| MIATA BUILD |
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 | |  | July 30, 2011 - A number of carbon fiber parts arrived for the car.
After a few previous posts on the intake air temperature, I decided to install a NACA duct in the driver's side headlight. And that's when Jeff Lee at Slick Auto contacted us. Slick Auto makes the carbon rear finish panel sold by Flyin' Miata and does some really nice work. He offered to send a couple of prototypes of his upcoming pre-preg headlight covers. The driver's side has the largest NACA duct he could squeeze into it. Like any real carbon fiber part, they're creepy light. The stock headlight covers are the heaviest panel on the car per square inch, so there's a definite weight savings here as well. A nice functional upgrade, and thanks to Slick Auto for helping out!
The other piece is a fuel pump cover. Nic Huffman donated it to the car after checking on suitability for the rules. It's 300g (about 10.5 oz) lighter than stock. It also looks killer, especially against the bare, white parcel shelf. It's a perfect fit. Nic actually sent this out months and months ago, but I've been too busy working on other aspects of the car to install it before now. My apologies for taking so long, Nic! It's a work of art.
entry 894 - tags: carbon fiber, air intake, NACA, weight loss | | |  | July 31, 2011 - The headlight covers looked really good in bare carbon.
Well, on their own they did. On the car, they didn't look good because of what they did to the stripes. Besides, I don't like accentuating the pop-up lights. So out came the paint guns.
I originally was going to leave the white sections as bare cf, but that was still a bit too low-rent for my taste. So I went with something more subtle. Check out the stripe that's supposed to be dark blue. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The NACA duct, of course, was left bare.
entry 895 - tags: carbon fiber, Martini, weight loss, air intake | | |  | July 31, 2011 - The headlight covers installed.
I did a pretty good job on the stripes on the passenger's side, but the ones on the driver's side don't have the right curve. I laid them out too quickly, only taking a half hour instead of the weeks it took the first time. Oh well, there are other mistakes I'd like to fix in the livery elsewhere, and I doubt anyone will really notice. Or wouldn't have, until I pointed things out. I guess I shouldn't mention how the stripes arc into the front wheel arch from the door on the driver's side, should I...
Other work on the car included an alignment. Turns out I can now get up to 3.0 degrees of negative camber on my problem corner thanks to the V8Roadsters control arms, and it can be adjusted independently of the caster. I'm currently running about 2.3 degrees, partly because that's where the driver's side came in. The rears have the potential for a lot more camber than they have, and they're really easy to adjust. So I'm going to play a bit and see what the car likes. I might have to drop that rear spring rate down a bit, but we'll see with the tires inflated properly.
Lots of little jobs on the car. After a week of concentrated work, it's time to get it back out of the garage and see how they've all added up.
entry 896 - tags: air intake, Martini, NACA, suspension | | |
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