BEAVIS' White Track Car

SKYHI · Postby **SKYHI** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 2:36 pm

Bugger. I guess being oversubscribed is a good thing for the organisers, but not for those that miss out.

I like your way of thinking Daffy

Would be great to see the car in person sometime.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 3:43 pm

Perhaps ring em and ask if there's a Waiting List? People do drop out.

Postby **beavis** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:27 am

I was informed the event was well and truly over filled.
Kind of glad I missed out in the end as weather today was pretty disastrous so I had a busy time at home making repairs due to flash floods.

Postby **beavis** » Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:29 am

On lighter news, fixed a collection of issues from last time:

ABS was fixed with a simple fuse. While I had checked the ABS fuse in the engine bay a few weeks ago, but I neglected to realise there is also a fuse labelled A/B in the interior under the dash. Reviewing the wiring diagrams reminded me that it existed. That was the one what was found to be blown.

Given I no longer run the OEM dash cluster owing to it being replaced by the raspi - I also didn't have the ABS warning/error light. But I still had the old wire that ran to that globe tucked away. So I've decided to wire in an LED to that wire... so now I can properly see when ABS is working, or faulty.

Some may say ABS on a track car is weird. As far as I'm concerned, it's saved me from flat spotted tyres many times which is a costly endeavour.

Oil pressure sensor was fixed up and the input needed a pullup resistor & the ECU speedo input needed some rewiring via the jbperf VR conditioner (necessary due to not running the OEM cluster) both of which Alex 'Bartune Engineering' Barton kindly assisted with resolving.

mx5002 · Postby **mx5002** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:16 am

Shame you couldn't get to winton. Was looking forward to catching up and checking the car out on the flesh.. Despite the weather it was a good day! You'll just have to find to nsw next year :wink:

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:13 am

I also entered as soon as I found the entry had been opened. Most of the "in" team managed to get notice of the event. For guys like us it was a matter of finding out by chance. Maybe for the next interstate event the MX5 club should hire the track and hold an MX5 Nationals. Much like the 86 Nationals. My car was all ready to go too.

mx5002 · Postby **mx5002** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 12:21 pm

Up here in nsw our track events regularly oversubscribe quite fast (90-100 entrants) . The club has recently started a dedicated motorsport Facebook page and events are posted as they are opened, or a heads up that the entries will open up in next few days. Could be worth implementing Down south?

Ned Loh · Postby **Ned Loh** » Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:35 pm

I find the best place to find info on AROCA events is AROCA forum. here http://www.alfaclubvic.org.au/forum/ind ... ic=18053.0

MX5 nationals sprint would be cool. WRX have Subinats. I can't begin to imaging what the classes would be though...

(Apologies for the hijack Beavis)

Postby **beavis** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:30 am

Back on the topic of cars, I finally gave the car a shifter that it's probably deserved a long time ago.
The old one was working ok, although a little bit of the floppy side. While this new one certainly sharpens things up.

Didn't get much else done on the car as weather last weekend was pretty wild here in Melbourne.

(Of course, if you need a short shifter, I have them available at my webstore HERE)

Postby **beavis** » Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:08 pm

Long time no update.
So I suppose best place to start is with the good news, finally took the car out for another proper run at the track.

With all the little niggles dialed out over the last few months, the car was performing great. Put out some nice speed and although I'm still getting used to things (more power, less weight, rusty driving) it was able to set a new MX5 club record at Sandown.

There was a lot of cars there on the days so getting clean air isn't easy, but I was happy nonetheless with how the car ran.

Video of the day:

Postby **beavis** » Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:11 pm

And to top it off I had my brother come along in our little NA 1.6 for his second track event in this car and first time around Sandown:

Postby **beavis** » Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:34 pm

So now the bad news...
Despite the happy lap times, toward the end of the day as I pulled into the pits the car was making some rather discerning noises from the engine bay. It totally sucks as I'd really just wanted to drive this thing more and it finally looked like the end of being a garage queen was near and I'd be driving regularly again. Well apparently the end was near... but it was the wrong sort of end.
Long story short, the engine has spent it's entire life in my hands at 7000rpm and I think it's taken it's toll. As such I'm back to the sidelines for a while to save more funds again and consider my options.
A rough estimate says I'm going to be spending about $10k in the next few months - RIP credit card :-/

Postby **beavis** » Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:41 pm

So errm, to try distract from the negativity, here's a cool interior pic:

SKYHI · Postby **SKYHI** » Wed Aug 01, 2018 11:58 am

So you actually broke the engine this time, or is this you recalling the moment you thought you did, but it turned out to be turbo/manifold related?

I am confused