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!
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!
posted by FredRoy at 10:13 AM
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