In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
gas in the veins vs oil in the veins...
drivers vs tinkerers...
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
gas in the veins vs oil in the veins...
drivers vs tinkerers...
New tires. The plan has always been for this to be a car for everything and it needed different tires to track. Went with the Falken 615k+. They're supposed to wear like iron on a car this light. I've driven them a bit on a BRZ and I didn't hate them.
Slightly meatier than the all seasons.
They basically make the car suck at street speeds. Just grips everywhere. No fun at all.
I haven't used the 615K+, but I have had some older Azeniseses heatcycle out long before they wore out. Turned into little bricks. So yeah, they wore like iron but...
I'm sure you'll notice if this happens. This was a few years ago and heat cycling is very compound sensitive so it may not longer be a problem.
I'm interested in how you like the Falkens for autocross. We run them as the spec tire in our local Spec Miata series. We typically run 20 minute sessions and get about 9 sessions out of them before they both heat cycle out and wear out. Sandia speedway is a tight technical course with a very abrasive surface and the Falkens like pretty high slip angles so we're pretty much worst case scenario for tire wear.
I put the 615k+ on my 996 turbo. I’m sure I’ll wear them out before they heat cycle out, but my car is far different job weight and power compared to a Miata
I have thoes on miatas and neons, they last a long time and stay sticky.
This whole "preparing the Miata" thing paid off. My buddy has my old RX7. He brought it over from Austin to a track weekend here in Houston. After the third session a rear tire did this.
I sent him back to the house to pick up the Miata and he missed only one session. He did the final half hour session of the day and then the last open session that was shortened to 45 minutes due to lightning. On Sunday the car got three and a half hours on track and I did two of those. This guy was out with us. It did pass us, but it had to work for it. 
The Miata did what it was supposed to do. Brakes worked great. Suspension works about as good as you'd imagine slightly tall rallycross suspension would. I think the tires had more rubber on them at the end than when we started. It was getting hot when it got down there on Saturday but removing the front license plate to actually allow air through the radiator fixed that.
The idea was to buy this car and have it do everything. It's still very much a rallycross/street build, but it's being autocrossed and now tracked and that means that it really is doing everything. It's a solid little car.
glad to see my drift spec front bumper repair holding up.
When the car was driven down to the track, in a hurry, last weekend it was just starting to boil when we turned it off. This was driving AC on full blast, at about 85mph in almost 90 degree temps. That concerned me until I realized that the license plate was still hanging in the way. We pulled it off and had no other problems all weekend and I drove it home AC full blast. Time to make my traditional aluminum strap plate bracket. I used a couple bolts and nut plates that came off the Accord bumper when I swapped to dzus for all of that. I alllllmost put it on with dzus just for fun. I might do that later.
You basically recreated the Mazda plate mount.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Good ideas are good ideas. 
The beginning of the week was a tire swap to snows for this weekends rallycross. Thursday saw that event cancelled due to excessive rain at the event site so it was another wheel swap back to all seasons for autocross today. We made it about 10 miles before it was clear that something was wrong. We pulled over and the passenger front brake was billowing smoke. We found a good place to rest and let it cool.
After 20 minutes and a couple of good pedal stomps things loosened up enough to let us crawl back home. I hopped back into a car and headed to the event to drive in the Hazmat car. Had fun. The Miata is parked. I'll worry about it after OLOA.
Step 1 is to lubricate the slider pins on the front calipers. Fairly quick and easy job, and you can buy new pins if they're super-crusty. However, if they're that badly seized you may want to just toss a rebuilt caliper on there...and lubricate the slider pins.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Full disclosure. The last time I swapped pads and bedded them that caliper was hotter than the other one when I was done. I pulled both sides apart and greased the pins before the track weekend and they worked well, but I'm probably on borrowed time with them. The brake lines are getting super duper crusty and need to be replaced. It's a high liklihood that I'm going to go completely through the brakes after OLOA and get things ship shape. This is a loaner car and I need to get it where it needs to be when I hand it off to people.
Finally got around to putting new calipers and lines on. They work, which is what was expected. I really neednto attack the oil leaks and actually replace the timing belt and catch up on actual maintenence. Just about time to put it away for the sumner.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I always up-vote brake work.
Timing belt was done in 2015 so I would not worry about it based on mileage.
In reply to moxnix :
Good to know. I still need to pull apart the front of the motor and deal with those leaks. I suspect it's just cam seals that are unhappy with the lack of dirt to absorb the weeping oil. Either fix or do more rallycross.
^the rallycross yumps that Seth missed out on. Cliff Notes: lowered miatas jump just fiiiiinnneee... also my rear shocks are in rough shape now (drifting this weekend was rough on them too)
In reply to bdashrian :
Fine is one of those words with so many meanings. I know from experience that you don't HAVE to jump that. I a little lift goes a long way. I need to get out there again. When it's cooler.
Went and looked at the pictures from the event at Rally Ready that I missed. I know it was the right thing to stay home and be a husband/father, but......... man......... I need to get back out there.
mazdeuce - Seth said:Went and looked at the pictures from the event at Rally Ready that I missed. I know it was the right thing to stay home and be a husband/father, but......... man......... I need to get back out there.
Wanna come up and play w/ the WDCR region? Next event is next Sunday, or there's a two-day the last weekend in June. My codriver seat is currently open!
Came here to post more about the stupid fun of autocrossing on Westlake tires.
Drove my friends 99 miata on them yesterday because I just wanted to go have fun. I love these stupid tires...
Lots of sideways action and fun was had.
In reply to spacecadet :
Spec Westlake needs to be a thing.
mazdeuce - Seth said:In reply to spacecadet :
Spec Westlake needs to be a thing.
We can totally turn the ST3 class into spec Westlake... bring whatever you want on a Westlake AS with minimum 400TW
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