August 19, 2011 - Lots of little jobs on the car today. Mostly exciting things like wiring in a permanent power supply for the intercom and installing a wideband air/fuel gauge in the car. Plus some nut-and-bolt checks and other glamorous jobs like an oil change. But I did take a few minutes to put this little guy together. entry 915 - tags: maintenance
August 19, 2011 - Here's what that little doodad does. It's a brace for the brake master cylinder, tied into the shock tower brace. This should give a nice solid pedal - not something that's ever concerned me with this car, but it can't hurt. The brace is ridiculously simple, just a steel tube with a nut welded to the end. A threaded...I'm not sure what to call this thing, it's basically a bolt with a knurled knob at the end...presses up against the end of the master.
Did I have better things to do? Maybe. entry 916 - tags: brakes
August 20, 2011 - Race rubber! The painted 6UL wheels are an awesome, blinding white. Whiter than the powdercoat was, which is kinda nice. They've now been mounted with the actual tires that will be used in the race, a set of six Toyo R1Rs in 225/45-15.
A rehash of the tire rules that led to this choice: I am allowed a maximum of six tires for the race, and they have to have a minimum of 140 treadwear. This means I can't run a tire such as the Toyo RA1 that did so well for me last time. So the Toyo R1R is it. entry 917 - tags: tires, wheels
August 20, 2011 - Off the lift and on the road. It's time to get the engine tuned properly and make sure the suspension setup is good. Basically, everything needs to get the final shakedown.
The alignment will be sorted out in a few days. One nice feature of the V8Roadsters control arms is that I can play with camber to my heart's content without messing up the rear toe or the front caster. I'm still fine-tuning the damping settings for the 550/400 spring rates, but that should go fairly quickly.
The big thing is the engine. I've decided to take a different tack with how to set it up, and things are progressing fairly quickly. I'm just setting up air/fuel ratios without using a MAF at the moment, and it's possible I might just run that way during the race. We'll see how well the MAF dials in. Once it's all set up, the long-term fuel trim will make sure it stays that way.
As part of the fuel tuning, I'm working through the entire repertoire of the engine: low rpm, high rpm, low load, high load, etc. And at higher rpm, when I nail the throttle this car just boogies. It's still a bit rich down low so that will get stronger as I keep working. entry 918 - tags: tuning, alignment, suspension, testing
August 22, 2011 - A bit of extra airflow management thanks to Mark Rivera at Paco Motorsports. The NACA duct and the turn signal intake helped, but the air pressure underhood is just too high for them to really make a big difference. So these louvered panels will pull hot high pressure air out and make room for the cold stuff. As an added bonus, they'll keep the hood from lifting above 100 mph.
There are some larger ones available on the market, but I wanted a small set for a few reasons: they fit better around the underhood bracing and they'll fit with the Martini livery! Yes, perhaps that last reason is a bit shallow. But I don't care. The panels were punched out by Mark to my dimensions - thanks Mark! entry 919 - tags: aerodynamics
August 22, 2011 - In case you missed the announcement on the front page of the Flyin' Miata site and on various forums - there's a documentary underway about our Targa run. If you have come across this elsewhere, I apologize for posting it twice. But I'm excited! Adam Costa is a Miata fan who has decided to follow us during the race and tell the story of the team. Based on the preview he just released, it's going to be one heck of a show. I've known about this for a while, but it looks better than I could have imagined. Don't worry, the final result won't just be me - I was just the only one that was available for lots of interview time when Adam was in town!
Adam's trying to raise some funds so he can bring along another cameraman during the race, and thus he's pre-selling DVDs and posters. You can sign up on his Kickstarter page. entry 920 - tags: movie
August 23, 2011 - Going over the whole car has revealed a few potential weak spots. Such as this cap for the heater bypass, for example. It's only a few months old - I installed it when I put the engine in - but I suspect it had been on the shelf for quite some time. Check out that cracking. It might have made it through the race, but there's no guarantee. So I replaced it with a brand new one out of a fresh package, seen on the right here.
Interestingly, the slightly larger cap that is installed right beside it was put on at the same time. And it was fine. entry 921 - tags: maintenance
August 23, 2011 - Time to install those new louver panels. The first step was to figure out where they should go. Ideally, they'll go at the point of lowest pressure so they do the best job of pulling hot air out of the engine bay. On this 1994, that's roughly where the hood starts to flatten out when viewed from the side. But there are other factors, such as the underhood bracing. It's hard on airflow, and if you cut too much of it your hood gets all floppy.
Plus there are aesthetic considerations. In my case, that means "no vents in the Martini logo". entry 922 - tags: aerodynamics
August 23, 2011 - Here's the location of the vents viewed from underneath. You can see how they're tucked into the bracing. I also used the rivets to firmly attach the bracing to the bottom of the hood, to retain as much strength as possible. One of the cross bars had to be cut, but it's riveted to the hood on each side (one of those rivets hasn't been installed yet, but you can see the hole) and the louvers actually add strength in this direction. entry 923 - tags: aerodynamics
August 23, 2011 - The view from on top. For those who are curious, the outermost forward rivet is 210mm from the headlight cutout and 100mm from the side of the hood. It's a bit further forward than is ideal, but any further back and I'd be into the big brace. I could have also placed them in a more central location on the other side of that big brace, which would have let me move them further back. But then they'd be into the Martini logo! Oh, what we do to look good. I think they're still going to be quite effective, and it's possible the more central location would have been too far back.
You'll also notice a couple of rivets below the Martini logo. There's also a black on right by the R. Those attach the big brace to the bottom of the hood, replacing some factory adhesive that had failed. The amount of extra rigidity this adds to the hood is significant. You may also notice an extra oddly-spaced rivet on each of the louver panels, that is anchoring the stump of the brace I had to cut.
In the first "install" picture, you can see a matte finish I got from bead-blasting the raw aluminum. Now they've been sprayed with white paint to match the hood, and they actually blend in very well. I considered making them black or leaving them matte, but I'm happy with this. entry 924 - tags: aerodynamics
August 23, 2011 - In case you didn't know, the Targa Miata's sister car is being navigated by Zach Bowman from Autoblog. He'll hopefully be posting during the race, giving his viewpoint on the experience. He's just posted an update about his change of driver's thanks to Bill's damaged shoulder - and about how he narrowly escaped a similar fate. Autoblog at Targa Newfoundland entry 925 - tags: media
August 24, 2011 - The tune for the engine computer is coming together pretty quickly. Changing tacks and concentrating on the MAP-based tables did the trick. It's close enough now that the computer's effective short- and long-term trims will keep everything in line, although I'll do a little extra tweaking once I get down to sea level. I'm also going to keep working on it before I leave to fine-tune as much as possible.
I did discover a vibration from the rear at high speeds. I'll see what I can find. It's not massive, but it's enough to make me look for it.
With exterior temperatures being a solid 100F outside, this was some pretty hot work. It's hard to say exactly how much the intake temperatures have dropped thanks to the louvers, but they're far better than they were when I started. I did confirm that the hood doesn't bulge or flutter at high speed the way it used to, even in 4-cylinder configuration before I had to start altering the underhood bracing. So that's good, and hopefully an indication of the lower underhood pressures.
The screenshot is from the video camera I'll use during the race. I fitted a 0.5x wide angle lens to the camera to get a wider view and I'm pretty happy with the result. Between having the camera wired to car power and the ability to use removable 32GB cards that store over 4 hours of HD video, I should be able to get coverage of every stage without having to worry about space or power. entry 926 - tags: testing, video, aerodynamics,
August 24, 2011 - Janice Alster is an artist and friend of Flyin' Miata. She was inspired by the team (and apparently my "we will teleport off the corners" comment in the recent video) to do this tribute for us. She's also done one featuring Nancy. entry 927 - tags: art
August 27, 2011 - Hero cards! We didn't have these with us in 2008, and we regretted it the entire time. Not only are they great advertising for the sponsors, but they make a lot of kids smile. This time, we didn't make the same mistake.
Pretty much everything we need is now ready to go. The logistics in fielding a two-car team are much more difficult than a single car. You should see the team calendar - the team is going to arrive in St. John's via one ferry and six different airplane flights, arriving on four different days. I'm even picking up Janel en route to Newfoundland, as she's working out of town next week. entry 928 - tags: hero cards, logistics
August 27, 2011 - A final check of the undercarriage. The car's just back from the alignment shop, where they set up the caster and rear toe. The control arms are set for maximum camber using the factory adjusters, leaving the extra adjusters on the V8Roadsters control arms for me to play with. I'm taking a last trip to the track tomorrow to just double-check the handling balance and scrub in the race tires a bit. I haven't spent anywhere near as long on the handling setup this time as I did last time, but that's because the car is such a good, solid platform now. I've been experimenting with it for about four straight years. So I know how to quickly make the adjustments I need to make it work the way I want.
Meanwhile, Brandon is busy doing the last-minute prep on Nancy. Mounting emergency triangles, packing his on-board tool kit, etc. He's also chased down a couple of odd noises. The one thing that is giving him trouble is the trip computer. It's a Terratrip, and we originally purchased an interface box so that it could use the car's electronic speedometer signal. But it turns out that the NC Miata doesn't actually have a separate speedo signal if the car's fitted with ABS. The car figures out road speed from the wheel sensors, and it's all passed around via the CAN-BUS network. So scratch that idea.
Then he discovered the Vehicle Speed Sensor that's used on the non-ABS versions. So he ordered one of those and popped it into the trans...and it's didn't work. It turns out there's a small pin in one of the shafts of the transmission that triggers the VSS, and it's not there on the ABS cars. The hole is, but short of disassembling the transmission it's not an easy retrofit. So now he's going old-school and putting a Hall effect sensor reading off the driveshaft bolts. Lots of fun!
The big trailer with the cars on board will be leaving Grand Junction on Wednesday morning. Almost there... entry 929 - tags: trip computer, alignment, suspension
August 29, 2011 - More preparation work. The cars have to carry some tools with them, just in case. We don't plan on actually using these, but you never do. It's not a full complement of tools (and you can't see them all here) but it should allow us to do most of what we may need at the side of the road. The support vehicles will have a much fuller kit, although everything does have to fit in the back of a pickup along with our spares. We did manage to cleverly come up with two cars that have absolutely nothing in common with each other, which does make this task a bit harder.
The past weekend was actually fairly low-key. The car's in good shape, so it's just a matter of packing by this point. entry 930 - tags: tools, preparation
August 30, 2011 - Today was spent in packing and prep time. The trailer got a few stickers so we can find it in a parking lot. Both cars got washed. All of the spares were gathered up and packed in boxes and buckets, with clear labels on the top so we can quickly find something without unpacking everything. With a large service crew, this is important! We even put a license plate on the trailer.
Everything was packed up by the end of the day, and I pulled out of the lot at 6 pm to head home. We're hitting the road at around 7 am tomorrow. If you see the big while trailer on the road, honk and wave. entry 931 - tags: trailer, packing, spares
August 30, 2011 - Of course, the tow vehicle had to be properly attired. Only semi drivers can actually see the Martini on the hood when we're driving, but I know it's there. entry 932 - tags: truck, Martini
August 30, 2011 - The Targa Miata, ready for the Targa. Now, how about the strategy for the race? One thing to remember is that the Targa is an endurance event. As another competitor has pointed out, you can't win the race on a single corner but you can lose it. You have to get to the end. Also, the winner isn't the fastest car, it's the one with the least number of penalties. That's important to remember. You have to go fast enough to minimize your penalties, but slow enough to survive. Walking that fine line is a real challenge.
A refresher in how the race works. Each stage is given a minimum base time or an average speed, if you like to look at it that way. If you complete the stage over this time or at a lower average speed, then you are penalized. If you finish faster than the minimum, then you don't get any penalties. It doesn't make any difference if you crossed the line right on time or if you came in two minutes early, all that matters is the 0 penalty points. The times get more aggressive and difficult to beat as the week goes on. Nobody will finish the race without penalties, the organizers make sure of that.
There's also the Trophy time, which is the base time plus 40%. If you finish every stage under this time, then you get a Targa plate. It's a reward for consistent speed, and I'm happy to say there's one hanging on my wall from 2008.
We've made some bold statements about winning the whole thing, but really the goal is to run a clean race. Last year, every single Open division car had problems of one sort or another that kept them from finishing a stage. This means big penalties. If someone in that class had kept it together enough to get a Targa plate, they also would have won the division. Heck, the Open division winner only managed to get the steering wheel of his car to the finish line!
So our goal for this race is to finish, get a Targa plate and pick up fewer penalties than our competition. The last is partly up to them, of course, and we're definitely going to have to push as hard as we can and still finish. We'll have a better idea of how hard that will be after the first couple of days. entry 933 - tags: strategy
September 6, 2011 - Did you know that the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world? Over 40 feet on the day we rolled through. That's high enough that you have to put training wheels on your boat so it won't fall over when docked. And yes, in case you're wondering - we're in Newfoundland now.
I had two hard deadlines on the trip out: pick Janel up in Cleveland, where she was going to fly after working in Pasco, WA all week. Then meet our ferry across to the island on Monday night. These were non-negotiable times. So Jim (Janel's father) and I drove hard for two days to reach Cleveland. We then pushed hard for another day, putting us near Portland, ME right on schedule. The idea was to give us a full day's buffer just in case things went wrong - a mechanical failure with the truck, trailer problems, difficulties at the border, etc. As we got closer, we had lots of time in hand so we took the scenic route through Maine and New Brunswick - thus the picture of boats. Even then, we rolled into the ferry docks with about 10 hours to spare. Mission accomplished!
Now that we're in St. John's, the rest of the crew will be arriving over the next few days. Meanwhile, we're enjoying our favorite seafood restaurant and recuperating from nearly a week in the truck. entry 934 - tags: travel
THE DIARY
