Speed Junkie's Car Thread (About time I did this)

So I finally found myself in a situation where I was bored/didn't really have anything to do and actually remembered that I have been meaning to do this. I will mention now that the first few posts will serve as a timeline which leads to my car's current state as there have been quit a bit of things I have done to it.

I actually owned another Miata in the past which was also my first car. I was 16 (entering 11th grade) at the time so the thing was a big stepping stone for me considering I had been driving an automatic 4 door Civic (I got my learner's permit the first day I was eligible to get it: 15.5. The same with the licence at 16 and 3 moths.) Sadly, the Miata was totaled later that school year after another student rear ended me. My car was squished between his Dodge Durango and another car in front of me. I will leave out the details of what lead to that incident.

Don't mind the 17s as they were on the car when I got it






The damage was pretty bad. The transmission tunnel had creases (you can kind of see one in this photo) and the differential mount had broken from the impact.







With the insurance money I got another 90 (Dec. of 89 IIRC) base model NA that I came across at a near-by dealer. The paint was actually pretty crappy but a good coat of wax covered that up. Here are some photos I took of it not long after I got it...









After telling myself not to ever attempt to speed when deprived of sleep after the first time this happened with the previous car, I slid into a guard rail and damaged the quarter panel. Either way here are some photos I have of the car's progress...



First thing was the Momo Monte Carlo (320mm) which I kept from the old car,





Watanabe F8s (15x7 +21) with BFG G-force Sports...










Rays lug nuts...





Forgot to include this the first time.
Me and a friend from High School went for a drive at the mountain and came across these guys. They turned out to be pretty cool people.
Summer of 07 iirc












Goodridge Brake lines with Hawk HP-Plus pads...






...and a Toda Flywheel. Lost the old Fidanza one to the salvage yard...
Sorry about the quality (cell phone)







Then came some Falken Azenis, FM sway bars, and DDM Works Filter adapter...







Graduated High School, Joined the Military, finished training etc...

Next thing on my mind were the coilovers...









PB's old car





Some time after this I got a Recaro Pole Position which was, as I later found out, far too large for me. I had gotten a really good deal on it and at the time I had no experience with other sizes and what generally fits my height and weight. A friend of mine did the fabrication to cut and extend the transmission tunnel to fit the seat and get it centered.







After saving up some money I got the car's body work repaired and painted Championship White with a Saab Dolphin Gray interior thanks to PBs cousin who, if I may add, did his EK.
Around the same time as this I installed a Hard Dog Ace roll bar.









I was very exited about the new look but sadly, a few weeks later and in quite the PB fashion (or vise-versa as he had his incident after mine,) I slid into another guard rail and damaged the left fender and a bit of the left quarter panel. It was at wet drifting speeds so not that much damage. I still haven't gotten the body work fixed to this day as I always find other things to spend the money on.

Anyways I'll give this thread some time to mature before I add some more photos to the timeline. I've made this post long enough as it is .

Is it just me or do you have plain old bad luck with your Miatas..?

Quite the turn of events don't you think? My sheer lack of driving experience helped quite a bit for the first few shunts though. Lately my "luck" has had a turn for the better though.

Dang dude, you need to update this thread something hella. You've got stories to tell and closed-course test video to share!

Stories? Plenty. Test videos? If you mean the kart track then you clearly forgot that they were lost.

EDIT: just realized you were being sarcastic regarding the "closed course" part

EDIT 2: Now, you know most folk 'round these parts of the woods don't recon much on skid racin or any other kinds of ruckus.

FYI not trying to offend anyone/no pun intended, just wanted to fit "skid racin" somewhere in there

Great progress! Hungry for more info.

Perfect Balance

You forgot the Garage Vary lips that have come and gone, and current status of the car.

Also, this is in the wrong place.

Click to expand...

I was getting there... and yeah wrong forum, needs to be moved.




Random stuff...





January of 09.




So anyways, continuing on. Somewhere along the line I got a new set of tires. This time Kumho XSs which were a noticeable step up from the Azenis.






Sometime during the summer of 09 I took a fun road trip down to Ohio. Keef told me they had a small Drift/Time Attack event going on there so I figured it was a my opportunity to see the great plains for the first time. I was amazed.
I had left the day before at around 12 AM, arrived at the track just in time for inspection, drove around, kicked Keefs behind, and even showed the drifters how its done on a stock-powered Miata on XSs and Ohlins. One guy there with an FD on Hoosiers and an LS1 was quicker than me but he decided to leave before before the final event. I ended up taking first so it was a nice touch to the trip...





Me and Keef swapped cars. His reaction? What has been driven cannot be undriven.
















Some time after I got my first Garage Vary lip which looked awesome. After all, I needed a good reason to buy a second one...







Horrible tint on this one but I lost the original...





Towards the end of the summer of 09 me and Keef went on a bit of a road trip to Tail of the Dragon...



If anyone recognizes his old Si...





^An interesting session at the local mountain later that night iirc.




The following morning we hit the local roads again for a bit then headed out for the 7 hour trip to the Dragon. Highway RedBull hand-off was interesting.





Getting ready for the first outing. At least for me...





...well that's what happened to the first lip.





...and not bad for climbing the side of the mountain with my car (just a bit of paint scraped off and some mud)



My lip should have gone on there






Believe or not, I could see over the dash. Barely.






Since we went relatively late in the tourists seasons there weren't that many cars/bikes which isn't a bad thing. Still some interesting finds though...






This guy is on slicks btw...





Awesomeness.












And closure to the trip...






After having my Momo gloves for three years, I decided to upgrade to something better which was definitely worth the money...








Next step up in mechanical grip. Sometime in March of last year...





Took me a couple runs to get used to them. They're amazing but sadly don't last more than one driving season.




Speaking of tires. I had to have fun in the snow as well

Although I'm letting PB keep these for his 323 as I no longer have the stock daisies to mount them on. Hopefully I'll have some money to buy some for the Watanabes before the first major snowfall.





Sometime around April I got my second GV lip which I ended up breaking in half after overcorrecting halfway through a steeply banked 90* corner. It was kind of a "eh what the heck I'll give it a shot" kind of thing. There was plenty of run off space and no traffic so I gave it a shot. I went straight into the field. The grass reached the top of the door. I simply drove back into the road and did not think much about it. After arriving I checked the lip only to realize half of it was missing. "No big deal," I though "I'll go back tomorrow and get the other piece and repair it." So I go back the next day and find a freshly mowed field. We looked near where I had gone off and found a couple chards of white plastic. I called it a day and went home...















^A bit of a get-together we had back in May of last year.
The guy and his FC kind of has his own story which I might mention a bit about later.




A few months later I experienced Christmas during the summer...














The R888s were mounted on these and some Dunlop DZ101s were mounted on the Watanabes after being re-painted...









^ Oh yeah and some new Buddy Club lug nuts.


March of this year...



80 mm spacer for the new Recaro SPG which was a completely different story all together.

Initially I bought Nagisa Auto seat rails to mount the seat. Turned out they were exactly the same as my old Memory Fab rails I used for the Pole Position. They were single locking and would buckle forward and back every time a braked slightly quicker than normal. Not to mention they were not center with the steering wheel. This is actually a problem that plagues Miatas and aftermarket seat fitment.

I am a Nazi when it comes to proper and secure driving positions so I sold the rails on a forum (in less than 5 minutes if I may add ) and began the painstakingly long and immaculate process of measuring everything that I needed to get the lowest possible position using the stock rails as well as the correct lean angle for the seat. After two failed attempts with the seat not being centered I finally got it right. With some clever usage of a vice, a good bit of degreaser, and a few coats of paint, I finished these...



















One of the last things I have done to the car which would certainly have been one of the first if I were to ever do this again, was the Tomei 2-way LSD.
Back in May...









And last but not least, the engine. I had installed a Racing Beat header, Boss Frog test pipe, and racing beat mid pipe on the 1.6 but didn't bother to post any photos of it. At least not of the headers. I'll save that for this weekend hopefully, assuming the 1,8 headers arrive on time.


I guess the last thing to mention is the assortment of decals, some were custom made at the local decal shop...



^Oh yeah and the AP carbon mirrors with 949Racing adapters.









So that pretty much concludes the timeline. There are a couple things missing but they will be added later.

Roll Bar, Racing Seat, Racing Wheels, Racing Steering Wheel, Racing Tires, Racing Mirror, Racing Harness, Racing LSD..

Let's see some on track Racing Videos!

speed junkie

Me and Keef swapped cars. His reaction? What has been driven cannot be undriven.

Click to expand...

Haha, totally! What a fun day that was. I knew at that point that when it came time to replace the civic I wouldn't settle for anything less than a purpose-built sports car. Despite that, the Civic and I still came in third behind a mad man in his S2000, beating out a few other more powerful and sportier cars.

^An interesting session at the local mountain later that night iirc.

Click to expand...

Does the phrase "battle scar" ring a bell?

The following morning we hit the local roads again for a bit then headed out for the 7 hour trip to the Dragon. Highway RedBull hand-off was interesting.

Click to expand...

"Highway Hand-off" has become the code word for any sketchy car-to-car business around these parts. It never disappoints lol.

Getting ready for the first outing. At least for me...

...well that's what happened to the first lip.

...and not bad for climbing the side of the mountain with my car (just a bit of paint scraped off and some mud)

Click to expand...

Thankfully I had my spare, and thankfully it fits on a Miata. We won't go into detail about what happened or how it happened. I'll just say we have it on video, and none of you can see it

Since we went relatively late in the tourists seasons there weren't that many cars/bikes which isn't a bad thing. Still some interesting finds though...

Click to expand...

Funny story about this car. Foolkiller too a picture of this car at Petit Le Mans the day before we took a picture of it at TOD. Same license plate. He must have headed north for the Dragon on the way home! Small world...

Bottoz

Roll Bar, Racing Seat, Racing Wheels, Racing Steering Wheel, Racing Tires, Racing Mirror, Racing Harness, Racing LSD..

Let's see some on track Racing Videos!

Click to expand...

Video? Yes.
On Track? Sorry...

I have done a couple drift events at summit point but that doesn't count.
I have always wanted to attend an HPDE but the rules are really against me. They require equal driver and passenger side safety for the instructor. I have looked into this further and found out that yes, it does mean strictly "equal" which means another SPG and harnesses...
Plus the simple fact that I would always find other things to spend the money on.
Not to compare the two, but I could go to a track for 300 bucks and drive at the limit for a total of a couple hours. Or I could do it for free as long as I want.
For the most part, I have reached a point with the car where I am willing to spend that much money on a track day instead of on the car. I'll just have to buy another stock seat (PBs cousin has my old one as an office chair as part of the payment for painting and repairing the car) and use that for the initial instructor session and swap to the Recaro when I get on the track with my run group.

I'll post up some photos of the last autox event I attended. Let me add that autox is not really my thing but once in a while I would be willing to spend 25 bucks to be outside.

Here are some photos take in succession. I had the R888s mounted on the Watanabes at the time. Had a little fun on this one...














With a ride-along...

































^These were all taken in September of last year iirc.



As a side note: I can assure you that I use the car to its full capabilities...take a look at the sidewalls, in case you hadn't noticed...

So, after spending the majority of this weekend on taking care of a few final details such as leaking injectors (replaced seals) and the car not revving past past 2100 (unplugged the tps (yes, I know it worked for the wrong reasons but the car works for now lol)) I finally was able to drive it around.

The thing feels awesome. Power delivery is very smooth and having torque at 2500-3000 in 3rd going uphill was a definite improvement over the boggy 1.6. Only thing is that it feels as if throttle response is slightly less than the 1.6 but may be due to the lack of a TPS and not the greatest intake plumbing.

Overall, it is definitely quicker than the 1.6 and is a blast to drive. Also the sound is noticeably deeper and smoother. I am very satisfied with the results and although I have a couple bugs to fix it is overall "done." Next step is to go stand-alone and get rid of the horrible AFM and my current cold-side intake solution

Photos will come tomorrow...

Wait... so do you have a 1.8 now? Or have you just fettled the 1.6 a bit more?

Also, I miss my old MX5. Will have to get another at some point...

I have an 03 block (10:1 compression ftw) with a 99-00 head (got rid of VVT. Also solid lifters and best port design ftw.) I also kept the injectors from the 03 engine which flow the most out of the Miata injectors. I kept the Toda flywheel from the 1.6 as well and installed an F1 spec stage 1 clutch for the 1.8 application (rated at a bit higher torque than the stock 03 Miata is rated for), Racing Beat headers, and a good cleaning for the engine bay. The block has 45k miles on it and the head 50k so after some five months of driving an automatic around I am definitely satisfied with the package. I can't believe I didn't get to drive a Miata this summer! But I guess it's the price I ad to pay to end up with what I did.

It took me quite some time to find someone who wanted to trade the VVT head for a 99-00 head (most people are after the 99-00 head and are a bit intimidate by the VVT idea.) In fact, I even gave up on it and began searching for a NA 1.8 head to buy and just sell my VVT head. Ironically, in the "Wanted To Buy" thread I had created for the NA head, a guy from New Jersey posted a comment telling me he had a 99-00 head he would trade me. I jumped on it right away. We met up in Philadelphia, made the trade, and had some amazing food at a well-known bay-side brewery. Tasted the local beer, of course

The guy also had an NA with a VVT 1.8 swap (he needed the vvt pigtail harness to make the vvt work.) It was an interesting sight to see that engine in a first generation Miata. It was even more interesting to have an extra gear under 5th.

The Idea of having the latest engine (excluding the NC) in an NA really appealed to me (and still does.) But all the wiring required to to make the VVT work is what really made me change my mind. As a matter of fact, to someone who is proficient with wiring, it is actually not a difficult project but for me it was way over my head. Not only did I not have he knowledge of how to do it, but I also didn't have the resources. The entire swap and all the work that was done to my car was done on the parking space in front of my apartment

The reason I even got the engine in the first place was because it was offered to me with a pretty unbeatable price. The engine + FM swap kit + ecu (which I later found out was useless) for 900 bucks and I would donate the old 1.6 to the seller (his had lost some bearings.)

So that pretty much covers most of what went down with the swap. Now to get the registration taken care of and have it inspected.

Nice one 👍 After I posted earlier today I actually noticed you'd posted a youtube vid of the problems you were having with it dying over 2100rpm, but the new bits and pieces under the hood look great.

I'd forgotten the later 1.8s had VVT actually, and I'd forgotten the 1.6 had hydraulic lifters too. What are the benefits of solid lifters then, stronger at high RPMs?

Sounds like a good conversion though, I always preferred the idea of the 1.6 in NA Miatas for some reason but can't argue with a chunk of extra torque.

In the 1.6s, when the oil would get hot such as when driving it hard (and often even under regular summer driving) the "shims" will slide down into the buckets because of the oil losing viscosity. This increases the gap between the cam lobe and the lifter and makes a very annoying ticking sound. Not to mention you inevitably loose valve lift. This is best-case scenario. After a while oil gets stuck inside the lifters (correct term being hydraulic lash adjuster (HLA)) since, by design, they allowed oil to get in but not really out. They would eventually clog with old oil that never made it out during oil changes and tick almost constantly. It was just a very inefficient system. With solid lifters you have shims on top of the buckets. the bucket and shim assembly is completely solid. No oil pressure adjusting clearances. That way, at any rpm or temperature, you will always get the same performance from the cams and valves. And yes, at higher RPMs, especially with high lift/duration cams you really can't go without solid lifters. Think about how often and quickly valves open and close at those RPMs and the loads they receive and you would see why solid lifters are beneficial. Oh yeah, and no annoying clicking sounds


Excluding the NC, the other two cars were built by Ocean of Chikara Motorsports with the typical Maruha hardware. Awesome builds and definitely something I am aiming for in the future. Car on the left with VVT and the one on the right is a stroked 1.6 so 1.7 now. Both with Maruha ITBs among many other things of course.

speed junkie

I kept the Toda flywheel from the 1.6 as well and installed an F1 spec stage 1 clutch for the 1.8 application...

Click to expand...

Umm, clarification? Not physically possible as far as I know.

Honestly, now that I think about it, I can't exactly remember but you may be right. What I know for sure is that it was rated higher than what the current engine can produce.




Anyways, time for some photos...

Perfect Balance

Apparently you knew incorrectly, it's on the car and it works.

Click to expand...

Nope, the 1.6 Clutch is physically smaller than the 1.8 Clutch. You cannot bolt a 1.8 clutch to a 1.6 flywheel and visa versa. That's how I got confused when he said that was his setup.

speed junkie

Honestly, now that I think about it, I can't exactly remember but you may be right. What I know for sure is that it was rated higher than what the current engine can produce.

Click to expand...

Thanks for clarifying.

Oh, did you put in a 1.8 differential for that LSD, or was that for the stock 6" differential?

Nope, 1.6. I'm aware of the whole 1.6 ring gear thing but if mine hasn't shattered now it's not going to shatter later. Not unless I put some serious torque through it. I've read that they have broken with the driver just driving down the road. I tend to think that there's more than what people say such as that, more often than not, these cases are associated with people totally misusing their cars. Dumping the clutch or clutch kicks or numerous other bad driving habits. Regardless I could always sell this one in the future for a 1.8 one and drivetrain if anything happens to the ring gear.

Hah that one's on me!

speed junkie

Click to expand...

Mmmm, crackle finish.

What used to go in the vacant space on the right? Stock airbox? Don't think I ever took any photos of my car's engine.

Yeah, it's the cleanest that engine bay has ever been. The stock intake went around to the other side into an air box like this...

Ah, thought it must have been something like that. Just looked unusual seeing it with a big gap...

Pretty sharp looking Miata you got here. Lovin the exhaust manifold.

Yeah, I've always liked how they look. Kind of a mix between high-rise and "normal" headers. I've always wanted the Pit-Crew Racing headers but their price does not justify their difference in performance. Not to mention I'm not sure if they fit right-hand drive cars. They sure look amazing though...

So I went for a relatively mild drive today (first "drive" in more than half a year) and realized how I have lost my "edge." And this is on DZ101s at not very high speeds! Lol my sense of speed has gone up significantly which is certainly not a good thing.

On a generally good note, the car was great besides the fact that at around 80 mph there is a whistling noise the wind makes at the right quarter panel/door/hardtop gap and gets considerably louder the faster I go. Keep in mind this is in a car with a straight pipe and a resonator at the end! Had me really worried at first. Checked that my oil pressure was good and water temperature as well. Braking and turning didn't make any difference. Then I remembered that gap there. Annoying sound is annoying.

Another thing I need to fix is the exhaust getting a bit too close to the rear axle hub. It only does it slightly while turning at low RPMs and high engine load but its a quick fix by lengthening the hole in the rubber exhaust hanger just enough.

Other than that the new engine ran great. Good oil pressure under any rpm and latteral Gs and no HLA noise even after I stopped. The straight-aways are definitely shorter than what they used to be

Anyways, regarding the car. Going back to the 1.6 throttle body sometime in the near future; tomorrow if my friend has any motivation to spectate. The 1.6 TPS and IAC plugs are wired back in so the only thing left to do is drill and tap two holes in the manifold in order to fit the adapter and 1.6 TB.

I'll be posting some more exterior photos when I get another decal for the hardtop in a few days.