Another Autocross, Another Weekend Closer to Track Time

This weekend the Miata traveled to Zmax Dragway in Charlotte, NC to compete in another autocross with CCR SCCA. My friend was co-driving the car with me this weekend to give another opinion on suspension set-up and push the car hard to make sure everything's ready for the track. We seemed to be on top of the field of 8 cars in the class until the last runs.  In the end, I again found myself turning quicker times, but couldn't avoid the cones.

Tyson crosses the finish line with #186 ES at the expansive Zmax parking lot.

The car is struggling with lots of understeer, so we have about 3 different options to try and mitigate that with suspension settings.  Otherwise, the handling is an unbelievable upgrade and once everything is dialed in, it's going to be a great car.  The only negative at this time is the alignment still is a big out of whack, so it'll be another trip to the shop this week.

The 666 back in action with the new owner! I like that he runs #13 too! Evil and unlucky.

The new owner of the ol' 666 Mazdaspeed Miata was there too!  He's been getting into autocross with the CCR SCCA group this year and loving the car.  He's added a boost gauge and put some light weight 16" wheels and sticky tires on.  Glad to see it still competing and the new owner really enjoying it!

The small, mouse-sized opening in the trunk lid.

While I was packing the car to head home, I noticed some fuzzy stuff hanging out of the trunk lid, where there's a little gap in the sheet metal on the inside that creates a small cavity where the latch is. Sure enough, I pulled out a couple hand-fulls of chewed up insulation and trash from the former rodent residents.  Glad I still haven't found any little bodies in there and that has to be another few grams of weight savings!

It seemed like some of the insulation that was near where the rollbar was installed was missing from one side...found it!

Next up this week: correct the alignment again, take another stab at putting a hard top on the car, swap out to the track seats, replace the regular brake pads with high performance track pads, flush the brakes with DOT4 fluid for greater heat resistance, and rotate the tires.