Ciotti's 1999 STR Miata Build Thread: From Ernie to Ernest

[Legendary]

Cool videos & clean build!

[Ciotti]

6/15/2012

Washed both cars and took a few shots in the parking lot, their differences are almost as drastic as their similarities and it really makes driving each of them an experience in and of itself. I really couldn't have asked for the two of them to compliment each-other any better, power vs lightweight, chain saw vs scalpel, lazy vs nervous, even the control surfaces in each car represent the experience. The Cobra has a bigger thicker softer steering wheel, a big fat shift knob, and a burly shift feel with a brick wall of a shift stop from the Pro-50 aftermarket shifter and collar. I love them both but in completely different ways










6/23/2012

Took a trip down to Delaware for an autocross with Brandywine Motorsport Club, a fantastic group that has a small site but does an excellent job with it. Everyone has an awesome attitude and they're out there to have fun first and be competitive second or third which is what my region (SJR) is all about so I felt right at home.

http://youtu.be/Cb_UfDiPDdU

[Ciotti]

7/6/2012

The Transformation from Ernie to Ernest

ear·nest - noun - \ˈər-nəst\
a serious and intent mental state

The previously "cute" soft chinned "Ernie" as my girlfriend had named it was now gone, Ernie is short for Ernest and the definition of earnest was a pretty dam good representation of the direction I'm going with the car.

Just like that... Ernest was born








7/8/2012

Ernest goes to a "photoshoot"

After a quick wash it was time to get a few better images of the new parts, I couldn't be more happy with how they all flow together. At some point I spoke with Project G and they told me that their side skirts were designed with the Garage Vary front lip in mind which explains why they look so dam good together. The Zeromotive rear canards were the wild card but man do they look good and flow perfectly with the rest of the parts. So much so that the typical comments I get are asking what car it is rather than what tuner parts are on it, the goal from the beginning was to have everything work together so that it's not cobbled together, unfinished, or a "tuner car."

[Ciotti]

7/22/2012

Ernest Goes to South Jersey SCCA Autocross Event #4

Great layout to practice high speed transitions, almost 1,000 feet of the main runway was spent north of 50 mph where things are happening pretty quick with my sometimes overly aggressive steering inputs.
As I get more and more used to the car, it's also becoming obvious that the stock brakes with HPS pads and the RS3's needed some attention/tuning. Even with the new 1 1/8" front sway bar (which did help) I was still dragging and flat spotting the inside front while trailbraking.

The first half of the layout that our other course designer Andre laid out (I design the second half) included a bunch of corners with rough pavement which my Tein Flexes were not happy about. I ended up second in PAX with plans on how to dial the car in a bit better for the next event to get back into that top spot.

This particular front lip, the side skirts, and the rear canards are not technically legal for the autocross class I run in (STR), but these parts offer no performance advantage whatsoever and if anything are slowing me down as I just bolted on 20+ pounds of dead weight to the car. The Garage Vary front lip doesn't extend downwards any farther than the OEM Mazda front lip which is allowed in STR and I'll bet that Mazda spent just a bit more time in the wind tunnel designing it than Garage Vary did. The Project G side skirts are all grooved and hollowed out on the bottom to keep the weight down since they're a very dense (and heavy) plastic so there's no way they'll act as any sort of a smooth bottom. And the rear canards are in a low pressure zone which we discovered when taping tufts to them and seeing a whole lot of nothing going on.
I only run the car regionally where common sense trumps the letter of the rules so everyone realizes that bolting non functional "aero" to the car doesn't make you any faster... dam it looks good though

http://youtu.be/KP3fhfWtifk











7/27/2012

Ernest Goes to the Beach

Another wash and a day trip with Kristin to Wildwood for some some fun in the sun. Found a few decent spots to shoot some images of the car and it's amazing how much lower it now looks with the new parts, love it!