My British Racing Green '99 NB

[speed freak]

If you are at normal ride height with your coilovers why dont you drop the height by 20-30 mm? Lowering that much wont hurt the handling/balance and its still a useable height. Get more negative camber for free too, see if that gives you enough.

Yeah I started looking at doing that tonight. I'm at 127mm to the pinch welds on rear, about 123 front. So I might drop it down to 105mm all around or something and get a little more out of it. After talking to a few people, and being advised by automotive plus that front camber options are between 'bad' and 'nonexistant' for a road car.. Might have to just try wider wheels on their own and hope I don't burn through $800 worth of tyres so quickly again.

So in other words the bushes are either no better then oem to too extreme?

I dont know the exact heights Im on, definitely legal height, but Im not too much lower then stock and as you know I can get a fair amount of neg camber and I get pretty even tyre wear.

Maybe try a 7-7.5" wide rim and slightly lower to give more camber?

[Trackphotos]

Maybe try a 7-7.5" wide rim and slightly lower to give more camber?

That's the plan.

[Trackphotos]

I've been agonizing over which wheels and tyres to buy to replace my skinny 15x6s and shagged RSRs.

shagged_part_2.jpg

Original plan was 15x8 Buddyclub P1s wrapped in Nitto NT01s, hoping for $900 wheels and $750 tyres. Then the opportunity came up to buy some Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2s, 15x7 spec miata wheels at a great price. The debate then became whether or not it's worth going with the 15x7 and losing the option of 225 tyres, for the sake of a great brand and sturdy build, plus very nice styling. Then I found a UK supplier that could even beat the awesome offer I got on them. I was set on them, had a quote including freight of $814 to my door. In the middle of trying to buy them, the site notified me that they couldn't ship them to Australia. Also spotted the Mx5 Mania group buy ion Buddyclub P1s, and got a few quotes on NT01s, finding that they're damn hard to find below $235/corner now. Wheel budget down, tyre budget up. $770/set for P1s through the group buy, gotta do it. Sent an email, hoping I got in in time.

Tomorrow, I hope to have another stab at adjusting the sway bars. After the last club day at QR, there's no way I'll be driving Lakeside with it as twitchy as it is now. It may be good for people with more experience than me, but I don't trust myself to last a day without a big fail into a wall there. Will try to set the bars up for understeer, and then loosen it up from there depending on how it feels. If all goes well, next time I should be down to 64s at Lakeside. Only need to find 1.2 seconds, NT01s alone should net me that, not to mention the 4.3 LSD that wasn't in last time.

[MINX]

Don't get too caught up with setting time goals. 64s are not easy to get. That is generally the sort of time I circulate at, with the odd 63 if all stars align. And I have the Advantage of BOOST.
Have a look at the last few natsoft results and look at what driver and car combinations(mx5) are getting below 65s.
Also re tyre widths, interesting to see my session the other day at QR saw me match my PBs on star specs 205s previously best I could do on RS3s 225s on same 8 in rims
Your times will fall naturally as setup and experience build.


Stuart

[Magpie]

A goal should be acheivable, my times have slowly been dropping as a result of seat time, car setup and help from others to push slowly the limits. If not for some encouragement from others at Jap Nats I'm not sure I would have gotten down to 1:07 times. More importantly I was circulating at consistent 1:08's so it was just a matter of time. I have a goal of 64 secs on the Clubman, 3 secs to go!

My logic is get times consistent, irrespective of speed. Once you can do consistent times start to add more speed/push a little harder. Funny I did not do any tyre temps/pressures or setup changes at Jap Nats and managed a PB, go figure!

Think about FZ201's, they come in medium at 205 width and soft at 195. I'm tempted to try soft soon, but not until I get consistent. Hopefully the 4.3 dif should see a change in times as well for me.

Good luck with acheiving your goal.

[Trackphotos]

Don't get too caught up with setting time goals. 64s are not easy to get. That is generally the sort of time I circulate at, with the odd 63 if all stars align. And I have the Advantage of BOOST.
Have a look at the last few natsoft results and look at what driver and car combinations(mx5) are getting below 65s.
Also re tyre widths, interesting to see my session the other day at QR saw me match my PBs on star specs 205s previously best I could do on RS3s 225s on same 8 in rims
Your times will fall naturally as setup and experience build.


Stuart

Oh yeah of course you can't just say semis are worth X amount of time and expect to get it without any effort. That being said, look at the Clubman times from the last club day. I was the quickest stock-power MX5 on the day, and that's on a power track. I was behind the 2 NA race cars, you, John's NC, and Jeff's blown NB. I already know that a stock power NB is capable of high 62s on semis at Lakeside, so I'm not even close to aiming for the most the car could do with the best driver. High 64s should be more than achievable with the new diff and semis in.

[MINX]

Matts 62s in his 'stock' NB was very impressive
It seems driver skill and low weight cars perform best at LS
I am an ordinary driver with probably the heaviest MX5 at the track, but once you get down in the times, man, every tenth gets very hard to come by.
Especially when you really desire to drive the car home after, then to work the next day.
I will be keen to see where you end up though thumbsup



Stuart

[Trackphotos]

Yeah, we'll see. 85rwkw vs 166rwkw, even with the higher weight in yours I wouldn't expect to get down near you but a high 64 is feasible.

Anyway, wheels are paid for and will be shipping tomorrow, so should get them next week. Just need to find some good rubber.

[Trackphotos]

Adjusted my sway bars today, front is full hard and rear is full soft. After the twitchiness I felt at QR, I wouldn't run Lakeside with it that way. Better to set it to be as understeery as possible for now and adjust later if need be. Should be doing another gymkhana day before next club day, so that'll be the test.

In the process of changing the bars, a courier turned up with the Buddyclub P1s I ordered in the MX5 Mania group buy. Look nice, should be good once I get the rubber put on. Hope to do that next week. Kind of a shame they will be track rims, and will only be on the car every month or two.

2014-06-11 12.28.jpg

[Magpie]

What is your tyre choice for them?

I have a set of R888 tyres that are still legal if you want to try them out? All you will need to do is pay for fitting/unfitting.

If you want to try out some DZ03's (just road legal) I have a set (tyres/rims) you could use for the day. At the moment they are in Ipswich and I was planning on bringing them (as well as the MX5, trailer and asorted bits and pieces) back to Blackwater on 29/06/14.

[Snowmotion]

Nice rims... I am saving for mine.

[Trackphotos]

What is your tyre choice for them?

I have a set of R888 tyres that are still legal if you want to try them out? All you will need to do is pay for fitting/unfitting.

If you want to try out some DZ03's (just road legal) I have a set (tyres/rims) you could use for the day. At the moment they are in Ipswich and I was planning on bringing them (as well as the MX5, trailer and asorted bits and pieces) back to Blackwater on 29/06/14.

I'm going to go with NT01s, good reputation and reasonably cheap compared to some of the other semislick alternatives. Thanks for the offer though

[Trackphotos]

Dummy fit one of the P1s tonight just to see how they'd fit and look. Tyres go on Monday morning, will have to get some longer wheel nuts to fit too. Makes the brakes look nice, looking forward to getting it all together.

10390284_10152490106619727_8414039274211097619_n.jpg

[Trackphotos]

Got the NT01s on the wheels this morning, put them on to see how they look. Happy.

[kazama]

looks very purposeful and sticky