Roadrunners SE

[Roadrunner]

Wow, some serious money there.
Your car is comming along nicely
Also interesting reading your feedback re the previous yellowspeeds. What were they like on road and would they handle mild track duties?

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Thanks, its slowly turning into a more track orientated car. Just replacing things with better parts as they wear out (brakes etc)
To be honest, considering the flack that Yellowspeeds seem to cop now, I've been quite happy with them for cheap coilovers. Yes there can be some harshness to big bumps but in general they have done a good job. Could also be the fact I don't have the car dumped on its guts resting on the bump stops and the dampers set to max hard.
On the track, perfectly acceptable. I have had several advisers drive and passenger my car, all saying the car is very balanced and well set up. Love the look I get when I mention that they are just Yellowspeeds. They aren't as bad as the recent reputation would lead you to believe. Yes there is better for more money, but that's true with nearly every product. So if your only got $1000 to spend, yellowspeeds are fine, if you can stretch the budget by another 50%+ there's better out there for daily driving on rough roads.
I'd be quite happy to recommend these for mild track duties for their price. Just not sure how they'd hold up over extended and prolonged track use that's all.

[speed]

Thanks heaps for the feedback. I'd keep things at legal height so based on your experience suspect they will be fine for my intentions.

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[Roadrunner]

Had my first track day since installing the MCA XR's, Carbotech brakes and with decent tyres (AD08Rs)
First I'd like to saw WOW about the MCA's. Even just the 3.5hour drive to the track they made a huge difference. So much smoother over the harsh bridge's on the M1, no more full body clinching! and that's with 2kg heavier springs in the front. MCA weren't wrong when they said the valving is much better than most out there making for a better ride with heavier springs.
I was quite happy with the YellowSpeeds but these are in a different league comfort wise. You feel the bumps still but they don't shake the whole car.

On the track, and of course since the topsy turvy suspension setup has been rectified since my last WP day, I had a new found confidence in the car. Being able to get on the power early out of the fish hook with zero wheel spin felt great. The car was just planted everywhere. Once the Yokos had warmed up I was really getting into it. (went spinning off the first corner on the first lap of the day ).
After the first session I was down to mid 11s (near 2 second improvement).
By the end of the day I recorded a 1:10.927
Still have a long way to go but most laps were mid 11's which is fantastic since I was aiming to break into the 12s.

The brakes worked great. Zero fade even when I was testing the limits of late braking in the morning. Will have to look at upgrading the street rears though.

Annoyingly my SoloDL had a hick up in the last session and didn't log the warmup lap and the first few seconds of my PB lap.
Heres the video of the PB and a few laps afterwards:



I experimented in this round with staying in 4th over the back section to see if changing down then back up again was costing time verse other sessions. It felt like the revs weren't high enough but didn't seem to make too much of a difference to lap times. I'll be breaking the sector down in race studio to compare

Oh and look at the coolant temps The ducting works!!
Max temp at the front all day was 104degrees. OBD temps didn't break 97degs all day. Dual entered car, no mercy shown.
Even the wife took over 4 seconds off her PB. 1:14.5** for her. So stoked!!

[NitroDann]

You should be proud of your car, your work and your driving, well done.

Dann

[luzinit]

Loving the updates dude. I am looking at MCA and am considering either blues or XRs. Glad to see youre really happy with them.

Just saw the vid of your wife at wakey, she was ecstatic by the last lap. One Day I'll get out there and will drag my missus along too!

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[Roadrunner]

You should be proud of your car, your work and your driving, well done.

Dann

Thanks Dan feeling quite chuffed!
And I know I've said this a thousand times already, but I'm so happy with the work you've done to the car. It just runs so solid and smoothly all day at the track then behaves like a standard street car on the drive home. No stalling. Just works. Love it

Just saw the vid of your wife at wakey, she was ecstatic by the last lap. One Day I'll get out there and will drag my missus along too!

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She loves it. For someone who's got zero interest in watching motorsports or even playing racing games on the PlayStation she's really taking to the track days and loves it.
Going to have to start looking over my shoulder soon. She's getting quick

[IanR]

Great driving, so stoked to see your suspension working better, no idea how you drove it as it was before being so loose on lefts handers. Good work Sir.

[pepejesus]

The brakes worked great. Zero fade even when I was testing the limits of late braking in the morning. Will have to look at upgrading the street rears though.

How good are the Carbotechs? I'm starting to think that they are made of magic...

[Roadrunner]

Wow, just over 2 years since an update Mostly thanks to Photobuckets monumental photo link stuff up...
But I've discovered Imgur so I'm back!

Anyway, Been enjoying the car over the last 2 years, mostly track days and building the car around things that break or are letting me down.
I'll try not to be too text heavy and let the photos do the talking, but here's the digest version:

Since Last update:

Got down to a 1:10.748 at Wakefield Park on AD08Rs
Melted the front caliper seals at Marulan. more on that later.
Replaced a faulty reverse switch in the gearbox that was blowing the fuse for the dash gauges
Installed TSE 2.5" brake ducts
Got a slightly more aggressive alignment
Got Nankang AR-1 semi slicks...and went backwards on times...
Swore at the brake pads more often than I'd like to admit
Wife entered in a team in the SMSP 6Hr Regularity and came 2nd out of 3 Ladies teams. Second most consistent driver in the team.
Even though the radiator ducting made a huge difference I was still pushing the limits on hot days, especially at SMSP South Circuit so bit the bullet and ordered a Flyin Miata CrossFlow radiator.
After all those updates, still haven't gone faster than I was 2 years ago
And then at the last Wakefield Park day in September...the SE turbo let go
Now sitting sad on the trailer in the shed waiting the call up from NitroDann to install a twistmount...

Almost 2 months sitting on a trailer = sad car longing to go outdoors:


More updates to come...

[Roadrunner]

To the brakes:

Smeary smeary Carbotech XP10s:



TSE 2.5Inch ducting backing plates (this also protects the lower ball joint from heat):



ABS Sensor is Waaay too tight on the inlet:



Swap ABS sensors left to right and clearance is now all good:



Ducting hose:



Plenty of clearance at full lock (205mm tyres)



Through the radiator ducting:


Poked out the nose. Its held firmly between the intercooler piping and the chassis. I had to replace the tow hooks on both sides with straps to create more clearance, but also means I can stuff the hose with the strap for street driving so the brakes aren't overcooled:


Seems to work well, though the XP10 just seem to run hot no matter what. This has been echoed by some other XP10 users. The brakes aren't dragging, they just get hot instantly and then fade after a few laps. Changed out to XP12 and they are better. They run just as hot but don't fade after 3 laps.
Apparently you have to do some voodoo dance to get carbotechs to bed properly. The XP10 pads were "pre-bedded" but I am almost certain that it was the hot hot XP10 pads at MDTC that melted my seals as I had never had an issue before changing pads. Googling Carbotech/Gloc issues this seems to be common while many others have never had a issue.
After 2 years and 3 set of Carbotech/Gloc pads and although the 12's are okish at the moment, once they wear out I'll try Winmax pads. Never heard a bad thing about them.

[Roadrunner]

Staying cool has never been the cars strong suit. Little things like ducting etc helped, but on hot days it was still creeping over 100degrees.

Decided to suck it up and ordered a Flyin Miata crossflow radiator and stage 2 fans.




Big difference in fin density between it and the Koyorad:


A couple of expected fitment issues as has been well documented on here and miata.net etc though wasn't as bad as I expected, plus there has been an update to the radiator since it launched (inc a price reduction!) such as bleed valves on the top, sensor port on the rear and a couple other things I can't remember.

Had to:
- slide the PS hard lines up into the rubber pipe a few cm. easy as.
- Smack the top AC condensor screw mounts forward a cm. TBH the instructions say to move the condensor to the front side of the mounts. I couldn't see how that was possible without a fair bit of work. But there was plenty of clearance anyway and you probebly don't need to move it at all but I hammered the mounts forward just a bit anyway to create more room. Maybe this was another update in the design?
- Slide the SE hot side piping up the rubber hose a little so the metal pipe cleared the radiator filler neck.
- Then the rest was trimming the shroud to fit, which was a little annoying since these 2 items are designed specifically for each other.
- There was touching around the inlet - nothing a pair of tin snips couldn't fix:


- One of the bottom mounting bosses didn't line up to the shroud hole at all.
- And probably the most annoying one, is the boss next to the inlet is so close the rubber hose barely fits, let alone with a clamp on it
This part I didn't realise untill after it was in the car. I had to put the clamp on the inlet, then slide the hose onto the inlet while feeding the clamp onto the hose as I went. Once it was on and tightened the compressed rubber hose doesn't touch the boss at all so no issues with rubbing, but geez that was hard going.


Result: Cool as a cucumber at a super hot day at SMSP South Circuit. Didn't get over 92 degrees all day! Usually by lap 3-4 its over 100 and have to back off. 10degree drop in temp at the limit. Very very happy with that. Worth the expense and effort.
Really tidies up the engine bay too:

[Roadrunner]

When doing the radiator I wanted to change up how the water temp sensor was set up.
I had a Maruha spacer which goes in the outlet neck, but it puts the sensor on the cold side of the thermostat. Originally to combat the lack of sensor reading till the thermostat opened, we drilled a hole in it to bleed hot water through to the sensor, but this caused the car to take an age to get up to temp.
So my solution was to make the adaptor how it should have been made - by machining a groove in it to accommodate the thermostat.
Now the sensor is on the hot side of the thermostat. A new "hole-less" thermostat was installed. Now the car warms up in normal time and I have an accurate gauge reading from cold to operating temp.

How the Maruha adaptor is originally designed to go:








My modification:

Machined lip in spacer:




Sensor is now on the hot side of the themostat:




Plenty of clearance in the back with the thermostat:



For $30 it's worth doing this mod if you have a Maruha adaptor. This is how it should have been made.

[Roadrunner]

Doing 1:10 and 12s in SE leather seats was beginning to get silly

So purchased a Cobra Monaco Sport seat:



"Bolts straight in with MX-5 specific adaptors" was the sales pitch. Yeah right. After swearing and hair pulling I discovered the adaptors I had were very much generic. Heres what I got vs what I should have had. Too long and the holes, while close, don't line up.
Thankfully the father in law is a wizz with metal fab and modded my oversize bars to suit.



Now its a straight fit. Much better on the track too.

Juuust clears the SE door cards too:

[Roadrunner]

Been running for a while like this. Installed Nankang AR-1 mid last year but am stuck back in the 12's at WP
This was really disappointing. While I hadn't been in the best head space for the past 1-2 years, which I admit would be effecting my lap times, I was really focussed on the track but just couldn't get the times down. Checking my data logs its showing I'm 5-7kph slower top speed at the end of the main straight at WP. I'm assuming this is from the sheer dead weight of the AR-1s. These things are heavy! Great corner grip but maybe I just don't have the power to overcome the added unsprung weight.
Same result on all tracks with these. just can't get to the times I had previously done let alone faster.

At the last WP day, did a back to back test with AD08R and the AR-1 and confirmed my suspicion, they are about the same. AR-1 lap time sliiighty faster but not much. Top speed on the Yoko was higher, AR-1 better corner grip. Maybe with more power to overcome the added unsprung weight they'll be better? But I'll try Nittos next I think.
Some have had great success with AR-1s, others not so. Like the Carbotechs, I think I'm just cursed with the "hot" "must have" products


Then later in the day...disaster. Coming out of the fishhook, thought I blew an intake hose, then I heard the impeller noise. Limped back to the pits and put her straight on the trailer.

Have a listen

[Roadrunner]

It was a rather sombre 4.5 hour drive back home.

Decided that trying to find a second hand IHI turbo in good condition to bolt on was somewhat risky given these are getting on a bit now. My SE has 160,000k on the clock and has seen track time for probably 40,000 of those k's.

Contacted NitroDann about my options and the wife and I decided to take the power level up a notch and go for a twistmount

The SE had previously only had ECU, exhaust and intercooler upgraded in the power department (still on factory injectors and intake), so wasn't anywhere near the potential of the usual "stage 2" upgrade.
Figured if we have to do something, may as well do it properly and have a "real turbo" with real power

So on the cards is,
Twistmount 2
Garrett GT2860rs
Inconel Studs
Downpipe to match up to existing exhaust
NitroDann intake box and intercooler piping upgrade (yay no more "up and over" SE piping)
New water line
Oil drain line
Flowforce 660cc injectors
ECU Tune
and labour to fit it all.

Now just waiting for the call to take it to the shop to get done. Been painful not being about to go for a drive for so long. (Hmm..wheres the impatient tantrum emoji j/k)