Thanks to the "techies"

Marvin McBride · **Posted:** Sun Jan 30, 2005 5:56 pm

Thanks to Mark Vitacco, Ashraf Farrag, and all the others who helped put on the tech day Sunday at Diversified Performance in Apex. From my perspective, things went smoothly and the cars were thoroughly checked out (better than any mechanic I've ever had check my car before he signed the form).

Thanks also to Diversified Performance for providing the facilities and support!

Mark Vitacco · **Posted:** Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:12 pm

Thanks Marvin:

And thanks to John King for organizing the bookings. It became aparent
at K&E last year, the program grew to where tech days could not be done informally.

From everyone's prespective it went well: no lines, no long waiting,
no large groups of people cluttering the bays, and no big overhead
administering a sign up list. System worked well at the last ZClub
dyno day too.

Some of the cars are a real PIA to get up on a lift (like 20 mins for my
Corvette) but we pretty much did 2 cars every 30 mins, got everyone on the list including standby's .

Thanks also to Eric Hardcastle for being
the VIPER and 350Z car prime and to Grag at Diversified for helping
get everyone up on the lift correctly and safely.

We passed 20 vehicles (about 1/3 OF THEM MIATIA's!!!!!)
and failed about 4 or 5 (including my Corvette for a bad tie rod).
Since Diane moved, we have designated Kevin Butler's Miata
as a prime example of the proper way to prep a Miata for HPDE &
SOLO1 us. I asked Kevin to submit photo's of his car to post.

I expect things to run this well this weekend at K&E given the
guide lines John King as posted on the web site.

Dan Ecclestone · **Posted:** Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:10 pm

[quote="Mark Vitacco"]Thanks Marvin:

Since Diane moved, we have designated Kevin Butler's Miata
as a prime example of the proper way to prep a Miata for HPDE &
SOLO1 us. I asked Kevin to submit photo's of his car to post.

Mark could you give the rest of us miata folks the basic formula for a safe miata set up for HPDEs/TTs?

And Kevin, please provide pics of your set up and details of the safety equipment used in your miata

Diane Hall · **Posted:** Fri Feb 04, 2005 11:13 am

Well, I'm not Kevin, and can't get pix since it's too cold to put the top down here, but here's what I have in mine:

Required things:

+ HDHCDD with harness bar, padded with the SFI high density padding
+ harnesses for both passenger and driver
+ different seat to bolt in with foam cut out so the bar is higher than the head.
+ motul fluid, hawk blue pads. just get good stuff. give Matt a call.

Other things:

+ when I tracked the car, I had it put on a lift and checked at least 2x a year (even though I had annual techs). once at the THSCC tech day, another time at Sports and Compacts. want to know stuff isn't loose.

+ i ran with a hardtop. stiffer and faster that way. and you don't get as wet in the rain.

If I think of anything else, I'll add to the post.

Kevin Butler · **Posted:** Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:19 pm

Sorry for not being more attentive. I'm still busting arse like a madman preparing for VIR.

For roll bars, the best bet any one can have is the Hard Dog Hard Core, available in either single or double diagonal, powder coated chrome moly or polished Stainless Steel. This model is the tallest of the Hard Dogs. The only compromise you make is the inability to use the side latches for the hard top. I doesn't matter, the top will still be perfectly secure. I really don't know anything about the bars for the M2 cars.

For harness, I use G-Force 6 pt camlocks. I used snap clips on eyebolts installed in the stock location for the belt. On the tranny tunnel of my '95 there was a bung covering a factory backup plate opposite of the belt location. Again I used an eyebolt and snap clips. The eyebolts are grade 8 7/16-20 thread. They are not easily resourced. I got mine from Pegasus racing supplies.

Lap and 6 pt belts share the same eyes. The 6 pt belt comes over either side of the seat and you sit on top of it. Some people like to secure the 6 pt belt behind the seat and route it between the seat back/bottom and then sit on it. This option requires drilling, extra hardware and backup plates. I employ all stock mounts/backup plates. Shoulder harness wrap around the welded in harness bar that is a component of the M1 Hard Core.

On the '95, the seat latch bolts to the side of the seat with some kind of slide mechanism bolting to the seat/latch point and further back anchored to the tranny tunnel. What function it really serves, I have yet to figure out. This prevented a clean belt install. I removed the slide mechanism from the car/seat. I fabbed a long pivot bracket that I bolted to the rear tranny tunnel location of the removed seat belt slider. I made the mounting hole sized so that I could use a stock seatbelt bolt with a short shoulder for the bracket to pivot on. When the stock seat belts are not used, the bracket stands up behind the seat. Clip the seat belt to it and everythings out of the way for harness use. This is extra good for the driver's seat belt circuit to be closed.

I'm a little under 5' 10" and still had difficulties making 1" clearance under tbe broomstick line. I obtained a couple of old seats and cut a wedge out of the bottom of each seat to provide some additional clearance. I think the seats feel better than the stock too. They cup your tushie.

I'll post a link to some pics as I am able to.

Regards,

THSCC Forums

Thanks to the "techies"

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