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 | | July 7, 2008 - Our NASA rally licenses are here!
Yes, the same licenses we took the class for back in February. I didn't send in the paperwork for a while, but it took about two months for the licenses to arrive. After all that, they're only good until the end of 2008. Oh well, now we have the qualifications required!
entry 488 - tags: skills | | |  | July 8, 2008 - Targa Miata clothes have arrived!
If you want to get a high-quality t-shirt or sweatshirt and show that you're a fan of the coolest rally Miata around, now's your chance. I had to wait until I saw the quality of the sample shirt, but it's good stuff. It's not only a heavy, high-quality shirt but the printing is perfect. Can't say the same about the out-of-focus picture, of course...
The store is at targamiata.spreadshirt.com and about 10% of the proceeds will go towards the race effort. Yes, I know, they're not the cheapest shirts in town. But they're high quality and this way we don't have to do a big print run and hope we got the quantities and sizes right! You can choose whatever size and style you want.
Currently, all of the clothes are navy blue with the Martini stripes, but white is coming at Janel's request. I'm going to order some team sweatshirts to keep us feeling warm and looking cool during the race.
entry 489 - tags: announcements, Martini | | | July 9, 2008 - The importance of seating.
I borrowed a coworker's Miata this week while he was using my pickup, and discovered something important. His car is fitted with a race seat of a major brand - I think it's a Sparco.
It's a terrible seat for me. It's snug around my ribs (I have a much wider build than he does) so I can feel the seat press in whenever I take a deep breath. It's fairly high in the car because it's on a slider. But most importantly, it put pressure on my right leg in such a way that I'd get cramps in about an hour of driving it.
But he's quite happy with it and has driven the car to Salt Lake City and back. That's about 300 miles each way. Obviously it fits him just fine. Another coworker also used to have this seat in his car and took it on road trips. So it's a matter of my particular physiology battling with the design of this seat, and that's a hard thing to anticipate without the chance to try a seat out. There's an important lesson here - treat race seats like shoes, and try them on if possible!
I approached Corbeau as a sponsor because I was happy with how their seats fit me, and the experience this week underlined how important that is.
entry 490 - tags: ergonomics | | |  | July 11, 2008 - Time to add the extra door bars.
When I originally built the car for the 2007 race, the scrutineers would accept a basic SCCA Spec Miata cage. But after a couple of high-profile accidents last year, they decided an extra door bar would be required on my car for 2008. Fair enough, I'm not going to argue. This is why I've been hounding the organizers with all sorts of questions, to avoid awkward problems in Newfoundland.
After conferring via email on the design, I made a visit to our local Porsche guru. He works out of a small shop that is completely stuffed with everything you need to make your own highly-competitive race car, quite possibly to the point of machining your own engine block out of a chunk of aluminum. He's also run in both the Carrera Panamerica and the Italian Mille Miglia, so he's a kindred spirit of sorts.
After about 90 minutes of drilling, grinding, testing and the like, here's what I brought home.
entry 491 - tags: safety | | |  | July 11, 2008 - After a bit more fitting, more grinding and a bunch of welding, the bars are in.
It actually took quite a bit more fitting. I thought we had the fit closer when we were at the Porsche shop, but it would seem not. Once fitted, I stuffed a huge canvas tarpaulin inside the car to catch sparks and welded them in. It was a bit awkward in many places and there's no way this cage is coming out without being cut apart, but it wasn't exactly removable before. It's not my prettiest welding, but it'll certainly do the job. I sent this picture off to the Targa tech inspector and he gave it the thumbs up.
Now I just have to paint them. I'll also repair the paint damage to the nose that took place during the off during testing last summer. Hopefully that will take place this weekend.
This is the last big step in preparation. There are still a number of small details to sort out and a lot of rule book reading to ensure I'm good, but the car is now fundamentally ready.
entry 492 - tags: safety | | | July 11, 2008 - White shirts are now available.
T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts and even a vintage-style "ringer" tee are in the Targa Miata store. Show that you're part of the team!
If there's a particular product you'd like to see, just contact me.
entry 493 - tags: announcements, Martini | | |  | July 14, 2008 - Since I have to paint the new door bars, I'm going to touch up the damage on the nose from the little off at Pahrump last year.
I'd like to point out that I was not driving at the time, for those that don't remember! It'll be easy enough to fix, I simply need to respray the bottom half of the nose.
I have to say that pulling the front bumper off the car makes it look derelict almost immediately.
entry 494 - tags: crash | | |  | July 15, 2008 - With the nose off, I got ready to sand it down for the fresh paint on the lower half.
It sure was thoughtful of Mazda to put that groove halfway down, it's a perfect place to put the seam between the two layers of paint.
Looking at the scratches on this, I can't imagine just what sort of ride Bill went on with this car. I'll bet it was exciting.
entry 495 - tags: crash, paint | | |  | July 15, 2008 - I've come to the realization that the smaller the piece of the car you have to paint, the more of a pain it is.
That's a whole lot of masking for a couple of feet of steel! I probably could have been a little less careful (or painted more of the interior), but this will do me fine. I did pull the doors and roof off in order to give myself more room to work and less stuff to mask.
entry 496 - tags: paint | | |  | July 17, 2008 - Old vs new paint.
The new paint (on the right) looks slightly more blue than the old, despite the fact that it's out of the same can. Maybe it'll age a little - I do recall thinking the car had a bit of a blue tinge to it originally. The seam between the two colors is easily sanded down, and I expect nobody will ever notice the difference as most of the joints are well hidden.
The car's almost back together now. I just have to remount the nose after fixing some damaged plastic inside, then it's ready for the final track day test in a bit over a week.
entry 497 - tags: paint | | | July 17, 2008 - The Underground Miata Network is our newest sponsor!
The UMN, as it's known, is a Miata club in Ottawa. I was a charter member and have kept in contact with the club via their email list - but this was completely unexpected! The club generously sent in a donation to help with the effort. I'm blown away by their support, and will proudly display the UMN logos on the car as soon as it's reassembled.
entry 498 - tags: sponsors, announcements | | |  | July 22, 2008 - I bought a new garage.
Well, sort of. The time has finally come to get a real grown up trailer. One with brakes, two axles and has not been abused for the last 32 years. Thinking about the long tow to and from Newfoundland had me a bit worried, and after some serious prodding from Janel we picked this up on Monday. It's 7' wide and 16.5' long, and it's the perfect size for a Miata. No bigger than it has to be, but big enough for the car, some tools and a set of tires. I'll do something clever inside to help with storage of the latter. The only thing that would have been better would have been if it was one of the low trailers designed for motorcycles to cut down on frontal area. I'm tempted to chop this one down by a couple of feet. First, though, I need to pull out the motorcycle chocks and mounting points and move them to be more appropriate for something that doesn't fall over quite so easily.
Why was Janel pushing for an enclosed trailer? Because now I can park a car in it, and that opens up another space in the garage for her Miata.
entry 499 - tags: logistics | | |  | July 25, 2008 - A big yummy stack of Toyos arrived today.
Yup, those are the race tires. I'll mount them up and scrub them in, then stash them away to await the trip to Newfoundland. Right now, I'm trying to pace the wear on the current tires. There are three track days and an autocross between now and the race, and I want them to wear out on the last lap of the last track day. I'd hate to pull off a set of tires that still have life in them. Right now, they're in great shape.
entry 500 - tags: tires | | |  | July 25, 2008 - Yesterday was a day of preparation.
There's a track day at Pueblo tomorrow, my last "big track" test before the race. Since I've changed the alignment around since the last Pueblo day, I need to do a little more playing around with sway bars and general setup. I might even drop the ride height a bit to see what that does for me. I'd prefer not to make the long trip out there but my local track doesn't help with high-speed corners. I need to know the car's controllable when turning in at 100 mph.
I also spent some time on the trailer. Doesn't everyone take a Sawzall to their new toys? A new roof vent, relocated tiedowns, a box for stuff bolted to the tongue, an anchor for the spare and a chock so I know how far to drive the car into the trailer. You know, the usual. The tow to the track will also be a test of the tow rig for the trip out to Newfoundland.
I also washed the car. After all, it will arrive at the track squeaky clean despite any weather I might meet! This isn't really notable, but it is something that hasn't been done for a while and it gave me a chance to see just how much patina the car has accumulated. Paint chips, small cracks, rubber marks - all the little things that make a car look used.
entry 501 | | |  | July 25, 2008 - A very interesting picture provided by a fellow racer.
He's entering a corner at about 40 mph. This car is fitted with the AFCO suspension, but with much higher spring rates and big fat Hoosier 275s. Check out that lifted rear wheel!
Cory reports that his car is sitting higher than he'd like, about the same as the Targa car is. This is because he's running 800 lb springs in the front and they're not compressing as much as my 375s, thus he ran out of adjustment. You can really see that in how high the car's sitting even in this position, the front still has another couple of inches of travel left. Some shorter springs will solve that, and it will give him some more droop travel.
He's also not running much swaybar at all when compared to his springs. It's a 7/8" bar up front, and he reports lots of oversteer. So he's going to try dropping the car by about an inch and sticking a much larger bar up front.
I find this interesting because it may be related to my wheelspin problem. I've never seen a picture of my car with such unbalanced cornering though. I'll be playing with ride height a bit at the track tomorrow to see if I can alter the behavior - or even to see if the car wheelspins in that environment.
entry 502 - tags: suspension | | | July 25, 2008 - I've been dealing with stacks of paperwork for the Targa.
Is it a good sign when you email a photo of the car (for the program) and the registrar responds "SWEET!"?
entry 503 | | |  | July 28, 2008 - The final high-speed testing took place on Saturday.
In short, the car performed well. I had a brace of sway bars along with me to do some tuning, but it wasn't necessary. The overall balance of the car is pretty good. On long sweepers, it can be balanced on the throttle well. I've set the car up to be a little bit softer on turn-in than I usually do for a track-only car, in order to give myself a little more margin for error. Still, it'll rotate nicely if I set the car up properly on corner entry.
I did play with the ride height a bit to see what that affected. The car's a bit sharper and less prone to understeer at the lower height, which is about the same height that we use for street Miatas at Flyin' Miata. It's easy to adjust so I'll leave that as an adjustment option once we get to Newfoundland.
I tried driving a few different lines around the track to see how the car would react. It's amazing how much slower you get when you're driving like a normal person instead of a racer who knows every little bump in the course. Still, it was good practice and the car was a good tool - mobile and friendly. Even a fast entry into the fastest corner on the track, with a different line than usual, was dealt with well.
The car ran flawlessly and cool despite 30+ minute sessions in brutal heat. I need to spend a bit more time on the dyno to tune the engine but overall it's pretty good. I declared it finished at the track.
Well, finished except for one thing. The tight corners on this track tend to be lefts. There's one relatively tight right hand 180 degree corner, and on that one I could get the inside rear to spin up once in a while if I was brutal on the berms. This was without a passenger, so it probably wouldn't happen on the Targa - but I've decided it's time to solve this problem once and for all. I'll pull the Guru differential out of my Seven and install it in this car. The Guru is a helical-style diff like the Torsen, but with preload so it won't act like an open diff when one wheel loses significant traction. I'll swap that over this week. I'm just trying to decide if I should have it changed to a 4.10 ring and pinion or stick with the 4.30 that's on it already. I do prefer to drive the taller setup, so I'll probably go with that.
The trailer towed really nicely, and when we hit lots of rain on the way home I was happy to think that my little car was safe and sound inside. It's not cheap to tow, but that's life.
entry 504 - tags: testing, suspension | | |  | August 1, 2008 - The differential is out again.
I'm going to use velcro to put the goofy thing back in again.
It's out so that it can be replaced with the Guru from the Seven. What the heck, even if I don't need it I'll have it. The Guru is currently set up with a 4.3 so I'm having the gears swapped around. I was tempted to try it myself, but this close to the race and with such an expensive part at risk I decided to try it some other time.
While underneath, I noticed that the last alignment tech set two of the four rear alignment bolts upside down - you can see one at the far left. I'm not sure if this is going to be a problem or not, but I'm not impressed regardless. My usual long-time alignment guy seems to have retired.
entry 505 - tags: suspension | | |  | August 6, 2008 - The Underground Miata Network logo is proudly displayed in the hardtop window.
I'm hoping to get together with the club to thank them for their support on my way home from the race.
entry 506 - tags: sponsors | | |  | August 6, 2008 - The Guru diff, freshly wrapped in a 4.10 ring and pinion.
It's a beefy thing, rated for 600 hp or so. With the number of diffs I've been juggling, I've started identifying them with a silver marker on the housing. Makes life a lot easier, and this way you don't accidentally install an open 4.30 diff in your rally car. To pick a random example.
entry 507 - tags: differential | | |
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