casey_2005 - back to 2 Miatas

[Famine]

All of which are exactly against what the Miata was conceived and designed to be...

Not to mention the bounds of good taste.

Neons on an MX-5 What next, donk it?

 

[nobuffalo]

This may not mean a lot to many of you cause I have not driven a wide variety of cars, but take it as you will. After about a 30 minute drive with the top off around the boring roads of Dallas, I'm very confident in saying that this is the best car I have ever driven. Period.

As for the condition of the car, it's solid. Aside from what I think is a throwout bearing going bad, there really isn't anything wrong with it. Oh and the air bag light has a random flash/flashes. He did still have the center console, center caps, and a few other miscellaneous things, so I installed the console and caps. I'll give it a good clean tomorrow and take some more pictures, Jeff also has a black S2000 so maybe we'll arrange some group shots.

Can't stay, must go drive.

 

[nobuffalo]

What do you guys think of a black top on silver? The paint on my hardtop is in pretty poor condition and I was thinking about maybe going black.

Something like this, I need to replace the drivers side mirror as well, so maybe I could also paint them black?

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Wouldn't look bad although I'd do the A-pillars as well.

 

[homeforsummer]

This may not mean a lot to many of you cause I have not driven a wide variety of cars, but take it as you will. After about a 30 minute drive with the top off around the boring roads of Dallas, I'm very confident in saying that this is the best car I have ever driven. Period.

There's nothing quite like driving with the top down, is there? Twice the fun for a few seconds work.

 

[nobuffalo]

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[///M-Spec]

For your first event, those runs don't look bad at all.

For one, you're not afraid of the car. That's good. There's also significant improvement between your first and third runs. That's even better. Not just the time, but less hesitation (jerkiness) between inputs and a far better line. You probably lost a second and a half in that big slide in your third run, but you caught it and that's good --many noobs would have spun it. So you've got the basic ingredients to get good.

Try to relax your shoulders-- you seem very tense. And smoothness will come. More seat time will also help that.

There were a couple of turns where it looks like you "got a little greedy" --turning in too late while carrying too much speed. That ends up hurting you in the long run because your track out speed will be lower. Remember : "slow in, fast out".

Sounds like you already have good advice to work on. (ie. Looking ahead)

One thing that's always helped me is to be looking at the next (1 or 2) gates or cones rather than the one I'm about to drive past. Because the cones are coming at you so fast in autox, novices tend to drive to the next one rather than positioning themselves for the one after.

Don't look at the next one! It's already too late! Look two to three ahead!

Anyways, nice job on your first time out!


M

 

[nobuffalo]

Thanks for the advise and the compliments! I feel like I know where I need to improve, it's just a matter of making my brain actually tell me to do it during the run. I also only got to walk the course twice, next time i'm gonna try to walk it many more times as well as try to work heat 1 and run heat 2 or 3 to get a better idea of the lines others take. The guy in the orange also mentioned it may be a good idea to run with my lights up, which will somewhat prevent me from looking at the cones i'm passing.

There is a total of 9 more Solo events at my local track, at least up into september. I will probably do 2 or 3 more on the current tires (Kumho Solus HP4 185/60-14) and then look into getting something a little more track orientated. I also need to decide which class i'm gonna run in. Until I find a soft top, i'll be running in the prepared class. So for the time being i'm gonna focus on making the car lighter.

48.00 8 gallons of fuel (leaving 4)
33.00 Passenger seat
27.00 Spare tire and jack
3.75 pas seat belt
8.00 Misc airbag stuff
3.00 front air bag sensors, wires, bolts, covers
2.50 plastic engine pan
2.00 Fuel line cover, battery cover
1.50 Metal plate under steering wheel

128.75lbs, which would bring total weight down to about, well, 2100lbs with me onboard. Funny thing is with helmet and fully clothed I probably weigh right at what i'll be removing. All the items can be reinstalled for daily driving, and as far as the air bag stuff i'm not real sure i'll remove that.

That gives me a Power to Weight ratio of 18.3 lb/hp from 19.4 lb/hp, that's something like a 6.6hp increase right? Hmm... is it really worth it? Hell yes, why not, will also slightly improve handling too.

That's all I can think of now. No one seems terribly interested, but it's good to write it all down. 👍

 

[Leonidae@MFT]

And this is how Casey's MX-5 got a nickname "Calista" after certain anorectic actress..

 

[nobuffalo]

You poking fun at me for being skinny or saying the MX-5 itself is anorexic?

 

[Rotary Junkie]

The MX-5 I reckon. That said it seems you are too if you weigh circa 130lbs.

 

[Glubags]

I guess this would be a better representation of how I did, damn I suck. 👎 http://www.stlsolo.org/sites/default/files/event3_pax.htm

No way, you did great for your first event. You beat a G8, RX-8, MkIV Supra, and even an Elise. 👍

 

[Event]

You have no idea how jealous of you I am right now. When I move to the STL area, I'm coming over.

 

[nobuffalo]

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[Duke]

DAMN! I would purely love to have somebody give me a car just like that. I still can't believe your good fortune. 👍

 

[nobuffalo]

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[Eric.]

So, I will be selling those to a freind for a pretty sweet deal IMO of $275, enough to pay for gas and spending money for my trip back to Missouri this weekend. I'll be moving on to a much better set of wheels and tires but i'm still gonna miss the K1s, they looked nice. A part of me kinda hopes the guy will flake out on me and i'll get to keep them, I don't like parting with things.

Man, sure sounds like you're ripping that guy off.

 

[HACKr]

Your last three autocross videos are on private.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Just so you know, not a big deal if the timing belt breaks as the BP motor is non-interference. Still a good idea to do it though, it's really not that hard.

Oh, and I would just buy a while kit and do everything at once. FM sells a nice one with all the seals and timing belt included. (of course changing the water pump as well while you are in there) 👍

 

[nobuffalo]

Man, sure sounds like you're ripping that guy off.

Pretty much, hell new ones can be had from tirerack for just under 500 shipped. Also, little does he know those pictures were taking before I curbed two of them and bent another, sucker!!! Hehehe.

Your last three autocross videos are on private.

My bad, I think I privatized them cause I was embarrassed, sloppy runs. Fixed. 👍

Just so you know, not a big deal if the timing belt breaks as the BP motor is non-interference. Still a good idea to do it though, it's really not that hard.

Oh, and I would just buy a while kit and do everything at once. FM sells a nice one with all the seals and timing belt included. (of course changing the water pump as well while you are in there) 👍

I'm aware it's a non-interference engine, which is why i've put it off. I agree it would be a good idea to go ahead and do it, but i've been kinda lazy for the past year or so! Thanks for the heads up on the TB kit from FM, i'll look into it.

My current plans with the car are new wheels and tires first, should order those the beginning of next week. Then all new bushing and alignment bolts along with a DIY alignment. Then comes what i'm really looking forward to, new coilovers, swaybars and bumpstops. I would prefer to do coilovers ect first, but i'm needing tires pretty bad, so what the heck. I'm making decent money, so this all should come about pretty soon.

 

[nobuffalo]

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[nobuffalo]

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[Punknoodle]

Cool man What are Star Specs? Like a semi slick?

 

[nobuffalo]

Cool man What are Star Specs? Like a semi slick?

They're considered a Extreme Performance Summer tire by Tirerack, info can be found here.

There are pretty much only 2 choices for guys running 14s, the Star Specs or Falken's RT-615k. It was really a complete toss up for me, I've had the previous generation of Falkens (RT-615) and currently have the even older ones (215). I liked them both despite never being new when purchasing them, hell my current RT-215s where manufactured nearly 10 years ago They still work well though. Honestly I kinda wanted to get the Falkens, better looking IMO, always had a great feel and easy to control and they never really greased up on me like they where claimed to do but I figured i'd try something different. 👍

 

[Eric.]

Dang, you got a lot more tread on those 215s!

Star Specs are totally badass. All you need to know. Also 🤬 amazing in the wet.

 

[nobuffalo]

Dang, you got a lot more tread on those 215s!

Star Specs are totally badass. All you need to know. Also 🤬 amazing in the wet.

That was before about 25-30 runs at Saturdays practice event. Actually they still have a fair amount of tread left.

Tires have been shipped, i'm pretty stoked! Hopefully they get here before the weekend. Near Dallas is the Texas SCCA National Street Tire Challenge on Saturday, then back to Houston for the BMW Autocross/Solo II event, my car is gonna explode!

 

[Eric.]

Jesus! With that many runs, you need to let me know and I'll make a 16 hour drive to it!

 

[nobuffalo]

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[Eric.]

Gravel autocross?

 

[nobuffalo]

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