| MIATA BUILD |
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 | |  | August 6, 2009 - Ever wonder how the base times are calculated, and how the various classes are handicapped?
The organizers have released the factors for 2009. You can see the original here.
Basically, the Class 9 Modified Large cars (Evos, Challengers and the like) are assigned a time. Then that time is multiplied by the factor for each class. In other words, a Class 8 Modified Small (that's us) gets 3.25% more time to finish the class. That's pretty close to the big boys. If our car was a 1990, we would have had a 5.72% handicap instead - but then we would have had to use the weaker ring gear in the differential. The winning 2002 gets either 17.40% or 12.12% depending what class it's in. If I do put that V8 in the car, I'll have to complete the stages about 5% faster.
Details about the 2009 race are being released over at the Targa website. Looks like SRZs are out this year (yay!), maximum average speeds are back (a concern for the Open Class guys), race tires are allowed (this year) and a few other bits and pieces.
Do I wish I was going this year? Oh yes.
entry 688 - tags: regulations | | | August 6, 2009 - I've noticed recently that I'm getting some vibration through the chassis of the car.
I'm not sure if it appeared after my last header r&r, but I got under the car to check it out. It turns out the catalytic converter was pressed up against a bump in the transmission tunnel.
The bump is one that I hammered in place to give myself a bit more room for the driver's seat. Also, the car runs a cat from a 1999 car because the whole exhaust system is from that generation. No problem, there's a heatshield on the outside of the cat so I figured I could bend that out of the way.
I pulled the cat off, reshaped the heatshield and went to put it back on when a chunk fell out. That's not right! The cat was breaking up internally. Since this particular cat came from discarded exhaust with "bad kitty!" written on it, this isn't exactly heartbreaking. I grabbed a long prybar and encouraged the core of the cat to break up completely. The hollow cat went back on the car. And of course, I was able to place it so there was loads of room between that bump and the cat.
I've had a bit of pinging at full throttle and high rpm recently. Could a failed cat have raised the backpressure in the exhaust system? Quite possibly. We'll find out tomorrow when I return to the track.
The car doesn't sound as good now, having picked up a nasty rasp at about 2600 rpm. The long-term solution will involve a resonator in place of the cat, but I didn't have time to do that today.
entry 689 - tags: exhaust | | | August 9, 2009 - I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the track last weekend.
I was spending more time than usual organizing for some reason. I did take the Targa car out a few times, and also went out to play in Elvis the V8 Miata.
Tom Heath from Grassroots Motorsports was there, and he took the Targa car out for his first session. He really enjoyed it. And it is a fun car, I'm not going to argue. It was set up with a bit of oversteer and the softer springs (as used in the race) and I think it was faster with the stiffer setup, but it was still very entertaining and Tom seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit.
I did a bit of data acquisition with a Traqmate during my few laps. I was having trouble with my line on the fastest part of the track, and this is pretty clear from the data. At least, I think it is. I'm not accelerating as hard as I should down the straight, and I'm not at my maximum cornering speed until right near the end. There, it peaks at over a g and then is followed by about .75g braking while still cornering at 0.5g.
I also compared it to a log from our previous datalogging session, a lap that was 1.2 seconds faster. I have a lot more analysis to do, but this is going to make for some really interesting reading.
Not a terribly coherent report, I know. It's been a long weekend. The Targa car acquitted itself well, and after talking to a number of people about the race and watching the videos, I have the itch to go back again very badly.
entry 690 - tags: datalog | | |  | August 18, 2009 - I am such a child.
These are roof vents. It's hot here in the summer, and it would be great to force more air through the car. But really, I just want roof vents because roof vents are cool.
You can get these from Primitive Motorsports for $89 each. Or you can get them from these guys (click on the Vents and Fans category, then choose Side Vents) for $22.25. So I bought two, just in case it makes more sense to have one per person.
They're pretty large in person, and I think headroom may be a problem if they're put to each side. So one per person it is. They can be opened in either direction to act as a scoop or an exhaust vent.
Do I have the nerve to install one? Will I want to add a Primitive scoop on top? Only time will tell.
Janel was not as excited as I was when these arrived.
entry 691 - tags: roof vents | | |  | August 28, 2009 - Don't tell Janel.
I bought a Primitive roof scoop. As mentioned previously, I'm a child. I want my race car to have a roof vent!
In person, it's pretty easy to tell that this thing was sized for larger cars. It looks about half the size of the hardtop! If I could install it temporarily to get an idea of how it looks and works, I would. But installation requires permanent defacement of the hardtop, and Miata hardtops aren't cheap. Even ones that have had the glass smashed out of the back.
Do I dare? And no, I didn't have it sitting in the center of the roof when I took the picture.
entry 692 - tags: roof vents | | |  | August 28, 2009 - Another view of the roof scoop from the back.
Not subtle. The small hole in the back is intended to cut down on wind noise, apparently.
entry 693 - tags: roof vents | | |  | August 28, 2009 - One more view from the front.
I'm going to have to spend some time walking around looking at this. Other than the fact that it gets pretty hot here in the summer (it's 92F/33C here right now at 6 pm), I don't need one. It's purely for the little kid in me.
How much does the little kid want a roof scoop?
entry 694 - tags: roof vents | | | September 3, 2009 - I've decided not to go with the vent.
Partially due to aesthetic reasons, but mostly because it doesn't work with the car. The car's been built with a very specific purpose in mind, and the roof vent is simply goofing around. I want it to retain that purposefulness, so if I do anything for in-cockpit ventilation I'll just add a NACA duct to the door window.
entry 695 - tags: roof vents | | | September 3, 2009 - A very interesting car was at Flyin' Miata yesterday.
It's a national-level autocross car, and it had some fascinating tweaks in it. I was given a guided tour by the owner before the car went on the dyno. His weight-savings techniques extended as far as grinding off unused bosses on the intake manifold.
The car also spent some time on the FM dyno. This car already has a lot of dyno time on it, testing every change made from intake pipe length to various intake manifolds. It did extremely well. It's time for me to dig into the engine on the Targa car and see what I can do for the output.
Or at least, it will be as soon as I'm done with the current book. Six more week and I'm free!
entry 696 - tags: engine | | | September 8, 2009 - Targa 2009 starts this weekend.
I wish I was going to be there and I've been daydreaming about it more and more in the last few weeks, but so it goes. As we said right from the start, we always knew this was liable to be a one-time race for us. The cost of taking part is just so high - and not just in terms of money. Someday we'll be back. In the meantime, I'll be trying to live vicariously as much as possible.
Matthew Oldford, who ran a turbo Integra in the Open Class last year, posted a new video that shows the event pretty well from inside and outside the car. Just what I needed, something else to get me all wound up even further about the race. Watch for us at a couple of spots!
entry 697 - tags: video, 2009 | | |  | September 13, 2009 - The 2009 Targa is underway!
Janel and I have been comparing notes on what we were doing a year ago - "should be starting the first stage of the Prologue about now" and the like. Sigh. According to the organizers, about 60 cars started this year. I can't offer any inside info on how the race is doing, but I will post my reactions to what we're seeing.
Gordon Sleigh is once again providing daily photos so the rest of us can live vicariously. You can follow on his site. He took the Escort photo.
Results can be found on the event site. No times for the Prologue are given, but the starting order for Leg 1 tells us who was quick. Of course, the experienced drivers have an advantage as the Flatrock stage is a very familiar one. Will this experience hold?
As I've said in the past, I think a Mk 1 Escort has the potential to be a very competitive car in the Targa. Quick, well-developed as a factory rally car and old enough to have lots of time to complete the stages. Paul Horton was running in a rally-prepped Civic last year. This year, he brought this little beastie along. I think he's going to have a lot of fun and may do very well.
entry 698 - tags: 2009 | | | September 13, 2009 - I just found the raw times for the Prologue - it's a different timing setup than last year (well, last year I read the sheets posted up on the board, but still...).
Looks like Stillen was indeed fastest on the Flatrock stage by about 5 seconds. However, Jud Buchanan in his monster Acadian was only 12 seconds back, and Jud runs in class 4. Jud's finished 2nd a bunch of times, will this be his year?
Looks as if the Escort finished only 2 seconds behind last year's winners, the 2002 - but with that car in 4 MS Large and the Escort in 4 MS Small, that means the Escort is ahead.
Not that today's times mean anything other than to determine a starting order, of course, but until the times are posted for tomorrow all I can do is play with these.
The friendly and quick Marc Lachapelle had an accident on the first Prologue stage. He and his codriver are fine, but there's no word as to whether they will be able to start tomorrow. I expect there's a Subaru team working very hard tonight.
entry 699 - tags: 2009 | | |  | September 14, 2009 - Day 1 is over, and 13 cars zeroed the day.
That's about the same as last year. Jim Kenzie in his new MINI wasn't amongst them, he may be having a little trouble sorting out the new car. Otherwise, there weren't a lot of big surprises. The Mk 1 Escort finished the day clean, I was happy to see.
This 911 was quick on the Prologue. Times aren't being posted for the stages during the day - only the penalties - so it's impossible to say how he's doing relative to the other cars. Given his overall speed and the fact that he's in class 3, he could be quite competitive. I'll be watching.
Steve Millen in the big GTR has discovered the car was too low and too soft for the battered Newfoundland tarmac. It's been lifted and stiffened (just like I plan to do to the Miata when I go back!) and later photos of the car may look dramatically different than the pre-event ones did. My big concern about that car was that it was set up wrong, and now I think it has a real chance. Will a modern car finally win Targa?
Photo, like all others in this year's updates, by Gordon Sleigh.
entry 700 - tags: 2009 | | |  | September 15, 2009 - Day 2 results are in!
Day 2 was possibly my favorite of the race, and the day I think I performed at my best. Not sure why, that's just the impression I have when I think back. And it had some of my favorite stages in it.
Leading Tickles was cancelled due to "communication problems". What a shame, that stage sticks in my mind strongly. Not the whole thing - it was about 15 km of blur, really - but the commitment I gave on it. That stage is the one I think of when I think of what it was like to run the Targa.
Roger Tillotsen and Steve Robertson were a couple of very cool guys from the UK who were a lot of fun to hang out with while waiting to start a stage, and they rolled their Impreza WRX Sti on Pleasantview. The guys aren't badly injured, but the car is pretty rough according to the official press release. According to the listings, they DNF'd Bobby's Cove. That's the same stage as Pleasantview in the opposite direction, so it's an easy mistake to make.
Glen Clarke has managed to stay penalty-free in his 911, so he's leading the race. Actually, there were a lot of people who were clean until Gander.
In second is Jed's Acadian with 1 second of penalties. Third is that green 911 I fingered earlier with 3 seconds. Then the GTR (6 seconds), the 2002 that won last year tied with a Camaro (8 seconds). The monster Audi, the Mk1 Escort, a 911 GT3 and a 911SC driven by an experienced competitor are all tied for 7th with 14 seconds. Pretty close race!
It looks like Jim Kenzie in the MINI is having a bit of trouble. Based on comments in his blog, he's having trouble finding grip due to a stiff setup. Janel and I both with him and Brian well, they were such a help to us.
Massive Audi tire smoke from the Stillen website.
entry 701 - tags: 2009 | | |  | September 17, 2009 - I love this picture.
Paul's on the edge - he's actually countersteering! Oh wow. I have to go back.
I've been posting my analysis of the 2009 race over on the Grassroots Motorsports forum. It's a good race this year, with very few penalties at the front end. Of course, no penalties means no changing of positions, as the only way to move up in the standings in the Targa is for the guy in front of you to make a mistake. The old 911 is still sitting in 2nd with the 2002 right behind, and Glen Clarke is still leading with only 4 seconds of penalties overall. I'm kind of hoping tomorrow will bring a bunch of penalties so that there's some better racing. Having 3-5 teams zero the entire day is impressive, but not that much fun.
I'm thinking the level of competition has stepped way up this year. The number of penalties is far down for everybody. Are the base times different, or has everyone just improved that much over the past year? Hard to say. We'd actually be in about the same position if we were running this year, assuming we had the same penalties after day 4.
entry 702 - tags: 2009 | | | September 17, 2009 - Want to know how to prepare a car to win the Monte Carlo?
Let Paddy Hopkirk tell you. The bit about waterproofing your distributor made me laugh - I discovered that my Mini loses ignition right about the same time the windshield wipers get overwhelmed. That's actually a pretty good safety feature.
The article may be dated, but there's good information regardless. I'm not sure I'll be bringing a pillow along on the next Targa, but we actually did have one for Janel!
entry 703 - tags: preparation | | | September 28, 2009 - The Targa's been over for a week now.
The last day was stupendously wet by all accounts, and the leaderboard got all shaken up. At the end, Roy Hopkins in his BMW 2002 took the win for the third year in a row. The green 911 was right behind in second. The much-anticipated Nissan GTR finished in 6th, right behind Paul's beautiful Mk1 Escort. Glen Clarke's car was almost undriveable in the wet and he made the wise decision to back off. Stories abound of cars spinning on the transit sections on the Trans-Canada.
Naturally, there's a lot of fuss about handicapping. The Stillen-prepped GTR was supposed to win. Fast car, experienced driver. But not a driver with Targa Newfoundland experience, and the navigator was a rally novice. The Stillen folks are upset. Road and Track is upset. It appears that a number of the competitors - including Jim Kenzie, whose opinion carries a lot of weight with me - are upset. After all, no Modern car has ever won the race outright and the big orange Nissan was supposed to.
I wonder. I'm looking at last year's results where two of the top five cars were brand new models. Roy Hopkins reminded me that he came in second with a "Modern" car a few years back, only one second behind Bill Arnold.
I don't see anyone returning year after year to try to win with a Modern car. Roy built that 2002 specifically to win Targa, and he has a huge amount of experience in the event. The inexperience of the Stillen team did cost them some time early in the week, and in order to win you have to be perfect for the entire race.
Still, the complaining will be high-profile. I expect the article in R&T about the race will mention it, and Jim's already published something in the Toronto Star (or at least on their website, I don't see the paper itself). Everyone following the Stillen effort - a bunch of folks introduced to the Targa for the first time - will have heard it. Stillen is proclaiming that they are not interested in returning because of the unfairness.
It should be acknowledged that a number of teams are bringing cars that are built to the extent of the rules, as should be expected. However, these cars show the results of decades of development. Paul's 1968 Escort is likely not a car that could have been built in 1968 but the rule set assumes it is.
And of course the fact that the complaining is coming from a high-profile team means that the Targa organizers are more likely to listen. The rule set is usually fixed for 4 years, and 2010 marks the implementation of a new one. I doubt we'll see the end of handicapping, but we may see some massaged time factors and the allowable modifications for Modified might be tightened up. I think the latter might actually be the way to go, forcing some of the highly modified Classic cars into Open. Thankfully, I'm not the person who has to deal with this!
entry 704 - tags: 2009, rules | | | October 21, 2009 - The Stillen team has posted video.
Watching Brigus, a few things become obvious. First, that car simply could not put down any power in the wet. Stillen claimed 620 hp, a big task even for an AWD car in those conditions. The thing is a beast.
Secondly, I don't see how this team could have won. The navigation simply isn't up to par. There's nothing wrong with running a novice navigator - heck, we did it - but while Steve Millen is doing a great job dealing with it, he's simply not getting the sort of instructions he needs when he needs them. Watching Gander reinforces this. Put a top-tier navigator like Brian Bourbonniere in that car and I think it could have easily taken the win. Maybe some better wet tires too. But blaming the factors isn't right.
Want a comparison? Watch us through Brigus. Because of the radical difference in conditions, our time was only a few seconds slower than the GTR. Listen to the pacing of the navigation instructions and how clear they are. Remember, they're being delivered just as fast as in the GTR.
entry 705 - tags: 2009, video | | | October 21, 2009 - The 2010-14 regulations are available.
The rules are kept mostly static for five years at a time, allowing people like me to delay their Targa adventures without fear their classes will be moved out from underneath them. 2010 is time for the new rule set, and there are a few changes.
Some were expected, such as a minimum tire wear of 140. This is the same as "street tire" autocross classes, and there's quite a tire war going on in this category right now. They're not much cheaper than full-on R compound tires, but they also don't stick as well. I believe this is an attempt to slow the cars down.
Pump gas will also be required. Not a concern for me - we ran that way last year - but some past competitors have complained about problems with contaminated fuel. You're still allowed to carry your own fuel but can no longer refuel outside specified service stops.
Now we get into the interesting stuff. As expected with the fuss about handicapping and "modern cars can't win", there have been some changes. One simple one is the splitting of Modern and Classic Divisions. The organizers will essentially view the event as two races. Three, really, as Open also gets a separate win. Will this keep people from viewing the car with the lowest penalty points as the overall winner? No. But it's a good effort.
The various Categories have also been shuffled around. The year breaks for different classes have been moved a bit. Class 2 (up to 1961) is gone, merged with Class 3. A new Category has been added between ours (the old Category 8) and the newest, ranging from 1998-2004. Open used to be Category 1, now it's 0. The net effect is that we're in the same grouping of cars as before, but we're now the fourth-fastest category instead of third-fastest. Our category would be 6 in the new numbering scheme.
One of my suggestions had been to rework the rules between Standard and Modified, to make it more clear when a vintage car had been hugely modified and should run in a faster category. And the Targa organizers did something similar. Instead of just Standard and Modified, there is now Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3. On my first reading, it looks as if we'd land in Level 2 - and only barely! That category is only allowed a 10% displacement increase from stock, which means we'd be allowed to go up to 2023cc. Our engine is 2020cc. Whew! I'll have to go through the rest of the specs to be sure, but that seems to be the case.
Minimum weights have gone up. We used to be allowed a 10% weight loss from the factory curb weight, now we have to match it. Level 3 is allowed a 100 lb weight loss. This means we have to pork the car up to 2293 lbs. That's in "as raced" condition, so it would include tools and a spare. Honestly, that may not be far off what we eventually had.
There are some minutae as well, such as the method of adjusting displacement for things like overhead cams, four-valve heads and the like.
Hmm, it looks like my use of a 1999 cylinder head would bump me into Level 3. That's not good. It looks as if the big difference in engines in Level 2 and Level 3 are 10% displacement and the ability to change the number of camshafts and valves. If you have an old crossflow Ford and stuff a twin-cam Lotus head on top, this is for you. If you want to add a four-link suspension to your old Escort, same deal. But for those of us who already have four valve twin cam engines and good dual-wishbone suspensions, it's not dramatically different. Would it be worth dropping back to an earlier head to stay out of Level 3? Probably. Some dyno time would tell.
Or I could stick with my current plan of stuffing a V8 in there, running Open and scaring myself silly.
entry 706 - tags: 2010, rules | | |  | October 21, 2009 - I just finished writing a new book, and it's been a hard slog for the past few months.
I actually took the initial call from my editor proposing this book on the way home from Targa last year. More details later, but if you enjoy the content of this website I think you'll really dig the book.
Anyhow, now that I have time to play with cars, I'm going to do some testing with fuel pressure. Will a higher, fixed pressure as found in the NB (1999-05) Miata work better with my NB injectors? First step is to fit an adjustable regulator such as this one from AEM.
entry 707 - tags: fuel pressure | | |
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