On the road again...

  So I sit here in a St. George, Utah hotel room with what sounds like Hurricane Isaac outside; hot, dusty, windy, thunder, hail, rain.  We don't get much 'weather' in San Diego.

  I am headed to Lincoln for Solo Nationals and I made it about 500 miles from home before I had a mechanical breakdown. I departed San Diego a day early so I could relax and explore a little with a scheduled stop in Vegas.  Leisurely cruising up I15 on Wednesday morning just east of Nevada and the car starts to hesitate and cutout under load. First thing that comes to mind is the ECU, specifically the Greddy EMU piggyback, so I pull over and bypass the Boomslang harness which puts everything in stock configuration. Start and go and I notice it runs great for the first couple miles and then quickly gets worse again.  Replace the cam angle sensor and check all connections and inspect AFM and throttle body.  Briefly runs great again for a few minutes and then goes bad again.  I am able to repeat this procedure a few times and limp it to the next safe exit and call for a tow truck.

   St. George is a few miles away and the local Mazda dealer gets me in right away.  Diagnosis is the ECU (fuel cut), but they do not have a spare one available to test and a new ($$$) ecu is days away.  The car has cooled down a little again so it is happy for a few miles before the symptoms appear again; just enough time to get me to a hotel where I search for a used ECU.  St. George Craigslist has nothing and a local junkyard search does not show any available computers for the NB1 Miata.

  A tip from a friend leads me to Mike's Place, an Arizona automotive shop specializing in Miatas, and they are happy to work with me and overnight a BP4W ecu directly to the hotel here in St.George.  However, the shipment is not guaranteed because of the remote (?!LOL) location and may not show up until Friday.

  I also called Joe at Dynotronics (DPTune) and he was eager to help me also with an overnight delivery of another BP4W; this one being delivered directly to the local Mazda dealership with the hope that a business address may help make the overnite shipment a reality.

  If all goes well and the diagnosis is correct, I will get the ECU installed before noon Thursday morning and continue my journey to Nebraska.

 

August Week 2

You can see the newly installed Racing Beat swaybar reinforcement blocks in the video below and they actually seem to work well.  No more deflection from the factory swaybar mounts.





The blocks are crude, but effective. A better but more costly solution is the AWR brackets.

18 runs at the PCA autox Saturday on the Southeast lot at the Q.  Video.  The car feels really good.  28F 27R, low rear ride height, shocks stiff front; soft rear.

8 runs at the SDR-SCCA championship Sunday August 12th on the West lot and everything is working well except for the transmission which is having difficulty engaging reverse and 5th gear.  Unable to catch the STR leader during class runs but picked up a half second during Time Only runs.  Some slow corners at the start would benefit from first gear but I choose not to make the downshift for several reasons. Results will be posted soon.

August Week 1

Up 30# rear spring rate but use the low ride settings to help maintain sweeper balance and transitional stability.

Ziptie on shock shaft has about 3/4" travel before bottoming.  Plenty of droop travel also.

Near full tread Toyos squirm too much at El Toro and Lincoln but work well at Qualcomm.  No excuses though as I need to focus on a Nationals concrete setup and forget what is fast locally. Three more autocross days this month at the Q will give me time to wear some more tread off the tires before the big show in Nebraska.

Currently 53 STR entries for Solo Nationals.

August 5th El Toro SCCA autox RESULTS.   Deduct a half second from my times for tread squirm and my raw times put me close to some of the other notables, but several others were also scrubbing in full tread tires or testing setups.  So basically I was slow again.

The video below is from the above mentioned autox and features the left front suspension.  The course direction was counter clockwise.  I will be buying and installing the Racing Beat swaybar reinforcement blocks this week.





Possibly looking for a co-driver for Solo Nationals and the Pro Finale.  Contact me for details.  mpheinitz@hotmail.com or mpheinitz@gmail.com