1999 Mazda Miata - Project driver education

[niterydr]

Congrats on the new adventure.

Just saw this article, seemed appropriate for this build. Don't think the Porsche driver is very good, but still a good representation of real world cars and owners.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/videos/a29929/spec-miata-versus-911-turbo-s-track-battle-proves-driver-skill-is-everything/

Thanks man, nice find! Haven't seen you around in awhile, how have you been?

[goodhart]

obligatory LS SWAP post.

Nice purchase man, congrats on exploring a new chapter of the car world. It's a good feeling for sure.

[niterydr]

I've made it out to a few autocrosses, the car has a lot to teach me regarding momentum based driving.

I am improving but I believe it is time to move this from stock trim and start the phase 1 build: Making it my own and starting the basic mods.

I took a 6th place in MOWOG #5 (of 25 people) in the novice group in July with it.
Then at PG2 on September 10th, I took 6 of 24 in "SNA". Top honors were S2000,S2000, RX8, Miata, Miata, This guy.

Overall it seems to get me in and around the 60th percentile or so for raw times. As I tweak that I hope to move that closer to the pointer end of competition, at a minimum top 50% and continue to climb the ranks in classes.

My normal number is #121 (Same as the bike), so that picture is MOWOG #5 at DCTC.

#484 was assigned at PG2 for that event only.

[turbotalon1g]

Nice work!
Excited to see where this goes, hopefully I can join you on this journey next year.

[niterydr]

Ordered some cosmetic parts today (HID retrofit setup, I hate these stock lights so time to drop in some HID's Going with mini H1 housings) and did some cosmetic work tonight (de-chromed ala plastic dip). Doing it on the cheap as the project is still low buck and well, even a low buck HID setup will be better than these crappy lights.

First real performance part (well besides alignment and not all season tires) gets ordered after a tune of a car gets completed.

Racing Beat 1.125" Tubular front sway bar and Racing Beat block and bolt kit. Allows car to stay stock class legal.

Leaving the stock end-links for now, I'd rather have those give than a control arm tab or something else. Weird thing is that for stock class racing I can't add any additional braces, when I say fuck it and toss in coil overs and really start modifying it, I'll brace the control arms and the sway bar to ensure nothing gets torn.

This will be it for the season for performance and upgrades I think. I will probably be dealing with snow before I can get a roll bar here and really don't want one sitting all winter not installed at my place.

More to come.

[niterydr]

The factory headlights suck, so I added HID's.

[niterydr]

Now to hurry up and wait for the next performance upgrade:

Front Racing Beat sway bar, Tubular 1.125" -.188 wall #54103 (1)
Rear Supermiata three position 14mm sway bar
End Links - Front and rear adjustable SuperMiata (4)
Front sway bar urethane bushings & brackets (2)
Front sway bar brace hardware #54123 (2)
Rear sway bar urethane bushings (2)

[AJ]

Mucho Likey!