"The Mazda" zoomzoom's NA Track toy

plohl · Postby **plohl** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 8:17 pm

^ i don't think s14 panels will fit an mx5 though...

16bit · Postby **16bit** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 12:00 am

looks like it might be similar to this one.

http://www.aprperformance.com/index.php ... iew&id=326

its has a 250mm chord so yours would probably make even more df.

MattR · Postby **MattR** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 9:31 am

plohl wrote:^ i don't think s14 panels will fit an mx5 though...

No they won't but I can get other panels made to suit different cars...... :lol:

I am just waiting to see how my panels look and then if they are what I consider good enough, then i can get other cars set up if there is a demand.

zoomzoom · Postby **zoomzoom** » Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:25 pm

So I managed to get the car out for TimeAttack at Lakeside on the weekend. I put up a video up of my quickest lap of the day if anyone is interested.

I was pretty happy with the improvement on my PB, the wing was probably a big factor as was having a diff in the car

It didn't really feel like I was pushing it right to the limit so hopefully there is still a little more left in it yet!

Cheers,

Tim

plohl · Postby **plohl** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:50 pm

Stalked the times on Natsoft. Well done man!
What diff did you end up getting?

zoomzoom · Postby **zoomzoom** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 11:34 pm

Thanks Shane. I ended up getting a 1.5 way Kaaz and since it came on a 3.9 CW & P I thought I would give that a go. It actually goes pretty well at Lakeside and has just long enough legs to allow me to use 5th all the way over the back and into hungry rather than having to shortshift to 6th to avoid running out of revs just as I come over the crest after the bridge. I am going to stick with that for now since I was pretty happy with it.

It's been a while since the last update and its been a very hectic few weeks until the last track day the weekend before last. The last 2 TimeAttack rounds at Lakeside were just over a month apart and the TimeAttack Maximum Attack happened to fall in the middle of those meaning 3 track days in fairly quick succession for a laid back (lazy) racer like myself!

With a few jobs I wanted to get done on the car as well as general servicing I ended up being well and truly under the pump to the point that I was changing the oil after loading the car onto the trailer at 6am ready to drive out to the track for the first of these rounds.

Due to my lack of time and a big enough compressor I dropped the bood lid past a local panel shop to get done while I messed around with some other things. When I went to pick it up a couple days before the Saturday trackday I was disappointed to find that it had been cast aside due to the first coat of primer having a reaction with some of the paint already on the lid.

Since I wanted to get it sorted I took the thing home and cleaned it up myself. I picked up a bigger compressor and an air sander on the way home and got stuck into it (apologies to my neighbours). I grabbed some isolator coat to prevent having another bad reaction and then got the primer and top coat on it, finishing the top coat about 11pm Friday night!

Before the drama with the boot lid I did manage to get onto another little job that had been on my list for a while. Since the car is not used on the road anymore I wanted to remove the headlights and replace them with some empty space. I couldn't bring myself to make brackets to fit the std headlight covers since they feel like they weigh a tonne so I made up some basic alloy frames and attached a skin of alloy sheet to resemble the OE headlight cover.

I also cleaned up the LHS of the engine bay and improved the air intake a little by moving it forward under the new headlight cover and making a new shroud.

More to follow soon...

Cheers,

Tim

timk · Postby **timk** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 10:55 am

That looks awesome Tim.

gslender · Postby **gslender** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:41 am

Luv the air intake - wished mazda put some more thought into options around the front like that standard. Of course you don't even have lights, but hey it works!

Postby **NitroDann** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 10:23 am

Such a sick build.

What was the time?

Postby **orx626** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 11:08 am

Congrats Tim on winning the G1 - Outright Class for the 2014 Lakeside Time a Attack Series!

Cheers,
Danny

zoomzoom · Postby **zoomzoom** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:29 pm

So things have been busy, the end of the year is out of the way and another is underway. To top off the silly season I've also moved house (can't believe how much stuff I have!) and had both my laptops die on me!

I've finally got things close to being in order at the new place and it is time to get back to the track car and get it ready for the first event on the 7th of March. Before I get started on the latest work I still have a few photos from late last year that I hadn't got around to putting up.

zoomzoom · Postby **zoomzoom** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:33 pm

New splitter frame:

First fit up:

Trimming to the profile of the nose for the 2015 TimeAttack rules:

Finished splitter:

zoomzoom · Postby **zoomzoom** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:52 pm

The first thing on the agenda is to try to get on top of the understeer which was really quite bad, especially towards the end of last year after changing to heavier springs to keep the car off the bumpstops.

In order to make up for the stiffer springs in the front I am going to try a lighter swaybar to allow a little more roll again like when the springs were softer. The current swaybar is a 24mm Whiteline adjustable however the the external reservoir on the shocks the adjustment is kind of useless as I can only go as soft as the middle setting which is about the same length lever as OEM. I have decided to give an OEM NB 22mm swaybar a go since it is easy to get and still substantially larger than the OEM 19mm NA6 item. A quick back of the napkin comparison says that the 22mm bar should be about 70% of the stiffness of the current 24mm bar.

I've also decided to take things a little further and update to the NB front end which has slightly improved geometry over the NA front. Among the several minor changes made to the NB subframe, the lower control arm mounts are lowered a little which will lower the roll centre hopefully helping with the understeer.

I made a start on the subframe swap over the weekend after aquiring an entire NB front end and getting it cleaned up a little.

The NA subframe being removed:

To make a little more room for the brake duct I have removed some of the unused ABS mount which is cast into the later uprights:

NB subframe installed and arms etc. starting to go in:

Still plenty of work to get done before it can go back on its wheels!

Cheers,

Tim

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 6:47 am

Tim what material did you use for the splitter? Interested in your NB front end swap and your opinions of if it improves the handling.

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 7:40 am

I just noticed you have the ER's, and no don't move the sway bar off the middle or rear holes when I did the sway bar snapped off the canisters.

If you get in contact with MCA they are of the opinion that they can make the canisters remote mounts. This still needs to be 'tested' as I need to get mine up to them, hopefully next time I'm home this will happen. If it works it may allow you to keep the larger sway.

Another thought is to use N021-32-280A tie rod ball joints as these reduce some of the bump steer they are from the 1993 LE and 1994-1995 R package, but will fit any 1989-2005 MX5. These lower the tie rod about 3mm.