MECCS?
 

Coming this summer, difficult questions must be answered!

Can a 6'4" Sasquatch fit in a tiny car? Can said Sasquatch actually drive a car that takes some skill to pilot? Will Miatas turn straight men gay?

Questions will be answered...

http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...a/IMG_0659.JPG

http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...a/IMG_0639.JPG

But seriously, I bought a Miata. It was Denis's for sale on the RenoSCCA board. I figure I'll shoehorn myself in there (aluminum race seat is already on order) and run it next season. Hopefully it's as much fun, but much cheaper than my WRX (which I'm also planning on running as well to compare). Winner stays in my garage, the other goes up for sale.

Also, this means I *really* could use one of you guys to buy my SVX! Parking 6 cars at my house is impossible!

I think this will be a great challenge for you!

Going to change the passenger seat too?

Ghey Sasquatch Racing... :lol:

Your plate is very fitting for a Mazda...xum = zoom? I'm curious to see you in a new car, I have to be honest, learning to drive a new car over the course of last autocross season really added to the fun, I'm sure the same applies to the track as well.

I find the title of this thread offensive to the good and proud people of the great nation of Mexica.

Well, since I may end up selling the car in just a few months, I'm trying to spend as little as possible on it. Basically, I need to get myself into it comfortably with the necessary safety gear (seat, steering wheel, belts, hardtop, brake pads/fluid). There are also some other little fixes it needs... the high-beam switch only works in flash to pass mode (fixed it over the weekend) the wiper blades don't park automatically (rewired it to park, but lost my intermittent setting... I need a solder-on relay to actually fix it), the rear brake light has a loose connection at the bulb, and probably 100 other little things that need attention but won't cost much to address.

If the car works out, then I'll probably get the second seat to match, and consider a mild build on the motor or something... a 151k mile 1.8L is pretty gutless and the heads need a refresh due to the god-awful HLA ticking that all NA Miatas eventually get. Probably touch up the paint/do a vinyl wrap, since the car is pretty rough.

At least most the important performance stuff is done... it's got Koni yellows, a rollbar (though not SCCA legal, hence the hardtop, but it's probably passable for adding some real rollover protection), light/wide wheels, and a nearly new set of StarSpecs on it. Though I'd love some 15x9 RPF1's with RA1's on 'em. :devil:

Also, GSR is pretty catchy. I wonder if GYSSQCH is a taken license plate? :lol:

Keep the miata for track days and autoX

convert the WRX for rally cross ? :p ... If you want to Try your WRX in a rally cross , later during the season I'll have a full spare set of rally coilovers you could borrow. just slap some snow tires on it. (or i have rally tires on rims i could loan you, but they 15"s and i think your rotors are 15" :P lol)

I'd rallycross the Miata long before the WRX. :lol: The Miata would probably do okay as-is (plus, it's already beat up!)... the WRX would need $thousands to go from tarmac to dirt. :lol:

In fact... Maybe I should try to find some steelies and cheap tires and rallyx this season before I do anything to make it stiffer for the track. :?:

That's True.. we've had a fair amount of RWD rallycross cars show up too. Pat and a codriver in his miata .. Mike in a BMW 3xx (older one) Omar now has a RWD Impreza ... :O

Miatas are so light surface doesn't matter much. Nimble is Nimble ! hehe

If you want a new roll bars, I highly recommend Hard Dog Roll Bars.
Let me know if you want Kirkey Racing seat or Weld Racing wheel, I have a connection. I can get you cheaper than the big store on Glendale.

Color me jelly.

Nat, I am strongly leaning towards replacing the seats in the wagon with Kirkey buckets. PM me with what you can do. :)

Scott, good pick up. I briefly considered liquidating the wagon to go back to a simple car like a Miata, but I figure I have to actually finish at lest *one* project car in my lifetime. At some point you'll want good coilovers, but if it were me I'd take the mods slow too, and take advantage of the stockish-ness to do a little rallycross on it. A set of cheapass 15" snow tires will be fantastic for that, and you don't need to do much else.

It looks very pink in that first picture. Cute

I agree, totally offensive :lol:

Nice car Scott, cant wait to see the pictures of how your able to wedge yourself in that thing :)

I should have snapped a photo of my garage floor after I ripped out all the padding from the driver's seat. And it still isn't low enough for me to fit w/ a helmet on. :lol:

The Ultra-Shield seat I ordered should be here on Thursday.

http://www.ultrashieldrace.com/prodt...idth=500&id=21

I'd like to be able to mount it on sliders directly to the floor so my wife can also drive the car... but I'm afraid I won't be able to give up the extra inch or so. Those hard tops are actually quite low! Mazda should have put Gurney bubbles in them.

It's why I was never able to buy an s2000

God damn tall genes

Why would your wife need to drive it? Someone has to wear the pants in the relationship.

I'm actually interested in seeing how well your'e able to fold yourself into this thing. I've been wondering if I could safely run an NB at the track.
Good suspension and cheap consumables sound appealing.

Hard dog rollbars are decent but don't trust the hardware that comes with it if you happen to get one. I snapped several bolts before reaching the proper torque when I installed mine.

Also if you keep it around and want to put a real cage in it at some point, let me know if you want pointers on the design. I did some FEA on different tube configs to analyze stiffness vs. weight for a spec cage.

Oh FFS.... Anyone know where to buy welding gas on a weekend?
 

I ran out of gas at 12:30 today. The only place I can find online that's open on Saturday at all closed at noon.

Is it literally impossible to buy gas on a weekend or what? Anyone know where I can get some gas so I don't have to throw away the whole weekend and get nothing done until Monday?

For reference, I'm looking for 40 cubic feet of 75/25 argon/CO2 for a mig welder. I own a tank, just need to trade it out for a full one.

Well I guess I'm fucked. Apparently I'm the only person in Reno that runs out of welding supplies on the weekend. Time to switch the welder over to flux core and make some filthy welds! :mad:

What are the settings on your machine?

Do you have a Northern Tool? The one near us in NC had gas bottles and was open weekends. Other than that, I dunno. The typical industrial supply houses are usually only open regular weekday hours.

That sucks Scott. The welding supply store in Sacramento is open on Saturdays till 3. So at least they got it right. It's also a 1/2 mile from our house. :)

I hope you were able to finish up.

I switched the welder over to flux core and got the brackets I needed fabbed up.

I now officially fit in the Miata:

http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P...hield_Seat.jpg

I can even heel-toe, and I think if I slouch a little I pass the broomstick test with the rollbar. Though I do need to put some padding on the bar since in a rear-ender, I'll hit my helmet on it. I also need to fab up a harness bar, swap a set of the 6-points from the WRX into the car, and add a seatback brace to the seat... but at least now I can drive it for more than 10 minutes before my ass starts to hurt due to the zero padding and narrow ass on my stock seat.

Sorry for the crap picture... iPhone's are phones, not cameras, apparently. :lol:

Oh, on a side note, does anyone know how to clean a suede steering wheel? :lol:

You sir have defied physics. Excellent.

I guess this is the Miata thread.... so:

The other day I got this email:

Yesterday, I got around to pulling the wheel of the car and found this:

http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20P.../photo%201.JPG

Super. :unamused: I hope MiataRoadster can get me something before the track day at the end of the month because it doesn't look like the WRX will be running unless Matt can pull off a miracle. I will say though, it's nice to see someone proactively reaching out to customers to notify them about stuff like this.

Is that what was causing the airbag light to go off all of a sudden?

No, I think that's just the spoof resistor in the plug just being out of range in really high ambient temps. At this point, I'm not worrying about it. Mostly because I'll be getting a new resistor when I get the replacement adapter (the replacement is billet aluminum instead of cast... should be a bunch stronger).

Wow, great communication from the vendor, but too bad on the part failure. Is it caused by torque on the wheel or by vibration? No chance you can run with the stock wheel correct?

The manufacturer of the part is claiming that the failures are all due to over-torquing the nut that holds it to the steering column. Now I know I used a torque wrench when I installed mine... but I don't remember the torque spec I used. The hub adapter manufacturer says 25 ftlbs max, the factory spec is 36 ftlbs. I may have used the factory spec because I don't remember even seeing a spec in the adapter packaging/instructions. My guess though is that the break occurs if you have to remove and reinstall the adapter. I installed mine, then had to take it off in order to fix a bad relay in the steering column. In order to break the nut loose to remove the hub adapter, I had to install the steering wheel and hold it while breaking the nut loose w/ a breaker bar. It took kind of a bunch of torque to get it to come loose... I'm willing to bet that's when the spline fractured, then the crack widened with use.

Either way, MiataRoadster is revising what they sell when it comes to those adapters... they're going to be including explicit warning not to over-torque the nut, a different nut w/ a washer or flange to distribute the force of the nut, and a pressed on steel ring around the back of the adapter to prevent any possibility of a fracture. The problem is, those kits aren't going to be ready in time for the track day.

So, Bill at MiataRoadster is sending me a different version of the adapter (the 20mm shorter one) that's billet instead of cast aluminum. It's designed to be more compact for use with a wheel quick-release without changing the location of the wheel... but since I'm so tall, I need the wheel to be pretty far away from the dash (which is why I purchased the longer 3" adapter in the 1st place). So Bill's also selling me a 30mm spacer for use with the shorter hub. I should net a +10mm longer adapter which should fit well for me in the car. And it should be in the mail today, so I might even have it before this weekend.

Yes, but is it "weapons grade?"

Cast aluminum can be fairly brittle, especially if it's a cheap casting (which it probably was). Billet machined could be a healthy strength increase if they use a decent material grade.