| MIATA BUILD |
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 | | April 2, 2009 - Zandr Milewski - a big supporter of our Targa effort - was one of the instructors at the Laguna Seca event.
After reading what I wrote a couple of days ago, he sent me this note:
I followed Janel on that last session in AHHRRR. (an R package Miata with Toyo RA1s and suspension work - Keith). Until she figured out turn 2, I could reel them in every lap. Once she got 2 figured out, it was over. She was decisively walking away from me on all the straights, and I don't think I had much on her in the corners.
When you were headed north on 880 up to Rick's shop on Monday afternoon, I spotted the Targa very clearly from the other side of the freeway. That car can certainly be seen at a distance!
Thanks Zandr!
entry 665 - tags: Janel, Laguna | | |  | April 8, 2009 - I did have one problem on the way home from California.
As I pulled in to Reno, I popped my earplugs out and was greeted with a pretty nasty exhaust note and rattling. I figured out pretty quickly what was going on - the collector had somehow come off the primary pipes.
Now, when I was building the header, I had to pull it apart to finish some welding. And I had a really hard time - several prybars and a torch were required. So when it was all assembled again, I only made a small tack weld as a token gesture, figuring it would never come apart on its own.
Well, obviously it held together for the race and a bunch of track testing. But 7 hours at Laguna Seca? Not so much. We tried several field fixes on the way home but to no avail. The rear section of the header settled on to the front subframe maintaining a bit of contact with the tubes but transmitting a nice buzz through the car. No harm done, just a bit of unpleasantness. I've pulled it out now and I'm going to clean it up before reassembling and welding everything!
entry 666 - tags: header | | |  | April 8, 2009 - This is the result of the track.
My white high-temp paint was a little flaky after the race, but not too bad. It simply told me where the hot spots were in the header. However, after the thrashing at Laguna Seca, the paint was bubbled and flaking over all of the primary tubes. Yuk.
So, after the repair is done, I'm going to get it ceramic coated. I shied away from that originally as I didn't want to spend the money and then have it crack. But we know now that cracking is not a concern so it's a good opportunity. Besides, I want the engine bay looking good for the Mitty in a month!
I forgot to mention - Janel and I used the race car to tour Monterey and Carmel after the track day. It's maybe not the perfect vacation vehicle. Maybe once I get the transit headsets put together.
entry 667 - tags: header | | |  | April 14, 2009 - Bead-blasters are wonderful things!
A few minutes in the box and the header came out nice and clean. Blasting both the collector and the primaries where they slip into the collector made it very easy to put the two parts of the header back together, and a few welds made it a permanent marriage.
I then took it down to the local powdercoater for the ceramic. He can do black easily, but I'd prefer white if possible. That's what the old "bundle of snakes" headers on vintage F1 cars and GT40s looked like. He doesn't do white normally though, as the white lead in the coating makes it brutally expensive to ship because it has to be treated as if it were uranium. He's looking into the costs and I'll decide once that information is in. I really hope I can do white, I'm just not willing to spend another couple of hundred to do that.
I don't think I am, anyhow.
entry 668 - tags: header | | |  | April 14, 2009 - The garage is a little full right now, and the Miata is pretty much the biggest car here!
In the foreground is an Austin-Healey Sprite that's here for a bit of work, mostly because I'm the only person dumb enough to take it on. In the back is the MG getting an LS1 engine. The Mini is trapped by dead cars, and the Seven is also visiting temporarily from its usual living space.
entry 669 - tags: other cars | | | April 16, 2009 - Good news!
The header will be white. Turns out the latest and greatest formulation of white ceramic is not toxic enough to require expensive shipping. It should be done next week - which, when I think about it, is just about as late as I can get it.
Other than the header and a good scrub-down, the car is ready to go. The trailer's just come back from a checkup (and new spring hangers to correct some alignment problems) so it's almost time for another long trek across the country to Georgia. This is one well-travelled little car.
entry 670 - tags: header | | |  | April 23, 2009 - It's back!
The header now has a beautiful coat of white ceramic, expertly applied for about 1/3 the cost of the big name brands like Swain. As long as it stays looking pretty, I'll be happy.
Of course, the perfectly smooth finish also highlights my ugly welds. But that's okay, they're proven ugly welds.
entry 671 - tags: header | | |  | April 23, 2009 - After a bit of fooling around, the header is back in the car.
There are about three points during feeding the header in past the bellhousing that it just seems impossible. And then, with a bit of wiggling and pushing and leaning of the engine, it slips past. It was a bit hard on the ceramic coat in a couple of spots, but that's okay. I did notice that the breather on the valve cover was a little soggy on the bottom, so maybe the ceramic coat isn't such a bad idea...
entry 672 - tags: header | | |  | April 27, 2009 - Almost all the kids were out of the garage yesterday as I shuffled cars around.
The Targa car is now strapped down in the trailer, ready for the trip to Georgia for The Mitty. I'm not looking forward to the drive, but it'll be the last one for a while.
I also ran the race car for a while to bake in the new ceramic. It picked up a slight yellowish tinge but looks good. The car's all scrubbed and shiny clean now too. Watch this, it'll rain all weekend in Atlanta...
entry 673 - tags: other cars | | | May 6, 2009 - Well, I'm back from the Mitty.
Two long days of driving plus an evening head start each way. No, the car didn't get to run on the track but it did get quite a bit of attention. It never fails to amaze me how many people know the car and want to see it. Very flattering, really.
The ceramic coating on the header looks exactly the same as the cheap white paint did after a half hour of running or so. It may be an application problem, as it's not flaking in the hottest parts first. Still, that was a couple of hundred bucks wasted. Bummer.
I have to say I've had just about enough of long road trips for the time being.
entry 674 - tags: header | | |  | May 7, 2009 - Open wide!
This is the lineup of cars at the Mitty. The white one (without a lurid Martini paint job) is a car from Grassroots Motorsports. When I was at the Mitty last year, I helped install a turbo on the car and double its horsepower.
Beside that are two V8-powered cars, and of course the Targa car. I spent a bit too long standing in close proximity to the V8s.
Like every Targa competitor, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the perfect car for the event would be. It needs to have a combination of small size, light weight and speed - and the older the better to take advantage of the longer base times. A BMW 2002 is a very good choice and it's no wonder the car's done well the last few years. I'm thinking a Mk1 Escort with a 1600 BDA might be able to run in class 4 and still have the same power/weight ratio as the Targa Miata as well as factory-developed rally parts - but much, much more time to finish a stage without penalties.
My own class - 8 Modified Small - is a tough one to be competitive in. The difference between the Large and Small speeds is minuscule, so the low-power smaller engine does me no favors. However, I can't increase the engine size more than 20% so the car's stuck there. The fairly new build date of the car hurts too, but dropping back to class 7 would mean using the weaker differential from the 1.6 chassis as well as the smaller engine and a bunch less torque.
Assuming the same level of driving ability - the car certainly is capable of going faster in a different set of hands - the best way to make the car more competitive might be to take it into Open class. Yup, the deep end. The handling is good already. What it needs is blasting power. The ability to teleport up to the maximum 200 kmh at every opportunity.
And that means a V8. Less than a 200 lb weight gain and an extra 200 ft/lb of torque at idle. Heck, probably more. Drop in an LS3 crate motor and there's 430 hp with the factory engineering to run for a couple of hundred thousand miles. The small size and nimble handling of the Miata but with the acceleration of, well, just about anything. The biggest problems would be putting the power down and keeping the driver from wetting himself.
I seem to have rather wandered off on a tangent here, but the logic works. Doesn't it? It's probably just as well we're not liable to be going back any time soon.
entry 675 - tags: Mitty, V8 | | |  | May 7, 2009 - I seem to have picked up some hitchhikers on the way home.
A couple of sea kayaks made the trip back in this ultra high tech rack I constructed in the trailer. This really has nothing to do with the Targa, but it was a funny picture.
entry 676 | | | May 7, 2009 - I spent the day today talking to a couple of classes of high school seniors.
Why? Because, as someone who writes professionally and can therefore do fun things such as run the Targa, I am role model for why you should pay attention in English class! I brought the car along to show off and to liven things up a bit. It was a pretty good day. I didn't lie and say I liked reading Jane Austin.
Stay in school, kids! And read as much as you can.
entry 677 | | |  | May 10, 2009 - Another track day!
This time, the Targa car sat in the trailer and I drove Elvis, the LS1-powered bar (back in full health) instead. It took me some time to come to terms with the car. It simply seemed squirrely. Not so much under power - it behaved exactly as expected then - but during braking and cornering. It's the first time I've set up a car with this particular tire so that's part of it, and it has good brakes but without adjustment options.
But what I finally realized was going on was that I was expecting its cornering and braking ability to be in line with its acceleration ability. It thunders down the straight like the turbocharged Westfield beside it, but it still corners like a Miata and not a 1300 lb featherweight. So I had to bleed off more speed for the corners, and my Targa braking points didn't work because the car weighs 400 lbs more and was going considerably faster. So the problem wasn't the car's traction, it was simply that I was asking too much of it.
Of course, another problem was the red mist. My first session out, I'd blown away the fastest Miata to ever run the track. So I was hoping to beat the track record for Miatas by as much as possible. I did, by a considerable amount. And now that the mist has faded, I realize that I need to spend some time tuning this car on a big track, where I can get it settled on a long sweeper to set the basic handling balance and then tune the transitions from there. The car still handles well, I just want to bump it up to the top level. Not bad for a street car though.
I took Janel out for a few laps. She was impressed by the violence. It would be a very effective Targa car, but it would take a different driving style than the current setup. The fact that it was faster in street trim than the Targa car is in race trim is a good sign.
Janel also took her own car out for a couple of sessions. Now that she's experienced the Targa car at its best, she was quite adamant about the shortcomings of her previous ride. "I miss my tires! I want my brakes!", she informed me. Oh boy...
entry 678 - tags: other cars, v8 | | |  | May 14, 2009 - A peek at the Targa New Zealand.
I've been corresponding - on and off - with Euen Burke about his Targa NZ experiences. He drives a TG Sports, a MG-inspired kit car that uses Miata mechanicals. It's a pretty cool little device, giving the style of an older car with the Miata's reliability and handling. The picture shows one of his better parking jobs after a bit of a moment on a bridge. Sorry Euen, I had to use this shot because it's such a good parking job! He reports that it took six people to pull the car straight so they could continue, and they were not the first to hit the barriers!
Well, he recently sent me some video of one of his stages and it is in stark contrast to Newfoundland. First, look at the altitude gain! Also, note how smooth the road is. It's a completely different experience from what we dealt with. Here's what Euen had to say about the stage:
"It was a hillclimb stage on the last day, just north of Wellington. About 14 or 15km long. A piece of road that I have enjoyed for a long time as I used to live not far from it and used it frequently. We managed to catch a Reliant Scimitar about 4 minutes in (we started 30 seconds behind him). The Scimitar is powered by a 3.8 litre GM/Holden V6. Has the legs on the straights but cannot shake me on the tight stuff."
Video link
Thanks Euen!
entry 679 - tags: Targa NZ | | | May 19, 2009 - I had the car up on a lift today.
Mostly, I was checking out some details on the shocks as part of Flyin' Miata's development. But it gave me a chance to swap out the fuel filter and give the car a look-over. A vibration turned out to be the cat leaning against a heatshield. Some light rust has shown up on bare metal, probably as a result of that run over Donner Pass in the snow in March. Otherwise, everything looks pretty solid.
I've also made a change to the video section of the website. The videos are now ranked by rating instead of simply by when they were uploaded. If you think something deserves to be higher or lower, simply click on the + or - for that video. As Eric quickly discovered, there's no limit to the number of times you can do that, a feature I may come to regret.
The video page
entry 680 | | |  | June 9, 2009 - I decided it was time to install a quick-release steering wheel on the car.
I swear, every time I get out of it, I'm less graceful. Janel agrees (that we need a removable wheel, not that I'm not graceful - at least, not to my face) so I picked one up. Besides, they're cool.
The adapter from LTB Motorsports and nice and solid. It's a weld-on unit, as in my experience the bolt-on ones add quite a bit of extra space to the wheel location. The first step was to drill some holes in the adapter so I could weld it to the shaft.
entry 681 - tags: steering | | |  | June 9, 2009 - Because the stock shaft is tapered - that's how the stock wheel wedges on, really - I wanted a better support at the end.
I ground down a nut so that it was a nice tight fit inside the splined adapter, giving me more support.
entry 682 - tags: steering | | |  | June 9, 2009 - Before welding the splined tube on to the column, I made sure I didn't damage anything inside the car!
Not completely successfully, I needed an extra layer on top of the driver's seat, as it picked up a few dark freckles. Still, no holes.
Once the adapter was welded in to place, I had to make a few alterations to the combo switch to allow it to pass over the larger diameter steering column. This also meant I lost my self-cancelling turn indicators, and the way the adapter bolts to the wheel means I also lost my horn button. I have a few ideas on how to deal with the former, and the latter will not be a big problem to work around.
And now the steering wheel comes off! Race car cred. And easier exiting of the vehicle. Not completely necessary, but it'll make me giggle.
entry 683 - tags: steering | | | June 17, 2009 - I saw a copy of the Targa show that was aired on Speed today.
Before, I'd only seen it on the DVD the show producers sent me. Interesting, it's got different narration. Same script (with a few changes like saying our car was "chuckable" instead of "tossable") but a British accent. Interesting. I'm not sure which I like better. I certainly didn't expect a change.
Speaking of the actual race, the route for next year has been announced. Clarenville is no longer an overnight stop and they're going to run Brigus twice, amongst other changes. There's even an exhibition run in St. Johns. That would be fun.
Schedule.
One nice touch, the organizers have published a sample route book. I'm very glad to see this. We managed to borrow one to preview so we had an idea what to expect, but not everyone might have managed the same.
Prologue 2009 route book.
entry 684 - tags: race, tv | | |
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THE DIARY