sirbikealot7

Haha not very well, the car has no soft top anymore, is in the process of getting ready for a full cage from Rampage and has gotten to the point where I rarely drive it between track days anymore. It's become more of a racecar than I ever expected. I managed to run a 1:50.6 at the Ridge on my last time out with reasonable temperatures. Shooting for touching the 49's this saturday and I'll finally get around to making an update.

warmmilk

my Miata (NC) is still really street car, but I really don't drive it much between track days either... I'm thinking that goes more with not being 19 anymore...

How are Rampage's rates? I wanna do some radiator ducting out the hood on my car, the work on your car looks great, but after seeing the prices for some of the stuff on their website, I don't think I can afford them

1:50 is flying at the Ridge.. I've only gone 2:01 there, but I only have 150whp *cough*excuses*cough*, but I've been passenger in a high 1:40's car (458) and it was pretty ridiculous. turn 9 no lift in a car thats actually pushing real power to the wheels is quite the ride...

good luck on the 1:49! are you still on the NT01's? how much power are you making? Do you go to Pacific Raceways ever?

sirbikealot7

Absolutely, After a 458 went off track right in front of me at 150mph two months ago and slid all the way to the trees from turn 1, I realized I need a full cage, hence the cascading process of turning into even more of a racecar now.

Rampage is fantastic, full disclosure my car is sponsored by the shop and I've got a basic livery sporting the shop at this point so I can't speak to the retail cost for the most part but Gabe is an awesome fabricator and would be happy to chat with you about your project. He's a close friend of mine I've known for years. As you probably saw I came from a Miata as well, though it was turbo it wasn't nearly as fast(or I wasn't) as it should have been. Doing a 2:00 in anything in the same category as an NC or an BRZ or the like is ****ing cooking so thats still quite the admirable time. I've only been to Pacific twice and managed to do 1:36's while the car was NA. I haven't been there with the turbo, but my goal would be to break into the 29's. I just don't really enjoy running with Proformance due to the lack of run groups and the way they run the event. But yes I'm still on NT01s. As far as I know the S2000 record is held by Jared (gearhead) at a 1:48 on Hoosiers. My goal is to beat that time on NT01s this year, but we'll see. I'm at about 430whp running E40 mix is where I'm typically at on the track. The car makes roughly 500whp on E85 and 460whp on E55.

warmmilk

yeah, turn 1 can be a little intimidating... one of my coworkers rolled his bmw somewhere between 1 and 2 and around the worker station, so I've always been a pansy about that section... Was it a white 458 with an asian guy from Vancouver BC driving? thats the one I got a ride in... thats a long distance to the tree's, but I guess its hard to stop in the grass when you're doing 150...

thanks for the info on Rampage, I'll talk to them when I'm ready to do that project.

funny you should bring up the BRZ, friend of mine has one and we compete with each other, I've been just barely ahead of him for the longest time, but then he got a set of RE71R's (I'm on RS4's) and went 2:00.69 to my 2:01.48. So I gotta step it up and get some real tires... I'm hoping the dip under the 2:00 mark with r comp tires

I've heard that a lot about Proformance, lots of people don't like how they run their track days... do they leave the cone'd off path up for all run groups for turn 2 and 8? cause I'm faster taking a different line than the one they preach through turn 2... I've never done any track days with them either. I've mostly done SCCA track nights when I go there and every once in a while a Canadian club holds a track day there called VCMC, they do 30 min sessions, I loved running with them.

1:36 is flying for an NA s2k... I didn't think anything under 300hp could do that there... I love the track, but honestly... with 430whp... thats a scary track...

sirbikealot7

Yeah, just within the last few days have I gotten comfortable braking late for turn 1 and staying on the threshold while trailbraking all the way to the hill. Unfortunately yes, that was the guy. Luckily he walked away from the crash but the car was a total loss. I had a passenger with me, and we just came off the yellow flag, he was pushing pretty hard so I pointed him by on the straight coming into the corkscrew. I felt really fortunate I wasn't the first one to the oil slick at the end of the straight. I watched it all happen and luckily had enough time to correct. I can't imagine I would have faired as well as he, hence the cage coming now.

I'm sure you'll be able to get under 2:00 with some R compounds. Most people see a second or two typically it seems.

Thanks man, I don't have a ton of experience but I've managed to figure out how to get the car to move alright. I'll have to look into the SCCA nights and VCMC, I don't really care for proformance for all those reasons you mentioned, the cones on track is extremely intrusive for me. They just aren't a good fit. I'll definitely like to get there with the new power in the car, I'll have to see if I can make something work this season.

sirbikealot7

I realize that I haven't updated since the dyno tuning. Car made 460whp and 385ft lbs at 14 psi on E50 mixed with 92. Turned it down to about 440whp at 12psi and the car feels great. Still having a couple small driveability issues but the car has been reliable for 6 tracks days so far this season and I cut a ton of time off my old setup.

I manage to cut 4 seconds off my time with the added power and hit a 1:50.15. I also added a AiM solo2 to the car and built a bracket for it








After watching a Ferrari 458 leave the track right in front at 150mph of me from an oil slick I realized that I really need to step up my game and put a full cage in the car. After much going back and forth Gabe and I started prepping and made it happen.
So I stripped the interior, got an oem hard top but realized I wouldn't have the clearance I needed for the cage so it was short lived and I sold it and bought a RSG double carbon mugen style top.


Also after finding one of my 949 6uls bent and with no replacements available. I had to buy some new wheels. With no good options for tires wider than 255 on 17s I decided to make the jump to 18s and go with flares.

Wheel and tire specs are 18x10.5 +15 with a 275/35 NT01









And just like that, after 3 weekends of 2 consecutive 15 hours days I've got a painted cage.

sirbikealot7

I sprayed the cage myself and also did all the body work for the flares and painted them. This was my first time ever running a real paint gun and they came out pretty well!













I also took the opportunity to redo the axle back on the exhaust to make some more room for a diffuser thats coming soon. Good opportunity to brush up on my Tig welding skills. Proud to say I did the entire piece and Gabe didn't fit or weld a single part of it.

sirbikealot7

Which brings me to the current day,

Gabe bead rolled a cover for the spare tire well delete


and I had a double track day last week and was able to cut times down to a 1:48.35


I made a cap for the bumper as well




and some proper photos from the track

sirbikealot7

Also got a little sideway playing with my buddy Chris in his GT350

Chibo

Horry shit, dude. Nice! Your build is absolutely great.

Is the GT350 stock? I really did not expect him to very mildly walk you down the straight.