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PostPosted: March 10, 2019, 11:23 pm 
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Joined: June 8, 2010, 8:02 pm
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Location: White Rock, BC, Canada
I know most people here rip Miatas apart for donors, but there must be someone who has had a Miata racecar here? :mrgreen:

So I've just bought a 01 Miata with the intent to be a track car. Year one will be lots of trackdays, some Time Attack. Year two will be Road Racing and Time Attack. Low dollar build, and I was wondering if there was someone with expertise I could harass with questions. Miata forums are difficult to pick out the good info (Noise to signal ratio is bad ;) ).

Thanks!

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PostPosted: March 13, 2019, 12:54 am 
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I've done a couple of almost race cars with Miatae

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PostPosted: March 15, 2019, 9:19 pm 
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carguy123 wrote:
I've done a couple of almost race cars with Miatae


Made a post on a Miata forum. I would welcome any input from you, or anyone else who knows Miatas.

Thanks!

Hey guys,

So a friend and I are building a car to run in a local class similar to SCCA Improved Touring class. We will do a season of track days/time attack to get seat time and tuning before road racing. We are both autoXers, new to Miatas, and are looking for some input regarding shocks/springs. So we are at the point of deciding between Koni Sports, and Koni Race shocks.

Koni Sports:
-cheap, and easily resold if/when we hit their limits
-We are learning Miatas. I want to know the cars characteristics before putting high dollar shocks in.
-Seems like 400-500 is max spring rate for these.
-Was thinking 500F,400R

Koni Race:
-allows for higher spring rates
-was thinking 700F, 400ish R
-more difficult to sell?
-more money, but not sure if value is there?

So what it comes down to is I am thinking to run the Sports, learn the car, then resell them and get into a serious shock (Ohlins etc) when we actually know what we are doing. The Koni Race seem to fill the middle ground well, but for that money I would almost rather just spend more to get a better shock.

So I guess the question is: will Koni Sports with 500lb springs be too soft for a competition car? If it helps, this is my stock Yaris chasing a street Miata around the track where most of the competitive driving will occur. https://youtu.be/pGt__D5Ox1g?t=81

I am very open to advice, and spring rates, and if someone wants to suggest a detailed plan (aka design my car for me :D ) I would be thrilled.

Thanks for any help!

Cory

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PostPosted: March 18, 2019, 8:57 am 
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Joined: October 19, 2012, 9:25 pm
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I have a bunch of friends who race Miatas. Koni Sports do the trick even on fully prepped track cars quite well.

Look up one of my facebook friends Kyle Ray-Smith.
He's a racer and NASA race instructor. He can tell you everything you need to know about Miatas.

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PostPosted: March 19, 2019, 5:22 pm 
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I used to autocross an na Miata. 1.6l with a cobbled together turbo kit (230 whp), 1.8 torsen diff, Koni sports with 550/350 springs, disconnected rear sway bar, and 15x10 6ULs with 275/35r15 Hoosier A6s. Regularly FTD by at least 2 seconds, sometimes up to 4 seconds. If I were going to do time attack and add a bunch of aero I would go for better shocks and up the springs, but for autocross the Koni sports were fine.
https://youtu.be/RiUfb9lU3yY


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PostPosted: March 19, 2019, 9:31 pm 
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Thanks guys. If I can figure out Facebook I'll give that guy a message.

I'm so confused by what Miata guys do for road race cars. I think the Spec Miata cars have kind of influenced the other racers, except the Spec cars are really badly set up (but "cheap"/fun to run).

I'm an autoXer as well so yeah, all the autoX guys run the stock-valved Koni Sports with around that spring rate. The non-aero road race guys run anywhere from 500-800lb front springs and often with MASSIVE front sway bars and stockish rears. Koni Sports are rated to 500lbs and for road race it sounds like 375-400 is more suitable. The price of the Koni Sports gets high enough that it makes sense to me to just open the wallet a bit further and get a proper race set up. Looking into race coilovers from Xida and Feal now. The budget is taking a bit of a hit but since when does that stop us car guys? :mrgreen: I really need a setup that is stable in sweepers while accelerating over humps to gain time at the local track.

Looks like Saratoga Speedway? I've friends a few KM away that are always begging us to move there. Some year they may succeed....


Cheers.

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PostPosted: March 20, 2019, 8:06 am 
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Good bump stops are almost as important as springs on a Miata. With 550/350 spring setup you'll be on the rear stops a good bit of the time.

Also, Reach out to Moti (Blackbird Fabworx) on here. He's built some highly competitive Miatas.

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PostPosted: March 20, 2019, 9:22 pm 
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Thanks.

Yeah, I've learned about bumpstops after building a car that washed out every time you hit a bump mid corner. I'm not willing to have that on this car so will do what I can to reduce the use of the bumpstops. Recommended rate for my car from Supermiata.com guys is 800/500 with the Xida Race dampers. My rough math said 700/400 so I'll go with their recommendation.

I didn't know Blackbird was on here. The engine mounts he makes for Miatas are gorgeous! I'd love to run the drop-mount but I expect I'd get caught :รพ

Cheers.

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PostPosted: March 25, 2019, 10:31 pm 
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I had an NA track car for several years. My wife is an SCCA racer and has run an NB for the past ten years. I used Konis on my NA and liked them fine, but it was also a street car and had only FM springs and sway bars. My wife's car is totally tricked out and has 900# springs in front with some kind of shocks sold through 949 Racing that she just loves.

It probably would help to get to know some of the Miata-specific race shops like 949 and Goodwin. There are other smaller players like Trackspeed and FatCat who talk a good game but don't have serious track creds.


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PostPosted: March 26, 2019, 9:17 pm 
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Thanks. I ended up ordering some Xida Race with 800/500 rates as per 949's recommendation. Likely the same dampers your wife has. Little more money than I wanted but what isn't? I watched some videos of Miatas with these dampers using curbs heavily and staying stable. It made me much more comfortable spending the money knowing that there is some way to make them work well.

Next step is to try and figure out cooling...


Cheers.

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