MMiskoe

I've often wondered about how this works with fuel pressure. NA Miata is a return type system, regulator at the end of the rail that bleeds off excess pressure. NB (at least NB2) is a no-return system. How would the NA fuel system cope with a non-return rail? Would it have issues maintaining the proper AFR as the pressure in the rail is less accurate? I know that bumping the rail pressure will allow an NA to run richer (assume it would work to make it leaner if there was less pressure). If someone has information on this I would be curious. Edit - FWIW the NA tends to be a sharper cut off when it skips for lack of fuel. The NB is a softer skip.

Just put it on the outside, then the panel is convex. Treat it like a big decal panel. We did it on a Meeotter and I don't remember it being such a big deal. Easier than putting tint on the inside if I recall. I know the clear material we used looks better than some of the tint jobs I've done.

NB Miata always seems to have a noisy throwout bearing so it gets replaced when the motor/trans are apart (which in that car is an aggravating frequency). NA Miata hasn't been apart in many hours of racing and hasn't been an issue. The only thing different between the two Miatas is the type of clutch, so I suspect that the NB clutch fingers are just slightly closer to the T-O bearing. There is also wear on the fingers of the NB car. Is this a clutch issue? Flywheel? Fork? Bellhousing? Could be any of those options. For what it's worth, we've never had a failure in either of the two tag karts that share the shop with the two Miatas.

Paulie - I think the answer is that guys who run in Spec XXX but want to give Champ a try are only willing to do so if it is easy. They aren't going to do it if it requires a lot of re-building of the car and they aren't going to bother to run in EC. The advantage to the club is that when they need to do the next build, they might go Champ, not Spec XXX.

Spec Miata would be fine, they in general would not pose much threat to lap times once they are off the Purple Crack (tires). I can't actually think of any performance items that SM allows that Champ doesn't. Safety wise, this could be a reason to reconsider some of the build requirements that Champ has that other clubs don't. - Master cut off switch location - there is no location that is universally good. There will always be a situation that it is in the wrong spot. Give some leeway - Door bars - lots of ways to skin this, but Champ has some fixed requirements that are different than many other series. Not many people are going to carve up their cage so they can go run one race. This could get re-considered. - Glass - not even sure why this is a question. Safety glass makes a mess when it breaks, but so do oil pans. - window net experation date and mounting. Don't even start. I'll publicly state that I think the current plan with window nets in Champ is wrong. Wrong. The biggest problem you'd have is how do you know that a car is actually being raced with the correct Spec XXX components? Hell, even in SCCA enduros SM cars seem to have their restrictors fall out mid race or are magically under weight unless the 300# guy happens to be in the car. The funny part is that and everyone acts surprised when it is discovered!

Oil pickup getting dry due to sloshing and long RH into a long LH? If you have the ability to run as a test, I would run a few laps as a baseline, then simply unplug the fan and run a few more. I'll bet you a beverage that you won't see much change.

Sorry, all joking aside, I don't follow your comparison to umbrellas. But I am curious. Having had a few cars in my family either damaged or wrecked (one a complete write-off) due to a spinner doing an about face perhaps I am sensitive to it. I can't say that any of the incidents I've been involved in were ABS induced, but I don't see how it would have helped.

I would vote to remove it. Two street cars have had it kick on at 20mph and let me go cruising through an intersection that I needed to stop for. Racecar that had the pump disabled but not removed had a brake pedal that was impossibly touchy. That day ended with the car backed into a guardrail. Several cars I have seen go off the track and the comment was that the ABS went came on when there was some wheel hop. Biggest reason is that it makes cars unpredictable during a spin. Novices get taught "in a spin, two feet in". It is the best thing you can do for your fellow drivers and not collect someone as the car slows down and then shoots off in an unpredictable direction as the tires regain grip. The ABS's job is to keep the wheels rolling, so it is pretty hard to keep it from hooking up and making a sudden change of direction as the car does pirouettes. (doing pirouettes is not a bad thing, destroying someones car in the process is a bad thing). This alone would be enough for me to not want it in the car.

Driver change without time is useful if you have a driver who finds they can't finish their stint. Happened to us this past race where driver 1 ate something that didn't agree, puked up his shoes inside his helmet. Would you want to be the guy that has to live with that any longer than necessary? Similarly I've been involved in races where heat overcomes a driver and they just need to get OUT. Penalizing a driver change would be a backhanded way to deal with fuel. I have been a proponent of 1hour 50 minute max stints. It doesn't change what we have now by much, but does make the timing of a fuel stop much more of a strategy call. Currently any race of even number of hours is a collection of 2-hour stints. If max length was 1:50, it would require an extra stop, but that stop could be pretty much at your choice of when.

One thing the book is lacking is language that states "a free part that provides the same modification as a part listed as a specific number of points still counts as the listed points". In other words, your wing made out of duct tape is still a wing even though tape is free. Otherwise you could say that a spherical bearing is just a hardware item. Hardware is free. In my opinion - Offsetting a suspension pick up point is 5 points. Doesn't matter how you arrive at it. But my opinion is not likely to hold as much water as others. And if cost was an issue, well, then I want more displacement, more fuel capacity and stickier tires. Because if I can just have all that for free, then I can spend less money on developing the parts within the rules and spend that extra money on entry fees.

13 pages in two days. 12-1/2 of those pages devoted to the argument of how cooling affects putting fuel into a fixed volume container. How about everyone just push the keyboard a little further away.

Will the fuel used to check displacement at impound be delivered by a European swallow or an African swallow?

Here's a couple I have not yet seen: - No changes to the BCCR will be published without highlighting the change from the previous copy - Let's get rid of the rewards laps that get assigned to the winner of a two-day race weekend. It is a sour grapes rule, defies pretty much all of what Champ goes for with regard to "let's get cars on track so we can enjoy racing". Besides, day one and day two can be completely different due to weather or other outside influences. - Window nets anyone? Could we get some better language one that please?

I'm just reporting what my experience has been lately. Not commenting on if it was right/wrong, logical, etc. Just reiterating what was said and heard. I did comment at the time that I've been doing this for 25 years and only seen one hand injury and that was an instructor riding in a car with no net and the window all the way down. Another comment of mine was that regardless of what the requirement is, having it change when you're in tech line is NOT the way to do things.

Miskoe’s had a good day. Coming off a trip to VIR that went poorly due to an electrical issue, we made the decision to go to this race only 10 days ahead of time. Drivers were my two sons Isaac and Garrett plus me. My wife Kathy is the team owner and CFO. Carl and Chris were there for the day to crew. We had some scheduling issues to contend with, Isaac had to move into his dorm at RPI on Friday morning. He left the house at 6am to go do that, but managed to get to the track in time to get in the car before the rain came in the afternoon. Garrett needed to take the SAT’s on Saturday, this would keep him from the track until after lunch on Saturday. But with my wife and an extra car on hand, Garrett made it to and from the test site and was ready to get in the car for the 2-4pm stint. Isaac and I split the morning driving. The race was pretty uneventful until the rain came. Isaac was in the car and when everything slowed down, he was having trouble seeing. We brought him in, wiped down the inside of the windshield, gave him a stick with a towel on the end of it. Being FCY, no laps were lost. About 1 lap later he’s on the radio screaming about needing to stop and he’s coming in. I got him to stay out and explain the problem – He had thrown up in his helmet. This took place about 5:50, 10 minutes shy of when we could install his brother to finish the race without exceeding the 2 hour limit. I managed to convince him to stay out one more lap and got ready for a stop. I was not prepared for what I found when I went to get him out of the car. Vomit from his lap to his chin. Oh boy. But armed with a roll of blue-roll I wiped it up a bit and stuffed Garrett in and strapped him down. Gloves would have been nice. I thought I was done cleaning up bodily rejects from him about 17 years ago, I guess being a parent never quite stops. Garrett goes out and within 10 minutes is complaining that the smell was making him sick and he didn’t know if he could do it. I told him that who ever finished the race wasn’t cleaning the car. But this wasn’t enough of a deterrent and he came in next lap and I got in. I have a terrible sense of smell and never noticed. Plus there was no way I was walking away from a win just because it smelled bad. Luckily through all this we had a decent lead over the guys behind us, so once it went green I drove conservatively, no heroics, no risky moves. Brought the car home in P2 overall P1 in A class. A couple of take-aways – The aero work helped, but didn’t make the car as faster as we hoped. Driving over 5-1/2 hours of a 12 hour race will make you tired and sore the next day. Don’t eat a big basket of chicken fingers right before you get in the car. There’s a joke in there somewhere about “going like stink” for the last stint.