Ben Sale's white 1990 NA6

lee · Postby **lee** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:15 pm

Congrats on popping the 2 minute mark! That's a serious achievement on a stock+ car. I'd love to see what you can do with a couple of extra horses under your feet

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:33 pm

So would I ..
I just looked at the in car from Brendan in front of me and on his best lap he makes 2 seconds on me between MG (the right at the bottom of the hill) and the painted line a couple of hundred meters before turn 1 and almost a whole second between siberia and lukey heights on the back of the track. My camera angle is not right to tell on the straight between turn 2 and 4. Should give you an idea of where I would be with stock NB8A power and a fastback.

My gains on him in the corners are helped by better (fresher) tyres

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:55 am

"It's frustrating when you're with other QUICK mx-5s and you see how quickly they pull away down the straights. "

I think you mean less slow, not quick mx5's.

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:10 am

Haha, yes "less slow" would be more accurate.

CheyneX5 · Postby **CheyneX5** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:17 am

Time to update the Sig i think :mrgreen:

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 8:06 pm

I should do that Cheyne..

Here is the spin at turn 1..

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Fri Dec 07, 2012 3:13 pm

Went down to Winton last weekend, Alex and I double entered the car. It was a great fun day, easily one of the most fun track days I've done.
I ended up 0.2 off my PB with a 1:44.2. I did that time in the first flyer (cooler) session but stuffed up the tyre pressures so was only running 22psi in the front left! The next session I had a fairly smokey spin on my firstly flying lap in the right after the sweeper (flat through the sweeper meant I was too quick for the right) which meant traffic for the rest of the session. The rest of the day was too hot and we also broke the front splitter which meant it was bashing on the ground down the straights - was still heaps of fun though!!

Toby had his first track day in a car and did really well. In one of the sessions I followed him around for a bit - I put a video of that up as it's a bit amusing

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Sun Feb 17, 2013 1:20 pm

New additions.. KW Competitions specifically built for the car. Adjustable compression and rebound as well as high and low speed. Straight out of the box the car feels incredible! Kind of hard to comprehend how you can increase spring rates to track focused rates while also improving ride quality - I guess that's a properly controlled, specifically setup damper for you.. Stability over and absorption of large bumps is incredible! Massive bumps mid corner have no effect to the car. Now to let them settle in and then play with them. Even before settling, corner weighing and any tweaks to setup and the wrong wheel alignment settings the car already feels better than it ever has - I cant wait to get to the track.

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Thu May 16, 2013 4:31 pm

Ben, was your car in Albion Park the other day? Driving to work yesterday (or maybe Tuesday?), a white NA was headed towards me on the Illawarra Hwy, top down with a BD rollbar fitted, and I caught a glimpse of orange wheels as he passed. Seemed like an older gent driving. I was in the Volvo so didn't exchange an MX-5 wave.

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Fri May 17, 2013 8:56 am

No wasn't me..! I don't drive the car interstate as much anymore.. Still want to bring it to Wakefield again but lacking the time.

While I'm here.. I went to Winton a few weeks ago to test the new suspension.. Did a 1:42.9 which was a decent improvement. Huge different in drivability, with the new setup I could really hammer the curbs without unsettling the car and the bumps in the sweeper which used to be big no longer were really noticed which meant I tried carrying a lot more speed through the second half of the corner. I tried it flat and made it, but the braking for the right after didn't go so well... I think it can be done though.

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Fri May 17, 2013 9:28 am

Looks like you've got a twin up here then.

Nice work on the Winton lap. The sweeper is an awesome corner. Love it!

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Fri May 17, 2013 11:03 am

Sounds like I do :shock:

It is a good corner, nice challenge with a few different line options which work with different car setups. I would like to try the Winton Short track again. Even with the 4.1 diff ratio which isn't ideally suited I think it would be really quick around there now.

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 6:17 pm

Had some fun at the VMC round yesterday. 7 MX-5s entries which was great to see. Motorkhana master Bob won the class convincingly. I had a lot of fun and was pretty happy to do well on all of the tests I didn't get lost on! I also realised that good suspension is a huge advantage at Motorkhana as when I got it right I was significantly faster than before as everything was a lot more controlled. Just need to start getting it right more often, would be good to be able to enter a few more rounds!

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 6:55 pm

Looks like good fun

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Remembering the way is part of the challenge. But I have trouble remembering the layouts in such a short amount of time. Well I have only done it once.
Are you going to Phillip island?