Rental gets a bit more power, William goes SM

Busy week.

While at Mike Wong's Pit Garage in El Monte picking up some seat brackets for our rental, I spot an '03 that looks like Spec Miata. 39K, never raced, log book, nice cage, perfect body and tub. Mike mentions it's for sale. William has been looking for an SM to go do enduros in, so I call him. Drops what he's doing, shoots down there to look at it. Some SoCal locals might know this one, it's the black NB with Hello Kitty stickers plastered all over it. A bit of haggling and the deal is done. We're going racing!


It doesn't have the SM suspension kit yet, needs a different diff, new wheels, this and that. Trying to get it prepped and set up for the NASA enduro at Buttonwillow on the 18-19 April.


Meanwhile, the 99 rental got a "square top" intake manifold and AEM ECU.Made another 21whp. Awesome. Thing pulls like made all the way to the 7500 rpm fuel cut. FUN. Church's dyno reads about 8-10% higher than Kraftwerks so I think it's probably more like 159 but either way, it's 21 more than it made before the tweaks so I'll take it!

Getting Ready for Miatas at MRLS

Not much chance we'll get the OGK running in time but that won't stop us from trying. As a back up, we'll bring the rental. It's still a ton of fun to drive and give rides in but not the showstopper the OGK will be. To spice up the rental, we have added an AEM and non USDM "square top" 01-05 intake manifold. Even with the stock ECU feeding it 12.0:1 at the fuel cut, the rental was still making peak power right at the fuel cut so I'm pretty sure we'll find at least another 12whp with the manifold and ECU.

New digs

As some of you may know, we were planning on moving to a new shop in February. Our lease was actually up at the end of January but we're hanging around until we find just the right place. Due to the soft commercial real estate market in south OC, our building owner is more than willing to let us stay month to month without any premium. The vacancies around here are disturbing. Lots of businesses folding. Sad state of affairs. Meanwhile we have been seeing phenomenal growth every quarter since we started back in January 2006. I can just barely keep up these days. Which lead to me bringing my first employee on last year, Mike Dandan.

Help!
In the past when I said we, it had always been just me and who ever else helped out from time to time. Mike is full time now and quite indispensable. Ships out about 95% of the orders, works on the website, keeps all the cars running and just generally does whatever needs to be done. Thanks bro!

Room for toys
So the shop we are looking at is about twice the size as our current place. Conveniently, it's just across the street. Nice yard we can fence in, better floor plan so we can easily add a 4 post lift in addition to the 2 poster we have now. Room to store a model 4000 Dynapack dyno when and if we can make that happen. So many projects come to a crawl because we don't have a loading dyno nearby. We'll fill the allotted parking spaces pretty quickly with all the cars we have floating around so I see some 4 post parking hoists in our future. Or we can just sell some of the excess cars. Anyway, haven't pulled the trigger on it yet. Just have to finalize the changes we need to make to the office area and get our gate/fence approved. Then there is the Go Kart track in the warehouse. Just kidding. I wish! We hope to start moving in during April and be all dialed by May. Not looking forward to all the extra work when we are slammed busy, but I am looking forward to the newer, bigger, plusher building. Oh yeah, we're specifying checkerboard vinyl floors throughout. No more carpet. Yay.

Speaking of toys..
I'm actually back down to 3 Miatas again, just sold the 2000SE and '90. Just the OGK, the 99 rental and a 95 R Package. Think I'm going to drop a JDM BP-Z3 motor into the 95 with one of DP Tunes programmable 01-05 ECU's. Splice the harnesses together and voila. I think we can make about 150whp with a quiet exhaust and the nice JDM 4:2:1 OEM header . That would be a fun and stealth DD eh?


I can't help it though. It's an addiction. Craigslist. Mike and I both have he bug. Some we keep, some we flip. Constantly rotating through the inventory.


T25
I go to sleep these days dreaming about racing the OGK in enduros. TT's are fun but it's low key. Going fast for two laps is fun but it's just too easy.BTDT. I've sort of lost interest in Redline and SLB. Even if I were to go out and win the series in class, I'm not sure I would really care. Still, they are a fun diversion but not worth focusing on for me. The Miata Challenge is different because A) We don't take our selves too seriously.  B) It's more the camaraderie than glory.
Building a car that can be raced hard for 25 hours straight is monumental. That's my Everest.

Focus shift

I knew this would happen. Got to thinking well, why not? It might mean I don't have it ready for MRLS April 10-11 but that's OK. So instead of the mostly stock head with modest BP5A intake cam we are doing this:
 
Integral R1 race cams, .458 lift, 283°
+1mm Supertech valves
Supertech valve springs with Ti retainers
Mazda Comp Shim under Bucket lifters


I think this motor will make an honest 190whp on race gas, without the Rotrex. Should be easily capable of 325whp force fed. Perfect for enduros where we can simply short shift to control boost / fuel consumption, tire wear and general wear. Can't wait to hear this thing.

Exhausting gasses

Finished the big tube race header and Laguna exhaust prototypes over a month ago. The Laguna is the right shape and sound but still a bit too heavy at 22lbs with two resonators. We're going to go to a thinner wall tube and lighter resonators. Should end up at around 17lbs for a header back 2.5". That's really light. The super light Fujitsubo street exhaust was our weight target at 17 lbs but its a smaller 2.375" and a shorter cat-back. The cat back 2.25" version of our exhaust might be closer to 15lbs so that's good.

Header should make lots of midrange torque, that's what it's designed for. Problem is to get the optimum runner lengths and steps in the right place, we had to wrap the primaries up like spaghetti next to the frame rail. That means it's a two piece and no fun to install. Like not even a little bit of fun. In fact, it's kind of a PITA. Sad because it's going to make lots of power but we can't expect to sell to many because of it's no compromise construction. That's what you get when you go to one of the top header builders in the country and ask for a no compromise race header. oops.

So we end up needing to design a second header that's more of a compromise. Something closer to the Racing Beat but still with the longer primaries and venturi collector the RB doesn't have. A one piece that is easier to install, and hopefully, easier to manufacture. The RB is good but I know I can do something better that will cost less. So I'm obsessive!

Been too busy to do any more than one short, inconclusive dyno test (not back to back comparison). Will try to get some dynos done in the next 4 weeks if possible.

The exhaust will be easy. We already have a customer asking for a system for an S/C car that will make 350whp. That means 2.75" and our jigs are all set up for 2.5". It occurred to me that a 2.75" race exhaust would accommodate the street turbo guys very well since they don't need quite as much baffling. So there you go, another product.

Meanwhile it's 1:21 and my second beer just ended. Good night.

OGK Motor rebuild begins

Mike Keegan of Keegan Engineering picked up the long block today. Decided to go with the 11:0.1 Supertechs. At an actual 11:0.1, they're a tad too high compression for race gas and the unrestricted 16psi of the C30-74. So I decided to splurge on this plain motor and have the chambers polished and valves deshrouded. While Mike's at it he'll do a little bowl work and probably trim the valve guides a bit. Nothing exotic but the deshrouding will reduce the chamber volume enough to drop the C/R closer to the 10.5 or so that we're aiming for. I'd love to stick with 11.0:1 and run E85 but the fuel economy on that fuel is something like 20% worse than with normal race gas. As it's going to be and enduro motor that may end up running the Thunderhill 25, I need to maximum fuel economy. Scratch the E85 specific build. It'll still make masses of midrange torque though so its not exactly a sacrifice.

Trying to resist sticking cams in it and asking Mike to go wild with the ports. I need it finished quick so we're keeping it simple. This will also become the shop spare motor once we get the Whammy 2.0 prototype running.

The Whammy will be a no holds barred race motor. Oversquare, safe at 8500 rpm, big head flow numbers, expensive and pre-made sitting on the shelf. In 2011 that is. Gotta win some races with the prototype first :)

Other bits on the way are custom spindles and billet aluminum hubs from V8 Roadsters. These will be standard geometry. I asked the Leonards about a year and a half ago for drop spindles but they have just been too busy cranking out their LXs conversions to get them done for me. The drops are just about done now though. Excited at what the beneficial change in roll center will do for the car. A few other benifits like being in a better place in the camber curve and making room for longer shocks. Besides that, the hub and spindle assemblies will shave another 16lbs off the car. Between V8 Roadsters and 949 Racing, we have replaced the entire corner of the car except the outer tie rod end. And that is something we're also fiddling with to allow adjustments for bumpsteer.

V8R four wheel Wilwood 11.75" BBK going on too. We're going to make a one off version with "merely" 11" solid rear rotors and possibly a two piston Outlaw caliper to save weight. His current kit is engineered for a much heavier and more powerful car. The OGK is barely 2000lbs and will be just shy of 300whp in enduro tune.

While I don't think I can get everything together in time, I'm pretending that I'll have it running for the March 20 Miata Challenge event at El Toro. That will be our primary shakedown for Miatas at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca a few weeks later. Either way, I'm so excited at the prospect of having my favorite toy awake and howling again.

New motor for the OGK

Since late Summer '09 I had been planning and piecing together version 2 of the OGK. Real gauges, better engine management, bigger brakes, less weight and a whammy one of a kind engine with the Kraftwerks supercharger. Some of the parts are here in the shop but the stumbling point has been planning the engine. I have this theory that the block can accept a much larger bore (85.5mm) than is common practice on high boost engine. So we're going to sonic test two and cut another open to take some measurements. Then comes custom made rods, cams and pistons, all of which need to be designed from scratch. This should have all been done at the end of '09 of course. It wasn't though, so I have to "throw" something together to start aero development.

This interim motor will be basic, 100% OEM rebuild with these exceptions:

84mm 9.5:1 - off the shelf Supertech's
Forged rods - M-Tuned
Billet oil pump gears in blueprinted housing - Boundary Engineering
Valve Springs - Eibach
Crank - lightened and balanced with stock damper and 949 Racing 7.25" organic twin plate clutch
CAM- BP5A intake

That's it, no custom machining other than the crank. It won't flow more than about 205CFM or so but the C30-74 Rotrex will take care of the rest. After driving William's lap record setting 230whp 99 Miata with a stone stock 100K mile engine and the same supercharger, I realize I can get by just fine with a plain engine for now. The interim motor while it won't flow much, will have no problem spinning to 7800rpm sustained and cope with 15psi/300whp.

The impetus for the Whammy engine is twofold:
1. Increasing displacement while increasing the rod ratio from the not so favorable 1.56:1 to something more like 1.66:1. That means longer rods, stock stroke and still getting 1952cc.

2. Developing what will become 949 Racing crate motors for 2011.

With the stroker conversions already available, you get higher piston velocities and end up with nearly the stock rod ratio. There are a host of benefits from keeping the stroke shorter and increasing bore. The question remains, just how far can we go with the bore and boost before it goes pop.

With enough valve lift, our new header design and prototype manifold, we can hopefully reach something like 255-270CFM from the head. Pretty weak in the Honda world but the upper end of what people get from the BP series Mazda heads. That flow should allow it to make good power between 7000-8300 rpm which is where the rod ratio comes in. An integral part of achieving that flow will be aggressively deshrouding the valves, made easier by the bigger bore.

Such a build could be run as a genuine 8000rpm 175whp N/A (non VVT) street motor with the right intake/exhaust/ECU and also be strong enough for sustained 400whpF/I track use. The long term goal is to build an endurance racer and finish the 2010 Thunderhill 25 hour with the prototype crate motor.

Hoping to get the Whammy engine built in time to do one or two 3 hour enduros between Summer and T25. Meanwhile, we can definitely get the interim motor put together in time to run the March 20 Miata Challenge event at El Toro. Can't wait to get out there. Another goal for 2010: sub 1:50 at BW13 CW on DOT slicks.