| MIATA BUILD |
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 | |  | October 15, 2008 - It's hard to believe that it's been a full month since the race.
I haven't just been trying to catch up with my life - although there's been a lot of that. The weekend after returning home, I had the car out on the autocross course again. It was an interesting day, not just because it was rainy and so foggy at times that you couldn't see two gates away. No, it was interesting because of how long it took me to get back into autocross mode again.
During the race, I'd been staying well within the limits of the car because of the consequences of an off. So when I loaned the car to my friend Brandon to see how he would do on the course, it took me the rest of the day to beat him in my own car! I had to get used to dancing the car around closer to the edge of adhesion.
The good news is that he was really impressed with the car's setup and it turns out it does run really nicely in the wet!
entry 633 - tags: testing, skills | | |  | October 15, 2008 - The weekend after the wet and foggy autocross, I was at it again.
No, you just can't have enough racing. This time, though, I was driving Elvis. That's a Miata put together at Flyin' Miata with an LS1 engine - an all-aluminum Corvette engine, basically. Brandon and I were sharing the car so it ended up being a real driver's competition. I managed to beat him, but by less than 0.3 seconds.
So why is this on the Targa site? Because I think this would be an absolutely killer Targa car. Not this particular one - the suspension is too track-biased - but this engine in the Targa Miata would be a beast. The engines start at about 300 hp/300 ft-lb and go up from there, and the overall weight gain is under 200 lbs. More importantly, the car has almost endless torque and would catapult itself out of corners regardless of what gear you're in. The biggest problem would be getting enough nerve to unleash the beast! That plus the increased rear tire wear.
Actually, the biggest problem is that I'd have to run in Open class, up against the factory teams and the big guns. But this car was so much fun to drive, I think I'd be willing to take that penalty...
entry 634 - tags: v8 | | |  | October 15, 2008 - Peeking under the car, it became obvious just what had been throwing sparks during the race.
The rear subframe brace was grounding out on full compression on Newfoundland's crowned roads. It's bent, it's scraped up - and it protected everything above it, just as I'd hoped. Up front, there's a small scuff on one cross brace but again, nothing important got hurt. The braces worked as skid plates.
entry 635 | | |  | October 15, 2008 - These tires have all seen three days on the Targa plus an autocross.
They look good enough for another year! I have race tires everywhere in the garage now - the six Targa ones plus the four I used for testing.
entry 636 - tags: tires | | |  | October 15, 2008 - When I pulled the shocks out to send them back to AFCO - they're going to be tested and rebuilt with a few tweaks - I discovered coil bind marks on the rear springs.
I'm guessing the destroyed bumpstop allowed the extra travel to put the spring into bind. Ouch! I'm glad nothing got damaged, and I didn't realize I was that close.
Lessons learned from the Targa have already been put into place on newer AFCO shocks, so the bumpstop damage would be avoided now. The amount of dirt on this shock must have arrived on the last day, as I was monitoring the shock during the race and never saw it look like this.
entry 637 - tags: suspension | | |  | October 20, 2008 - Video time!
I've been hard at work logging and digitizing all the video files throughout the race. It's actually been really interesting and a real trip down memory lane. They're starting to slowly appear on the video section of the site - keep your eyes open.
I also have a special treat. I've dissected a stage. And a fun one: Brigus.
You can view the route book (1.2 MB PDF) including the map, trophy time and base times. Janel's notes to herself are on the book, and I've annotated sections of it to explain how it works.
There's also a subtitled video to go with it, letting you get an idea of when Janel would call corners and the sort of terminology she'd use. Brigus was on the last day so we were a pretty good team by this point.
High quality DivX version (13.5 MB, requires the free DivX video player).
Google Video version.
By contrast, here's the Alfa team on YouTube. They're running at a different pace than we are and don't have the same sort of odometer, but they have to keep an eye on their average speed. It's a different set of skills.
entry 638 - tags: leg 5, brigus, skills, navigation | | | October 29, 2008 - All of the videos are online!
It's taken quite a while to add meaningful comments to these, but hopefully they add something to the viewing experience.
Videos!
They're available both in fast Google video format and high-quality DivX. You can download and keep the DivX ones to watch over and over, but there are about a gigabyte's worth so be warned!
entry 639 - tags: video | | | November 4, 2008 - As I'm sure happens every year, a few communities are reconsidering their involvement in the race.
The CBC reports that Lewisporte has backed out for 2009. That's a real shame, although from what I remember we showed up, raced, and left. No car show, no meal, no meet-and-greet. So the community involvement was restricted to watching the cars on the streets. Hopefully the Targa organizers can work with the Lewisporte council to bring more benefit to the community. I know that the locals I talked to there were fans of the event, and I made sure to thank them for letting us come play.
Gander is also reviewing their participation. It's apparently an annual review, but the collision between a racer and a parked car has some folks excited. The Gander stage, of course, is the subdivision one that's hugely popular with the competitors - and from what I saw, with the spectators as well. The car show is right on the edge of the stage and we're there for two days. So the community certainly sees a benefit from the race, and the wide streets are safer than many of the other town stages.
Naturally, with any event like this, there will be supporters and detractors. That's human nature. Motorsports is particularly polarizing because of the inconvenience and safety factors. The job that the Targa organizers have done to get the event to happen with the support of the communities is astounding, and we would have enjoyed the race far less if we'd been kept far away from people the entire time.
Here's hoping something can be worked out for these two communities, as well as all the others we visited through the race. The race would not be the same without the participation of the towns that let us use their streets.
entry 640 | | | November 4, 2008 - The race might be over, but development continues.
The shocks are off at AFCO being tested and rebuilt, and they'll be reinstalled with a new bumpstop design. Whether we take part in the Targa again in the future or not, I'm going to keep working on fine-tuning the car.
entry 641 - tags: suspension | | |  | November 19, 2008 - The car's currently sitting on jackstands as the shocks are being repaired.
It'll be a while before they come back because I'm waiting for a newly developed part that will support the bumpstops. That was the source of our problems during the race - the bumpstops couldn't handle the impacts and deteriorated, leading to the damage to the shaft seals and also to the increased travel that gave us tire rub under braking (you can hear it in some of the videos, such as at the beginning of Mooring Cove) and helped the rear subframe brace ground out.
The good news is that there was no internal damage. There was some fluid loss, which would have led to low damping on small shock movement - but the big movements were still damped. So the suspension kept working despite the pounding. I knew this, but it's good to have confirmation.
Once the shocks come back, I'll reassemble the suspension and keep testing. I think I'm going to move to a stiffer spring rate to deal with the bigger bumps, and see if I can reach the alignment numbers I want at a taller ride height.
Why the picture? No reason, it just looks good!
entry 642 - tags: suspension | | |  | November 25, 2008 - New wheels for the Targa car!
The SSR wheels that we used during the race are going to California to be part of an endurance racer. So a set of Team Dynamic Pro 1.2 wheels were ordered to take their place. In white, of course. Rally cars have to run white wheels, it's an unwritten law.
They look the part and are very strong. Unfortunately, they're about 3.5 lbs heavier than the anorexic SSRs, but they're also less than 1/3 the price. And when you're buying your own parts, that's important!
Still waiting for the shocks to come back. Then the car will get back out there to have some fun. I'm expecting to be in both California and Texas with it in the next six months.
entry 643 - tags: wheels | | |  | January 2, 2009 - The shocks are back from being rebuilt.
After a long rest on the jack stands, the car is going back on the ground shortly. The reason the bumpstops failed during the race was because they were not properly supported on top. These blue cones are the solution. After testing on the bench, they've improved the function of the stops nicely. I'm also going to try a few different kinds of stops along with these, mirroring some testing I'm doing on Janel's street Miata.
The rear shocks were also rebuilt with an extra inch of extension. Just because! I'm going to reassemble everything with stiffer springs, going to 450/375 instead of the previous 375/300. Why? To see how it works and to keep me from working through all my travel no matter what. Now all I have to do is find a road that's as bad as some of those ones in Newfoundland. And that's bad.
Oh, and some wheels and tires I can use in sub-freezing temperatures.
entry 644 - tags: suspension | | | January 12, 2009 - The Targa Newfoundland TV schedule has been set!
Watch TSN at 11:30 am (Eastern, 1 pm Newfoundland) on February 8th to see the hour-long show. It's unlikely you'll see much of the Targa Miata because, well, we just weren't that dramatic! Unfortunately for those in the US - such as ourselves - TSN is not available south of the border. We'll have to wait until it gets shown on Speed, probably at 3 am on a Tuesday. Another option is to buy the DVD after the air date. Pay attention when you order, at the time of writing the only DVD for sale was the 2007 running.
In other news, the car is back on its feet with the new suspension installed. I'm working my way through the fairly short list of jobs to do, little things like fixing the wiring for the air temperature sensor and - apparently - the fans. Since the Toyo race rubber is at risk of cracking when used in sub-freezing temperatures, the car is confined to the garage for the time being.
The next outing for the car is the Miatas At MRLS 20th birthday party. That's a two-day track weekend at Laguna Seca, and I'm going to be there as a speaker, book signer and track weenie. If you can make it, drop by and get a ride on the track!
entry 645 - tags: announcements | | |  | January 14, 2009 - There was an announcement of a tire rule change for the Targa in 2009.
R compounds - such as my Toyo RA1s - are no longer allowed. In fact, the tires must have a wear rating of at least 200, which gets rid of a range of popular sticky street tires such as the Falken Azenis and the Bridgestone RE01R. There's an exception for cars built before 1950 and those with stock 10" tires. The number of tires available to be used for the event has also jumped from 6 to 8, although with the harder required rubber that's not a big deal.
This means I'd probably end up running on a Hankook Ventus R-S2, although I haven't done a big search for other options. It would also make it much harder to meet the target times, which is probably the goal. Is it an improvement? Well, it's certainly a change.
entry 646 - tags: tires, regulations, 2009 | | |  | January 18, 2009 - Out of the garage!
It's been a long hibernation, but the combination of sunshine and warm(ish) temperatures meant that I was able to pull the car out today. It was the first ride with the new spring setup and new bumpstops. I wasn't impressed at first, but after a couple of adjustments of the AFCOs I got my supple ride back. Next step is to find a place to open it up and see how it works at high speed and high bumps.
Before it went out, I spent a bit of time fixing little things like the air temperature sensor and the fans. For the latter, I started by hooking up the laptop and changing the fan "on" temperature to 10C. As soon as I hit enter, I could hear relays click underhood. First, that's cool! Second, that tells me that all of the difficult-to-reach wiring was working fine.
Next step, I decided to trace the power. And voila, one blown fuse. I'm running both my fans in parallel, and the startup surge must have been just too much for the fuse at some point. The Hydra has the capability to trigger them one after the other, looks like I'll have to take advantage of that. The car was getting warm while waiting to start the second stage in the Prologue, I wonder if the fans were out then? For most of the race, cooling wasn't a problem.
Boy, it's nice to get back behind the wheel. It's such a fun car.
entry 647 - tags: suspension, fans | | | January 20, 2009 - A beautiful day outside, so I headed for the Targa Simulation Road.
It's the first time I've driven it since the race. It's not a perfect simulation, mostly because it's fairly tight. And it is rough because of road slippage, not because of frost damage. So the bumps tend to be more undulations instead of sharp hits, although there are a couple of good ones that really test how the car deals with a dip mid-corner. So it's a reasonable test. And since it's about 5 minutes from my house, it's a lot more convenient than Newfoundland!
I took several runs through the worst section, playing with the shock settings. A couple of tweaks to the rebound and a big crank on the compression knobs, and the car's livened up a bit and able to deal with some really weird pavement. How will it work at Laguna Seca? Excellent question. I'm going to have some spare springs with me just in case the smooth, high-speed track needs a different setup than my battered back-road tune.
Really, this is just an excuse for tearing up and down a twisty, empty road on a sunny day. But can you blame me?
entry 648 - tags: suspension | | | February 6, 2009 - I took the car in to work yesterday.
It's been too long since I drove it much, I keep forgetting how much grip it has and how light it feels. What a riot.
It needs a bit of work before the Laguna Seca event, though. The windshield cracked at some point on the way home, so I need to get that replaced. More worrisome is a noise that sounds like it's coming from the rear of the car. My initial thought was "wheel bearing", but it's fairly noticeable and it just started. So something's rubbing or moving - possibly a brake dust shield on a rotor, for example. I can make the car make a weird noise about once per tire rotation by simply pushing it across the garage floor. I'll get underneath and have a look. I suspect it will be an easy fix if I can stop working on Janel's MG long enough to get under the white car.
I'm really wondering if I should keep these springs, too. The car feels very eager to turn and is fairly flat, but it's lost the suppleness it had. Maybe I'll play with the shocks a bit more and see if I can come up with something that will deal with cratered roads but still keep the ride fairly plush. I was happy with the 375/300 combination until we hit the really rough stuff in Newfoundland, but the car should like the stiffer springs at the track. So many options!
entry 649 - tags: suspension | | |  | February 8, 2009 - During the race, we discovered a need for a bit of comfort padding on the rollbar.
I put something together using memory foam and tape. The foam doesn't like being bent like this and it's been coming apart. So I took the opportunity today to clean things up a bit and put a bit of pipe insulation in its place.
I know, I know. Pipe insulation isn't roll bar padding. This stuff isn't meant to be for major impact protection, just to keep me from getting a sore knee when I brace myself against the bar.
Of course, as soon as I was done, I discovered there was some soft roll bar padding in the Camaro donor car for the MG. So I'll probably redo this. Although really, the non-SFI padding basically is pipe insulation.
entry 650 - tags: safety, comfort | | | February 8, 2009 - The Targa TV show aired today.
In Canada, anyhow. I haven't managed to see it yet, but I'm told we do make an appearance a couple of times. If you're able to get TSN, set your VCR (or DVR if you're one of those people who lives in the 21st century). TSN.ca says it's showing again at midnight on Monday (technically Tuesday morning, I suppose) and 3:30 am on Thursday, Eastern.
entry 651 - tags: TV | | | February 11, 2009 - The TV show has been scheduled on Speed TV.
Sunday, March 15th at 3:00 EST. Details. Oh boy oh boy oh boy!
In unrelated news, I think I found the noise in the back of the car. The first thing I did when investigating was to put a wrench on the lug nuts. Whoops. I'm usually very, very careful about the lug nuts so I can't come up with a good explanation. Heck, there is no good explanation. I haven't driven the car yet, but it would explain the nature of the noise. None of the wheels were actually loose which does explain the lack of vibration though.
entry 652 - tags: TV, suspension | | |
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