HFS's Cars

[CodeRedR51]

Exhaust isn't going to matter much in terms of what you need to unstick the tires properly... which is torque. Though a good set of headers header should give you several ft-lbs down low.

 

[nobuffalo]

I've found mine is very easy to initiate a slide, considerably easier than the corolla ever was. Miata has an open diff, Corolla had a lsd, albeit having 250k miles on it. I've only had one instance of one wheel spinning, and that was at the last autocross I participated in. One of the first upgrades I wanted to do was find a torsion diff, meh, I have no urge to now.

Like PB said, a clutch kick should get it to slide out. I've found being in 2nd gear works best for me, maybe at around 4500 rpms or something.

I'm still amazed at how well power is distributed equally to each wheel, despite being an open differential.

 

[niky]

We weren't talking about an LS1-swapped Miata? Silly me. My mistake.

 

[Eric.]

Someone needs their driving privileges revoked if they can't get a V8 Miata sideways...

 

[homeforsummer]

The car has an exhaust, header, cone filter and lightweight flywheel in that video, although it was just as capable before those parts were on it.

I think you're expecting the type of slide you would get with an lsd. You have to remember with an open diff, unless you do something drastic enough to disrupt both rear tires, applying power is only going to spun the inside wheel. You need to either do it very sharpy, weight transfer, brake, ect ect. Anything that would make the car slide, and then simply continue the slide with throttle. Which again, doesn't work very well with an open diff, but it's possible, especially in the rain.

EDIT: Next time, try it in an open space and give it full throttle and hit the clutch once, see what that does...

Right-o. Sods law dictates that today is beautiful sunshine, and yesterday night when it was absolutely lashing down, I was out getting drunk and going out for a curry at midnight rather than finding somewhere to slide about as I'd originally planned.

Biggest problem really is finding somewhere safe enough to have a play. Very, very few places around here. Best I can think of is a section of bypass a few miles from here that's always empty. Lots of roundabouts. Some of them are pretty tatty though, the weather we had over winter mangled the tarmac, a few three-inch deep holes here and there.

Next time it chucks it down I'll give it a go.

 

[homeforsummer]

One Year On

Who'da thunk it? Turns out I've actually had the MX5 for over a year now, though I don't really feel like I've got over a year's worth of driving from it!

That wasn't for the want of trying though. It definitely got used at every opportunity in the months following its purchase, only stopping to have some new tyres fitted and an alignment done, which transformed the feel of the car. It got a nice trip up to Edinburgh which was fun, and shortly after some git in a taxi reversed into me which prompted removal of the plastic numberplate plinth that I didn't really like anyway.

Over winter though, things went wrong. I had rather a lot of fun taking it out in the large amounts of snow we got for the first time in years, but one day on my daily commute to work I found it very hard to change gear. I thought nothing of it, assuming it just to be oil related since we'd had the coldest night for 30 years or something, at -11 degrees celcius.

Unfortunately though, closer inspection revealed that my clutch slave cylinder had given up, a common problem on MX5s. Having done my research and discovered it was an easy swap, I bought in all the bits and had a go.

Didn't work. The 19-year old bolts that had never moved certainly weren't moving for me, and when I started rounding off the bolt edges I called it a day and booked it in to have the cylinder replaced by the same garage I had the alignment done at.

All in all it was off the road almost two months, so after that I made the most of having the car back, with the top down as much as possible I treated it to new bulbs all round too, since the old ones were very dull.

Yet more recently, and not helped by the winter weather back then, the discs and pads got worse and worse, until recently they started causing a lot of vibration and heat. Taking it in again, it turns out the calipers had seized too, so replacing everything was the only option. While they were off, the mechanic pointed out a broken front spring to me too (and the others were very rusty), so I had the whole lot done at the same time.

Expensive, but worth it.

The brakes are wearing in so still not at their best, but getting better. And the ride has never been better on the brand new stock springs. Still hard, but the right sort of hard now (i.e. no more crashes and bangs, just bumps).

And that's where you join me.

MOT test is due tomorrow, hopefully it should pass and not cost me any more money! I've probably spent as much in repairs as the car cost me in the first place, but it makes me happy knowing I'm effectively restoring the car back to how it should be.

Here's to the next year and hopefully more miles...

 

[mustangGT90210]

Sounds like your year was as good as mine

 

[Joey D]

👍 Congrats Ant, I love these sort of updates! I'll be closing in on 3 years here soon.

 

[nobuffalo]

Congrats!

I need to do a 6 month/10k mile () update, but...idk. Mine would actually be quite the opposite of yours, alot of use with virtually no problems.

One question, do you know how much your wheel/tire combo weighs? I know, kinda random. Lately i've been stripping mine in search for cheap speed, and i've discovered the biggest difference I made in how the car feels was putting the old 14" daisys and 185s back on. My rears weighed in at around 6lbs more a piece, and 5lbs for the front. It was a very, very noticeable difference, something you should maybe consider, just sucks you have pretty new tires already.

Check out this deal. If only I could ship them for free i'd hook you up.

In my experience with my miata, Less grip = More fun.

 

[homeforsummer]

One question, do you know how much your wheel/tire combo weighs? I know, kinda random. Lately i've been stripping mine in search for cheap speed, and i've discovered the biggest difference I made in how the car feels was putting the old 14" daisys and 185s back on. My rears weighed in at around 6lbs more a piece, and 5lbs for the front. It was a very, very noticeable difference, something you should maybe consider, just sucks you have pretty new tires already

Actually, the 15" wheels I have are made by Enkei and were particular to a couple of special edition NA and NB models, and they're very light. I think they're a good 2lb lighter each than the daisies. Not sure what the tyres add to that but I can't see there being much difference all things considered.

At some point, maybe when the Toyos get to the end of their useful life, I'd consider buying some daisies and keeping the Enkeis for circuit use. They need to be refurbished anyway so I wouldn't get much for selling them, I suspect.

The other option I have is to get some 14" Minilite wheels, as again they're very light and suit the style of the car well.

In my experience with my miata, Less grip = More fun.

This is my mantra too, which is why I've toyed with the idea of going for smaller wheels and narrower tyres. Nothing in the budget for that at the moment though!

Oh, and I had my MOT today. It passed... but only after a bit of welding needed doing. Another financial hit then but every time something like that is done it makes me happy that the car is getting slowly better.

What I think I'm going to do though is store the car in a garage over winter. I suspect many of the problems I've had this year were from the vast quantities of water and salt I drove through last winter (and other owners probably drove through in previous years too) so from now on I think I'm going to keep it as a summer car.

What this does mean is I might soon be hunting for a Winter car to join it...