Si.G's NA6

Si.G · Postby **Si.G** » Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:51 pm

No mods or videos today, just a brief report on today's club autotest. It was round 13 of 14, with all to play for in the overall chapionship. Here in WA we run 7 different events, each contested twice, with your best score from each event counting towards the championship. On the first attempt of the RAC driving centre double skid pan autotest, I placed 2nd, so today was an opportunity to try and grab an extra point. I was considering not running on my R-comps today to save them for the last round, but i decide it was worth a shot at an extra point. With 5 runs out of the 7 complete things were not looking good, I thought I was over a second behind overall, but did not know exactly. A second does not sound much, but it is a huge amount to make up on runs that are around 60 seconds. I managed the fastest time on the 6th run, but only by about 0.3 secs and went a bit quick again on the last run.

The final result - a win for me by 0.019 of a second. Let me say that again less than 2 hundredth of a second. It does not get any closer.

We have great close racing in the club here in WA, organised by dedicated people that give up there own time to make them happen. I am sure there are similar folk in other states, but it's totally worth recognising them

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 6:14 am

Nice work Simon! It's a great club, with a great competition. I rather miss it!

Postby **Okibi** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 9:14 am

Awesome driving by Waz and yourself Si!

Was happy I could save face on the last run but I was over a second slower on the other runs.

Si.G · Postby **Si.G** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 9:22 am

Okibi wrote:Awesome driving by Waz and yourself Si!

Was happy I could save face on the last run but I was over a second slower on the other runs.

I think you are forgetting to mention another good drive, so I will do it for you - good work, taking 3rd by 0.5 sec - another close result.

Postby **Okibi** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 3:02 pm

Nah was 4 seconds

Si.G · Postby **Si.G** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:59 am

Hi Everyone,

I am probably not going to be posting much more on my garage thread, because I am not going to develop the MX5 much further. I am going to finish getting it engineered and simply enjoy driving it more, rather than the hassle of taking the seat out of it to load tyres in all the time to compete in the open class of the WA club championship.

Why, you might ask, well 2 reasons ....
-- I have achieved my goals this year in the club championship and I am very happy that all my efforts this year and leading up to it have paid off.
-- 2 I want to get back to stage rallying and the MX5 is not the car for it. I know others have rallied them, but at 6' tall the cabin space is an issue. Clearance to a cage will be none existent and I don't want to run the risks that come with that - 1 injury and 2 a scrutineer that, quite rightly, does not let me run.

So I have a new toy

Work has already started on bringing this ex-stage car back to loose tracks where it belongs.

Will still be doing the WA MX5 club championship, but on street tyres and I might do the odd track event, so there will be the odd post from time to time.

Thanks to everyone who has followed my ups and downs.
Si.

Postby **Okibi** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:05 am

Looking forward to hearing about your rally experience.

EX MX-5s'er Mark "Curly" Davies and his brother compete in the rally stages in a GX8 WRX (was in a 323) he's an awesome bloke and lives near you, should be able to give you some good advice.

Also MX-5'er David Smith ex STechnic has been involved in a lot of local motorsport and should be able to offer some good advice.

It seems like a pretty close and fun motorsport community.

Si.G · Postby **Si.G** » Sun Dec 21, 2014 12:12 am

Just spotted this on speed hunters (under suzuki s15), good to see that I am not the only one filling gaps between the splitter and body work with duct tape

Si.G · Postby **Si.G** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 9:01 pm

Entered the Round 4 of McRae rally sprint yesterday to finish off the A050s. Had a good run - 6th in class and 26th overall.
Thanks to Rod for stepping into the co-pilot seat.

Cool thing is the A050s still have life for the final round next month

Did the previous month's in the Charade - bit of a speed difference, but the Charade is heaps of fun still. Gaffer tape on the steering wheel is awesome.

Postby **Okibi** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 11:54 pm

Great work Simon and Rod!

Si.G · Postby **Si.G** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 7:28 pm

Did the last round of the mcRae Rally Sprint.
1st run - new brake pads = massive brake fade even though they had been bedded in. I think going from cold to hot too quickly glazed the pads.
3rd run was the best - below
Extra runs for the marshals = broken diff

Round 1 of the mx5 club event in a week :shock:

The American · Postby **The American** » Sat Mar 07, 2015 11:29 pm

Ouch! That's pretty munched! Was this a later model diff or NA6?

Si.G · Postby **Si.G** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:20 am

The American wrote:Ouch! That's pretty munched! Was this a later model diff or NA6?

NA6 diff - a mazdaspeed plated LSD. Been running it without issue for a few years.

I think the breakage was self inflicted - the car has an under tray on and no cooling to the diff. I was going to fit cooling if I would be doing events with long periods of hard driving. Typically it is like 2 mins of driving followed by 30mins of cooling. I think doing a couple of runs straight after each other for the marshals may have introduced a heat element to the breakage.

On inspection, I suspect the gears failed first and the shock of the gears engaging again broke the bearing casing.

The differential itself is totally fine, just needs new bearings and re-casing (got a spare case). Took the clutches out, inspected and clean it. So fixing up this diff vs about $1500+ for a larger diff (with prop and shafts) which is a torsen that I personally don't like, so then add another $1500 for a decent LSD, like an OS giken.

So, going to stay with the NA6 clutched LSD and hopefully get another few years service out it. Plus will look to buy some open diffs for spares

The American · Postby **The American** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 7:51 am

I recall watching your car through turns on the skid pan at the RAC centre and it was consistently lifting a rear inside wheel well clear of the ground in turns - a torsen would not be much use to you!