Well, i’ve kinda neglected this build thread a bit… mostly because yesterday is when everything basically got here and got in the car, so i barely had the time to get everything on the car, let alone get the pics and stuff posted up here 🙂
Last night was the first time i’ve really driven the car… anywhere. Let alone around any cones 🙂 haha! I finished putting everything on the car, and had my wife help me with bleeding the brakes about 2 hours before i had to leave to get to the NS event last night… and after that, i had a lot to deal with at the shop, so i couldn’t test it or even touch the car basically until i left… So consequently, other than driving up to the mailbox and back to make sure the brakes at least stopped the car, i really didn’t actually get to drive the car, or begin bedding in the brakes (important)… On the bright side though, the Ohlins suspension came in on time, so instead of driving around in a very ‘floaty’ boat of a Miata with the severely blown shocks, i was able to at least have some form of control over the bumps 🙂
So, no time to test, no alignment, and i didn’t even know if the car was going to plow forward in the turns, or decide it wanted the ass-end to go first around every turn… It was going to be a FUN night! With all of this going for me (hah!), i was pleasantly surprised on my first run… the car actually behaved VERY well! …. well, except for the tires.
The tires i had were still the very small, and 500 treadwear rated POS tires it had on it when i bought it… my wheels showed up yesterday for the eventual “STR” version of the car… but TireRack doesn’t have the tires i want in stock yet…
SO….. between the crap-tastic tires, and the AWESOME Carbotech AX6 brake pads and fresh rotors i put in, i was having random brake lock-up and random plowing issues (sorry to the corner workers at the first ‘chicago box’… my plans there never did actually work out until the last run)… The brakes were the most interesting part, because as the night went on, the pads were of course bedding in to the rotor, and every time i hit the brakes, they seemed to work even better and better (too better)… so i was always locking them up as the night went on… lol!
Regardless…. the car did amazingly well in my opinion… the driver could have done a bit better (i’ve never hit so many cones in one event in my life… wow! lol!), but i’m happy with everything, and EXTREMELY happy that i found/bought this little car…
Onto the pics of stuff!!!
Of course the first thing i bought for the car was the brakes… I decided to go with the Carbotech AX6 pads… Its what i used to use on my BSP S2000, and i loved them! These things are VERY grippy, and do it when cold… unlike “track” pads that need a lot of heat before they grab… on the flip-side, if i ever decide to do a track day or time trials event on a bigger track, these will have to be changed… they don’t like getting too hot.
I also got these braided brake lines, but i did not have time to do the full swap on them, so i didn’t install them yet…
After i got the brakes ordered, i began looking into my sway bar options… It seems like everyone and their brother goes for the Racing Beat front bar on these cars… But i kind of wanted a BIT more adjust-ability/future expansion possibilities than that bar gives… so i opted for a more racing-oriented bar that would give me options… enter the ISC Racing front sway bar….
This thing is a BEAST! Also, if i need to change bar diameters/strength, i can easily find other bars that will work since it is basically a standardized racing setup. It definitely required a lot more to install than most bars though… radiator removal, installing the upgraded mounts, etc. But i feel it is VERY worth the effort!
Once the sway bar was ordered, of course the next thing to do is the shocks/springs… Once again here it seems like the “cool kids” are all doing the Xida (sp?) suspension on these cars… i decided to go for something i felt was not only more reliable, but also MUCH more tune-able, and can grow with me/the car… I got a set of Ohlins DFV shocks/springs. The reason for this is simple… they have a great warranty first of all, but Ohlins USA is right up the street from my shop… so if i need new springs, or to have them re-valved or rebuilt, i can just drive them over, drop them off, and easily pick them up… And its OHLINS… so they DO really know what they are doing… haha! I’m sure the Xida is a great setup, but i feel that this will be best for me/for the car.
So, OUT with the old-n-busted….
And in with the Ohlins-hotness….
Last but not least for now, is the wheels/tires… as previously mentioned, i don’t have tires yet 🙁 But my wheels did come in… Since this is an STR-bound setup for now, i went with basically what everyone else is going with… a 15×9 wheel. Everyone seems to use the 949racing 6UL wheels, and i wanted something a tad different… I found these at Good-Win-Racing … basically the same specs as the 6UL, but 1mm different on the offset, and a bit lighter (yay)…
So… hopefully by the Day Series event, i’ll be able to actually make it there… but i’ll also have real tires on these wheels, and have the proper ride-height and alignment on the car… 🙂 I can’t wait!!!
Anyway, thats it for now… thanks for watching!