Antioch's OG Roadster Build

[AntiochOG]

Summer wheels and tires are cleaned and ready to go back on.

[Demon I Am]

Those look great!

[—tsingson—]

Love the white lettering! Especially on the Azenis!

[treeafodo]

Love the white lettering! Especially on the Azenis!

X2

[AntiochOG]

Still need to sort out my rear height.

[AntiochOG]

It was a good weekend for Cinco the Miata.
What I assume were the original motor mounts were finally upgraded to Mazda comps.


While I had things apart I also removed about 45 lbs. of air conditioning and power steering equipment.




The car also got waxed, but sadly this picture was taken before that.

[greddygalant]

looking good phil, did you take the steering rack apart and mod it accordingly?

[AntiochOG]

I looped the lines like this:

I didn't feel like taking the rack out. From what I've read it should work fine, and I don't think it takes too much steering effort.

[I<3flippyheadlights]

I bet the car feels much better with the proper wheels on and all that weight reduction. Man, I just discovered the glory of AC and I couldn't give it up. Then again, I'm in Florida and would die. Do you have plans to properly de-power the rack, or are you keeping it that way?

[—atank—]

Very nice build Phil!!!!

[Flyin 92]

Man, I just discovered the glory of AC and I couldn't give it up.

Once I get a nice DD I'm removing the A/C on my miata. I've used it a handful of times and when I do it rapes what little power the B6 puts out.

[AntiochOG]

I bet the car feels much better with the proper wheels on and all that weight reduction. Man, I just discovered the glory of AC and I couldn't give it up. Then again, I'm in Florida and would die. Do you have plans to properly de-power the rack, or are you keeping it that way?

I love the way it feels without the PS. So much more feedback from the tires. I might properly depower it someday, but not anytime soon.

Once I get a nice DD I'm removing the A/C on my miata. I've used it a handful of times and when I do it rapes what little power the B6 puts out.

I use my AC so rarely it didn't seem worth it to keep it.

I decided to delete my passenger mirror since I usually have it folded in anyway. I cut a block off plate from a piece of carbon fiber I had. I'm not 100% happy with how it looks, but it is kind of growing on me. Someday I'd like to get the holes welded up, but that will probably have to wait until the car gets painted.

[AntiochOG]

The other day while driving around I thought I noticed my revs climbing without the car accelerating right after a shift. I put it in 5th stepped on the gas and popped the clutch in and out real quick. Sure enough the revs stayed up. I knew after 126,000 miles on my clutch it was going to need to be replaced before too long anyway so now seemed like as good a time as ever. I ordered a 1.8 OEM clutch from Rosenthal along with transmission seals, a new rear main seal, CAS o-ring, a few other odds and ends, and a 1.8 ACT streetlite flywheel from Goodwin Racing. I had a few weeks off from school coming up and I wanted to make sure everything was here and ready for me when I had time to work on the car. When my flywheel showed up it seemed a little bit heavy to me, so I threw it on my bathroom scale. It weighed 14 pounds. I checked the part number on ACT's site and they listed it at 13.9, but on Goodwin's site it was listed as weighing 12 pounds. I had decided on the ACT from Goodwin because 12 lbs. seemed like a good compromise between drive-ability and performance. I didn't feel like 14 lbs. would be quite light enough. I contact Brian at Goodwin Racing and he agreed to let me trade for 12 lb. Exedy flywheel if I paid the difference in price, and promptly updated his site to show the correct weight. He also said if I was that concerned about the weight difference maybe I should get the ACT Prolite which weighs 9.4 lbs. I asked around and everyone told me to go as light as possible so I went with the 9.4. Unfortunately, I had send the old flywheel back, wait for Goodwin to receive it, and then weight for the new one to arrive. The flywheel was scheduled to arrive Thursday, and school started back up on the next Monday, so I started working on it Monday so I'd have a full week to get it done.

I pulled the transmission off, and the clutch was indeed looking pretty worn.


Because I had a few days until my flywheel showed up I spent some time cleaning up the transmission.


I also replaced the CAS o-ring. The old one had been leaking and it was pretty hard and fragile when I pulled it off.


I'd had a new clutch slave cylinder and a braided clutch line from 949 Racing lying around for at least a year so I threw those on too. No more curly hard line!




I also decided to wrap my header while I had it out. I had bought the wrap at the same time as I bought the header, but had been too lazy to install it at the time. It was kind of a hassle to wrap it, but I was concerned about under-hood temps. I also had some time to kill while waiting for the flywheel to arrive.




I put it back on before the wrap had time to dry so I got a nice steam show.


Thursday my flywheel showed up. 9.4 lbs. as promised. I got that bolted up and put my car all back together.


I bled the new clutch line and advanced my timing to around 12 degrees. Then I went out for a drive. My first impressions were great. The new flywheel feels so much sportier. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but I really like it. It makes driving the car a lot more fun. I'm glad I listed to people's advice and went light. It isn't hard to drive or noisy at all. The car certainly feels faster, but it's hard to say if that is due to the header wrap, lightweight flywheel, or advanced timing. It's probably some combination of the 3. I usually drive pretty conservatively around town, but for the last few days I can't help but drive it hard. It's just too fun!

[Flyin 92]

Between my light flywheel and 14* timing advance I noticed a decent increase in peppiness. Rev-matching is a lot easier too.

[Ihatecars]

This build is very awesome. I absolutely love your photography.
Makes me have some sort of emotional connection with you and your car.