POST April 12th Event

[friskyflea]

Soroya side by side with Loren in my Vette would have beaten me in her "toy" on my first run at least.

Keep it up you might get a run or two in a Vette.

Doug

OMGosh.. I don't know what I'd do with a big ass high powered car, but I'm not averse to finding out- I'll just put my big girl panties on, sans skirt.

Have a few drinks on the boat for me and if out of the blue I start feeling tipsy and singing sailor songs in the middle of my workday, I'll know you're enjoying your vacation.

FF

[Loren]

Check out Greg's wild ride on $175 all-season tires:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=57&v=vTFQYREBT0I

[Carracer]

Check out Greg's wild ride on $175 all-season tires:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=57&v=vTFQYREBT0I

We need a miata on all-season tire class. The winner is the best time divided by treadwear multiplied by the price.

[Blue_Heron]

I took a drive in the green Miata. It's got some sort of timing issue. Possibly the timing belt off a tooth or something. The power isn't right, and it seemed to be pinging.

Green? I'm confused, not an unusual condition for me. We had two blue NBs and a black NA. You rode with me twice in my blue NB. Thanks for the driving tips, BTW.
Dave

[Loren]

Might not have been part of your clan. Was a 97 SE, I think. BRG with chrome wheels.

[ThePaintedMan]

Thanks everyone for a great time, especially Loren for all his hard work and Carracer for the great pictures! The 914 ran well - better than expected. I'll try to drag it out there again sometime, but with the baby on the way, who knows when that might be. We had fun as usual and will be back eventually. Maybe next time I'll actually start off with some decent times instead of throwing some in at the very end (well, I'm not even sure if those were decent). Need to work on being more consistent.

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-George

[Tim_M]

I took a drive in the green Miata. It's got some sort of timing issue. Possibly the timing belt off a tooth or something. The power isn't right, and it seemed to be pinging.

Loren...so how many rides / drives did you get on this course?

I could not believe how close you were getting to the final 90 degree turn in cone (I was station 6). You and the Datsun along with the Focus ST were quite fun to watch.

The green Miata definitely had a pinging issue and it was getting worse each lap he took...he was a first timer with FAST (second autocross event though).

[Loren]

Loren...so how many rides / drives did you get on this course?

I took 5 runs in my car, my morning bonus 6th run in somebody else's car. I took two runs in the Corvette for Doug's challenge. And I took one of Dan's last runs because he wanted me to drive his car, but I didn't want to eat up any more time by adding another instructor run with the pending rain.

Rides? Idunno. I hopped in whenever anyone asked. Rode with my co-driver, rode with Ben, rode with some noobs and probably some other not-so-noobs.

I could not believe how close you were getting to the final 90 degree turn in cone (I was station 6). You and the Datsun along with the Focus ST were quite fun to watch.

Glad I was doing something right! I wish I'd have tried shifting to 3rd in the fast part.

The green Miata definitely had a pinging issue and it was getting worse each lap he took...he was a first timer with FAST (second autocross event though).

If it was getting worse, I bet they didn't properly torque the crankshaft bolt when they did his timing belt... hope he's caught that problem before it completely destroys the crankshaft nose!

[ThePaintedMan]

Typically the early 1.6s (I believe 90-93) with the short nose crank were the ones with that problem. That being said, I wouldn't be the first time I've heard of, or even having to fix a crank bolt that wasn't torqued correctly.

I did hear that Miata missing at idle at the line. Didn't hear it pinging around the course. I think it sounded more like a AFR issue, or a bad plug wire, but would need more info to know for sure.

[Loren]

He said the timing belt had been recently replaced. All 90-05 Miata are prone to crank nose issues if the crank bolt us not properly torqued. Not saying it couldn't be something else, but certainly could be related to that.

[Inspecta]

He said the timing belt had been recently replaced. All 90-05 Miata are prone to crank nose issues if the crank bolt us not properly torqued. Not saying it couldn't be something else, but certainly could be related to that.

Shoot Loren, remember when you bought Troy? I seem to remember the PO didn't have the crank tightened all the way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Loren]

I've had to repair several of them... One was the first one that I did myself I over ten years ago.

[lddavis91]

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Great pictures Phillip! This one was very representative. My camera was fairly severely misaligned on my good runs so the video is basically worthless, but what a fun course, it was a good combination of fast/fun/technical. I really wish I could have removed my head from my ass and made one tidy and faster run of my last 3 instead of booking my fastest on run #2, it would have been nice to beat Elliot fair and square in the vette for once, I only needed a few tenths which should have been easy. Oh well, regardless, it was a blast whipping the old girl around that course like a rented mule. LOL

[twistedwankel]

Well I had my choice of moving pix of Loren handing me my ass or the vette parked empty awaiting 2nd award.

Decided to not copy those. Maybe I'll wait until I learn to drive the car. Yeah. That works.

Philip is motivated for sure. Needs to get some used tires off someone or get some 8" rims with tires? Something?

Old Mustangs had 4 bolt rims. Oh that's right Ford controlled Mazda for years:)

[Blue_Heron]

I'm a little late to the dance with my videos, but here they are. First, a couple guys who have obviously done this before:

I rode with Kurtis first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8At0afah1jU

Then Steven:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naD5aZDJ7pE

And here's yours truly, the NOOB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FurUgaKk2GY

[Native]

Neat comparo. I see you put them in order of quality... heh.

Your hands are nice and slow, you'll practice smoothing out some of your inputs. You got quicker as your runs progressed, that's good. You hit no cones, but you'll want to get closer to them if you want to get faster. And you'll also get better about the line you take - you were a little late here and there (which will make smoother inputs easier). Nice job!

[Blue_Heron]

Your hands are nice and slow, you'll practice smoothing out some of your inputs. You got quicker as your runs progressed, that's good. You hit no cones, but you'll want to get closer to them if you want to get faster. And you'll also get better about the line you take - you were a little late here and there (which will make smoother inputs easier). Nice job!

Steven,
Thanks for the guidance. I see the same things you do when I look at my driving compared with yours and Kurtis's. Thanks again to both of you for letting me ride along.

My learning strategy is to hone the "suck less" component first, and then the "push harder". I need to tighten up the racing line. Although I had improved by my last run, I was still embarrassingly wide around the cones at the turn around. I feel like I also need to carry more speed when approaching tight turns at speed and learn to use the brakes to decelerate at the right moment. I was using engine braking too much, and I think it cost me some time.

What you couldn't see or hear in the video of my runs is that I was struggling quite a bit with throttle inputs. My car has the Kraftwerks Rotrex SC kit and it is scary responsive in second gear between 5K and redline. I might have done better in third gear on the fast sections of the course, but frankly the distraction of shifting gears at my novice skill level might have put me in the cones.

But overall, I sucked less than I thought I would, and had a blast. The racing was fun, and the people were great. We're hooked. Looking at the schedule, we won't be able to make it to another Championship event until at least June. We were going to try to do the morning group on May 9th at TBD, but it's a 2.5 hr. drive and my daughter's graduation is at 3:00. Doghouse territory for sure if we're late getting back.

Dave