Mickle Motorsports

Renegade Miata Autox School 4-14-12

2012-04-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

This year I chose to attend the school that Renegade Miata held. I wasn't planning to learn that much especially since most of the instructors in that club don't really have experience in a high powered AWD car. I was, however, planning to get some seat time to get a better handle on the new suspension.

We spent the morning practicing on one of three elements. There was one section with multiple "clam shells", a second with a "kidney bean" and the third was several slaloms. I was pleasantly surprised in two of the sections in which the instructors were able to give me some good advice and some things to work on. One of which was that on elements like sweepers and other similar bits that require making some sort of turn that is more than 90 degrees I am not looking ahead enough. I was looking ahead, just not enough. The second thing I was advised on was to shorten my braking zones and brake harder (to the threshold) while there. In the offset clam shells I also found that with the new suspension I need to do less (or no) braking while navigating them. Instead I needed just lift and "coast" through. I spent a little time during all this to try out some different settings on the shocks to see what felt best.

In the afternoon a full course was set up for us to run. Since the club is small and the school was even smaller we had time to put in 6 runs before packing up. This was great since it allowed me to put everything to use on a real course. They did time the runs but since it was a school they are not posting all the times. I did get a chance to look at my times and compare them to some of the instructors/other experienced drivers that also ran the course. My best time of 113.380 was on my 5th run. This was good enough to top one of the instructors who was running an M3 on slicks. I was also right on pace (within tenths) of a very experienced member of NER who was driving his SS Lotus Elise. The only other drivers times of note that I saw was Grant Reeves in his SS Z06. I was 3 seconds behind him which is a lot but he is one of the fastest drivers in NER that drives a street car. At the last event I was about 3.3sec behind him but that course was nearly half the length and therefor the 3 seconds was a lot worse in that case than it was yesterday (in my opinion).

Below is a video of my best run:

The other lesson I learned was the biggest! I tinkered around with using launch control during some of the runs. I knew that it isn't the best thing to do but I wanted to try it out. I like it and I had some nice launches but on my last run of the day after starting off I noticed that I had a sudden loss of power and the car sounded strange. I had my AP plugged in and dataloging, as well as displaying Fine Knock Learning. During the loss of power I glanced down to see that it had recorded a ton of knock and it happened any time I really got on the gas. Needless to say I threw the last run and just cruised around the course out of boost. I thought for sure I had popped the motor! I started to pack up and change my wheels over and then spoke with some corner workers and confirmed that there was NO smoke out the exhaust. The car started up fine when I was ready to go but I experienced the same events when I got into boost on the street. After arriving home I started making plans to tear things apart today to try and find what went wrong. Thanks to Josh (Acejam2k) for allowing me to pick his brain on the issue. He came over after with some tools and ideas. Once we had taken a look at the memory on the ECU (which didn't show any long term learned issues) we agreed that I should reset the ECU. Later I went for a quick drive around town and could not get it to reproduce the issue. This morning I went out and did a couple good pulls on the highway and couldn't log any knock whatsoever! Thankfully the issue seems to have just been due to my ignorance about the LC. It seemed to have forced some short term timing changes that made the car run like crap. Ultimately, it wasn't an issue for long so I am sure it will be fine and I have learned my lesson!

NER Autox 4-7-12 Devens

2012-04-13T17:51:00.001-07:00

I had a great event last Saturday. The start of the day was a bit off, as it took me some time to learn how to drive again (still don't have it sorted out completely). I made a lot of changes over the winter and the car drives very different now. The car is on fresh rubbers, coil-overs, steering rack bushings and rear strut bar. My first several runs were a complete waste, I was all over the place. Thankfully there were lots of timing issues and I ended up with re-runs for all of my runs (including a re-run of a re-run). With over 150 drivers and the timing issues we were only going to get five runs but with all my re-runs I ended up getting nine runs worth of seat time! The cool temps of the day didn't help things with my new slicks. I also hadn't had any time to sort out my shock settings so I just took a guess. My first run in the afternoon ended up being my best time at 52.691. This was only good enough for 2nd for the day but not a bad start.

Results can be found here.

This is a video of my best run:

Here is a couple cool shots from the day:

Spitting out the cone after killing it:

This cones life will be spared...for now:

More tire pressure next time!

Restoring the Limited to some of her former glory

2012-04-13T16:55:00.001-07:00

I don't know what previous owner or which dealership that had its hands in this car before us but there were/are several things that we didn't like as far as looks and functionality.

For starters they had put in some generic floor mats that didn't fit the foot-wells or even stay in place for that matter. I ordered up this set of black STi floor mats and they not only look great but they fit and stay put as well.

The next major issue was the older WRX radio that had been put in place of an aftermarket unit that had been removed. One major issue with this was that the AUX port wasn't connected, as the head unit didn't have the wiring for it. The second problem that we came to find, once we had the radio out, was that the mounting brackets were not the correct ones (possibly ones for the aftermarket radio?) and someone had only put 2 of 6 screws in and used cardboard to position the radio "correctly". We had recently purchased a radio out of another 07 STi to put in and once we had it apart and found the other issues I ordered a pair of the correct brackets for the radio. These were in stock at the local dealership and cost just over $8 so it wasn't something to cheap out on (that goes for you, people who have previously worked on this car!). With the new brackets and proper radio everything works, fits perfectly, and looks great.

The next thing to decide is if we will put the V-Limited front lip back on. They look great but makes for tougher street driving/parking...

Steering Rack bushing kit and Rear Strut bar

2012-03-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

Whiteline steering rack bushing kit is installed. The install was actually rather easy even though I've read/heard that it is a pain. The only hang up I had was I broke a sway bar mount bolt (trying to get some clearance around the bar). Repairing the broken bolt took more time than installing the kit itself.

My Whiteline rear strut bar got delivered this afternoon. I took it straight out to the car to install it. I had a little trouble getting the plate on the passenger side on. I quickly found that the studs on the coilovers are longer than the factory ones and they were preventing the plate from seating correctly. I got out the jack and lifted that side until the studs were nearly flush, positioned the plate and then lowered the car. Voila! Put everything back in and went to the other side. I had much less trouble here as there is less wiring etc in the way. Finished everything up but have yet to go for a drive to see if it helps with the creaking. I hope it does.

Alignment

2012-03-23T14:34:00.002-07:00

Alignment was today. There were some issues with getting setup but overall I am happy with what we ended up with, at least for a start on this suspension. We were unable to get as much as I expected/had hoped in the rear and they actually couldn't get rid of the .2 degree difference between sides. It looks like I might be adding rear camber plates to my list of things to buy. My driver side tie rod was very stuck and they had trouble zeroing out the toe on that side. The end solution for today was to use the camber adjustment to get the toe better. This is why we ended up with slightly more negative camber on that side. I would rather this than shredding my tires because of the toe for my street setting. These settings are with the camber plates centered (excluding the little adjustment just mentioned).

We also had them check the settings with the plates maxed out (for autox use). This produced -4 degrees camber up front. Unfortunately this also produced .8 degrees of toe out, which is a bit much. At this point I am thinking that I might aim for -3 degrees camber for autox which ought to put me at about 1/2 degree of toe out.

Coilover tweaking and spacer plates

2012-03-23T14:33:00.001-07:00

So this morning I got under the car to try and find the clunk I have had since the coilovers went in. I started with what I suspected, sway bar end links, but they were good. I then started pulling wheels off and began checking all the bolts etc. I found that the springs seemed a little loose so I measured for pre-load again. I'm not sure if the springs settled a little bit or what but they needed to be tightened a bit. I had trouble getting a good measurement with them on the car but I think that they are good now. Once I was done checking all four corners I took the car for a quick spin. I was still getting the noise over the sharper bumps so I then pulled the rear seat and checked the top nuts and top hat plate nuts to make sure everything was tight. I am beginning to think that maybe it is just the noise that coilovers sometimes make (especially on the bad bumps).

While I was at it I decided, since my DD tires are only 225's, that the front could look more aggressive/better with some spacers!

Before:

After:

*Edit*: I wonder if I will be able to run my V710's with these spacers without any rubbing...

Coilovers Installed

2012-03-23T14:31:00.001-07:00

Finally put my coilovers in today. A big thanks go out to Josh and my dad for all the advice and help, it would have taken me so much longer without them. Overall the job was rather easy to do. I was very happy and surprised with how easy everything came out. The rear took a little longer to do as we had the height adjustment WAY to high to start with. It made me think back to my lifted truck days! After killing my arms turning the shocks to get it back down 2.25" to get to the desired height we made sure to have the front closer to what we wanted when they went in. Those only needed to be dropped about a half inch to get it dialed in. After getting everything set we fitted the car with the new Kumho slicks to make sure everything fit well. After Josh and I went for a test drive the only point we had to check was a strange noise coming from the front right while turning the wheel. I still have yet to determine for sure if it is the tire rubbing on the fender liner or simply the new pillow ball bearings just being tight and fresh.

Once the test drive was done and we were satisfied I tightened everything up one last time. I put the snows back in the house and mounted up my Kumho AST's since I doubt we will see any more cold weather. All of these tires were low on pressure from sitting in the basement all winter so we took the car out for a drive, filled up at the local station with free air (quicker than using my little pump), went for a quick drive and picked up some sushi. The car feels great now. I love the way it feels, nice and firm. The dampening was set to full stiff from the factory and I left it that way for the time being. I was actually surprised that it wasn't uncomfortable on this setting but I didn't drive it far so I am sure I will be bringing that down for street driving shortly. The car is at a very nice height and I even checked to make sure the front lip clears some typical speed bumps straight on. I am sure I will be hitting it other places, especially since I had hit it plenty of times on the stock suspension.

So far I am very please with the design and feel of these Fortune Auto coilovers. I have an appointment on Thursday to get the alignment taken care of. We will be aiming for around -1.75 in the rear (by way of the Whiteline camber bolts) and maybe slightly more in the front for the street and then I will be able to knock in the front camber plates for the autox events. Zero toe all around for the street setting. It looks like the camber plates have some positive caster built in so when they are knocked in I should see some better numbers there and maybe some toe out up front.

Check back for more info as well as more thoughts and some pics as I learn more about my new setup.

*EDIT*: I forgot to thank Madman for his writeup. Being able to read what someone else had to deal with while installing these was also rather helpful when preparing/installing. Good work man!

DIY gauge bezel and power/aux port relo

2012-03-10T17:44:00.001-08:00

So I finally got sick of all the wires (iPod, cell phone and GPS) cluttering up my center console and decided to move the power port and Aux input to the console between the seats like the newer Subarus. I am also waiting for my AutoMeter glove box gauge pod and some more gauges so I wanted to make space for those. I had seen the Subtle Solutions 2-gauge bezel that replaces the two items I wanted to move but I choose to attempt to make my own.

I ended up only having to make it twice to get the everything just right. I started with a cardboard template to make sure I could accomplish what I wanted. From there I made one plate that didn't have the mounting tabs on the sides and it also didn't quite fill all the gaps in the corners. The second version I made included the tabs and had the extra material to fold up and cover the corners. After several test fits I was happy with the piece so I took it outside and gave it a couple good coats of Rustoleum. Please excuse the bad cell phone pics...

As for moving the ports to the center console, that part was easy. I simply extended the power outlet wires and found a place right next to the parking brake that had enough space for the whole assembly to fit. To keep the Aux port simple I simply tucked the original port housing in underneath the HVAC controls and left the cord plugged in and ran it back to a hole drilled in the console. It has just enough slack to be pulled out to use.

Coilover prepped for install

2012-03-10T17:04:00.002-08:00

I recently got my replacement springs from Fortune Auto today (to take care of the paint chipping issue). They look good but for some reason the are a completely different shade of blue!?

Not that it makes any real difference once its on the car (since they can't be seen) and everything else on the car is dark so it will stand out even less with the new color, but I still emailed Fortune Auto about the color difference. I got a very prompt response from Fortune Auto in regards to me notifying them of the difference. Their response was as follows:

"We are aware. Our standard springs come from Taiwan, and they were painted in that factory.They were supposed to be coated but they just painted on top of the green color. So we had to strip the springs down and get them powder coated locally. So for one its powder coat vs paint and lastly they were not coated by the same facility so yes there will be a variation. "

Good job on their customer service part and getting back to me with answers nearly immediately! The only thing that they could have done different/better would have been to let me know in advance that the color would be different, but its all good.

I took some time to really check out the new springs. There was some question if they are the same diameter (spring rate) but they only looked like a different size because of the different angle and the different color/gloss (in the above picture). I don't have micrometers so I can't check exactly but I measured and compared a bunch and can't tell a difference. While swapping the springs over I also decided to remove the several stickers that came on the lower "ear" to keep it clean looking and I am sure they would only get ugly as they got dirty. That said they would never be seen unless the car is on a lift but all the more reason to not have them there to make things harder to keep clean. Below is a comparison shot:

(New springs pictured on the bottom)

I also spent some time with the coilovers trying to make sure I get as much done in advance to reduce what we need to do when I get to installing them. I removed the lower ear and loaded the threads up with anti-seize and re-assembled. Afterwards I re-set the preload on all four to 1/4". Check back soon for more info once these are installed.

Heavy Duty Clutch/Lightweight Flywheel

2012-03-10T16:54:00.000-08:00

Sunday Feb12th, Sandi (my girlfriend) and I took a drive to Clinton, MA to drop my car off at Mike Z Customs to have the new Exedy clutch and flywheel installed. The drive was nearly and hour each way but we took a nice cruising route. I am happy to have Mike work on my car. I've seen lots of his work (repairs and custom) and I trust him with my car. After time after time of bad experiences at the dealership service departments I am unwilling to let any of them work on my car so I checked out a few shops. Naturally, most of the tuning shops are overpriced. Most people will justify this because "they know what they are doing". While I agree (for the most part), I am just looking to get a clutch installed and any high quality, trusted shop should be able to complete the job. I read about all the people on here that do it in their driveway. While I would have loved to attempt it on my own I just don't have the time or the garage (since it is still a bit cold out for a big project).

Got the car back on Thursday, Feb 16th. This being my first heavy duty clutch I could tell immediately that there was going to be a bit of a learning curve. I could also immediately feel the difference in how much more grabby the clutch is as well as how much lighter the flywheel is. At first I was getting a bit of chatter especially when down shifting (it now requires rev-matching to downshift smoothly). Now that I have finished the break in miles I can be more aggressive with it. It took nearly all of the 400 break in miles to get used to the new setup. Between knowing how to drive on it now and having some miles on it, there is no longer any chatter or anything strange (as long as I engage it quickly). The hard part to get used to was that the "weight" of the clutch masks the feeling of the clutch engaging. This feeling makes it seem like the clutch is engaging much sooner than it really is. The lighter flywheel is nice as well and once again, now that I am used to it, everything is very relatively easy to drive on the street.

I had originally noticed a slight clunk coming from the front left when hitting moderate sized bumps on that side. I let the mechanic know to see if he had any input. He advised me I could just bring it back to him to look at but its a rather long hike so I took a look at things myself myself. I quickly and easily found that it was what I had expected; the sway bar end links weren't as tight as they needed to be. Easy fix.

With everything all situated I can't wait to see what it is capable of when launching at an autocross!

"Winterizing"

2011-11-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

The heavy dusting of snow last night was enough motivation to get the car ready for winter and get the Star Specs off. Usually I wait a little longer but we are supposed to get several more inches tomorrow night! I dug out my snows from the basement and got to switching them over. I took the opportunity to pull my brake pads and grease the ever living crap out of them. They have been screaming lately and were unbearable! After a quck ride I was happy to hear that they are back to the "normal" squeaks from the HP+'s. I also "cleaned" my calipers and remembered that they are in fact gold. I am also sad to see/remember what the car looks like without any added offset (my snows are on the stock wheels).

In the process of changing wheels I saw this:

This is the left rear strut and it is clearly leaking a bit. I wonder how long it has been in this condition for? This was also probably one of the reasons the car was so squirrelly at the last couple autocrosses. Good thing I have new suspension coming in a few weeks! I can't wait to see what the car feels like with not only properly functioning suspension, but also greatly improved/stiffened bits as well.

NER Autocross "Team Challenge" 10-22-11

2011-11-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

I has a blast at the NER "Team Challenge" event. At this non points event we are grouped into teams and the winners for the day are based on team scores. Since it was not for points and I had become sick of driving on my crappy tires I decided to ask for a car to drive. Marc, my friend/competitor in BSP lent me his Miata to drive for the day. A big thanks goes out to him for convincing me to go to the event as well as providing me with the car to do it in. This allowed me a fun experience as well as a better PAX for the day. I was teamed up with Marc (the Miatas owner) in his RX8, Patrick in his BMW and Bryan who was driving a K-swapped CRX. None of us placed better than second in our respective classes but it was fun overall. I was pleased with how well I did in a car that I have never raced before and it took a while to get used to. Thankfully there were not many competitors and the course was short so we had 8 runs. I ended up placing second in STS. Had this been a normal event the class leader would have been in the PRO class (it was eliminated for this event) and I would have taken the class. Maybe I should sell the STI and get a Miata........ Not really though, I couldn't live with that lack of power! Below are the scores and a few videos from the first half of the day. Unfortunately we stopped using the camera and I didn't get video of my better runs. It was an interesting day all around, a different kind of event, a different car, and a course that actually changed twice for safety reasons (one can be seen in the video with all the speedy dry on the side of the course). There were no less than 3 cars that "popped" on the course. Two had radiator issues and the third had a power steering failure that made a ton of smoke! Because of the course changes in the AM only our last 4 runs counted for the day but that was fine because my last run was my best anyways!

Renegade Miata Autocross 10/15/11

2011-11-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

Another fun day of racing. I placed 9th in the "non Mazda" group for the this event, the last Renegade event I went to for the year. I had a tough time with the colder temps and adjusting back to street tires and dead ones at that. The rain in the middle of the day didn't help anything either! Because of over driving the tires I spent far to much time sliding(see video below). My best times for the day were as follows:
Best 1:71.789 Best 2: 71.937 AVG.: 71.863.

Here is a video of one of my better runs (though I am not sure if it was one of my best times or not):

And here is a little montage I put together of most of the sliding (please forgive my poor editing skills):

With the season finished I ended up placing 6th in the non Mazda group. Not to bad with all the issues I've had and that I missed two points events.

Overall points for the year:

NER Autocross Devens Final Points event 10/9/11

2011-11-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

This past Sundays Autox with NER was the final points event of the season. I had a blast even though I had to run the event on tired old street tires. The lack of grip definitely hurt me but I still did OK overall. I still have a couple more events coming up (a non points event with NER and a couple Renegade Miata events) that if I attend I will be abusing the street rubbers some more.

With the points events finished I ended up 5th in BSP and squeaked out 43rd out of everyone based on PAX points. Not bad considering the talent level in this region.

Another cone killed!

Spoiler Alert!

2011-10-14T05:24:00.001-07:00

Some more new photos of the completed units that I am getting:

Walbro 255 Fuel Pump

2011-09-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

While trying to sort out the fuel issues I was having I installed a new fuel pump. I thought I would take this opportunity to write a quick review based on my initial thoughts. I decided to go with the Walbro 255 mostly because of the price (Import Image Racing) but also because it is very popular in the Subaru community. I have heard about failures with these but the next option is much more expensive. The install was fairly straight forward but I have been into the fuel tank and pulled apart the pump assembly before to replace the fuel filter. The only issue I can mention is something that I have read before. The wiring harness that the pump comes with is barely long enough to reach the connectors, almost so much so that I was worried about it functioning. I have read that other people splice in some extra wire to relieve the strain. I did not do this and so far haven't had any issues. So far I have done a lot of street driving and several autocrosses and I am happy with the performance. I am not worried at all about the pump not keeping up with the demands of the car. The only other "negative" that I can think of is that the pump is a bit louder than the OEM one. I can hear it running even through the rear seat. Noise is one of the common trade-offs in modifying cars so I am perfectly fine with it, besides, hearing it allows me to know that it is working and it will be clear if it ever starts to fail.

NER Autocross 09/25/11 Devens

2011-09-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

I had another awesome day of racing last Sunday. The course was very tight, technical and cone penalty intensive. Many people had a difficult time getting even a single clean run. I managed two clean runs one of which was thankfully my fastest time for the day. After the first half of the day I was actually in first place because only two of us had gotten a clean run in and I was nearly two seconds faster at that point. In the afternoon, however, everyone got a little better. I managed to improve by nearly a full second but the three competitors that beat me all somehow pulled out a great run on their last runs.

In addition to my classes results I also included the top 18 drivers based on raw clean times. I wanted to post this to show just how fast of a run I had. If you look through the list you will notice that, besides the other BSP competitors, all of the other drivers are either in the PRO class (denoted by the P at the beginning of the class title), in Modified classes (open wheel race cars) or the one FP car which is a stripped down race prepped Triumph Spitfire. I am thrilled with the fact that I can hang with all these drivers! I am generally a very humble person but I am really starting to gain a lot of confidence in my abilities. I know I always blame my tires and I will continue to do so this time. In all seriousness my tires were loosing chunks of rubber on the outside edge very quickly (see photo below). I had hoped I could just finish this season with them but so many people noticed that they are so bad (including one of the tech inspectors and a safety person) I am done using them. It's probably not a bad thing because I am willing to bet that they are hurting more than helping at this point! Also keep in mind that I am not only on stock suspension still but it is all over 100k miles old now. I am sure it is all very tired at this point. I can't wait until next year when I will be back with coilovers (already ordered) and a new set of rubbers. I am really looking forward to what I can do with a proper setup.

Top 18 for the day based on raw time (My PAX position was a bit lower due to the terrible BSP PAX factor).

A look at the condition of the tires!

NER Autocross 09/18/11 Devens

2011-09-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

I had a great day of autox'ing at Devens this past Sunday. Placed 4th of 8 in the class (see below). The car is running great and I was happily surprised that the clutch is holding well. I have been worried about it going because the pedal has been changing as far as where it actuates. The launch in my fastest clean run is proof positive that it is still holding!

The course was very fast (excluding the first portion) and the last few elements I did in third gear crossing the finish lights at 75-80mph. I had some trouble getting/keeping heat in my tired old tires because it was only in the low 60's all day but they did ok.

My fastest clean run:

My fastest raw time (only 2/10's quicker):

Update: Avoided (hopefully) engine crisis!

2011-09-16T14:57:00.001-07:00

Its been a while since I have posted partially because of a break in autox events and partly because I have been spending my spare time trying to track down the issue that caused the stumble at the last event. I did end up missing one Renegade event because I was still waiting for parts to come in. I am pretty confident that the issue was a failing Fuel Pressure Regulator. I am signed up for this Sundays event with NER so hopefully everything is all set with the car. In the process of trying to sort the issues out I did the following things:

-New air filter
-Cleaned MAF
-Oil Change (just for good measure)
-Checked for leaks in vacuum lines
-Zip tied any "suspect" connections in vacuum lines
-Installed a Walbro 255 fuel pump
-Installed a Fuel pressure gauge
-New front and rear o2 sensors
-**New OEM Fuel Pressure Regulator (FPR)**

For more details on the research and repair see this thread.

Renegade Miata Autocross 8/20/2011 Points Event #4

2011-09-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I had an interesting day of autocrossing. The car decided to show a lot of its "personality" this time. The day was beautiful, the course was fun, fast and challenging at some spots. Since this was not an SCCA event I was running my street tires. That was nice in the morning since I didn't have to really prep the car but it made the driving more challenging. It is tough sometimes to remember that you don't have as much grip and I ended up with a lot of under steer in many places. The results aren't posted yet but I know I was running very respectable 1:15.xxx sec runs. I was having trouble picking up any time (without picking up cones at the same time) so I took an instructor with me for my last official run to make sure my lines were ok. Incidentally, that was my fastest run. I am not sure if it was the counter weight keeping the car more stable or just coincidence but the feedback I got from the instructor after the run was that my lines were good and that I was probably over-driving the tires at the tight corners (no surprises there).

The "personality" that the car was showing was in the form of a strange "stumble" (tuning issue I am guessing) that I posted about here, so I wont get into it in this post as well. As well as one run (during fun runs with a passenger in the car) that I had a bad launch and slipped the clutch A LOT and immediately had the ABS light come on and the DCCD went to the full rear setting. With trying to drive the course it took me a bit to realize what had happened (loosing ABS completely) but here is a video of what happens when you learn to rely on ABS!

After shutting the car off for a few minutes I did my final fun run without any issue or lights coming on. I will be checking the sensors before the next event.

Problems aside I had a great day of autocrossing! Here is a video of the fastest run from the day (including the "stumble" after shifting to 2nd):

NER Autocross 08/14/11 Devens

2011-08-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

We had another great autox this past Sunday. I really enjoyed the course. It had many fast sections that allowed me to really put some of the new found power down as well as having a few tight spots that made things interesting. Unfortunately it was a very grey day out and it was difficult to get heat into the tires and by the afternoon runs it started sprinkling out making things a bit slippery. Sandi enjoyed the day and did well also, beating out around 14+/- other novice drivers with a time of 73.xx. Her biggest hold up is being nervous of the power/handling of the car, especially after a spin on her first run. I keep assuring her that she is doing well for someone so new to everything about this sport. There were 2 other novices at this event that didn't even complete a single run (out of 5) without DNFing and another that was beat by a 5yr old girl in a go kart! I am very happy with my times even though my best was still only good enough for dead last. That said, I did the math and I was only .067 sec behind 4th place and if I could have found 3/10ths of a second (or got my 4th run cleaned up) I would have had 3rd. 2nd and 1st places were 1.2 and 1.65 seconds up from me as well. Not bad, if I do say so myself, considering the stock suspension and terrible tires that I always blame. Hopefully I can do something about both of those soon. Results and videos are below, pictures to come once they get posted by the photographer, Ed Savage.

My fastest clean run:

My fastest raw time (would have been good enough for 3rd if I didn't cone):

B&B Downpipe

2011-08-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

I recently installed a Billy & Boat (B&B) aftermarket downpipe on the STi. I purchased it used from a friend at an amazing price. It is a catless pipe which is not what I wanted to go with but it was to good of a deal to pass up. Before installing I order new gaskets for the front and rear of the pipe. I went with Grimmspeed's thicker gaskets as well as the 3">2.5" adapter to ensure a good fit. Since this pipe has no heat shielding (like the stock one does) I ordered some DEI high temp exhaust wrap for the front half of the pipe to keep the heat out of the engine bay. I also picked up some of the hi temp silicone spray paint that they make to seal up the whole thing. I followed this DIY thread on changing the down pipe and this DIY thread on trimming the turbo heat shield to fit the new pipe. The heat shield thread was written for a bell mouth design downpipe but it work perfectly for my divorced waste gate setup as well. Once I was done I used my Access Port to flash the correct stage 2 map onto the ECU and I have been enjoying the newly found power and sound ever since!

Ner Autocross 08/07/2011 NHMS

2011-08-09T08:36:00.000-07:00

Back to NHMS for the 5th NER points events. This location is not my favorite with the lot being so small the courses are not as forgiving. In the morning the course was still very wet from the previous nights rain. I was the only one in the class to stay on street tires and I think it paid off for the first run at least because I had the fastest run out of our first attempts. Shortly there after the course began to dry up. I used the lunch break to change over to my Rcomps but giving the condition of those tires I only had minimal improvements. I know that I was off on my entry position coming into the second corner and the last. Had I swung a bit wider in these two places I am sure I could have at least moved up one position. As usual I can't complain about being only 1.2 seconds off of first place with the setup I have (although 1.2sec on such a small course is quite a bit). My final run ended up being a bit slow due to a big four wheel drift through the first left hander. unfortunately my cameras batteries had died so I didn't get that run on video, it would have made for an entertaining clip. Below are the results and the video of my fastest run of the day.

The new downpipe sounds awesome! Can't wait till next weekend at Devens where I can really stretch out the stage 2 legs!

Renegade Miata Autocross 7/30/11 Points #3

2011-08-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

What a great day and event (even with the problems I was having)! A big thanks go out to Josh, for helping me troubleshoot the car as well as allowing me to take a fun run in his car, and Marc who not only convinced me to stay and do fun runs but spotted me the cash to do it! I think the three of us really learned a lot at this event (about ourselves, our cars, and each others). I think it is great that we have this level of camaraderie between competitors in the same class. It will only help us drive the cars faster and build them better! I experimented a lot with later braking points and trail braking. This helped with rotating the car through some of the bigger, faster turns. Sometimes it was a bit to much though, as you can see in this clip:

Below are the times for the three of us from the SCCA BSP group.

Best run1/Best run 2/AVG
Joshua Noble 73.320/74.420/73.870
Matthew Mickle 73.590/74.493/74.042
Marc Monnar 75.244/75.342/75.293

Here is a video of, what I think, was my fastest clean time of the day Unfortunately it was a "fun run" at the end of the day. I think it was only a like 4/100 of a second faster than my best run that counted though.

Ignore the fact that my entry speed into the slalom at :43sec was way to high, but take note of the four wheel drift through the left hander at :50sec!

New Helmet

2011-07-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

My new helmet arrived today. It is the HJC CL-16 "NARRL". It fits me better than my Pyrotect Open face, and looks way better!