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Horse Power, Track Shit, Torque, Cubic Inches, Liters, Run What Ya Brung, Auto or Cycle

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9 sessions on these fronts, RE71RS ain't cheap
 
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I wound up getting 3rd place today; behind a well-driven SSP Boxster race car with a Pro Solo driver, and a GT4 RS…different ‘fabulous’ one than the one in the pic above; the guy who beat me was a few cars behind me in line.

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I’m surprisingly OK with those guys beating me…PAX index helped, but those guys are great drivers in much, much faster cars. Happy to make the podium today.
 
I wound up getting 3rd place today; behind a well-driven SSP Boxster race car with a Pro Solo driver, and a GT4 RS…different ‘fabulous’ one than the one in the pic above; the guy who beat me was a few cars behind me in line.

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I’m surprisingly OK with those guys beating me…PAX index helped, but those guys are great drivers in much, much faster cars. Happy to make the podium today.
PDK?
 
Yeah….

And I know, I know… feels like I’m cheating with that transmission, but it is much faster on track. I agonized over that or a true manual 6-speed when I ordered the car and changed the configuration back-and-forth a few times; finally locked in on the PDK on the last day before my car entered production because I knew this car would be spending most of its life on track.
 
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Yeah….

And I know, I know… feels like I’m cheating with that transmission, but it is much faster on track. I agonized over that or a true manual 6-speed when I ordered the car and changed the configuration back-and-forth a few times; finally locked in on the PDK on the last day before my car entered production because I knew this car would be spending most of its life on track.
Nah, if you knew you were going to race it the PDK choice is the obvious one
 
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Excuse me, sir. Could I interest you in some stance?

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I spent a solid year of seeing pictures like this assuming it was all photoshopped, because no one could be that stupid in real life, could they?
Imagine my surprise when I found out that people actually do this stuff, on purpose.
 
I spent a solid year of seeing pictures like this assuming it was all photoshopped, because no one could be that stupid in real life, could they?
Imagine my surprise when I found out that people actually do this stuff, on purpose.
One of them lives in my neighborhood. Thankfully he’s some stupid kid that either sold whatever piece of shit it was or moved out of his parents house because I haven’t seen it in a while
 
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I've seen some silly fads come and go, but most of them were cheap and low effort. The stance thing takes significant effort, isn't cheap, and it makes the car barely driveable. Plus it (subjectively) looks stupid. That's a pretty poor ratio of pros/cons and yet it still caught on. I'll never understand it, or the whole squatted truck thing.
 
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Yeah….

And I know, I know… feels like I’m cheating with that transmission, but it is much faster on track. I agonized over that or a true manual 6-speed when I ordered the car and changed the configuration back-and-forth a few times; finally locked in on the PDK on the last day before my car entered production because I knew this car would be spending most of its life on track.
I like driving a six speed manual but LOVE the PDK it shifts so freaking fast. I prefer the PDK now over a manual.
 
I've seen some silly fads come and go, but most of them were cheap and low effort. The stance thing takes significant effort, isn't cheap, and it makes the car barely driveable. Plus it (subjectively) looks stupid. That's a pretty poor ratio of pros/cons and yet it still caught on. I'll never understand it, or the whole squatted truck thing.
I’m not sure I’ll ever understand squatted trucks either. That seems as stupid as the stanced cars
 
Someone was saying, on a forum IIRC that one of his relatives did this to his truck. He asked did you re aim the headlights....the reply was no I didn't do anything to the headlights.
 
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(cont'd from post #1466)

Her car is loaded and ready for the 6 hr journey to Edmonton to begin the project.
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We were fortunate to be able to view the dyno test of her engine the next morning before returning home.
Definitely enjoyed that!
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Took these screen shots of a couple of the pulls that morning. They would be running more using various carbs, later.
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Doing a full car is a HUGE project. You chop it up into a million little projects. I got brakes done, I got the rear bumper installed. Slowly chip away till you are "done".


Don't anyone tell him it is never really done.
 
Doing a full car is a HUGE project. You chop it up into a million little projects. I got brakes done, I got the rear bumper installed. Slowly chip away till you are "done".


Don't anyone tell him it is never really done.
Truth squared!

My Bronco is continually a work in progress. Glass is going to be fun (expensive). 😜
 
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Another weekend at Ozark International Raceway in the books... such a great track.

Ended up running a few 2:54 laps with a consistent 2:52 optimum lap in the Garmin, I just couldnt put it together, got into traffic, etc... Excuses excuses excuses. It rained on Saturday night so the track was green on Sunday and didnt really start to come back until session 4(where the 2:54.99 linked below was set). I did a 2:54:55 in the very first session on Saturday, but the Garmin didnt record any video that session for some reason. I dont think my car has enough HP to go any faster than maybe that 2:52 optimum or MAYBE a 51 with me driving it, as its setup now. Maybe on some Hoosier R7's and a different driver it could dip into the 49 range, but I think even that is optimistic. A buddy with a similar setup who is a far far better driver than me did a :51 and he THINKS on fresh hoosiers he could do a 49. We just dont have the HP... The good news is there were guys there with 400-500hp that were only a few seconds faster than us. I had a guy riding with me and we gave a Porsche GT4RS cup car a pass out of turn 2 and then in the next corner, they call it "the carousel" which is a fairly good size off camber sweeper which showcases pure grip as its trying to spit you off the outside, we pulled him back in, of course he left us in the following straight with 400+ hp... shows the mechanical grip of my car though. The guy in my car was really impressed at the amount of grip I have.

Im so ready for the LS swap although every time I drive this car with 132whp Im impressed by it.

-Corvette wrecked into turn 1 bad. They loaded his car on a trailer with a fork lift I heard.
-A bmw hooked it across track straight into a concrete wall and bounced up in to the air after putting 2 off(happened right in front of my buddy, but his Garmin, of course, wasnt running). Wasnt shocking when we heard what car as the guy was all over the place all weekend meandering all over the track. We were afraid to take passes from him hoping he wouldnt swerve over into us after giving us the pass.
-My buddy who did the 51 in his Miata went off at the end of the day Saturday and smashed his oil pan and spread burning oil all down the track. The fact he didnt realize he was on fire and spread oil down about .5 miles of the track before bailing out probably saved his car. He says "best $120 in oil dry I ever spent". Going to take a bit of work to get the car in shape again, but I dont think to bad honestly. Our other buddy was behind him when it happened(no cameras in his car unfortunately) and he said there were 8-10 feet of flames following the car!!!

 
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Another weekend at Ozark International Raceway in the books... such a great track.

Ended up running a few 2:54 laps with a consistent 2:52 optimum lap in the Garmin, I just couldnt put it together, got into traffic, etc... Excuses excuses excuses. It rained on Saturday night so the track was green on Sunday and didnt really start to come back until session 4(where the 2:54.99 linked below was set). I did a 2:54:55 in the very first session on Saturday, but the Garmin didnt record any video that session for some reason. I dont think my car has enough HP to go any faster than maybe that 2:52 optimum or MAYBE a 51 with me driving it, as its setup now. Maybe on some Hoosier R7's and a different driver it could dip into the 49 range, but I think even that is optimistic. A buddy with a similar setup who is a far far better driver than me did a :51 and he THINKS on fresh hoosiers he could do a 49. We just dont have the HP... The good news is there were guys there with 400-500hp that were only a few seconds faster than us. I had a guy riding with me and we gave a Porsche GT4RS cup car a pass out of turn 2 and then in the next corner, they call it "the carousel" which is a fairly good size off camber sweeper which showcases pure grip as its trying to spit you off the outside, we pulled him back in, of course he left us in the following straight with 400+ hp... shows the mechanical grip of my car though. The guy in my car was really impressed at the amount of grip I have.

Im so ready for the LS swap although every time I drive this car with 132whp Im impressed by it.

-Corvette wrecked into turn 1 bad. They loaded his car on a trailer with a fork lift I heard.
-A bmw hooked it across track straight into a concrete wall and bounced up in to the air after putting 2 off(happened right in front of my buddy, but his Garmin, of course, wasnt running). Wasnt shocking when we heard what car as the guy was all over the place all weekend meandering all over the track. We were afraid to take passes from him hoping he wouldnt swerve over into us after giving us the pass.
-My buddy who did the 51 in his Miata went off at the end of the day Saturday and smashed his oil pan and spread burning oil all down the track. The fact he didnt realize he was on fire and spread oil down about .5 miles of the track before bailing out probably saved his car. He says "best $120 in oil dry I ever spent". Going to take a bit of work to get the car in shape again, but I dont think to bad honestly. Our other buddy was behind him when it happened(no cameras in his car unfortunately) and he said there were 8-10 feet of flames following the car!!!



You mention an LS swap. Wouldn't that really screw with the F/R weight balance? Does the new HP just make up the difference in the straights?

Is there any reason other than sheer cost not to stick a Rotary in there?
You'd have light weight, good horsepower and you could re-badge it to RX-5.
 
There's plenty of LS-swapped Miatas out there, though I do think the K20/K24 is more popular. Dampers, spring rates and aero can pretty easily bring the balance back.

Ozarks definitely seems like a "don't fuck around and go full send here your first visit or two" type track.
 
You mention an LS swap. Wouldn't that really screw with the F/R weight balance? Does the new HP just make up the difference in the straights?

Is there any reason other than sheer cost not to stick a Rotary in there?
You'd have light weight, good horsepower and you could re-badge it to RX-5.
Reportedly, if you swap an all aluminum LS into a 3rd gen (NC), front / rear weight distribution only switches to the front by 1%.
 
Reportedly, if you swap an all aluminum LS into a 3rd gen (NC), front / rear weight distribution only switches to the front by 1%.
I'm skeptical, but Miata track guys are usually pretty good about honest data collection.
In Porsche 944 world guys love to spread the idea that an LS swap adds no weight. But when you finally pull some details out of them, they're comparing an aluminum LS with no accessories to a 944 turbo engine with all accessories, turbo, flywheel/clutch etc. bolted on. And then it turns out they didn't even have a turbo car and they put in an iron LS because aluminum is expensive and they actually added 250lbs but its okay because they moved the battery to the trunk and "you can't feel 250lbs anyway so it doesn't matter".
But everyone still loves to pretend that a swap adds negligible weight.
 
You mention an LS swap. Wouldn't that really screw with the F/R weight balance? Does the new HP just make up the difference in the straights?

Is there any reason other than sheer cost not to stick a Rotary in there?
You'd have light weight, good horsepower and you could re-badge it to RX-5.

The way I am LS swapping I will be about 150lbs over a BP. Engine is ~100lb heavier give or take(dressed BP is ~300, dressed aluminum LS is ~400). BP motor is iron block/aluminum head vs. full aluminum LS. Trans is about 40lbs heavier(90lb Miata 6spd, 130lb T56 Magnum F). Rear end is +10 give or take(55lb miata vs. 65lb ford aluminum 8.8). Sub frames are heavier than factory pieces(unsure by what). Driveshaft slightly heavier. Axle shafts slightly heavier. Front to rear balance changes towards the front a bit. A buddy runs a 50lb steel plate in his trunk to balance out the car a bit. With 400+ whp it simply doesnt matter near as much if you add 150-200lbs onto a 2200lb car. Its going to be a violent ride regardless.

Rotary's have shit support in general and make what, 50hp over a BP at a bajilioin dollars cost. Would be a cool project, but just no... My buddies dad has one. Its fun, but he takes out his other cars far more often.


There's plenty of LS-swapped Miatas out there, though I do think the K20/K24 is more popular. Dampers, spring rates and aero can pretty easily bring the balance back.

Ozarks definitely seems like a "don't fuck around and go full send here your first visit or two" type track.

k24 swap costs damn near what an LS swap costs to do correctly and you end up with half the HP and a motor that vibrates itself to death, still dealing with the shit Miata transmission and rear end(unless you swap to a different trans and rear end, which just adds more cost)... I think they can make fine conversions on the street, but put them on the track and you are going to blow shit up.

Ozarks isnt nearly as bad as it seems IMO. Even the first time I went I was like "this isnt as bad as people make it out to be". MOST of the "haters" of Ozark that tell you how dangerous it is have never been... but thats the case with almost everything these days when somebody tells you how to do something and you say "how many times have you done it that way" and the answer is "well ive heard" or "I watched it on youtube" or "ive been elsewhere so that corelates to this also"... the answer is they have never been somewhere or done something that they want to give their opinion or expert advice on. None of my track buddies will tell you Ozark is dangerous. Does it require a bit more skill than other tracks, sure, but dangerous...no. Its an FIA rated track so its got runoff, armco, tire walls, sand traps, etc... where they need to be.

Reportedly, if you swap an all aluminum LS into a 3rd gen (NC), front / rear weight distribution only switches to the front by 1%.

Dont know on the NC although we are building my buddies after we do mine. On an NB you gain about 100lbs up front.


I'm skeptical, but Miata track guys are usually pretty good about honest data collection.
In Porsche 944 world guys love to spread the idea that an LS swap adds no weight. But when you finally pull some details out of them, they're comparing an aluminum LS with no accessories to a 944 turbo engine with all accessories, turbo, flywheel/clutch etc. bolted on. And then it turns out they didn't even have a turbo car and they put in an iron LS because aluminum is expensive and they actually added 250lbs but its okay because they moved the battery to the trunk and "you can't feel 250lbs anyway so it doesn't matter".
But everyone still loves to pretend that a swap adds negligible weight.

As I laid out above its at least 150lbs and probably more like 200lbs. But going from 130whp to likely 400+ whp, 200lbs isnt going to affect anything that I will be able to tell. Likely about +100 on the front end. My BP is pretty stripped and so will the LS. No A/C, no Power steering, etc... Just an alternator, water pump, etc... LS accessories are far heavier than same on a BP so I expect to be under that 100lb weight difference by a bit(maybe 10lbs). I have no way to weight the motors unless I can get a friends 1000lb corner weight scale.


Here is an acquaintance LS Miata. He's been doing LS miata stuff for like 6 or 7 years. Has it pretty dialed in. 150mph in a Miata is NUTS...
 
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Ozarks isnt nearly as bad as it seems IMO. Even the first time I went I was like "this isnt as bad as people make it out to be". MOST of the "haters" of Ozark that tell you how dangerous it is have never been... but thats the case with almost everything these days when somebody tells you how to do something and you say "how many times have you done it that way" and the answer is "well ive heard" or "I watched it on youtube" or "ive been elsewhere so that corelates to this also"... the answer is they have never been somewhere or done something that they want to give their opinion or expert advice on. None of my track buddies will tell you Ozark is dangerous. Does it require a bit more skill than other tracks, sure, but dangerous...no. Its an FIA rated track so its got runoff, armco, tire walls, sand traps, etc... where they need to be.

To be fair, I've heard similar comments about "dangerous" regarding NCM and it being my home track my response is "wat?" Its not Putnam or Gingerman being wide open, and runoffs aren't as large as Mid-Ohio/Barber/Road Atlanta, but I would never call it "dangerous". I do think its probably a track that could bite, especially on a first visit going full send...but isn't that most tracks?

More than one person has told me Ozarks is an absolute blast, it is on my list to get to (right after VIR and Road America, probably before Watkins Glen).
 
To be fair, I've heard similar comments about "dangerous" regarding NCM and it being my home track my response is "wat?" Its not Putnam or Gingerman being wide open, and runoffs aren't as large as Mid-Ohio/Barber/Road Atlanta, but I would never call it "dangerous". I do think its probably a track that could bite, especially on a first visit going full send...but isn't that most tracks?

More than one person has told me Ozarks is an absolute blast, it is on my list to get to (right after VIR and Road America, probably before Watkins Glen).

We did G2 the new track here in Dallas back in March... Lots of people are saying how dangerous it is also. Im like "ok there are 2 sections where if you fuck up you are in the wall"...

I've seen wrecks in really odd places at a few tracks. I think there is potential at any track you go to to go into a wall. Just the risk we run. You wont ever design a 100% completely safe track where if you go off anywhere you wont hit anything... Most track the sketchiest place is pretty well known. IMO at Ozark thats basically just turn 1. There are a few other places where if you fuck up real bad your day will get bad, but turn 1 is pretty much the biggest one that eats cars at Ozark.

Ask the F1 guys about runoff at some of the Grand Prix courses built into 500 year old city centers LOL.


We do Ozark every May with Chin. If you want to go with us next year hit me up. We will likely rent the same house and it has plenty of beds. We have a great time. We did a really nice italian restaurant for dinner on Friday, smash burgers in the trailer on Saturday, fajitas and margarita bar at the house saturday night, sunday did cheese steaks at the trailer then went out to a big lake restaurant/bar on Sunday night. Its a fun time.
 
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