My British Racing Green '99 NB

[Trackphotos]

Get the feeling I'm going to struggle to improve at QR without making any changes, so this time I'm going to run with 15L of fuel instead of a full tank, and I've stripped the interior carpet/deadening/insulation out, along with the passenger seat. Should be 40-45kg lighter, maybe enough to make a difference, not sure. Also for our first wedding anniversary, I got given some rad new boots.

[Magpie]

Maybe consider some driver coaching or professional car set up (alignment/corner weights/suspension/tyres)?

Saving weight in the car will allow faster acceleration. For example 3rd gear (6 speed) with a 4.3 diff at 6,000 rpm you have, for example 4.40 m/sec² if your car weights 1,000. Loose 100kg and it becomes 4.88 m/sec² or an extra 0.48 m/sec² increase. I have attached the file I have used in the past for you to play with, just fill in the flesh coloured cells.

Taking the passenger seat out may impact on the class that your are running in, however if not running to a class then it is irrelevant.

You may need to make some changes to ride heights etc if taking a lot of weight out of one side. The cabin noise without carpets/insulation is OK with a helmet on, but without it is rather loud, plus the non stop whine of the fuel pump. However not being able to talk/hear your passenger does make for a more enjoyable drive

Good luck with your plans.

[rascal]

Saving weight in the car benefits not just acceleration, but also braking and cornering, so it's a win-win-win.

You should definitely see a difference with 40kg less..


Those cool red boots should be worth a few tenths

[mx5002]

If you haven't already bought your camber bushes check out isc racing in the states. I and a few others on here have them. They replace the upper arm inside bushes so it pulls the wheel into the wheel well at the top as opposed to pushing the bottom out. Gives you about more gashed clearance.

[rascal]

...... Gives you about more gashed clearance.

mmm, more gashed clearance.......



Gotta love autocorrect....

[greenMachine]

If you haven't already bought your camber bushes check out isc racing in the states. I and a few others on here have them. They replace the upper arm inside bushes so it pulls the wheel into the wheel well at the top as opposed to pushing the bottom out. Gives you about more gashed clearance.

Also available locally, not sure where mine came from but probably superpro.

[mx5002]

Thanks Ed..

More guard clearance!

[Trackphotos]

Ran the club day at QR on Monday. Was half a second off my pb on the sprint circuit, turns out I wasn't using the brakes late enough or hard enough so I only managed a 62.9. Clubman went much better, improved my pb by 7 tenths, now 65.2. Came into the pits, smoke pouring off the front wheels. Set the pb lap on the final lap of the final session, so presumably I cooked them on that final brake into t6. Good time to stop, maybe time to look into ducting or other brake upgrades.

Sprint lap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXKqjTydkl0

Clubman lap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y89PGKbJ6I

Results of the final braking zone on the last lap of Clubman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaE6fi-5wW8

And the front left tyre is looking a bit worse for wear. It's got track life left, just no life on the road anymore. Will rotate to right rear for next track day, they've all already been flipped on the rims.

[Trackphotos]

So between last QR club day and November 16th, the car sat in the garage with a battery charger on it. Took it to the full day Lakeside club day on the 16th, managed to squeeze out a 64.009 but couldn't quite break back into the 63s again. In the last 2 sessions the car felt breathless approaching the kink, seemed to be down a couple kmh by the braking zone. Had a good bit of fun chasing Liam's Caterham, Stu's SE and Steve's Boxster. Slower than all of them of course, but gaining on all of them under brakes is fun at least. The only one to actually slow me down was the Boxster, although he was turning faster laps, the corner speed difference was more than enough to put me back to 65-66sec laps.

Chasing Stu: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuULvXozz5s[/youtube]
Chasing Liam: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS4oCA8D2Gc[/youtube]
Chasing Steve: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2xHIk5LeJM[/youtube]

Tyres are done, still a small amount of track use left but I'm not willing to risk getting caught in the rain driving to and from the track anymore. Cleaned the excess rubber from inside the wheels afterward, not a small amount.






On the drive home, there was a pretty significant rattling sound coming from underneath the car. When I had a look under the car for the source, I found it was coming from inside the cat. Only one year and 6 track days old, the honeycomb inside has broken in half. Not impressed with the quality from Magnaflow. So, since the cat is welded into the midpipe, I decided it isn't worth having it cut out, paying for a new cat and getting it welded in. So now it's hollow.






I've had some new Nitto NT01s put on the wheels, so next track day my aim will be a 63.6. It would be 2 tenths improvement over my PB, but with good weather and fresh rubber it should be feasible. Comparing the rubber on the old tyres to the new ones, the old ones have gone much harder than they used to be. With any luck I'll be running Time Attack at Lakeside on December 6th.

[Trackphotos]

Got around to finding some new exhaust gaskets, chucked the exhaust back on and went for a short drive to see how much difference there is with a hollow cat. Pops and bangs a little bit off throttle now, and it could just be me but it seems like it smells richer. Would guess it won't be too long before it's got the telltale soot marks on the rear bar. Not a lot louder or more droney than it was, but it does resonate a bit more. More of a tinny sound than there was before.

Booked in for Time Attack at Lakeside on Sunday morning. Praying for good weather. With fresh rubber, and no longer having an obstruction in the exhaust, I think 63s should be attainable pretty early on, and improving on my PB isn't out of the question either.

[Trackphotos]

Ran Time Attack at Lakeside this morning. Was a loose track, everybody was down a second or so from their usual pace. Even with the brand new tyres, I couldn't beat 64.7. Still, ended up 27th of 37 entries. Considering the calibre of cars that run Time Attack, that's better than I was expecting. Will just have to wait until the club day in February to see if I can get back down to 63s, if the weather is better than today.

Loose 64.8:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3keN9ki_oPA[/youtube]

[pezchops]

is it just me?or is the link not working?
dont worry its just me...doh

[Trackphotos]

Car is back to roadworthy-ish state now, will be February before it sees the track again. Will try to get up Nebo and Glorious once or twice, has been a while since I last did.

Also it turns out I won the NB Modified class in the club championship this year. That much was expected. Less expected was winning both Men's Champion, and Grand Champion. As far as I can tell, they are awarded for highest overall championship points by a male, and highest overall championship points outright. Considering there are 46 male entries and 3 female entries, seems pretty likely that each year, both of those trophies will be going to the same person.

I missed the christmas club run/barbecue in favour of husbandly duties, so I'll have to get them off Roger. He's gonna have a bootful of other people's trophies to distribute at the first round next year, I think. Roger was awarded Club Member of the Year, and very deservedly too. Reckon that must have been an easy choice.

[zero00]

Thanks Ross

Always has been an outright for the highest aggregate point score, so if you won 6/6 then that can't be bettered

First time I have seen a 'Mens Championship' as normally all the ladies are grouped in one class regardless of what model/mods the MX-5 has - it was fierce this year between Amber & Eva, both in red NA's but Amber got it in the end - well done to both as they are both great ambassadors within the club

[Trackphotos]

Tada. Found myself 15min from Roger's place during work this evening, dropped in to grab the goods. Look very nice.