It's not THAT light

Thanks to some fancy camera work on behalf of my buddy Brent, it appears that Skip is single-handedly levitating the Miata. Turns out he is being conveniently assisted by a jackstand.

Brent and his wife Marta, and Skip and his girlfriend Ekin all came to visit this past weekend to experience the insanity that is Salem. Six people in our tiny apartment worked better than expected! Plus, we got to see the creepiest advertising sign ever (excluding those actually trying to be creepy):



All photo credit to Dr. Brent

Naranja

October ahoy! 'Tis the season of pumpkins,turkeys, and slutty [insert almost anything] college coed Halloween outfits. To celebrate the new season, the Miata got some new shoes. The wheels were purchased off a gentleman on the R3vlimited forums, who happened to work within miles of where I live. They are old 90s era rims, in the classic 5-spoke design I love so much. The tires are from an autocross buddy who bought new ones. Big props to Rob S. for hooking me up!

The plan is to run them solely for autocross, and in the spirit of race cars everywhere, I decided to make them as outlandish as possible. So, how's orange?



Let's compare the old tire/wheel combo to the new:


And on the car:


Combined food/beverage of the day: Bourbon Pumpkin Milkshakes. 1e6 calories of awesome! Also, now I'm a bit drunk. Verdict: delicious, but leave out the graham cracker crumbs and go a bit light on the pumpkin seasoning. And maybe don't do a shot of bourbon before making it. That last one's just a reminder for me though...

100K

September got away from me blog-wise! Here's a quick update, hopefully more interesting posts to follow...

There are certain car milestones that still stand out. 40 years ago, the average age of cars on the road (according to NPR) was 5 years. Now, it's 9. It used to be that cars with 100,000 miles were the exception, now it's the expectation. Heck, I just did the first brake job on the RAV and it has 78k.

While it's not the tremendous accomplishment it once was, 100k is still a milestone, and the Miata just surpassed it this morning. I was able to find a winding road and take it for a nice ride. At the rate things are going, it will see 200k in 2031. Here's to many more!

Hype-fest of Epic Proportions

Well, Hurricane Irene came and went without much fanfare in our neck of the woods. I got to pace around a bit at the indignity of being trapped inside all day. It was exciting to wander down to the harbor and watch the whitecaps roll in, though.

So far, the Oatmeal has provided the best commentary on the situation. His point that the worst disasters happen with little warning is well made. That's why I keep my windows boarded and a shotgun near the door. The Zombie Apocalypse is real, people.

And for our regularly-scheduled programming, here is a little early birthday present my buddy Adam sent over:

Mmmmm, orange long-nose Porsche...

Start Eating

In my search for new autocross tires, I have come across a few characters on craigslist. Here is the most memorable exchange (according to the wife, funnier when read out loud):

(Original ad: Wheels)

Me:
I'm interested in your wheels and tires, but I have a couple questions:
Wheel width/offset/hub diameter?
Tire brand/model/size?
Got better pics?

Him:
i dont kn ow any of that but if you want to come see them and try them on your car you can let me know 603 486 8154 thanks

Me:
If they're at least 7" wide wheels I'm interested. I'd probably be willing to pay $250 for them, in that case. If they're 7.5 inches wide, $300 if they're in good shape.

Him:
i dont know why you email me wasting your time saying what you will pay the ad does not say make offer it says 500$!!!!!!!!!

Me:
If you get that price I will eat my hair. Good Luck with sale!

Him:
start eating

*End of transcript*

In other news, we visited Cafe Polonia in Salem, MA while my mom was in town. Say what you will about the Poles and their ability to win a war, but holy crap is their food and beer delicious. I got the Zywiec raspberry beer and a kielbasa reuben. Basically what they're doing there is taking the best sandwich known to man and adding the fattiest pork sausage in existence. It may be the perfect food.

Senna

In honor of today's American release of the (apparently well-made) documentary about the late, great F1 champion, here's a little video of Ayrton Senna flogging the #$%&* out of an Acura NSX:



The best part for me is watching his amazing heel-and-toe skill. In loafers. Observe how he modulates the gas pedal to keep the car balanced and the revs up. I am at least the ten bajillionth person to say this, but dang, he was a talented guy.

More Autocross Love

Sorry for the long interval, faithful reader(s?).

July was a good month, back-to-back weekends of autocross fun. July 23rd I ran with the SVT (Ford) club. Very well-run event, a bit more expensive than usual, but they provide lunch, and we got in a whopping 11 runs. As an added bonus, my brother-in-law Dr Kevin was in town and co-drove my car. We had a great day, and Dr Kevin even beat a Porsche 928 in his first event! I, of course, DFL'd.

My results:


Dr Kevin's:


July 30th was the regularly-scheduled Renegade Miata event. Very good course, technical but surprisingly fast. I had trouble getting a clean run, only one was cone-free (each cone is a 2-second penalty). However, my times were very consistent, thanks in part to a tire sprayer I purchased. The tires I run lose grip very easily when they get hot, and a sprayer cools the tire quickly by evaporation of the water. My first two runs were solid, and my third one felt awesome right up till I spun one gate from the finish. I lost my nerve after than and backed off a bit. Here's the video of that third run (admit it: you only watch the videos where I spin).



In other news, I got a free (!) set of nearly-new winter tires and wheels from a guy who moving to NYC and getting rid of his car. I didn't need them, so I put them up on Craigslist and got a good price for 'em. Schwing! The money is going toward a set of wider wheels and newer tires. I've got my eye out for a deal, which will probably come along at the end of the autocross season, when guys are getting yelled at to clean out the garage.

Moms and Cars

Last October my mom visited during an autocross weekend. She was game enough to come along for a lap, although I doubt she'll repeat the experience. At least she's smiling! That might have been a "before" shot, though.



Enter this guy:


He took his mom on a ride in a prepped Corvette at the famous Laguna Seca course in California. At about 1:45 they hit the Corkscrew, a blind, downhill turn that is allegedly one of the most challenging in motorsports. The mom's reaction seems fairly appropriate.

In conclusion: thanks to all the moms that support motorsports obsessions. But be wary if your son offers you a ride-along lap!

Align this

As previously discussed, the Miata has been making some clunking noises during turning and braking. Were it a car with power, it might make noise during acceleration, too. This problem has been well-documented to be caused by movement of the alignment cams. After the autocross I put dabs of paint on all 8 cams (two per corner to adjust toe, camber, and caster). I re-inspected today after about 200 miles of driving, and none had moved (yay!). Hopefully this means my super-duper alignment is still intact.

Front right wheel, rear cam.


Close-up of cam, note paint dot ensuring alignment.


Front left, rear cam. Also in good shape.


To protect things in the future and reduce the noise, I used a high-tech breaker bar setup to tighten the front cams. I had not heard any noise from the rear, so those are staying the way they are.


Shakedown run with the G-dawg as navigator showed that noise is definitely reduced. Slight clunk on hard braking, but I can live with that. Since the cams are marked, I can always dial the alignment back in should things shift.

"Make your blog funnier," says the wife. Married gentlemen out there: when your wife "requests" something, just acquiesce. It makes for less crying. On your part, that is, once the beatings have stopped.

Since she "asked" so nicely, here is a little something in the "food" category:

Monster

Congrats to Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima who, at the age of 61 (!), just cracked the 10-minute mark for the Pikes Peak Hillclimb.



Here is the video:


Let's note a couple things. First off: this video is not sped up. He is whipping by spectators who are only a couple feet from the road. His car has over 1,000 hp, giving him plenty of acceleration on the steep slope. Second important point: watch the patience he exerts on corner entry. He epitomizes the "slow in, fast out" philosophy. His corner entries seem almost absurdly slow (compared to the straights, of course; he's probably still going 30-50mph), but it allows him to get on the gas early and hard on corner exit.

He has raced this course for decades, so he certainly knows the course well, but it changes every year as more of the road is paved. The course will allegedly be all-asphalt starting next year, so the drift action at the end of the video may be gone for good.

Autocross Action (now with spins!)

The Renegade Miata Club held an autocross on June 19. It was a Rob M special, with a Chicago Box on a corner and a couple 180-degree pivots. Can't say I figured it out, but I posted my best score ever at the event. The courses vary so widely that comparing raw times isn't very valuable, I look at score as a percentage of the winning time in my class (Street Touring S).

The alignment felt excellent, the car turned in crisply and was very easy to steer using the throttle. Not having to correct for weird alignment quirks meant I could focus on turning in early and driving a smooth line. The brakes working as they should definitely helped as well!

I also got to test out a co-workers GoPro HD camera. I mounted it the roll bar and got some good footage. I'm very impressed with the picture and sound quality, considering they required no adjustment on my part. Below is a sampling of some runs.

First: My fastest run, at 1:26.91. For comparison, the fastest run in my class, by Ben W, was a 1:16.74, more than 10 seconds faster (basically an eternity). The balm to my ego is that his time was faster than anyone in Street Prepared, which allows racing slicks and engine swaps


Next: My third run, with a fun 180-degree spin off the first sweeper


Last: After the event, we typically have fun runs for anyone interested. No score, just a chance to take along passengers and try other people's cars. I spun in the same spot as in Run #3, but with more interesting results. Note I catch the spin somewhat better, but run out of runway (literally, we're on an old Air Force base)

Gotta start somewhere

The pressure of putting up a truly epic first post has kept me from adding to the blogosphere, but no longer!

Goals for this blog: combine three things I love in a way that avoids breaking laws and losing appendages.

Beer: 'Gansett lager. In the words of my neighbor "It takes all kinds." Trashy Massachusetts townie beer. Delicious!

Food: Veal burger in a pita with farm share hippie lettuce and BBQ sauce. I'll stop eating baby cows when they stop tasting delicious.

Cars: I am driving a 1992 Mazda Miata. To answer the unasked question, it's faaaaabulous. It serves as my weekend driver and autocross car. It currently has 97K on the clock and (most importantly!) zero rust. I have records dating back to 1994, when the second owner purchased it. I bought it in May 2009 from the third owner, who had it for about 8 months, but needed to fund an engagement ring. The car has (so far!) had zero mechanical issues. I have replaced the timing belt and water pump, replaced the brake pads, replaced the shocks and springs, and switched mufflers. The front-engine, rear-wheel drive means there is plenty of room for access. Add the fact that almost the entire car can be taken apart with 4 different socket sizes, and it's a home mechanic's dream.

Racing: Autocross is one of the best activities for the Miata. It keeps it exercised and happy, while making sure the driver understands vehicle dynamics and the difference between the throttle and brake. Looking at your here, Toyota owners. Just so we get things clear, my daily driver is a RAV4. I have cornered the market on the first cars you would buy your 16-year-old daughter. But I digress...

Last year I raced the Miata in fully stock form, other than a cold-air intake and a slight timing bump (+14 degrees, for those of you in the know). I came in dead last almost every race, but I did take home the "Most Improved" trophy. Can't complain about hardware!

Over the winter, Bilstein shocks and Flyin' Miata springs went in. I replaced the front sway bar with a 22mm unit from a later model. For you nerds, the 22mm is 180% stiffer than the stock 19mm unit. Yay for stiffness proportional to radius^4! Fat Cat Motorsports has an amazing wealth of Miata knowledge, namely their suspension calculator that showed the stock handling balance (front roll couple) would be maintained if I removed the rear bar completely. So far, it's paying dividends! Turn-in is much quicker, no more turn the wheel, wait five seconds, then the car responds.

At the last event, I had Ben W, our resident hotshoe, drive the car during post-event fun runs. His response was: get an alignment, and something is up with your brakes. He recommended -1.5 degrees camber front and rear, zero toe both ends, and as much caster as they can give me. I got the car aligned yesterday at In Tune Automotive. They did great job aligning to the specs I gave them, for their usual $80. Sweet! To further geek out, here is what my camber curves should look like. Again taken from FCM's excellent site:































As for brakes, something is definitely up. It was sneaky, and I compensated for it without realizing something was amiss. The pedal is firm, indicating that brake pressure is good and there's no air in the system. I have checked both front calipers and neither one is stuck, nor or the slider pins corroded. New pads and rotors have been ordered. In the rear, when I replaced the pads 2 years ago, the rear sliders were a bit crusty. Apparently a common issue. Once those parts go in, we shall see how the car feels. A coworker suggested it could be a master cylinder problem, too. Let's hope not, those get expensive!