicked a Porsche's arse. 

Lol. It was his first event, pretty sure he never got over 15mph through the entire course. I didn’t realize he didn’t DNF all his runs, glad to see he made some improvement. 

Also, I think I got a couple people hooked on autox. I was talking to a guy before 1st heat, he & his wife had come to town the day before so she could drive her new Mustang on track, but he’d also recently bought a 99 Miata. I took him for a run during my 1st heat, and like most people he was surprised how much faster everything feels in-car. I’d offered to take his wife along too, but she was kind of sore from the track day. She eventually agreed to go on my last run though, and was completely surprised by it too. They said they’ll be back to try it.   

It is nice when people at the Autocross take the time to talk to new people. I almost had to tackle someone up here to get some questions answered when I first went to check out what they were all about.

In reply to zordak :

To me that’s half the fun. I rarely socialize in real-life, except for autox. 

I’ve been replaying Sunday's runs in my head, and realized I wasn’t looking nearly far enough ahead. That’s partly due to spending most of my 2 course walks talking, then working first heat, and partly due to a course layout that made looking ahead a bit tricky. 

The start was a 7-cone slalom, which you exited on the right, then went into a fairly tight 45* left-hand turn. However, the cone placement in the corner prevented me from seeing the exit until I was about 1/3-way into it. 

Following that was a sweeping wall-slalom: about 8-cones in a row, then a gap to slalom through, followed by another wall, etc. all set on a slight left-hander. That led directly into a Chicago box, which was somewhat obscured by the previous row of cones. 

Exiting the box, you were forced right around a wall of cones, which were difficult to see behind the far wall of the box. Then the first wall partly obscured another wall to the left behind it. 

From there it was an almost 180* left into two offset gates, followed by a 180*+ right, then through an offset to the finish. 

I did pretty good through the start slalom, though my rhythm was a bit off, and a few of my runs I did pretty well through the left-hander and wall slalom...but twice I completely blew my braking zone at the end of the first slalom, throwing everything else off. 

I think I did ok in the Chicago box most runs, but I was never able to set myself up for the gates that followed, and was driving reactionary to the 2 offsets and 180*-left that followed. 

The rest of the course went pretty well - except my first run, when I forgot the gate before the finish. 

I didn’t have problems like this at Grand Bay last month, but the course was a bit more open - despite being smaller - and I did a better job internalizing the course during my walks.   

I ran my 3rd autox in the Miata, and it was both good and bad. 

The good is it was my best autox finish in years - 8th overall raw/7th on pax. 

The bad is the car seemed to be more & more down on power throughout the day, which was confirmed when the car started running like absolute E36 M3 on the way home, requiring me to limp it home on the scenic route. 

Because of this, my first run was my fastest all day. Typically I shave a tenth or more off per run(except the last run, I always berkeley that up). If I’d followed that trend today, it could have bumped me 3-more spots. Oh well. 

I really do like the car for autox. It doesn’t really have any surprises or bad traits, and is definitely the best autox car I’ve owned over 20-years.