Track is Whack

by "Chris@Carlypso" (chriscarlypso)
Published 01/23/2017 at 00:16

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Remember I had a turbo Miata and it was awesome? It WAS awesome, but today its in a decidedly less awesome state. I took said Miata to Laguna Seca (its spiritual home) for a track day last Sunday.

This is my 4th track day with it, and as its increasingly become a money pit/ source of awesomeness here’s the mods I brought to the session:

(1) New R888R tires

(2) Corner Balanced

(3) Adjusted Tune/Boost settings.

It drove awesome! I had an M2 come up to me wondering WTF was going on when I ended up in his rear view mirror, and then a thoroughly confused R8 driver who thought the car was V8 swapped (seen in photo above). As a reward for bringing the Miata to its spiritual home the car rewarded me with pain.

Thats my hand with a turbo burn on my thumb (the flesh literally turned black and was ash). And about 30-40 cuts as a result of the work I’ve had to do. You see the Miata was not MEANT to have a turbo and so:

(1) The manifold and turbo got so hot they heat stretched the mounted studs and broke one off (this is common, I tapped and installed stainless Grade 8 hardware that I don’t expect to last forever, but last longer).

(2) The Down-pipe got so hot that it fatigue cracked at the thin walled end of the major bend (this is also common. I rewelded)

(3) The wiring harness got so hot, Cylinder #4 is intermittently firing as a result of a bad connection to the Toyota COP. (Not as common)

Bear in mind engine temp is rock-steady.... But I thought I’d crank it up a notch and put in a re-route system which requires sacrificing the flesh on your hand to a wolverine impersonator to install the F*ing thing.

I’m off to Laguna again on the 20th of Feb .... so here’s to keeping both hands intact this time.

- Chris

Replies (1)

"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
01/23/2017 at 08:58, STARS: 0

never realized those turbo miatas were so much trouble, guess it makes sense though, easy to bolt on parts, but hard to manage all the heat