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MX5RACER
04-23-2013, 08:30 AM
How a Rat gets its name.

A few years ago I heard that a race Miata was for sale locally. I heard about it from the usual channels, a friend of a friend, who had a cousin, who had a neighbor, who had a racecar sitting on the side of their house and wanted to sell it. I went over and found the little racecar sitting there all sad and sick. You see this was a 1990 Spec Miata that had built and raced in two races before the short-nose 1990 crank went South. The little car sat on the side of the house ever since. Surprisingly though, the car ran. It looked like hell, but fired right up, bad crank and all. My Dad and I bought the poor little car for $4500. Included with the car was boxes of spares and most of the parts removed to make a racecar. Now, what does this have to do with how a Rat gets its name? Well, we decided to drive the car home as it was only 3 miles to my house. We turn onto the main road and I sort of "got on it", which must have scared the rat that had taken up home in the rear bumper. He dropped out from under the rear of the car and took off running across the street; and since that day we named the little car, the Track Rat.

Lots of changes have taken place since that day. The little broken 1.6 has been replaced twice with 1.8's. Once with 1996 1.8, and most recently with a '01+ VVT motor. The stock ECU has been replaced with a DIYPNP megasquirt. With the 1.8 motor swap, came a header; first a Raceland which died a horrible death at Sebring after a few years of useage. Then with a Jackson Racing header that also died on track; which, I found out, was caused by broken exhaust hangers. The Jackson Racing header was repaired and has been in use ever since. The Spec Miata suspension has been replaced with a set of Koni shock and coil-over sleeves, with 700ft/lb springs in the front and 350ft/lb springs in the rear. The roll cage has been revised and painted.

I am happy to say that the Track Rat can be found running lap after lap after lap at FL tracks like Sebring and Homestead at Chin Motorsports events.

Here are a few pictures from the track, with the original paint job.
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Here is a picture from Miatapoolza with the new paint.
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Here is a picture of the cage after a refresh and paint.
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Here is one from when I was swapping the VVT motor in.
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One last attachment, the latest dyno test, the red line is my current set-up.
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wannafbody
04-23-2013, 04:23 PM
I bought a former Spec Miata that was only raced twice as well. Mine has a 99 1.8 swapped in.

lowandrusty
04-24-2013, 04:26 AM
Cool! Looks like fun. Good name even without an actual rat. Lol

MX5RACER
02-21-2014, 09:42 AM
Did some work to the car. I replaced the Jackson Racing Header with a Racing Beat header and had a new 2.5" exhaust (Old exhaust was 2") built. With the new changes I was able to drop 2 seconds a lap at Homestead! The car is completely different off the corner now. I will have dyno plots soon. I got the car on the dyno right after swapping the exhaust and header over, but the car made the exact same peak HP and TQ, but lost HP and TQ below 5,500rpms and went from 12-13:1 AFR's to 14-15:1 ARF's so a re-tune was in order. I have not gotten back to the dyno to check on the changes, but I will be going back very soon.

Here is a nice curb-hopping, picture from Sebring.
http://www.chinmotorsports.com/gallery/2013_12_Sebring/L/CHIN%20Sebring%20Dec.14-15,%202013%20ColourTechSouth%20DL%20-%205%20066%20(Medium).JPG

ibid
02-21-2014, 08:25 PM
very nice! Great to see another track junkie!

Hyper
02-21-2014, 08:31 PM
in SCCA can you remove the heavy exhaust and just install a short pipe with muffler underneath?? is that allowed?

MX5RACER
02-22-2014, 08:19 AM
Yes, depending on class. But I must caution you, the hot exhaust gases need to be vented outside the car. The last event I went to a friend of mine was running his Rotrex supercharged Miata had his exhaust fail under the car and it boiled the transmission and diff. fluid as well the gas in the tank. Not a good thing.

Bummer
02-22-2014, 06:23 PM
Sub'd for the new dyno results.

MX5RACER
02-28-2014, 09:22 AM
Here is the new dyno chart.

I am now at 143hp and 124ft/lbs, which is a 5hp gain. Looking at the chart, I gained everywhere, not just peak HP. I am very happy with the results, now I have to figure out how to get a few more.... IT NEVER ENDS... LOL

I have to re-scan the plot and upload it again. It is too large at the moment.

ibid
02-28-2014, 09:31 AM
wow! impressive!!!

Hyper
02-28-2014, 01:57 PM
an under drive crank pulley will increase power through the RPM band dramatically. Under 150hp you can use one without issues. or you can upgrade the oil pump to billet gear.

MX5RACER
02-28-2014, 02:23 PM
an under drive crank pulley will increase power through the RPM band dramatically. Under 150hp you can use one without issues. or you can upgrade the oil pump to billet gear.

Not sure "Dramatically" is possible with just an underdrive pulley. Not sure how I would feel about underdriving the water pump as this is a track car.

MX5RACER
03-02-2014, 09:25 PM
Another trip to Homestead Motorsports Complex with Chin and another personal best lap time. Previous best was a 1:50.29, new best is 1:48.59! Car was running AMAZING today.

Raisin
03-02-2014, 11:17 PM
Love how clean this is car! Got any incar footage?

MX5RACER
03-03-2014, 08:33 AM
Sorry no incar as of yet. My GoPro got left at home this weekend... FML!

atank
03-03-2014, 11:14 AM
I love the white with blue stripe, and hardtop!!!

MX5RACER
06-11-2014, 04:09 PM
Had fun this past weekend at Sebring with Chin Motorsports.

Here is some in car video for your viewing pleasure.


http://youtu.be/n2WeDYv9fDQ

KAL
06-11-2014, 06:19 PM
Sebring looks awesome!