The Miata experience: his and hers.

So, head scratchers aside, the car ran great all day.

I ran a PB in the first session, and according to the timing results, I won my TT class!  Although there were only two of us... 

I'll still take that as a win, as I've come 2nd a couple of times when there were only 2-3 cars, and the margin yesterday was about .5 seconds, so we were pretty evenly matched.  I was also quicker than several of the cars in the faster classes, which I'll always take as a win.  

The addition of the wing (first time on this track with it) made a noticeable difference in the faster corners, making the car more predictable and allowing higher speeds through the corner.

Some more pics...

The GT3RS over there is on Hoosiers...   Those folks were also at the PCA event we ran in November... it was so new then, it still had paper plates on it!

Out on track...

I was still having problems with video this weekend.  I think it's the 5V power supply I used for the camera.... it seemed it would randomly cycle on/off, and there doesn't seem to be any correlation to temps.  Maybe vibration, though...  Anyway, I got video clips as short as 15 seconds, and as long as a full session.

I got some video up on YT of the last session of the day, the second TT competition session.  I set my fastest comp lap in this session at 1:55.3, though I went fastest in practice in the morning with a 1:54.8.  The Mustang was two classes up from me, and when I caught him, he pointed me by, but didn't lift.  He waited a full lap before pointing me by again, and lifted the second time.  I could have pushed my advantage on corner entry with a block pass under braking, but I don't like to be 'that guy' in a TT session where there's no money on the line.  I'm just there to have fun, after all...  After getting around him, I only got one more lap before the session ended.

I talked to the Mustang driver after the session, and he was a nice enough guy.  I explained that at full throttle, I still make less power than he does at half throttle, and to point a low power car by, he needs to lift all the way off!  

Well, the NB didn't come home from the paint shop today...  no big deal.  I figure getting a paint job done on time is like hitting the lotto anyway.  Looking like it will be the end of the week before it's ready.

What did get done today is the 'restored salvage' title inspection on the trailer.  2 minute walkaround by the MVD guy after a two month wait.  Now I need to make another appointment to take the inspection paperwork and get another new title.  I'll think I'll just go with the 3rd party provider... it'll cost me an extra $20, but I won't have to wait.

Also got the Yokos mounted up on the K1s, so they're ready to go on when the NB comes home.  This tire is the replacement for the old S.Drive, which I had very good results with in the past for a DD tire.  We'll see how the new version is...

Last night, my wife and I finally came to a consensus on a vanity plate for the NB, and it's ordered...  

Right when the NB is due home from paint, my datalogging/digital dash/video components have arrived...

Autosports Labs RaceCapture Track Mk3 and a digital dash/video bundle from John Freund Racing.

The install shouldn't be too complicated, but will have to wait until the NB is reassembled.  I'm expecting the learning curve for the user will be more of an issue than the physical install.  I have four weeks 'till our next event, and I would like to have the data/dash/video up and running by then, even if the dash mounting is a temp solution for testing.  Stay tuned....

NB didn't come home today.... the paint shop needs to respray the bumper to fix a minor issue.  Hopefully Tuesday...

It's looking pretty good, though... IMHO.  

I guess I'll get to do a little work on the NA after all.

Wow, that's going to look really nice! I like the stripe, too.

NB looks awesome! Can't wait to see it assembled. 

Thanks, guys.  I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out.

Meanwhile did some little stuff today.  On the NB front, painting emblems, since I wanted them to be blacked out...  

And some work on the NA.

First up was a temp bracket for the dash for testing purposes.  Probably won't get driven more than around the block with this setup, just to verify function.  Eventually, the factory instruments will come out, to be replaced by the digital dash.

Next up was some cardboard aided design on a bracket for the Track Mk3.  This will be duplicated out of sheet steel and welded to the dash bar, under the dash.

Emblems turned out good... the 'Miata' emblem will have the lettering painted in red.

Meanwhile, the center caps for the K1s arrived, and they fit!

Now I need to work on ordering some custom stickers for the caps.  The plan is to use the same early Miata emblem I used on the NA years ago...

Well, the paint shop still needs to buff out the bumper, and paint the mirrors and door handles (which they completely forgot were in the passenger footwell), and it's filthy... but it's home.  

Why is it that every good painter is, in some way, a flake?  

Hope to get some time to start cleaning it tomorrow.

In reply to Rodan :

Why is it that every good painter is, in some way, a flake?   They breath too many fumes when they are starting out, plus, they are "artistes".

Yesterday, I was finally able to start on getting the NB put back together.  First up was cleaning it up, since the shop was behind (what else is new?) and didn't get it done before I picked up the car.  Next was the new wheels, which look great, IMHO.

Although I did discover a problem with the center caps... since they're flush with the wheel face, they don't fit with the wheels on a Miata.  Both the front hub dust cover and rear axle stub sit flush/slightly proud of the wheel face when installed.  Whoops.

Sorry for the blurry pics. Fortunately, I discovered that the center caps off the old Konig Rewinds fit the Kosei K1s, and have enough depth to work.

Not the prettiest, but once painted black with the new emblems, they'll be fine.

Made some progress getting other stuff installed, and got the car tucked back in the garage for the night.

Those wheels look perfect on the car. Nice choice. 

Thanks!

Couple more pics of re-assembly progress...

Some beauty shots from this morning...

Paint shop still owes me the right side mirror, and I need to wire in the headlights and re-install the splash guards in the wheel wells.  Pretty happy with the results.  Like having a whole new car! 

Looks wonderful. I love it when a plan comes together.

Thanks!

Final projects for the weekend were wiring up the Stebel Nautilus horn I installed while the bumper was off, and wiring for the NB2 headlights.

NB1 has a single lamp for high/low beams, and the NB2 has two separate lamps.  It was a little tricky, as the harness uses a common 12V supply, and the high/low beams are switched on the ground side of the circuit.  I made pigtails to connect the NB2 connectors to the NB1 harness.

In the car.  Red relay is for the horn.

So now it has a horn and lights.  At some point, I'm going to need to aim the headlights.  But not today...

Over the past week or so, I've been going through little stuff on the NB.  I added some LED interior lights that replace the sun visor bezels, and replaced the original dome light with an LED bulb.  I also bought LED bulbs for the exterior lights, excepting the headlights and turn signals.  I didn't want to deal with hyperflash issues or workarounds, so they got new incandescent bulbs.  I had some trouble with the tail/brake bulbs as well... bought 7443 LEDs, but they refused to work.  I would either get brake or tail, but couldn't get both, so they got old fashioned bulbs as well.  Center brake light, reverse and license plate lights all got LEDs.  Headlights got Sylvania Silverstars, which I still need to aim.

Did some work on center caps, version 2.0.  I'll be using the centercaps from my old Konig Rewind wheels, which I discovered fit in the K1s.  

Got my center cap emblems from Revlimiter.

And painted the caps black.

I'll give them a couple of days to cure before I put the emblems on and install them.

Also reinstalled the splash guards in the rear.   Waiting for some fog lights that should be in next week before I reinstall the front splash guards.

And the new plate showed up!

The "Zoom-Zoom" commercials debuted in 2000, so this car might have been sitting on a dealer lot at the time.

Still a number of little things to do with the NB.  It needs a valve cover gasket, so the parts for that job are on order...

On the NA front, I continued with the fabrication of the bracket to hold the Racecapture Track.

First, I transferred my CAD prototype to steel, folded it, and fit it for the roll bar tubing.

Then I welded on some backing pads for the mounting points.

Next up was drilling and tapping for 6mm screws.

Now it's ready to weld onto the dash bar.

Now I just need to get the NA back in the garage so I can work on it.

Just for fun, I dug out a picture of the NB the day I brought it home, in December 2017, and then tried to duplicate the photo as the car sits today, on day 1528...

The new version looks so much better. 

Looks nice but I'm not a fan of black wheels.  They make the wheels/tires just disappear on the car, I think a set of silver/bronze/anthracite wheels would look better

docwyte said:

Looks nice but I'm not a fan of black wheels.  They make the wheels/tires just disappear on the car, I think a set of silver/bronze/anthracite wheels would look better

Funny you should say that... I agree, and would have preferred bronze wheels for this car.  My wife insisted on black wheels.  The black wheels do look better in person than in pics, so they're not bad.  I do have a plan, however...

During the winter, I store the NA on the NBs 'summer' wheels (Bronze S1s) to avoid freezing the race rubber it runs on at the track.  In a month or two, I'll be able to leave it on the race rubber and put the bronze wheels back on the NB...

I'm hoping after seeing it, I can talk her into leaving the bronze wheels on the NB.

Finished up the center caps for the K1s...

Definitely adds some needed contrast.

Calipers are on the list... can't believe they are less than a year old.  If I'd known they were going to look that bad so quickly, I would have taken the time to paint them before installing.