1990 Mazda Miata
Hello, I’m new here. Pleased to meet you all. Where are the passing zones? I'm the world famous Hero To The Momentum Impaired, Wreckerboy. You can tell, because it says so on my car above the door, just like the real racecar drivers do:
This is the story of an innocent Miata that had accumulated way too many miles on it and needed "a slight freshening." All I was planning to do was freshen the car up a little. You know, replace some of the wear items after 250,000 miles. Yeah, right, but it sounded good at the time. After months of me being indecisive, my lovely, patient, and supportive wife and Crew Chief, Jean, got fed up and told me to “just write the blanking check, already.” So it’s all her fault.
Lola, (because all Miatas have names, and because whatever Lola wants, Lola gets), has been seeing nothing but active track duty for the last three seasons. She is a very early "smooth case" car, probably built during the sixth week of production in 1989.
Lola, the Crew Chief, and I have competed (and won) at various EMRA events at Lime Rock, Pocono in all it's many configurations, Watkins Glen in the wet, BeaveRun, and Summit Point. (Sadly, I missed running it at Bridgehampton.) We've taken the EMRA ST-4 Time Trial Championships in both 2005 and 2006.
This is a low budget racecar built, maintained, and tweaked in my own backyard shop. Careful attention to details, not cubic dollars, helps this car go quickly despite a 250,000 mile old engine! The net result is a reliable, well balanced, and excellent handling car that only got that way after much experimentation with various chassis set-ups.
Why the GRM UTC? Because I've been reading and subscribing to the magazine since the Auto-X days, and I've always loved the editorial direction the magazine has taken. My long term plan is to go wheel to wheel racing with this car, and had planned on taking the 2007 season as a developmental season for myself and only going to select events and finding new challenges, while letting the Crew Chief get some seat time in during the EMRA calendar. We were planning on going to VIR this year anyway, so what better time than with GRM?
Chassis:
Lola has the full Spec Miata suspension kit, upgraded with Mazdaspeed polyurethane bushings all around. This kit includes the class spec Bilsteins, adjustable spring perches, and spec sway bars.
The car is corner weighted and aligned using home made alignment tools before each event.
After a fair amount of experimentation, I found that a combination of Carbotech brake pads, Mazdaspeed braided brake lines, Castrol fluid, and Toyo T1-R race rubber work well with my alleged driving skills. Blueprinted hubs, and 2.0" wheel studs compleat the rolling stock. The car typically runs on OEM Miata alloy rims (light and cheap), but I do have a spare set of Kosei K1's from my street days.
Spec Miata suspension, Mazdaspeed braided brake lines, Carbotech brakes pads, ART blueprinted hubs and extended studs
Safety:
I'm the Chief of Tech for EMRA. Safety is the most important thing I look for and stress when I'm on track. Accordingly, I have installed:
Hard Dog Hard Core Dual Diagonal Roll Bar
ISAAC head and neck restraint
Ultra Shield SM aluminum seat and (new) 6 point G-Force harness
OMP seat back brace
Ultra Shield seat, new G-Force belts, mounts for ISAAC H & N device, d-cut Sparco wheel (in the seat)
Engine
Under the hood we have 250,000 mile old, 1600cc's of thundering fury. Mods include a Jackson Racing header connected to either a Mazdaspeed exhaust or a homebrew set-up consisting of 2.5" pipe and a Walker Dynomax muffler.
I currently run a SP Spec Miata intake or JR CAI. The JR unit is a little peakier than the SP, and the SP has great midrange.
Balanced and blueprinted injectors were added before the 2006 season. Oh yeah, and it gets a tune-up every year. This is a Miata, after all, and typical between round maintenance is wiping the windows.
1600 cc's of thundering fury! Although, after 250,000 miles, one would think them ponies is tired, but this thing runs stronger than ever, and unlike anything English, leaks not a drop of oil.
Yes, that is a blue dot, and yes, the license plate frame reads "If you can read this, please turn me over." Haven't needed it yet, and it's been on two race cars so far. However, the policeman who stopped me on an unrelated item felt rather silly when he (helpfully) tried to tell me that my license plate frame was on upside down....
UPDATE: 10 August 2007
Since we did not get into the GRM VIR Challenge, the decision was made to stop screwing around and return to wheel to wheel racing. Accordingly, I've had a cage installed by Chris Howard, cage building wizard of the northeast. More pictures to follow, but this was a test fitting -
Cage Detail Pictures:
Detail - right side main hoop mounting:
Detail, driver's side NASCAR bars:
Detail, halo bar, driver's side:
Overall view, right side anti-intrusion bars:
Right rear mounting point for rear facing diagonals:
If you are looking to get on track in the northeast, please check out
EMRA, the Eastern Motor Racing Assocication, at www.emraracing.org
