2008.05.26/27 Track Days 2 & 3: Calabogie

A big, BIG Saturday just before this event, where we installed a total of 2 differentials on the car in order to make it to this event. I learned the hard way that the Mazdaspeed differential does not directly fit in the miata because of the inboard halfshaft spline size. Anyway, we got it done, and the car was at the event. There was some rubbing under hard right hand drive cornering, but I was not going to let that ruin all these days of hard work!

Calabogie is a great track. Fast, flowing, and difficult to learn/master because of the sheer number of turns (that are usually blind and grouped together in combinations). Very rewarding when you get it right.

It took me the two days to learn (I was carrying a lot more speed every time I went back out). The second morning spent with Les was a real eye-opener (actually riding along in another car, and a fast miata to boot!). I ended up with my first ever COMSCC trophy (3rd place), which is a great achievement! Don't think I will ever get first though, as the first place car was 9 seconds in front of me (the car is not competitive in class)!

Some great pictures of the event!






More available here:

2008.05.27 Calabogie with COMSCC

2008.05.23 Track Day 1: Shannonville

Reading back through this blog, I noticed that this is my 4th year running this car on track, and if you count 1-2 outings with the previous miata (2002 silver), I'm now on my 5th year at the track. Time goes by fast!

Over the winter, I did a lot of (mostly preventative) maintenance (timing belt, replacement of tie rod ends, all coolant and oil lines, engine supports, ...)

Of course, some minor upgrades were performed also: complete gutting of the steering rack to make it a proper quick ratio manual (versus the previous bypass which did not succeed that well), upgrade of front brakes to the 2001+ sport package version and creation of brake ducts.

What was also upgraded (not that I wanted), was the whole hot side of the turbo. My AVO exhaust manifold failed, the same way that Phil's did twice. Pretty sure that the failure is due to a design flaw of the manifold itself. Not wanting to start over again, I gave Corky Bell at BEGI a call. End result is a new exhaust manifold, downpipe, pre-intercooler piping, intake, heat shield, turbo actuator, ... Expensive, but I hope the solution will bring better reliability in the future.


However, that reliability was short lived because my differential let go on the way to the first track day! My torsen module blew near Syracuse NY. Luckily, I was able to nurse the car to Kingston, and then back home.

Vince was nice enough to lend me his car once again, so all was not lost, but I did spend most of the day working on finding myself a new differential for the Monday/Tuesday event at Calabogie...

A few pictures, and still a lot of fun at a great event organized by Marc for the Thousand Island Z Car Club!