Had to run to the hardware store to pick up some stuff for the Capri, so I took the Interceptor, which hadn't been out in a while. It wasn't much of a ride, but at least I put some electrons in the battery and got to listen to that wonderful V4 soundtrack.
Took the NA to a local shop for alignment this morning. This is the shop I should have taken the NC to.... Everything went well, and they were clearly familiar with doing performance/track alignments.
I was disappointed to see that I apparently did a crap job aligning the car with the hub stands. Now that I have good numbers, I need to put it back on the hub stands and see what I it looks like... I think that I probably didn't have the suspension fully settled. Anyway, looking forward to driving the car again... maybe there's been a reason that I've been feeling it was lacking grip?
Before
After
Today I tackled one of the several RV projects I have planned while we're in-between trips.
I've never been impressed with the headlight performance on our motorhome, but it hadn't been a priority since we don't drive it a lot at night, and I hadn't had the time to dig into it. The coach uses headlights from an early 2000s Lincoln LS, and I had initially thought it had HIDs. I knew I was planning on replacing the badly hazed housings, so I hadn't dug into it that deeply.
On our last trip, I got to looking at the lights, and realized it had aftermarket LED bulbs. That explained why the pattern was so poor, and there was no discernible difference between high and low beams. We also dealt with significant rain, and I discovered the fog light performance was pretty poor as well. Just looking at the beam pattern it was apparent that driving beams had been installed as fog beams, and being mounted so low to the ground, they were utterly useless.
When we got home, I started ordering parts: new headlight housings from Headlight Depot, Phillips Silverstar Ultra bulbs and a set of Hella fogs to replace the Hella driving beams. Surprisingly, all the parts were pretty reasonable with everything coming in under $450.
I decided to tackle the fog lights first, and discovered even high-end RVs tend to be put together like crap. The fogs were bolted to a piece of sheet metal that was screwed into plywood with three wood screws. The plywood was glassed into the front exterior of the motorhome.
Once on the bench, the difference in lenses for the fogs and drivers is pretty clear. I flipped the fog assemblies in the housing for pendant mounting, spliced on the harness connections from the old lights, and mounted them on the coach.
I thought the fog light mounting was bad, but the headlights were even worse... wood screws through the housing tabs into plywood... not even flush mounted.
I think if I saw something like that on a new $450k coach, I'd be pretty upset. At least we bought it after 20 years of depreciation...
Once on the bench, the difference is clear (to use a bad pun).
Garbage LED 'bulbs':
Done
Still need to aim everything, which will have to wait for a convenient time after dark. I've had really good results with the Phillips bulbs in the past, so I'm hoping they work well here. This is phase 1 of improving the lighting. Phase 2 will be some actual driving beams, but I will need to do some fabrication to mount those.
is this a Morgan?
I am sure you can exceed OEM work on the driving lights.
In reply to DrMikeCSI :
The way the plywood and fiberglass is intermixed says "TVR" to me. Morgan has mostly bypassed fiberglass.
Wow, that's something I wouldn't expect to see on a $10k economy car, let alone something as expensive as a motor coach
In reply to docwyte :
Yup, pretty pathetic.
The Touring went up on the lift today so I could deal with a leaking A/C compressor.
I noticed a couple of drips earlier in the summer, but I believe the leak is just the front bearing/seal as A/C performance hasn't been affected. Recently the leak has become worse. The bright green is from some kind of dye in the oil.
The main goal for the day was to identify the compressor (out of two possibilities), so I can research solutions. I also pulled the A/C belt to minimize any further issues until I can get it repaired/replaced. At least the weather has cooled off enough to not need the A/C for a few months.
Even if I can find a bearing/seal, I don't think I can replace it on the car, which means evacuating/refilling the system. After talking to a shop I trust, they don't want to repair, they want to replace with a new compressor (with a warranty). Now that I have the compressor identified, I'll talk to them about prices...
Good day (mostly) at the track yesterday.
First time at Podium Club at Attessa, which is a newer country club track between Phoenix and Tucson in AZ. I've been trying to get to this track for a couple of years, but the dates have never worked out, until now. Our primary track group (ProAutosports) has been doing a 3 day event there over Thanksgiving weekend the last couple of years. This year I was able to make it, though only the Friday practice day, so I missed out on the TT competition.
The track has some slight elevation change, a number of good technical corners and a long front straight... Saw the highest speeds yet in the Miata, and it was a real brake tester in the CCW direction we ran yesterday.
Track map:
For a new facility in the middle of nowhere, the paddock was very cramped. The actual pit spots were roomy, but the aisles were narrow making maneuvering a trailer in/out a little sketchy. I'm glad I was just in the truck/trailer and not the motorhome. Arriving when the gates opened on Friday, it was already packed by the folks that had arrived Thursday night. I felt bad for the folks showing up on Saturday!
Being a country club track, a few racers arrived in style... Not one, not two, but three private helicopters flew in for the day!
My wife is out of state visiting family for the Holiday, so it was just me and my track buddy for the day.
Once I finish my coffee, I'll get the car unloaded and download data and video... more to come.
As I noted, this was my first time at Podium Club. Though it's a 'country club' track, the local track day orgs have been running events there for the last couple of years, but the dates just never worked for us. It was nice to finally try out the track... in person. Someone built the track for Assetto Corsa, so I downloaded it and have been getting laps in on my sim setup. This is the third track I've been able to practice on the sim before attending in person (the others were Chuckwall and High Plains Raceway). I'm completely sold on the process at this point. While there are definitely some slight differences between the digital and real tracks, being able to run laps before going in person made getting up to speed far easier. My best lap in the first session was only 1.8 seconds of my best lap in the 4th session... and that lap was 1.5 seconds behind a driver who's been on the track multiple times in a nearly identical car (more on that later). I've still got room for improvement, but the Sim is vastly reducing the time to get near my potential lap times.
The other driver I mentioned also has a K swapped Miata (NB) with similar aero, and power/weight nearly identical to mine. He was also on better rubber yesterday. I tried to grid up so I could follow him for a session, but it never really worked out. A certain Camaro SS 1LE that wouldn't point me by had something to do with it... Our lap times were pretty comparable, but he pulled out a flyer that was a 1:45.45 to my best 1:47.03 (transponder times).
ETA: The other difference between our cars is I'm running a 6 speed, and he's running a 5 speed. This track is not ideal for a Miata 6 speed and 4.10 gearing... there are several places where I have to shift just before the braking zones to avoid being on the limiter, and then immediately downshift again. I watched one of the other guy's videos on this track and he makes 4 shifts in a lap with the 5 speed. I shift 12 times every lap.
He also snapped a nice pic of my car in the 4th session, which he skipped...
After downloading and looking at data... I don't have a lot to say about it... nothing to compare it to. Podium does have the fastest straight speeds I've achieved so far... 123 on the front straight, and 108 on the 'back' straight. Both of these lead into slow corners, 41 and 50 mph respectively, so this track is hard on the brakes. And brakes have become a problem for me. When I did the K swap, I changed brake compounds out of an abundance of caution, knowing the terminal speeds on the straights would have been higher. I went from G-Loc R10/R8 to R12/R10... and I don't like the R12. It just doesn't have any feel at all, compared to the R10, which was fantastic. It's killing my confidence on the brakes, and I know that's hurting lap times. I need to give G-Loc a call and see if they have any input, but I'm seriously considering going back to the R10/R8 and seeing if they hold up.
One other really enjoyable thing that happened in the 3rd session. I have a phone mount on the windshield header tube on the cage, where I would use my phone for data before I had the AiM gear. I didn't want to leave my phone in the trailer unattended, so I was putting it in the car even though it didn't need to be there. About halfway through the session, the phone decided it didn't like my driving halfway through the essess and went out the driver's window like a watermelon seed! berkeley! 
Once the track was cold for the day, they let me go out to look for it. Fortunately, a cornerworker helped me out by calling the phone until we could hear it ringing. Took about a half hour to find it. Unbelievably, considering it went out the window at ~75mph (and 1.2g!) and skidded off the track, apart from a dirt bath and a couple small scratches on the glass it was undamaged! Should have bought a lotto ticket!
Anyway, another track day successfully completed, and a new track driven. I'll close out with another pic taken by my fellow K Miata driver...
Got the Interceptor out for a nice ride yesterday... about a 120 mile round trip to Parker Canyon Lake here in Southern AZ.
Deserted roads and great weather yesterday. Best part about this time of year is almost no bugs!
Some of the road was in pretty poor repair, so it wasn't a rapid ride, but still nice to get out.
The NA is back in the shop, inspected, cleaned up and hibernating until the next outing.
I had been looking at covers for a while, trying to find something fairly light for indoor use that would fit a Miata with Aero. I settled on a $36 cover for a small SUV, which fits pretty well: Amazon Budge Lite cover size U1
Sunday, I took the NC to the local AutoX for an opportunity to evaluate the suspension changes, alignment and tires. I knew it wouldn't be anywhere near competitive on 320TW tires, but it's an opportunity to explore the envelope and drive it to the limit in a controlled environment.
Weather was perfect, and the turnout was on the small side with only 26 cars.
The NC did surprisingly well. I expected to make some small damping adjustments, but the settings I had chosen for the street were fine. It was soft, obviously, but perfectly controlled and small adjustments on course were drama free. It was very neutral, with a slight tendency to mild understeer when really pushed into a corner. While the ability to rotate was tame due to the stock sway bars and open diff, I could get it to rotate with trail braking or big throttle inputs. Unfortunately, no action pics as my photographer was at home putting up Christmas decorations...
When it was all over, I finished just under 3 seconds behind FTD (CAM-C Camaro), and a little over 2 seconds behind the hotshoe ND on RE71Rs. For a street cruiser on non-competitive rubber, I was pretty happy with that. And AutoX is a LOT more fun without a rollcage, harness, etc... 
On the NA front, I finally received the new set of wheels I ordered back in March.
These were originally supposed to arrive in July, but the usual delays happened and they arrived this weekend. Newest gen 949 Racing 6ULs. What's special about this set is they are part of a batch that were designed specifically to optimize fitment on NAs for 245/40-15 tires under stock fenders. I knew I wanted to step up to 245s with the increased power, but I didn't want flares, so when this batch of wheels was announced, I ordered a set. I know some folks have been successfully running 15x10 with 245s and stock fenders on NAs, but it usually requires a pretty pull in addition to a flat roll and I wanted to minimize those issues.
Now, I'm debating whether to order up some Falken RT660s or wait until January and try to score a set of Nankang CR-S V2s...
Anyway, pics...
Took the NC on a cool and gray drive to breakfast this morning... loving the heated seats!
Wait! These are Beskar? Did you order these from Mandalor?
In reply to DrMikeCSI :
This is the Way.
Such a great thread! been reading it from start to finish over a couple weeks. It's like a TV series that's been around for years but not watched until season 5 so I can binge through without cliff hangers : ) Great to see all the miatae come and go, corvette/camaro come and go. The on going NA development, retirement and move into the new house with the ultimate enthusiast shop included.
I used to have that same VFR800 with OEM luggage, made a road trip on it from Dallas to Los Angeles to visit family.
Keep up the great, inspiring work!!
In reply to bremer310 :
Thank you!
Hopefully there will be many more adventures to come... 
Bummed... this weekend got a line on an E36 M3 that was a perfect parts donor for an S52 swap into my Touring, and the price was right. Had guests in town and couldn't drop everything to make the 3hr drive, but was making arrangements to pick it up Christmas day.... It sold yesterday. 
In reply to Rodan :
Well, now you can wait for the right E46 M3 to come along!
In reply to adam525i :
As cool as an S54 would be, it's a vastly more complex swap. The S52 is basically a bolt-in, with a DME reflash. The extra 100hp would be cool, but isn't really necessary for my goals for the Touring.
I'm patiently waiting for you to complete the build on the touring, shake it all out, get tired of it and then sell it to me. Lol
I'd consider an M54B30 as well over the S52. You obviously get into a slightly more complicated swap with the drive by wire and more modern electronics but the cost of the donor should be significantly less, newer, saves some weight, a broader torque curve and with a simple tune puts that 225 hp to the wheels rather than at the flywheel (all the Spec E46 guys have to dyno to prove they aren't over that at the wheels). The right donor will have a 6 speed to go with it too.
I'm pretty confident any swap isn't above your skills but can understand keeping things simple.
You'll need to log in to post.
