Truenotch

I forgot my camera, so borrowed a Gopro for the weekend. I definitely prefer my sony! The angle wasn't great and it's a bit wobbly, but you get the idea . Camera didn't work for Race 1 (gutted), but here's race two from the back of the grid:

Alan Dick / Classic Auto News made a post about the Smith Spider on Facebook and it's sparked a bit of interest. A couple of people put up pics:

Round 1 of the Winter Series complete. We had a decent turnout, with 12 cars on the grid. The changes seem to have worked! The car felt great in testing and I was on the pace with the top guys again. Feelsgoodman.jpg Race 1: Started P3 and managed to pluck off the two cars in front. Made a pass for the lead on the last lap and it wasn't settled until after the last corner. Great race and stoked to get a win! Race 2: Reverse grid, so I was off the back. Pushed hard through traffic throughout the race and ended up in 3rd. Race 3: Handicap - started last and had a great race. Made it to up to second place, but couldn't quite challenge for the lead. I also had the quickest lap of the weekend with a 1:24.623... The next fastest was a 1:24.739 so there's not much in it! I'm pretty impressed with the lap times considering the track was ice cold all day. Here's a couple of pics:

It's the next step up from this. $999 retail and the tig torch is an optional extra. They come with a regulator and I'm pretty impressed with my one so far! https://www.bunnings.co.nz/bossweld-180-amp-ms180-mig-and-stick-arc-inverter-welder_p08911800

Aaaand delivered to Gisborne for some love from @Raizer .

There's loads of info around on 4AGE wiring looms and ECU pinouts. Club4ag used to be my go-to for most 4A info - hopefully that resource still exists? Your job should be fairly straightforward tbh. The most difficult part will be re-shaping the loom to go through the firewall in the right place. I think @Seedy Al can probably provide details on how to make old Toyotas work.

Damn! That's nuts man... Glad it wasn't worse.

Pulled the seat off and the underside of the seat looks tidy enough. There's a bit of surface rust but nothing to worry about. Seeing it with the seat off gives me ideas to make it more of a scrambler...

Well this is promising... Needs fettling, but it's good to hear that 2 stroke run!

Dragged this out of its hole today. It's time to get it running right and start the process of tidying it up.

Have you tried Dixbro?

Thanks! It goes ok for an FA / Goes hard for what it is. The ride has inspired me to bring the FS1 home...

This still exists. I took it along to the @MopedNZ ride in Auckland and had a blast! Glad the weather played ball for the day. Also received my new rear shock from @Raizer/Scooter Care and fitted it when I got home: It’s quite different to ride now that it has actual damping control! The rear feels more planted and I can’t pogo it off the ground like I used to. It gained a decal too... Now, time for a few more mods before the East Cape Escapade.

Jacking point touching the ground is pretty extreme! IMO you're better off using spacers and having enough bump/droop travel than trying to raise the ride height with spring rates. Also makes it nice an easy to slam it in the future. That style above looks ok. You'll need to ask @cletus about legality though.

Dad did a clutch job in my old 99 and he said it was the easiest clutch he's ever done.

I'd noticed that the rear suspension was bottoming out when hitting small bumps while under load and there were NO BUMP STOPS at all, so it was a pretty harsh feeling to reach full travel. This was a new phenomenon since installing the Bilsteins... Further research was required! I dug out the old KYB's and a couple of standard shocks (same length as the Bilsteins). That might explain the lack of rear travel! The KYB's are about 35mm shorter in the body and even shorter in the shaft. After a bit of research it also turns out that the Bilsteins have a HUGE amount of rebound damping compared to bump. This causes the shocks to "jack down" or "ratchet down" as the load increases because the rebound force over powers the compression force. I got in touch with Anthony at Alignment Specialists in Penrose to see if he could shorten the bodies of the bilsteins and re-valve them to suit the new heavier spring rates. He was happy to help, so I dropped the shocks off to be modded. More research outlined that droop travel is another key part of the suspension on MX5's - especially when bouncing off ripple strips or hitting tight cambered corners. I ran the shocks through their travel with no springs to find the perfect lengths. This ended up being around 20mm shorter bodies in the rear and 10mm shorter in the front. These measurements took another important component into account - bump stops. These are fancy 300lb bump stops from 5Xracing in the USA. They are supposed to be the bees weasles and can be a very important aspect of racecar suspension. The next item on the list was helper springs. These are commonly used in the USA and can make a big difference when the suspension is unloaded / when doing jumps. Obviously it's important to do jumps! So I found a set of 70lb keepers to try. In the states they use 150lb but I couldn't find any for a reasonable price in NZ. The springs had also never located onto the tophats properly, so I had my friend Jonathon from Kinex 3D print a few locators to knock into the tophats: A new issue became apparent when reinstalling the springs... The keeper springs pack down to a height of 20mm, meaning the shock would be 20mm taller than it used to be... And there wasn't enough thread left to wind the shocks down. Enter new component number 43512: \ 6" springs front and rear. 650lb front (12kg) and 400lb rear (7.2kg). Assembled: You can see how stubby the rears are in this pic. They're so cute! Front installed: Rear installed: There's a decent bit of travel left too:

The quick guys were beating my lap times by roughly 1 second in all of the dry races, so there's definitely work to do on the car. The top 4 have all had their engines refreshed, so our car is the quickest of the original-motor crew... So the logical thing would be to get the engine rebuilt, right? WRONG It would be far more satisfying to catch them without doing the engine... I think... So we had to make a list of things to improve. The clutch is starting to slip, so that's due to be replaced. Next: inspect engine mounts. They were really bad! And wouldn't be helping the situation. Next up - cold air! Dad's added a bit of length to the filter pipe and made a box around the filter. Next - exhaust ports. They were pretty daggy! After: Next up: suspension.....

I gave the MX5 a rest for Round 4 of the winter series so I could blow up the AE86's engine instead... So the next outing was at the New Zealand Grand Prix in February. Here's a quick clip of some action - I'm in #105 with the racing stripes. I'd managed to qualify well in greasy conditions and achieved P2. Unfortunately, the track was dry by the start of Race 1 and a few of the others managed to pass me, so I ended up 5th. The rest of the weekend ran along the same lines. 4th in race 2 and 5th in race 3 in the rain... Now, remember, a poor craftsman always blames his tools.... So.... It was definitely the car's fault. Here's the incar from race 1. You can see the difference in straight line pace, but I was also unhappy with the handling.

I doubt you'll be able to go higher without having top-out issues. Remember that droop travel is just as important as bump travel when traveling over bumpy surfaces. I'd advise adding spacers above the shock top hats if you want to raise the ride height without losing too much bump travel. It's also a good idea to remove the springs and run the shock through its travel to see when the bump stop kicks in and how much clearance there is for the wheels and tyres at full bump.

You should be able to hook a ride if you fly into TGA or HAM @RUNAMUCK. @johnnyfive Shall we create a proper entry form ala Nats so we can have next of kin, contact details etc sorted before the event starts?

I've run this past @VLYTNK and she's keen to come along "as long as my scooter goes fast by then". @Raizer - PLZ HAALP .

I feel like @Snoozin would appreciate this thread. That single seater looked great! And the crash must have been horrifying...

You'd better watch out for the Fog City Mumblers then!

Ok then. I'll make a start on the FS1 and will have the FA70 sorted by then. Hopefully Rahn will have an FZ70 too.

You have no idea how much I'm fizzing over this thing. Saabs are so fricken cool. My first car was an 80's 99 4 door in Tabasco red. I wish it was still in the family.