Planning to Plan

  The first autox event for my new STR Miata at California Speedway did not go as planned.  Simply stated, I missed the setup and the car was loose and slow, over 2 seconds back from the leaders in STR.  Slower than STS too.  Class results are HERE.  Briefly, a combination of wrong rear spring rates, poor ride height, limited camber, and uncertain front toe left me with an ill-handling machine. Aside from that the car felt great with good power and nothing broke or fell off the car.

  Following the problems the previous week at the CalClub autox, I showed up early for Saturday morning's autox practice at Qualcomm Stadium and installed softer 375# rear springs with new PES rear shock mounts and lowered the ride height approximately 1/2" at all four corners. Rear shock ziptie measurments from CalClub tell me I was running out of travel so the custom 20mm extended shock mounts should solve that issue.  Some old bumpstops are also installed.

   As a result of the spring change, the car was transformed and drove beautifully with a few minor quirks.  Previous owner installed Hawk HP+ rear brake pads which in my opinion caused too much corner entry rotation under braking.  Also, front toe out was causing me to literally hit every apex cone on course.  I can adapt to these issues and some would prefer a car setup this way, but I could feel the car working well beneath me without the alignment and brake bandaids. 

The 450# rear springs that I removed should be an ideal setup for grippier surfaces such as the concrete at El Toro or Lincoln Airpark.

Current ride height is near 4 1/8" front, 4 1/4" rear with 195 Toyos installed.