NA6CE 1992 Form vs Function Build and History

[— kung fu jesus —]

Had a nice short holiday trip, came home a bit early. I crested 1000 miles on the engine, so I finally switched to synthetic. 5w40 Rotella T6 and a fresh Purolator Gold filter for a Mazda KL V6 (longer). Have another trip next weekend. Not sure if I am taking the Miata or the BMW yet.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Well, I landed a seat today for track use. This carbon Kevlar OMP Grip seat popped up locally and I jumped on it. It has a few accoutrements included. I have begun fitting it to my car, it's almost there, I think. It's just pretty hot today. Africa hot.

[NCGreasemonkey]

Swamp ass was in full bloom here in NC before I got to work. Nice looking seat! Get it fitted?

And there is about to be, if the two-week test works, a bow to you in my build thread for some insight you gave. Nod to the guru!

[— kung fu jesus —]

I did some initial testing last night. I trimmed a little, but it was conservative. I will buy a cutoff wheel for my grinder and trim a little more. I got it to fit last night, but I want it lower. My helmet clears better than with the Lotus seats, by far, but I see room for improvement. I knew the outer dimensions were a bit on the large side, so I knew some modifications were needed. Fortunately, I have experience making functioning chair and seating prototypes and I understand the engineering in the shell's design. I believe I can get it another inch lower without compromising the integrity. I haven't had to modify the tunnel much, it's the door bar that is making it a little challenging. The width of the shoulder bolster is a little wide, and that will be an easy fix as well. The Garage Star seat bracket is helping to make these adjustments easier. The Kevlar/carbon weave is fooking STOUT. It is a lot thicker than the lotus seats, but not really any less difficult to work with. Overall, this has been similar to any OMP product I have seen; really top notch manufacturing and details you don't see in other major marques. I think for $300, this is a steal.

[— kung fu jesus —]

I recently bought a sports camera for capturing my time on the track. This is to help me make fine adjustments to my line and techniques to continue learning. I am experimenting with placement and the camera's capability. I have a suction cup mount from an older Chase Cam a friend gave me.



I tried placing it on the rear window, but the camera has trouble adjusting on the forward view through the cabin:



I like that I can see the gauges and my hands in relation to the road, hate that the over-exposed view washes out what I am looking at.

I moved the camera forward and had much better results:



I don't like that I cannot see my hands or gauges for input. There is still some glare from the dash reflecting on the windshield.

I am going to try hanging the camera from the main hoop on the rollbar to see if that gives me the view and quality I am looking for. I am also going to look for some polarized film I can cut down and place in the camera's protective case to cut down some glare. I am also looking into how I can overlay telemetry from an app I use in the videos.

[Demon I Am]

Could you pull the passenger seat when needed, or slide it forward and lay it down, to get the camera on more of an angle?

[— kung fu jesus —]

I could, but I generally instruct at the majority of the HPDEs I do, or I get requests for ride alongs. I think out of 5 or 6 sessions I do, maybe one is solo, sometimes 2. BTW, people, after the initial instruction at HPDEs, learning proper safety and etiquette, line, video and data is the BEST way to learn. As an instructor, I have been in situations riding in the right seat that have made me question why I continue to instruct many, many times. I have had friends injured doing it, I have friends of friends who instructed and were killed doing it. I have considered giving up instructing many times.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Race seat fitted! Those aren't stains, that's sweat. It's stick-to-your-leg balls humid today.











I'm gonna go barf and take a shower now. Maybe simultaneously.

[— kung fu jesus —]

I need to adjust the belts.

[— kung fu jesus —]

I drove up and back, same day of M@tG 2016. It was my first real test pushing the car since the rebuild. There are so many new systems on the car, I was apprehensive something would go awry. Thankfully, the only issue I had was a non-operating cruise control system. I worked out the engine, the transmission, and especially the suspension. I think it's safe to say it passed with flying colors!

The Xidas, well, I'm greatly surprised and impressed the way they improved the car versus the JICs. The greater wheel travel and droop, the ride quality, the response, it's confidence inspiring and comfortable all at the same time. I threw down on an ND sport on my way in. The ND blew my doors off from a stop, but I ate him up, bad, in the curves. The engine feels good, punchier in the mid range. The fresher transmission cracked off numerous up/down shifts far, far better than my original unit. I am very pleased! I put 350 miles on the car Saturday alone and it was fantastic. I even averaged 28.5 MPG round trip and the AC running most of the way back.

DG16_01.jpgDG16_02.jpgDG16_03.jpg

I found no measurable amount of oil consumed and I feel comfortable enough to plan the Megasquirt reinstall soon.

[HarryB]

All good things! Worth it after all your efforts!

[Greasemonkey2000]

Great work Steven, really like the OMP seat!

Don't know if you care to do anything this 'extreme' but this patch panel, http://www.miatacage.com/transmissio...otch-out-panel ,gives a decent amount more room on the trans tunnel side. I'm thinking about doing that to make up for the room i lost from the door bars since i had to change the recline to essentially none which sucks.

[— kung fu jesus —]

That is pretty awesome, I may consider that in the future.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Ok, first HPDE since the rebuild on Sunday. It is at AMP (Atlanta Motorsports Park). I have the rebuilt car, race seat, harness, camera, camera mount, and track app all to try out. AMP is probably the best place for this because it's Miata friendly, I know it really well, and the track accommodations are really quite good...almost luxurious.

I had a few friends test the car to see if I was missing something in the car, like I might be too close to it to recognize potential issues. Only suggestion was adjusting the clutch pedal and that worked quite well. I did it while I was swapping seats out for the HPDE.



I bought an action cam from Monoprice. I like the features and the pricing. A good friend works there in R&D and he recommended it. The MHD 2.0 is the one I have. I bought an extra battery and two storage cards as well.



I ordered a RAM rail mount, 6" double ball extension, and a 1/4-20 camera mount. Amazon Prime same-day delivery FTMFW!!!





I have been playing with the camera and mount so I'm not distracted during the HPDE. I think I have a nice system to make it easy to use. The cam has an app that lets me see what the camera sees on my phone. This and the mount's quick, easy to use adjustments make it simple to adjust. I can control the recording remotely by the app. I can also download the video to my phone, then put it to the cloud because AMP has WIFI. This should be pretty good!

My phone will also be running TrackAddict. This will record my telemetry, lap times, and location on the track. I will use Race Render 3 to overlay that info onto the video.

I will try it some more tomorrow so I can test out day light visibility and check for quality views/cam placement before the event. I'm pretty happy with this investment.

I will have to get up around 4:30a Sunday to get to the track early for staging (I'm instructing). I have to get up at 3:30a Monday to catch a flight to the west coast. Hopefully I'll have time to put some video together next week.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Found online. This was taken 7 years ago today. Jose aptly titled it "Day of days". This was taken in the evening after a Garage Woolery tech day. It was a beautiful day and I still remember it well. So many good times!