Doward's 94

[Doward]

** More recent history **

So this journey is going to fun. I have completely underestimated how effective the simple, rather small, splitter-undertray combo and this radiator vent are going to be. After tons of consultation and research I settled on running the wing at +1°. Everything I've read and heard pointed me towards that setting being the lowest drag while still creating downforce. I didnt expect much front downforce from my front end setup, and therefore did everything I could to minimize rear downforce in an effort to keep the car balanced, but the car was very tail happy yesterday.

I knew I had to work through lunch and was not sure I could sneak away at all, but I was able to swap cars and drive up to Mid Ohio around ~2pm. I swapped on the NT01s the night before and did not bring my usual assortment of trackday tools and equipment so I have no video, no pyro data, an was unable to adjust the wing to play around at all. Upon arrival, the skys opened up, flash flooded and red flagged all activity for half an hour or so. Once things went green, I took a handful of students for "rain line" laps. At the end of the day we got ~40 minutes of dry track, so I spent most of that dry time re-learning earlier turn in points in several places. Purely from seat-of-the-pants, pacing other guys ive driven with multiple times and looking down at the speedo on corner exits, there are major differences. Ive picked up ~4 or 5 mph in turn 1 and 12 (the two fastest corners) and was hitting the limiter in places ive never had happen before.





The traditional gas station photos on the way back

[—atank—]

So much progress, looks great!!!!!!

[Sean5294]

I just got a set of APR mirrors. Did you have to make your own mounting bracket?

[Doward]

So much progress, looks great!!!!!!

Thanks atank! It's been a really fun car.
I need to get my Miatas at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca post up as well.

I just got a set of APR mirrors. Did you have to make your own mounting bracket?

Mine are from either Slick Auto or 949, came with the bases.

[lokirx706]

I had no idea how many different set ups you have had on this car! Read every single page too, she has some a long way, and you have too! It wasnt too long ago I had a CR style Miata lol

And I was at that Defined Autoworks meet! I contacted them and helped set it up for Ohio Rotaries, I thought I snapped a pic of all the Miatas that were there, but I dont remember seeing yours.... I didnt even have a Miata myself back then lol

[Doward]

Miatas at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca recap posts in 5, 4, 3...
__________________________________________________ ______
Sunday, August 31st.

Left central Ohio on Sunday around ~2pm. 5 cars, Chris(Lokirx706) met us halfway out of Ohio.





Went through St Louis, saw the arch. We actually exited the freeway to go park by the arch for a photo, but there was a baseball game and downtown was packed. We got called a "gay parade" and drove over some super shitty roads.
We never did end up stopping, we just got back on the freeway and kept driving.




Drove until dark.



Parked at the hotel on the west side of Springfield, Missouri:


We left Columbus as expected, car was great(as great as no air conditioning or cruise control can be on 2-300 mile freeway stretches) all the way to St Louis. Once in STL we pulled off the freeway to go drive under the arch and as soon as my car idled down off the freeway the accessory belt started squealing. I didn't think anything of it. I had just done a full timing belt/water pump replacement a week earlier and must have gotten tons of oil and grime all over that belt and pulleys. After we left town we stopped to refuel. This was the first time in 4 or 5 hours that I had turned the engine off, as I left it idling at the previous truck stop bathroom break. Chris popped his hood to check his oil. That's when I popped mine to check as well. I immediately noticed my alternator was sitting a little crooked and the belt alignment was obviously off.
It was not until we stopped for the night that I told the group I might have some adjustments to make in the morning. I still didn't know what was actually wrong. We all actually had a good laugh about it in the Waffle House parking lot before we checked in. Super loud annoying belt squeal while we cruised around on surface streets was the only hint I got. It was dead silent on the freeway and honestly was running great.



__________________________________________________ _______________
Monday, September 1st, Labor Day.
That morning is when I attempted to clean my accessory belt thinking I must have slathered it in grease and grime 2 weeks before hand when I replaced the water pump and such.

As soon as I put the ratchet on the bolt head and applied a smidge of torque, I saw the worst case scenario. The whole alternator and bracket ALL moved left half an inch, taking a chunk of the water pump with it. Needless to say it did not go back in the same spot
I knew I was done right then and there. I drove on the last broken water pump longer than I'd like to admit because I could never find the issue. But this break is way worse and allowed the alternator to drop vertically. I may or may not be able to "make it" to Laguna, but no way would I risk running the track day. And then the 2300 miles home.





Once the others woke up and got back from breakfast we went our separate ways. They kept heading out 44 west, and I eastward.
I drove behind semis and hypermiled a 308 mile tank out of my 1.9, standalone ecu pig. I couldn't apply more than 3/4 throttle or the belt would squeal like crazy. It was slipping badly enough that it would not charge both of the accessories I had plugged in at the same time. I don't have a radio in the car so I was using a Bluetooth JBL speaker and had a two port USB adapter in the cig lighter. I did most of the 12 hour drive from Springfield Missouri to New Albany Ohio in silence.
Tomorrow I hop on a plane to Vegas. I'll stay with a couple good friends for a day before driving a rental car out to Laguna for Friday and Saturdays festivities. I'll drive back to Vegas on Sunday and meet my wife who already had this Vegas trip booked for while I was in Cali and we'll go see the Grand Canyon on Monday since I missed that stop on the OMO Caravan.

~750 miles home, 12 hours, solo, in holiday traffic through St Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus. Home:



__________________________________________________ _______________
Tuesday, September 2nd.

I slept most of the day. When I finally did wake up, I played Forza 5 and drove MRLS.

__________________________________________________ _______________
Wednesday, September 3rd.







__________________________________________________ ___
Thursday, September 4th.


Good food in Vegas. Japanese curry:

PreRunners everywhere:

Landscape shot:


Driving from Vegas to Monterey:



BTW, I kind of want a hybrid to replace my Passat wagon(that I dont ever drive), so I reserved a Prius online with Hertz as a sort of extended test drive. Turns out I only reserved a "hybrid sedan-seating for 5" so I ended up with a Ford C-Max instead.


More landscape shots. I love it out there so there will lots of these to come:


Almost to Boron/Buttonwillow I think?:




Coming down some sort of Sierra Nevada shit towards Bakersfield, California. During this descent, I put the car in neutral and coasted for like 8 miles on the tripmeter. C-Max got 37.8mpg on this Vegas-Monterey trip.

[Doward]

Still Thursday, September 4th.

Bakersfield meant civilization, a fuel stop, and rush hour traffic. So I hopped off and grabbed dinner:


Leaving Bakersfield, I thought there was a drought or something?


Back up into some rollers, not sure if still Sierra Nevada or Pacific Coastal at this point.


Racing the sun to the west coast:


OMG BEAUTIFUL:


OMG MOAR BEAUTIFUL:


I was making good time, so i skipped the 101 and went for the coast, Cambria.


Caught my first glimpse of the Pacific, EVER, after climbing some hill in a random rich neighborhood that had a "coastal access" sign off the highway 46 or 44 or whatever road i was on. Bonus Prius sighting.


Wow....


This shit was FREEZING and i'm an Ohio kid who does "polar bear plunges" in the winter.


From there on out I didnt take any pictures until the next day, but I drove HWY 1 up from Cambria to Monterey at sunset. 112 miles of Amazing pretty much all to myself that time of night.

[Doward]

Friday September 5th:

Woke up on eastern time, so I went for a jog on the beach, Monterey Bay beach.


Met JeffBucc at the breakfast spot:



Had breakfast with E02k, JeffBucc, 18psi, Turbofan, and a few others. Then we kinda got split up. I went to meet my Ohio friends and KINOD at the home depot parking lot to await our designated Wolf Hill group entrance time.
Thats where I spotted a wild Type R.


Max's montego blue widebody/fastback that I love:


Driving from home depot up to Laguna Seca:


Top of the hill access road at LS:






Turn 9 from Wolf Hill. 9 is amazing. Better than Corkscrew to me.


Cars at the hill:





This happened:



Back to the hotel after free bbq dinner and ND drive by. I was able to walk up and get a suite the day of, at the "sold out" host hotel, on the 11th floor, with an ocean view.



KINOD hotel party that night. Really bad idea the night before a trackday.... But Embassy Suites does a free happy hour so....

[Doward]

Saturday, September 6th. M@MRLS Trackday!

So there I was, at Laguna Seca with a pre paid "A" group spot, and without my car.

Luckily this community is so amazing! On Friday I spent all afternoon catching up with people on Wolf Hill. Moti was so kind as to promise me the first passenger ride along in Creampuff. That was a pretty amazing way to experience that track for the first 'real' time!

First A session of the day, foggy. We couldnt see the top of the hill from turn 6. That was interesting.




Second A session I rode in Ryan(ThePass)'s red turbo na6. Again, a surreal experience:


Second C group session I rode with an Ohio guy(Joe) in his teal/orange na6 with a 3/4 cage, nt01s and a very healthy 1.6.
Third C group session, Joe wanted/allowed me to drive his car while he rode.




Fourth C group session, Joe went off turn 3(right in front of me as I was walking out of the merchandise building) after I showed him it was possible to go through flat out.


Fourth A session I drove another Ohio guy's MSM with Blackbird Fabworx' trial trunk with their lexan spoiler and managed a 1:53.3:



DSCF4443_zpsf5f422a2.jpg

[Doward]

Sunday, September 7th.

This was the start of cross country return trip. We split up quite a bit, Darren and I left super early, the others followed later in the day. I was simply returning to Las Vegas to return my rental car and catch a flight on Tuesday. The others had another 2,000 mile trip ahead of them.

Driving across the desert:





I am fairly certain that this is the left overs of hurricane 'Norbert' as the next morning the freeway leaving LV was shut down because of flooding/wash out.:




Monday, September 8th:
Friends were at work, so my wife and I took the rental car down to Hoover Dam.











Tuesday, September 9th:
Before flying home we spent some time by the pool at our friends work. This was the only few hours of "vacation" I actually got in the 11 day span. LOL


__________________________________________________ _____


My M@MRLS trip didn't exactly go as planned, but I feel I made the best of it. The absolute best part of it all was to finally put some faces with names/usernames I've known for years. Riding in 2, and driving 3 other Miatas in one day was a very unique experience as well. 2 turbos, 2 1.6s, 2 vvt, from stock to wild...

Definitely a place and event I will return to.

[Doward]

I picked up this barely used NB FMII kit locally. This will probably end up in my green car. NASA's ever evolving rules/points make it frustrating to de-mod my car for the couple events/year I drive with them, so i'll probably just continue to do whatever I feel like to the car and run with the more casual DE groups I instruct with. Maybe a Midwest Time Attack like Gridlife will sneak onto my schedule.