Solo_S14

Did this car ever make it back to the track? Is it still around? 😬

Something to consider (which will probably make it a way better experience overall), is that the instructor has a lot of skill/experience to share. What I mean by that is, rather than just trying to get the guy/girl out of your car, have a good conversation before and after the sessions (you won’t get much time so hit like 1-2 things). The whole 2-ears, 1-mouth thing applies here, so listen to what they have to say, and ask relevant questions. The instructor will vary their feedback based on where your skill level is.....so if they’re only giving input instructions and pointing out flags the whole day/weekend, then you may not be ready to advance. If you have the basics nailed, then they will slowly start to point out one or two places on the track where you can carry more speed, pick up the throttle a little earlier, etc. That probably indicates that you’re doing quite well for your “level” (whatever that is). TDE puts an instructor in the car right up through Yellow. So I wouldn’t plan on riding solo this event. Personally, I did some PCA events before starting with TDE, and they offered “Advanced Instruction” slots that you could manually sign up for throughout the weekend. One weekend, I found myself running the same lap times at the MSR-C 3.1 mile (3x) sessions in a row, so I signed up for the last session of advanced instruction......and I just wished I had done it earlier, we had a blast trying out different things, and it opened my eyes in a few corners etc. All that to say, the instruction is a bit “self-regulating”. Go out there to have fun, enjoy the car, and then after a couple sessions start to pick a couple things to work on each session. Try to learn as much as you can (you are payin for the instruction after all), and you’ll know whether advancing makes sense as you go. Cheers,

If you trickle the spend, you notice it less right? Anyone know of a nice S2 SuperMiata on fire sale? I hear they run Xida suspension, and bonus the chassis would already have a cage! (as Dennis lurks with his NA2 (umm....8) project car for sale)

Yeah, I’m nothing if not incompetent 😂 Looking at the design of the Bilsteins, even if I “flipped” the coilover sleeve, or sourced another one that had threads all the way to the bottom, I’d only gain like 5mm (not the required 50mm lol). Do people remove that snap ring, and then have another groove machined in lower on the shock body?

So after a little drive, it looks closer to 1-5/16” higher in the front and ~1.5deg camber loss. 2-1/16” lift on the rear and ~1.5deg camber loss. Pinch welds right now are 6-1/16” front and 6-9/16” rear, so ~1.5” too high, and with ~1/2” rake. Don’t do what I do kids...

Well....going from 5.5” 375# on the front to 6” 800# (and dropping collars to basically the minimum ride height setting ~0.2” total.....I maybe have 2mm left) gained me about 1.5” in ride height, and a loss of ~1.5-2.0 deg of camber. I guess I should/could have done the math: ~ 600# on that corner / 375#/in = 1.6” ~ 600# on that corner / 800#/in = 0.75” (6.0 - 5.5”) - (0.2”) + (1.60 - 0.75”) = 1.15” So I guess once everything settles in, I’m over an inch higher on the front. Going from 5.25” 275# on the rear to 7” 500# (and dropping collars to the minimum ride height setting ~0.6” total) gained me about 2.25” in ride height, and a loss of ~1.5-2.0 deg of camber. I guess I should/could have done the math: ~ 500# on that corner / 275#/in = 1.85” ~ 500# on that corner / 500#/in = 1.0” (7.0 - 5.25”) - (0.60”) + (1.85 - 1.0”) = 2.0” So I guess once everything settles in, I’m over two inches higher in the rear. Math is hard I guess. I assumed that I would get more adjustment from the coilover sleeves w/ all of the 6” and 7” spring length recommendations out there. A bit more 4x4 than I’ve been used to....going to have to do something about that... (Comparison pic):

Well, the impatient answer is “seems fine on the stands”. Pics here at full droop, and then at ~500lbs, or whenever it lifts from the stand. Close-ups are at whatever compression I could get.

P.S. New springs arrived. 6” x 2.5” 800# H&R Fronts 7” x 2.5” 500# Hypercoil Rears

*** Oi, Miata Guys *** I decided to replace a FUCA while the car was down.....ordered a generic arm from Rock Auto (mistake #1?). The part number checks out as an NA control arm, but I couldn’t help but notice it appears to have the “newer” bracing on the lower, inner portion of the arm: I remembered reading somewhere that this extra bracing could result in a clearance issue “on the NB2” (i.e. with NB2 arms that had the extra bracing) - so I googled and found this “TSB” from Goodwin Racing. I’m sure what I read previously was from a different source, but anyway this is what I was able to find on short notice: This basically tells you to clearance the arm, or ignore it and you might be fine: https://www.mazdatalkforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3337&p=20334&hilit=control+arm#p20334 So, I googled some more and ended up with various “issues” from various places: (Apparently NA and NB have different upper ball joint tapers / knuckle tapers): SuperMiata appears to ignore any “difference in taper” and simply provides a spacer to (I guess) account for a thinner NA mounting ear. I assume “thinner mounting ear” based off this other guy’s post: So, based on your experiences: 1. Do the NA and NB have different front upper ball joint tapers? Or different (shank lengths?) 2. Do I need to worry about clearancing this arm before installation? Thanks gents.

Argh, little dudes bday party on the 10th, no can do for this guy.

Do people brave the heat and try to do member day track stuff in August? If so, is anyone planning on being there on the 11th or the weekend of the 17th? I’ve got some new springs and some old tires I’d like to try out if anyone is game.

Once you’ve gotten your feet wet with TDE in Houston, I’d also recommend the PCA Maverick group. They do a lot at Cresson (the 3.1 there is awesome!), I’ve enjoyed their events. I think TDE is doing the Cresson 3.1 twice this fall as well.

This thread was a bit of a disorganized info dump - the yellow springs w/ 60mm ID are the 80 N/mm (~450#) units pillaged from the Evo KW V3 setup. All the tech manuals I found were in Dutch, so the 60mm metric spec you mentioned makes sense. The H&R springs haven’t arrived yet, but they’re good old (German?) 2.5” ID Red things.

The eBay purchase was for H&R springs from a private seller, part number checked out so I assume they’re alright. The CAR on the other hand, REEKS of crappy eBay parts that the PO had installed, which is why I don’t mind beating them up to play around. No buyers remorse here though, bought a crap can to do crap can stuff with. If we stay in Houston and I’m able to unload some of the other cars, I’ll probably get a better Miata to treat more fairly 😂

Yeah I didn’t intend to scrap the $1500 (3k new) KW’s permanently for the springs 😂, just wanted to run it for a day and see how the car responds. Just playing around with the setup with stuff I already have. For the fall I’m going to spend the budget on some enduro stuff, so don’t really want to put any money into this car right now. What I’ve learned though, is that I need more spring and more damper. That Xida’s are the shit if I were to go ahead and actually build a clean Miata, and I learned a little bit about what I have. Still haven’t even considered bars and stuff, but I think it’s fun to play around with this stuff. Matt I’m not sure, I haven’t been on there in a big way in like 10 years. I just bought some used 800# springs to mess with at some point off eBay but yeah I don’t see the harm in swapping in different rates and running for a day to understand how the car reacts, I’ll take a look and see if it’s still alive.