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New personal best laps at Mid Ohio


Smokey

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Finally getting around to reviewing my data and video from last year. During 2014 I changed sway bars to a stiffer setup and rebuilt my shocks. The rest of my (many) in season efforts were dedicated to keeping this old girl on the track and driver development. I chased in circles a few times on sway bar settings before landing on this configuration. It makes the car less forgiving but ultimately faster. In 2013 I was happy to get down to a :39.7 but faster is always the goal.

 

My car always turns it's fastest laps at Mid-Ohio in the fall. The combo of cold air and warm track suits it well. The car runs 255/275 Nitto NT-01s and made 325whp about 7 years ago so who knows now after that many years of track abuse. Haha

 

These videos are from my last event in October. I only have the data/video on 1 lap right now because I don't want to buy the full Race Render until they can figure out how to put my predictive lap time data in there.

 

Fastest lap with data: 1:38.7

 

4 last laps of that session which are :38.8, :39.7, :38.7, and a :39.2 which I got balked at the end by traffic at the checker. Listen close for my reaction. Haha

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Looks good Chris,how did your brakes hold up?

 

Poorly! Some of the reason I learned to roll more speed into turn 7 at the end of the back straight this year is because I was boiling off the brakes after 5 laps or so. Haha. I've been running an older Wilwood BBK for years and I really reached its limits in 2013. It had good stopping power but with stock rears it was forward biased and chewing up front brakes and running too hot (already had dedicated ducting).

 

For 2015 I'm switching to the AP racing front brakes and running the Sakebomb garage bigger rear rotors with the stock calipers. This should help give more rearward bias on the car and hopefully give me longer consumable life.

 

 

Thanks Greg, it just took the boredom of winter for me to finally dig thru this stuff. Haha. At the time it sure felt like winter while driving as you can see I'm wearing a hoodie and have the passenger window up while driving. Hoodie makes using the Necksgen a bit tricky.

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For 2015 I'm switching to the AP racing front brakes and running the Sakebomb garage bigger rear rotors with the stock calipers. This should help give more rearward bias on the car and hopefully give me longer consumable life. y.

 

Cool stuff! Any changes to come this year? Last time I was there I think my best was a 2:02

 

:)

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The brakes will be the only performance mods this year, but far from the only work the car will see. Sometimes it's pretty crazy what it takes to keep an old Mazda going fast at the track 6-8 times a year. For the new brakes I have to update my backing plates and ducting and I'll need help with that.

 

I'll be swapping the turbos again because this set is smoking. At that time I'm going to replace the downpipe with one that's easier to remove, is ceramic coated, and uses the factory hanger. That means I'll be draining/filling the coolant at the same time and running a more water-oriented mix to try to stay cooler in the hot months. I will also seal up the gaps/ducting better to the radiator as well. I'll be pulling the transmission to fix a small leak and add a transmission pan spacer that'll allow me to hold an extra quart of fluid. I'll be realigning the car for slightly more camber front and rear to better match to the new sways. I'll hopefully finally add the dtrans and diff braces I've had in the garage. Other potential projects are to replace the rear pillow ball bushings, do rear suspension poly bushings, lightweight battery, re-weight the car, replace the passenger interior door handle, fix the radio, and hook back up the horn. So....I'll be plenty busy!

 

I also plan to go thru 2 sets of rotors, 3-4 sets of pads, half a case of brake fluid, 12-18 quarts of Amsoil gear oil, 5 gallons of Rotella T6, 2 sets of Nittos, about 20 gallons of water (water injection), and upwards of 360 gallons of gas....assuming nothing breaks which is a long shot.

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