Targa Miata
MIATA BUILD
March 25, 2009 - A great weekend at Laguna Seca.
I drove out to California expecting a two-day track event, and ended up with quite a bit more than that.
Of course, there was a big track event. The Targa car spent around 7 hours on the track. I was playing with the fast guys in the A group. The open passing and chance to play tag with some of my friends in close company made the track far more interesting. Partway through the first day, circulating alone, I was sick of the same 11 corners over and over. But once I got into a chase with a few others, it added a whole new dimension. I can see how wheel-to-wheel racing could be addictive, although it's a different sort of game from the open road. I did notice that my peak speed on the track was only about 160 km/h.
During the Targa, our top speed on the Leading Tickles stage was 190 km/h. With trees and rock walls lining a bumpy road that we'd never seen before.
In the rain.

The car was handling perfectly. I'd nailed the balance with the new springs and sway settings, and I didn't touch the setup all weekend. When my good friend - and ex-pro driver - Rick Weldon took the wheel, he came in laughing and completely in love with the car. He didn't want me to change a single thing. It's good to get his stamp of approval, as it's always a bit worrisome to think that maybe I've adapted to the car instead of getting the car right. He really felt the car was prepared well and the handling was bang-on. Another fast driver commented on how it was impossible to get the car upset. No matter what I did, the car just ate it up and came back for more. Naturally, this seemed to be in context of my habit of making full use of the berms. "The track is wider for that car", one other driver noted. The hearty engine came in handy as well, even holding off at least one turbo Miata down the long front straight. Rick went out with Tom Matano in the passenger's seat of my car and got into a big scrap with one of his Spec buddies, everyone coming in with big grins.
Janel was also there, getting friendly with the driver's seat on the car. It was the first time she's really had the car up to temp and she was much happier than she had been at our little kart track day a few weeks back. As soon as she discovered how well the brakes worked, she started using them in earnest - she's always had the habit of coasting up to corners, so that's a big step. And more importantly, she discovered that all that information coming from the car is useful. As she described it to someone else - her Miata will do the same thing whether she takes a corner well or takes it badly, but not tell her. But the Targa car will let her know if she takes a corner well, giving her the feedback to improve. She can feel the tires working. She figured out turn 10 almost immediately, and I worked with her over the weekend to take what she was doing on that corner and apply it to others on the track. We worked our way around piece by piece - 6, then 4, then 5. It turns out she likes fast corners best. The Corkscrew wasn't her favorite as she had to muster the nerve to go over that blind drop. On her last session, she went out with Rick and he managed to coach her best driving ever out of her, including figuring out the Corkscrew. She was overjoyed and Rick was bubbling over with praise about how well she takes instruction. She's got a good feel for the car, and after this weekend I think she likes the driver's seat almost as much as the navigator's! She was nervous that Rick would be disappointed, but it was the exact opposite. Was I proud? Oh yes.
The only downer to the weekend was that, in a remarkable and extended spasm of incompetency on the part of US Air, she arrived 24 hours late and our planned mini-vacation in Monterey didn't happen. We'll be avoiding that airline in the future.
There were lots of fans of the Targa car there. I don't think Janel ever believed me about how many people know about the car and followed our race, but she got a chance to see the enthusiasm first-hand. Thanks to everyone who came up to introduce themselves! I was also surprised at the banquet on Saturday night when I was honored with an award for my contributions to the Miata community. Wow!
The car saw about 7 hours of track time. It was almost perfect, with only a couple of hitches. The first happened when Rick was driving the car, the check engine light came on and the car lost power. That's the Hydra Nemesis dropping back to the safe spark map to protect the engine. I haven't been able to figure out just what happened there, although the fuel level was getting low. I tossed in a bit of gas and some toluene (causing some real confusion in the pits, seeing as how I was pouring it out of a paint shop can) but the problem happened again. A full tank of 91 "competition" fuel and it cleared up. Weird. I'm going to change the fuel filter, as I don't know what's gone through that tank with all the small Newfoundland stations. Then, in the last couple of sessions, the high-rpm stumble from the last day of the Targa came back. Again with the puzzling problems! I'm going to brainstorm this one with my coworkers for a while and see what they say.
I also got the chance to drive Elvis, the LS1-powered Miata I autocrossed a few months back, on the track. Yee hah. The thunderous rampage down the straights was to be expected, but on top of that the rest of the car worked very well. It put down power far better than it had any right to do, and the overall balance was still very good. As it should be, because Elvis was running the AFCO suspension developed on the Targa Miata! When another car pointed us by, we didn't just pass them. We evaporated them. It would be an awesome Targa weapon, with huge acceleration, a wide powerband and the ability to dance in the twisty bits. Unfortunately, it got coolant into the cylinders and the car got parked. The current theory is that the modified heads were ported too far and got into a coolant passage. Whops.
Now, Elvis had been driven to California while I towed the Targa car out. So, other than a quick stop to change to street rubber in Reno (after going over a 7500' snowy pass on race rubber alone at 11 pm!), I drove the race car home without changing a thing. 7 hours on the track, 17 hours on the interstate. I've always said that a good Targa car was a good street car, but I never thought I'd have to prove it in this way. I averaged 30 mpg and 70 mph on the run from Sacramento to Reno, which is nothing to be be ashamed of. How's that for a dual-purpose machine?
entry 663 - tags: Laguna, skills, testing, handling
April 1, 2009 - Well, you've missed your chance to watch the Targa TV show on Speed.
The final air time was this morning. But you still have two options.
The DVD is available from the Targa store. It's simply the TV program, no extra footage. But it's a clean, high-definition copy and you can watch it until the plastic DVD biodegrades in several thousand years.
The program has also appeared as a torrent if you are familiar with the workings of the intertubes.
entry 664 - tags: TV
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