MAZMAD'S Track car (and Driver) build

[mazmad]

Soon after, the car went in to the boys in Padstow for some lovin’

Had beefier sway bars fitted (more on these later… ), a torsen diff and a 4.1 drive ratio.
Wheel alignment got dialed up a bit with camber as close to neg 3 as possible.

I also had the radio removed, and the p-box mounted in a fascia the centre console.


Finally had
-bonnet pins
-kill switch
- braided brake lines
- and a Sparco Sprint V fitted.







The seat felt very restrictive on the first drive! The wings and high trans tunnel felt like they would limit my gear change movement. But like most of these things – once you take that first corner in anger, never noticed it again
Note the wheel and gear lever are still standard - they are next!

And the girl began her weight loss program, with the air-con being removed (never worked anyway, the green machine is a sauna). Left the original seat belts in place for the moment whilst the car remains road rego'd. They may go eventually for further weight loss.

Suffered a bit of a drama with the exterior kill switch in the form of a broken windscreen, but was quickly sorted.

[mazmad]

Next track day was Eastern Creek south on 12th October – ready to lash out with the torsen, sways and seat.

And it was pi$$ing down! Sheets of water on the track. Went out anyway, figuring have to get wet practice sometime. Drove pretty conservatively – it is pretty disconcerting when without any extra pressure on throttle or direction, the tail starts very gracefully slowly stepping out…. One very keen punter put his car into the wall – my buddy and I head home – not having been heroes (like Mr Wall Bouncer) but having learnt a little more about car control and driving well within ourselves.


Check out 2.28s for the drifts....

[mx5002]

Looking good very similar direction that I have in plan for many green machine lol

[mazmad]

That is what I figured

[mazmad]

28th October 2012 North Circuit SMSP Supersprint
So I had the car fully prepped and humming for the 28th October Supersprint on the North Circuit at Sydney Motorsport Park (SMSP), my second competitive event.

My first outing with the beefier sways and torsen diff had been the extremely wet practice session on the South Circuit a few weeks before, so I had not yet had the chance to really try it out and go hard.

Some people don’t like the north circuit - I LOVED it.

What’s not to like about the balls out pedal to the metal turn 1 at the end of a real straight. A fast left-hander that you need to take with a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude. Lift-off on this corner – in our cars, front engine rear-wheel drive – and you are risking a very high speed oversteer slide into a spin. You would go a long way too, possibly all the way into the wall at the far southern end.

I love this corner – into fifth momentarily on the straight (need to get the rev-limiter raised by 500 rpm when I get the car re-chipped….), slight ease-off and downshift to fourth ahead of T1 and then back on the gas into the corner and keep it on, all the way to turn 2, a 180 degree left – also a lot of fun! Love it!

Having never dríven on the full circuit, I had no basis for comparison – and so really enjoyed this track. Even the transition between the north track and the right-hander leading to the south, turns 4a and 4b – kind of like a slightly straightened ‘s’ – is a load of fun.

The best I managed was a 1.2107. The car felt great, very neutral, tyre pressures were sorted finally. It was the driver holding us back for sure but I felt like some progress was being made, I was starting to develop a better ‘feel’ and more idea about the balance of the car.



In retrospect I was still coming in too hot, and so still trying to wash off speed on the entry into the corner asking the front tyres to do too much. Live and learn….

The bloopers out-takes on turn 2.....

[mazmad]

Wakefield Park SOS day 12th November 2012
I was excited to get back to Wakefield for an SOS day on the 12th November 2012. I hoped that with the changed diff and more of an idea about car control I might post some decent times. In truth my goal was 1.13's.

There had been a drifting weekend prior, and there was a lot of rubber laid on the track, masses of black. It felt quite slippery early on but I thought it would improve over the day.

I cracked 1.15. But I was understeering too much, tyres squealing. Scratching my head trying to work out what was going on. All the rubber on the track? Maybe, it should have worn off by now.

Fiddled with tyre pressures a little, easing them off.

I managed 1.14.5 several times with a number of runs under 1.15.00. But I wasn’t really happy with the way the car was handling.

The expert comment afterwards was it is more than likely the driver. The car should have been well set-up, so therefore I must be doing the usual green bozo thing of braking too late, coming in too hot, still washing off speed through the corner rather than settling the car before the corner and getting on the gas early.

In actual fact – as I would find out afterwards – I had a broken sway bracket, but wouldn’t realize this until after the MRA race on the 25th November. Talk about stupid not picking that up – live and learn.

But then the car had been checked and prepped by the workshop, and the experts were all pointing the finger at the driver in the post track analysis.

[mazmad]

MRA 25TH November 2012 – my FIRST race

This was the most fun I have had in a car with my clothes on. 25th November at Wakefield Park, and it was hot. I drove down (lots about 3 litres in sweat) and back.

On the Sunday it was 33-34 degrees and sunny, turned out to be only 2 mx5’s so they were talking of putting us with the Super TT class.

In the end we ran with the mini’s and what a crazy bunch they were. Three recent model bmw-mini’s and a whole flock of crazy dudes in the originals. What crazy little cars these are, tiny wheels, and massive crazy understeer. But they were quick – they way 600kg and many had equal power to my standard mx5, with many heavily tweaked putting out a lot more. They must have all been panel beaters too because they weren’t backwards in putting their panels forward, so aggressive in their almost museum pieces .

And it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!

I had a ball! Still doing 1.14’s with the best 1.14.5 again (and still no engine mods as yet so 72rwkw 'ish..), and tyres squealing and understeering too much . Yeah must be the driver was the consensus….. Wasn't until I got back that I found I had a broken rear sway bracket.

Yep, note to self: full prep and check of car even if it has been to a workshop and had this done already (now I ALWAYS follow this routine ).

Some of the crazy mini action - the last minute is the highlight on last turn onto the straight.



I had a ‘paddock’ garage and with the heat and the loose gravel in front of them, the tyres looked like coco-pop biccies! Discs were totally shot too.

[mazmad]

Trying to bring this up to date , more developments under way to post next week!

[mazmad]

In early Dec I took the green machine to a workshop closer to home, in Brookvale. Guess what….? Broken sway bracket. Well, that explains a lot.



Had superpro bracket and bushing put in, an alignment and the rear sway set to the middle setting.
Interesting now I look back at it, the Alignment: front -3 camber 0.8 toe rear -2.5 camber -.8 toe

On the 7th December raced from work for a couple of hours on the GP circuit at SMSP. What a great track.

The brakes were terrible, really ‘lumpy’, have to get them sorted for the next outing. It was much more tail happy, had a couple of spins – shat myself in of them. I think the back started stepping out on turn 5 (for those that only know the south circuit it is the slightly uphill, off-camber left-hander coming onto the little straight).

I did the dunderhead thing – lifted off a bit instead of powering on to get the tail back under, fishtailed tried to control it and snapped around in a spin. Came to a stop a couple of feet from the concrete bank near the South Circuit entrance onto the track – I could have reached out and touched the wall.

Wasn’t comfortable all session with the setup/handling, too twitchy in the tail.

Managed a 1.59.3 – hey I was happy just to crack 2 minutes the way the car was handling.

[mazmad]

So clearly it was time for me to start thinking more about the suspension set-up.

I set the rear sway to full soft. Replaced my wobbly front discs with standard mazda front discs, and new green stuff pads. Replaced fluids all round. Bit of metal in diff hmm keep an eye on that!

On 19th of January took # 98 back to Wakefield. Trailered down – and wow, thank f$%k I did! 42 degrees driving down most of the way, I would have melted in the green machine with no aircon and a heat tunnel next to me.



On the track it was soooooo much better, still a little understeer at times – thanks to the driver – but not squealing like a pig and understeering like a boat. Duh……

Took a while to get up to speed then started doing laps around 1.14 with a best of 1.13.55 and several sub 1.14.00

We all read about it, talk about it, and have others preach it to us. But it takes a while - well it did for me.

FINALLY it was starting to sink in ……. brake HARD and early, and then power on BEFORE I initiate the turn. When I got that right it came together.

I also found some time by focusing on the top part of the track. I think as newbies we spend so much time analyzing turn 2, the fishhook 8, and the last turn on to the straight 10, that we overlook turns 3 through 7.

I started to try to use all of the track through this section and to carry more speed into 3. And my speed through the top part improved. Love the pivot on turn 5 with a slight liftoff setting you up for the downhill section.

[mazmad]

So that brings us up to date with the green machine.

Just got back from a family holiday in Fiji, away from petrol fumes and burning brake pads (no shortage of crazy drivers though... ).

The next few months are going to be busy!! She went in last night in for a full cage and weight-loss program, and who knows .... I might finally allow myself to play with some more horses up front.


Entry is in for the FOSC over Easter! 2 days of racing with crazy old dudes in their genteel machines. What’s not to like!

[evil_weevil]

Haha you get back from Fiji and I'm about to fly off for a week!
Hopefully you'll be at mra mate.
I've done sh*t all to mine since last round. Prob treat it to an alignment again as would have been 11 months since last one...oops!

[mazmad]

You're going to Fiji? Sota tale! Yeah I should be at the MRA but will wait to enter until I survive the FOSC.

[rascal]

[quote="mazmad"]FINALLY it was starting to sink in ……. brake HARD and early, and then power on BEFORE I initiate the turn./quote]
?????
Power on into the corner? That's not the right way to do it.

You should be braking into the corner, and accelerating out of it...

[mazmad]

Yeah I guess what I mean is get the car settled pre apex so I can get power on as close to apexing as possible.

One thing at a time. get my braking done pre turn in and then use what grip I have for handling g forces not trying to do all at once.