Almost

Spoiler is on the car and only required one 13mm hole to be drilled in the delicate aluminum trunk lid.

Took the car to Lutz Tire for an alignment.  Probably too much rear toe but I did not notice it until I got home.  I asked for 1/16" in per side; maybe he thought .16".  Add that to the increased rear camber and the car may pick up a little push. 

Rules

  I searched for a while to find the following SCCA rules proposal and found it in the January Fastrak.  Assuming the Board approves it, the effective date is next year.  I thought it was already approved, but whatever.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unless noted otherwise the effective date for all rule, class, and listing change proposals herein is 1/1/2014

CHANGE PROPOSALS
Stock
#9385 Shock Allowance Comments
Change 13.5.F as follows:
“A hole may be added to an interior body panel and/or a strut bar to provide access to the adjustment mechanism on an allowed adjustable shock absorber. The hole may serve no other purpose, and may not be added through either the exterior bodywork or a strut bar. Interior panels are defined to be those pieces which cover the interior of the vehicle (including the trunk area) and are accessible from inside the vehicle. They do not include structural panels, such as wheel wells or inner fenders, which may also be accessible from inside the car but which actually form part of the body of the vehicle.”

Comment: the rule specifically called out strut bars as not allowed for holes, hence the SAC’s interpretation of the rule.  This adjustment will allow such holes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My shock tower brace is drilled to allow easy access to adjust the Koni shocks.  To avoid a protest I will simply tape a metal slug over each of the 1" holes.

First Event

Well, actually my second autox in the car, but last week at El Toro I had the wimpy sway bars and worn Hankoooks and the car was a mess.




Totally transformed the car with the bigger bars.  Flat, stable, predictable; maybe a bit on the pushy side, but plenty of adjustment available on the new Progress front sway bar. Brand new BFG Rival tires worked well.

 








RESULTS
Ouch, too many cones.  Twelve inch cones were used to setup this course so they were hard to detect if you hit one.  I thought my last two runs were clean.  Maybe the car is too wide.

Sweet

   Part number: 0000-04-5317.  Rear MSR 19mm sway bar. Backordered from Mazda for 6 weeks I am told, so I bought a used one from Alex Phelps Racing and with three day shipping I can have the final suspension setup ready for this weekend's autocross; the last local event before the big SCCA circus comes to town.

Bumper Plugs delivered a quality product and near perfect paint match.

The only think left to do is install the rear spoiler and a couple small trim panels in the package tray area.

MasterCard

 Buying stuff like crazy.

Urethane steering wheel and the correct rear trunk lid spoiler from Mazda pre-painted factory Marble White.  Kosei K1-TS wheels wrapped in new BFG Rivals and new Gorilla splined lug nuts.  Other items purchased include a new dead pedal, miscellaneous interior trim pieces, fender liner plugs, and an expired lap belt.  Also picked up some used parts locally; OEM floor mats and a center console to replace the molested unit that was in there.

Legit

Rocky's Miatomotive installed the OEM Mazda oil cooler, larger Progress front sway bar, and PowerGrid end-links.  The previous owner fitted the Koni shocks and proper Progress MSR-spec coil springs.

Cannot see the oil cooler in this picture, but it is a plate style water-to-oil cooler attached to the top of the oil filter base.

Progress front sway bar and RX8 yellow dot front sway bar.

MazdaSpeed exhaust.

Bam!

Braces from MazdaSpeed.  Three Mazda part numbers but actually four separate pieces total.  Lightweight hollow aluminum bolts to factory holes.

Arrival

 Very dirty, but it arrives in good condition.  A quick look and I see the rear spoiler is aftermarket, but everything else is pretty much as described by the seller.  An extra steering wheel is included, but it is also leather wrapped.  The front bumper has 1/4" holes from where the previous dealer mounted the license plate.  Bumper Plugs are available that will make it look better.

Car wash.

Keep On Truckin'

  A Marble White Mazda MX-5 Miata MS-R edition is loaded onto a transporter in Texas.  It should arrive in San Diego on Friday.

   It comes already 'assembled' with the Progress springs and Koni shocks, unique MazdaSpeed chassis braces, OEM limited slip differential, and rear trunk lid spoiler.  It currently has the RX8 yellow dot sway bars installed which because of their size technically may not be legal for SCCA C-stock competition, and the leather wrapped steering wheel is also protest bait.  Part of the MS-R package is an oil-cooler and this car needs that too.  One last item that should be installed is the front lip spoiler, but don't let the name fool you - it is a small 1/2" x 2' vertical lip that mounts low down under the front bumper cover area - not much to see but technically it needs to be there. All of this will be addressed once the car gets here.

 Knowing in advance about the absent oil cooler, I picked one up from another MX5 enthusiast along with a K&N panel air filter.

I placed an online order with MazdaSpeed Motorsports for the rear 19mm sway bar and some contingency stickers.  The rear bar is back ordered and I fat fingered the sticker quantity; at least I got the color correct.