Originalsterm

So, a couple more strikes and they're out? Do we know if it's the same drivers on this "team" or if it has been new renters each time? Because speaking to someone who doesn't come back to the series doesn't do anything. And it could be this driver's first contact since he hasn't been read the riot act once before for aggressive driving.

My team is just drivers and we work on the car. I don't have people raising their hand to join the team and just spot around the track.

I want as much of a barrier between me and fire as possible. Connections, tank, the whole thing...

Unless you hammer the floor into a new shape.

When series favorites are impacted by it? When attendence falls specifically because of it? When something REALLY bad happens and it's on the news?

The easiest way to avoid future crashes with them is to suspend them for a while. Otherwise this will continue to happen as they don't seem to care who's day they ruin.

I hang out with people who enjoy being around me. I can tell by your tone that isn't the case for you, enjoy being an expert in everything and acting smart on the internet.

Wow dude, why the shade? I used a test light and had power everywhere I expected to, except the starter. So I figured I should pull the starter and get it tested, which showed that the solenoid was bad, so I threw a new starter in. Now there is power there, but still no start. Other than that, I had power every place I expected to and assumed some of the issues might be an intermittent connection that "looked good" when I pushed on it with a test light/multimeter. Some of these issues required me to be at the wheel and under the hood at the same time, kinda tough to do with one person, so my troubleshooting was limited to what I could do and I asked for likely things to chase down that I didn't already do. I have a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (not electrical, those are different things). I have a Master's degree in Engineering Management. I worked at Delphi as a design engineer in advanced emissions. I designed a hydrogen reformer that took gasoline (another project was for diesel) and broke it down into hydrogen through a high temperature catalytic reaction to dump into the intake manifold of a car to reduce emissions. In 2004, this reformer was coupled to a Chevy Trailblazer and when driven through the EPA drive cycle it achieved SULEV emissions requirements, something Honda Civics were achieving at the time. We also coupled this unit to a 7 series BMW (Hydrogen 7), very cool experience. After that, I spent 10 years for GM working on PEM fuel cells for an automotive application. My responsibility was designing and developing the test equipment for these fuel cells. As I'm sure you're aware, this required tight dynamic control of hydrogen, oxygen, humidity, pressure, coolant, and an electronic load to be applied to the test article while logging 300+ data acquisition channels. My senior design project in college was to develop the suspension and steering for a SAE Mini Baja car. Not a ton of electrical components in that design from what I recall, but I would still classify it as "automotive". Several of my classes in college and some of my early experiences after involved CFD, both modeling thermal properties in a car as well as aerodynamics, have you ever seen a car with a radiator or spoiler? Neither of those are electrical either. Not every automotive engineer has the test light under the hood. There are quite a few mechanical components on a car that have nothing to do with the computer, battery, fuses, relays, wiring, switches, or moving electrons about. I'd love to know what qualifies you to act like a know-it-all on a car forum because a member asked a question about something they aren't an expert in.

Park/neutral switch maybe? I'll jumper that out when it stops raining.

Test light showed nothing until I replaced the starter. Now the light shows power to the starter, but won't start until I manually engage the relay.

Yep, fired right up immediately

I also have an automotive engineering background and I agree with the reasons you cited for the change. But doesn't durability and serviceability lend itself well to being an "improvement" in an endurance racing series? Performance can mean a lot of things, faster isn't the only performance metric when you're talking endurance racing.

If it wasn't stock to that particular car, or even the same generation, it provides an added value. If it wasn't "better", then why do it? I 10,000% agree with your second point though. Please be consistent, both within an individual car (Miata in this case) AND across other models.

If it's a safety item I think you do. Or if you're car won't go without them.

In the office at the moment, I'll have to give the manual starter relay trick a shot this evening.