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Deyeme Racing's Project Mamba!

41K views 139 replies 28 participants last post by  Deyeme Racing 
#1 ·
Project Mamba is our new racing flagship, after selling the 1996 Dodge Neon ACR we ran in SCCA Solo2 for a number of years in D-Modified class. We've been without a race car for a few years now, and I'm pretty eager to return to the Solo2 scene.

My wife decided on the name - she wanted a snake name, like Viper, but something that sounded a little smaller but still dangerous. Lil Mamba is starting out as a daily driver while she gets broken in and we get some initial specs (weight, MPG, 1/4 mile time, dyno runs, etc), and we'll be slowly transforming her through this year into a capable roadster, and then we'll get a little more serious as we get the "lightweight" things out of the way.

Mamba is a 2017 Classica, with as little in the way of extras as possible. I wanted to start with something I didn't have to pay money for just to tear it out as unwanted mass. Since FCA only offered the 124 in red and fifty boring shades of gray, we opted for white, which plan on painting lime green with matte black hood and deck.

Pics to come, as soon as we get a sunny day :/
 
#2 ·
Mod 1:
License plate bracket
This is a necessity here in MO, US. I first designed the tag bracket for my 2009 Challenger (but only as a one-off prototype), then later for the '13-up Dart, and now for the 124 Spider. With some minor tweaks to the design, the tag bracket for the 124 and Challenger are now the same part. Weight is about the same as the big ugly plastic bracket and heavy tapping screws, but it sits low for minimal aerodynamic interference. What air does it it goes mostly around and above, still entering the lower grille opening.

We didn't have plates on the 124 yet when this pic was taken, so the ETHNOL plate as actually from our old race car, which was powered by.. yep... E85.



Plate screws are aluminum button-head screws, and we did well nuts and the same screws for the rear plate to match :)
 
#3 ·
Mod 2:
Trunk Spring Kit, Deyeme Racing, brushed stainless

Our plan for our 124 is a daily driver for the next 2-3 years with Solo2 time, and eventually race-only. Start slow and light, and work up to the hot-n-heavy. We did this (with a little more reckless abandon) on our old racecar, Project Venom (a 1996 Dodge Neon ACR Coupe), which, in the end was an absolute beast, and incredible fun to drive. Like our old Neon, we'll be running our 124 in D-Mod class, where "Super7" kit cars and other small-displacement highly modded cars go. I seem to remember racing a Miata down in Meridian Mississippi back in '02... I think....

Anyway, back to the present. We're looking over every bolt and bracket that makes up this car, and we're going to find ways to get rid of weight... bigtime! As I said, though, we're starting small. The second mod for Project Mamba is our trunk spring kit. We went with the brushed stainless springs, because they look awesome, but these specific springs because they're only about 2/3 the weight of the stock springs, with no loss in functionality. In fact, by using slightly longer end-links, the deck lid even opens a little further, too.


Stock spring and lightweight spring side-by-side


The brushed stainless set we installed on our 124
 
#4 ·
Mod 3 (2000 miles)
Hood Spring Kit, Deyeme Racing, w/ brushed SS springs & SS fasteners, and brushed aluminum brackets

I've always hated how prop rods get in the way when working under the hood. Because of that, I designed a hood spring kit for the 2013 Dodge Dart. Looking at other aftermarket and OE springs, I knew I didn't want them stretching across the fender, as they're just as much in the way on the sides as a prop rod is up front. With some math and a little trial-and-error, I designed a kit that was totally bolt-on and stayed out of the way when working on the car. Using the same concept, I came up with the one for our Spider. Weight isn't much more than the prop rod thanks to the small-diameter springs (same size springs as the trunk, but greater force) and aluminum attaching hardware. And it's much easier to reach around under the hood without knocking into a prop rod or reaching across springs that are in the way.

Now that I've made it easier to work on the car and a little more "showy" it's about time to start digging into some performance stuff.

 
#5 · (Edited)
Mod 4 - 2500 mi. - 6/1/2017
Front Brake Vent Kit, "race" version, DMR

We finally have an autocross (SCCA Solo2) event under our belt. My son and I both ran in DM (D-Modified) class, which is for production-based vehicles with extensive modifications. We ran with NO performance mods at all, to get a base-line of sorts (raw and Pax times compared to the rest of the field). We were obviously pretty slow, scoring right in the slowest 1/4 of the pack. The great news is that my son, only 18, was just 3 sec. slower than me on a 50 second course. He'll be giving me a real run for my money soon!

So with that event out of the way, I've started the complicated search on suspension. Coilovers, wheels, tires. And, by proxy, brakes, because running certain aftermarket brakes can change what wheels you can run (which changes tires, and springs, and...)

While I try to figure out the best combo, I decided to ensure we would NOT need to go with a BBK (big brake kit), but rather give us the chance at looking into Good-Win Racing's lightweight brake setup, which would allow us to run smaller race wheels with slicks. To do this, I created a front brake vent. I replaced the no-fog dummy bezel with the fog lamp bezel from the Lusso. Using adjustable tubing and a round vent flush-mounted into the splash shields, we've retained most of the stock form and aerodynamic function (which cuts off airflow to the brakes, causing them to run unnecessarily hot in aggressive driving) but now the brakes cool down to ambient after a braking event MUCH faster than stock. They also take much longer to heat up going down a long, steep hill! We won't really get to see much of this improvement yet, as the real brake limiter right now is our stock tire setup. The real magic is going to be when we do get those other components, and don't have to worry about brake performance so much down the road.


Using thermal probes to monitor the temperature between the dust shield and brake rotors. We ran the brake vent on one side and left the other stock so we could tell if the difference was real or not. No "butt dyno" here! The results were actually a little surprising, especially in how long the un-vented side would retain the higher after-braking temperature.



 
#7 ·
Those vents are pretty neat. You didn't want to mount them more 'inside' the wheel well, to push air towards the inside of the wheel, rather than at the tire? Maybe it's the perspective, and the fact that I nothing about how vents are setup. Still, the results do speak for themselves (will you post some temperatures, etc?)
 
#10 · (Edited)
They will be about half-in and half-on. If I'd gone much more inboard, where the splash shield goes to about 45 deg., it would mean the duct would have to bend that much, too (and be quite a bit longer). I wanted it to be as short and straight a path as reasonable. On one of my of my other project cars, I'm going with something a little more stealthy. It doesn't draw in as much air, but it does make a small difference, using an intake the same style as the splash shield vent, only mounted on the bottom of the closeout panel. It's a 90 deg. bend, so air volume is lower, but it does help a little (air actually gets drawn in because of the way the pressure works around the front of the body), and with minimal effect on aerodynamics and MPG.

How does the cooling work if you mount the wheel?
I know and use brake cooling systems for a long time and they als uses a flexible tube to direct the air to the backside of the break disk.
I know what you're talking about with those race cars that use that direct ducting. I'm not trying to do anything quite that extreme, but rather fix a design compromise that I believe hinders performance unnecessarily.

If there were no aero shields under the car, it wouldn't be much of an issue. The wheel wells would be awash in fresh air all the time. Of course, fuel economy and top speed would suffer, and less air from up front would be directed through the intercooler and radiator. Those underside aero panels (along with the good aerodynamic design of the body) cause the air inside the wheel wells to just become a turbulent, stagnant mess. Most of what does get into the wheel well probably comes from the engine bay, which means the intercooler, radiator and A/C have already heated it up before the brakes can even make use of it. By bringing in air from in front of the car and putting it inside the wheel well, fresh air is introduced and heated air is vented out (down the side of the car). If I were building the car for just 1/4 mile or top speed, I don't think I'd bother. I think for street, road race, and autocross, though, it'll create an advantage.

There are a number of cars (mostly upscale) that have a vent of sorts from the factory. I could have only installed a vent and left the dummy bezels in place, but if it worked at all, it would be stealing air that ought to be going through the IC & rad.
 
#11 ·
Looks like April (as in April Showers) got her revenge on us for skipping out of the first autocross of the season. It RAINED the morning of our last autocross on 6/18. Still, Isaiah was only faster than 2 cars (raw time) his first race, and beat 7 the 2nd. Beat 7 cars, even though we were in first heat and splashing through puddles the entire course. He got some great wet-weather extreme driving experience (seriously, every 18yo should do THIS for their driving test!!) and still managed no DNFs and NO CONES. That means he's not pushing the car as hard as he could be, and neither am I (same - no spinouts and no cones for me either).

Because of the cool, wet nature of the course, I can't say our brake vent kit was why we were faster. That, I think will have to wait until we get some decent tires that can put more stress on the brakes. Oh yea... so, we're waiting on a new summer setup, and I'll post details and pics in hopefully the next post here. While we wait, though, I went ahead and did another one of those "necessity" mods - an emergency jack and tool kit. Once we have an extra wheel to play with, I'll start looking at where/how to mount it (on the trunk lid? lol, nope). But at least now we can take the weight off a flat, hand-spin it, take it off and plug it, etc.



The tool pouch fits neatly in the fender area where the jack goes, and the jack bolts right up to an existing threaded hole and seat made just for it.
 
#13 ·
eBay. I've seen spare wheels for the 2016 Mazda MX-5 listed too, but I haven't looked into that, since I'm getting new summer wheels, and will be putting skinnier winter tires on our OE 16s... and hopefully one will fit in the trunk for daily driving.
 
#15 ·
Mod 6 - 3500 mi. - 7/1/2017
Enkei RPF1 black 16x7 / 43mm offset wheels w/ Bridgestone Potenza RE040 tires in 215/45

The stock tires are just barely okay. Well, they're great for drifting. But since, like cheerleading, drifting isn't a real sport, those tires are not of much use. So, for the remainder of this race season, our new race setup is pictured below. They're not quite complete, as the center caps are still backordered, but I'd have to pop them off to race anyway, so who cares, right? I'll also be getting some lime green accent stripes on them as soon as I get a chance to play with them off the car. We ran an autocross event this past weekend, and this setup pulled me a full 8 seconds closer to the lead car in raw time, and took me from the 86th percentile to the 77th in a field of around 80-90 cars. That's a pretty good jump, and the tires aren't really that wide. In fact, next year, these will be our "summer" setup, and will stay on the car for summer street use and wet autocross events, and we'll be running much wider wheels and tires for regular track duty. We'll be keeping our OE wheels, and they'll be relegated to having some good winter tires put on them (with one kept in the trunk when used for commuting if it'll fit). We don't plan on driving her in the snow, but it always pays to be prepared, especially with Missouri weather. Winter tires are also much better in just plain COLD weather than summer rubber.

So finally another performance mod! Wider wheel by 1/2", wider tire by 20mm, yet lighter than the stockers. More traction and less weight? Win!

 
#16 ·
I was just looking at some Enkei's online last night! I'd love to see a pic from farther away that shows the wheels and the whole car.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I would, but my camera went into UFO mode (only take blurry pictures) at the last autocross. I'll be bringing a different camera next time. They're back off the car now until the next Solo2 event, since they're the "race" tires of this year. Our race setup will be a bit more extreme, but I need some different brakes for clearance with the wheels I want, and those are a little further down the shopping list right now.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with them. I bought them for the lighter weight and greater rigidity, and since I was able to get them in black, that'll go great with the color scheme. That color scheme is also further down on the shopping list, lol!
 
#18 · (Edited)
I was hoping to report on our next mod, a Cusco rear sway bar. I have both bars. Front is 24mm hollow, and rear is 14mm solid. It's my understanding the OE rear bar on the 124 is 14mm hollow (looked the same dia., but I didn't put a caliper on it). I was disappointed, though, to find the new bushing brackets made of heavy, thick steel, but made narrower than the stock brackets. This was likely for ease of manufacture, but with a narrower bushing profile, performance may be hampered. The front bracket is designed the same way, but I haven't had a chance to mount it, yet. Also, end-links are not included (which was expected), and after removing the stock links, decided those should be replaced with something better as well. And, lastly, you'd think something that included bushings would include bushing grease, but again, nope. I keep it in stock, so no biggie. Oh- and the instructions are in JAPANESE. Well, that's not helpful! Fortunately, I have the FSM.

So, rather than install the front bar also, I stopped after putting the new rear bar on, took some notes, did some R&D work, and will be reporting on the new bar and new hardware in the near future. Once I'm happy with it, I'll tackle the front, which from the FSM instructions, is like taking half the car apart! The rear bar was all of 15 minutes, including taking pictures and drinking some pop. For the front bar, I'll need more time with the car being down, and there are races coming up that are only 2-3 weeks apart, so that's not realistic right now. I will be looking at the bushings and end-links, though, so maybe I can make it go faster if there are improvements to be made there, too.

So, back to today's mod.... but not really a mod. Just a little personalization this time. Lil Mamba gets her name tag!





 
#19 ·
Mod 7 - 4000 mi. - 7/15/2017
Rear Sway Bar, Cusco 14mm solid

I don't want to install monster sway bars on our car. Our goal is less weight, not more. Also, since we plan on getting some pretty stiff springs with our coil-over setup, huge bars become little more than extra weight. After shopping around, I decided on Cusco for front and rear sway bars. The rear bar is 14mm, which is the same as stock. I don't know if it's just improved geometry, or maybe a better spring steel, but somehow the Cusco rear bar made a noticeable improvement in rear sway mitigation. I installed the rear bar only, so we could get a race in with just that one, to know if there was going to be a difference or not, especially since they were the same diameter. Wow! Despite the attaching hardware's shortcomings (I'll get to that in a sec.) the bar really does perform. My raw time at he last Solo2 event improved to the 70th percentile from the 77th Isaiah went from 93rd to 85th percentile. That's a pretty marked improvement, and with two drivers being able to share thoughts on handling, we were able to confirm together that the rear bar was really doing its job. I was also down to 7.031 sec. off the fast time of the day, which was a '03 Z06, followed by a Mazdaspeed 6. This kind of consistent improvement is exactly what we're looking for, and we hope to see a similar jump with the front bar.

Now, to the shortcomings. The chassis brackets are stamped steel, and considerably thicker and heavier than the OE brackets, but narrower, too, for less "seat." I think the brackets should be wider, and so should the bushings, for a bigger, more stable position, as well as wear resistance. I'm making my own brackets and bushings to replace the narrow steel ones that came with the Cusco bar. Even though the OE bar is the same size, the bushings are glued or sintered on, so the bushings and brackets have to stay with the stock bar. Also, not that I expected it, but it would have been nice, the new bar did not come with end links. The OE links are thin and so short they have no room for adjustability even if they were 2-pc adjustables. So, I'm looking into a solution for that. Mazda was really struggling with how to attach that bar through the suspension links.

Other than the lack of better links and the skinny bushing brackets, I'm pretty happy with the rear bar, and the race results prove its worth.

Now the pics!


old and new bar. Lime green peel-coat applied to new bar for some protection while she still gets street driven


Install finished
 
#20 ·
Mod 8 - 5000 mi. - 8/15/2017
Front Sway Bar, Cusco 24mm solid

Having run a Solo2 race with just the rear bar and being pretty happy with the improvement, it was time to do the front. WHAT A CHORE! With stories of cutting out the old bar, dropping the subframe, removing power steering and lots of other bits, I got under the car and took a look. The most reasonable solution seemed to be to support the engine and lower the subframe for clearance. If I cut out the old bar, how would I know how to get the new one in? Remove a whole bunch of components? No way. By lowering the subfframe, everything else was just nuts n bolts. It was still a tight fit to get the old one out and the new one in, but patience pays off.

We now have a few hundred miles on the new front bar, and I'm really liking the setup. It's back to "balanced" although it wasn't all that far off with just the rear bar. Back to balanced, but handling quite a bit flatter, especially in quick transitions. It's going to be a few weeks before the next Solo2 event, so we'll have to wait a bit to see the actual improvement.

Now for the bad: Install was not easy. This is not Cusco's fault- it's Mazda's engineering. The instructions were in Japanese, and I can only count to ten in Japanese. That IS Cusco's fault. Items shipped to the US should come with instructions in English. Fortunately, I have the FSM, and between that and the other sway bar instructions out there, I was able to piece together what I needed to do. Next is the stupid-heavy stamped steel bushing brackets and wimpy bushings. I don't tknow how long the bushings would last, but I'm not going to wait until they fail. New design is already in the CADD program, and I'm getting with my machine shop to make new ones. Oh, and no end-links, either, just like with the rear bar. It would have been a nice addition, but I wasn't expecting it. I'm designing my own adjustable end links, too, and the front and rear bars both will have some new hardware after I get a race in with both bars they way they are.

All in all, I like them. I think the Eibach bars would be overkill, unless you're planning on keeping your suspension relatively soft. We'll be putting in coilovers with much stiffer springs, so going monster-size on the bars is just unnecessary- not to mention the added weight we don't need.


Oh yea- the pics!





No Cusco blue? It's under the lime green peel-coat. Gotta keep 'em new and fresh while the car is still street driven.
 
#22 ·
Counting past 10 is easy, though. You pretty much just say "ten one, ten two, ten three..." Ju ichi, Ju ni, ju san...

I remember that much.

Now, back to the subject at hand.

I have sitting across my open desk drawer a polyurethane-filled differential mount. My wife has been bugging me since we first got the 124 to do solid mounts for it. But the engine mounts aren't quite like the Neon, Dart, and other FWD cars we're familiar with. BUT - one look around the diff to see how it was mounted revealed that the twin-insert mount is actually designed like a lot of FWD car mounts - a metal center with rubber legs connecting to a metal housing. Like all drivetrain mounts made this way, the rubber dry-rots, cracks, and disintegrates, especially if it's near where an engine oil leak occurs (e.g. trans mount on a FWD car). They all fail. Then the thru-bolt insert is just rattling around in there, causing unnecessary play. In the Neon, back when I was first making these, the front mount was notorious for tearing, which would cause missed shifts (the movement created enough slack in the shift cables that you couldn't throw it into the next gear until it was done rocking or bucking).

So anyway, I picked up a OE MOPAR part (it's still race season and we can't do without the car right now) to check out the mount up close. It's pretty wimpy. I'm sure it lowers NVH a little, but, hey, I like a car that talks to me! I've already finished the molds (had to make two, since each isde is a "mirror" of the other, including a weighted portion) and now the mount is filled solid with polymer fiber reinforced lime green polyurethane!

We still haven't been to an autocross with the Cusco front bar yet. Our location for the last one got double-booked, so it was cancelled. Next race is coming up in a couple weeks, though. Once we're done with testing both Cusco bars on the car and some new sway bar hardware, we'll get that diff mount in. It should firm up launches and help power delivery a little, but without the harshness of solid metal mounts.

Here's a pic of the OE mount before and after being filled.



 
#23 ·
Well, the first autocross with both Cusco sway bars is behind us. It's been a REALLY long day, thanks to timing system malfunctions that resulted in a rerun for both me and my son (and numerous other drivers in every heat). This is the first time my wife got to run also, and she hasn't been to an autocross in over a decade (same as me until this past spring). The prelim results posted online have numerous obvious errors (times of one second, 30 sec., etc., on a course that's typically 45 - 55 seconds long). Because of this, I don't have results yet, so I'll start with the butt-dyno version. The balance is back to how it was before installing the rear bar alone. That's good, and it's what we expected with a matched pair from the same company. Aside from that, the effect is similar to when we started using the performance tires over the stock setup; probably true because now the front bar is helping the inside tire do more work. So, that grip, grip grip... sudden traction loss is even more intense than before. So, I still feel like the 124 needs more grip before more power. We haven't done anything to suspension yet (wheel/tire change notwithstanding), but that's probably going to have to wait until spring. Next mod will be something small and simple - I'm thinking a TS BOV or DV+. We have that combo on our Dart and it's working wonderfully. Venting to atmo keeps intake temps down slightly and keeps turbulence in the intake tube down. The DV+ just replaces the crappy plastic diverter valve plunger ad spring with something a little more robust. We'll do one and then the other, with a race (and street driven miles) in between, so we can continue to monitor performance.
 
#24 ·
Butt dyno confirmed! The Cusco 24mm front bar is an improvement over the OE bar.

In raw time, I'm up to the 61st percentile, and Isaiah is up to 83rd.
As a comparison, I was at 86, then 77, then 70th. Isaiah was at 92, 93, then 85th.
Kim, our newest driver in Mamba, was about 2 seconds behind Isaiah, and about 5 seconds behind me. It's been about a decade since she's had a helmet on in a car, so she did pretty well. Also her first time autocrossing a RWD (she used to race two of our Neons, earning the nickname Nurse Neon).

It's good to have another driver every so-often to confirm the results, since one driver can easily have a good or bad day, potentially skewing the results of a new mod.

So, I'm pretty happy with the Cusco bars. Time for an alignment and maybe a blow-off valve...
 
#25 · (Edited)
Mod 9 - 6000 mi. - 9/27/2017
Blow-Off Valve, Torque Solution

I've been pretty eager to get this and the DV+ on Mamba after the pair turned out so good on SpeedyG, our '13 Dart Rallye (with the same 1.4 turbo). The TS BOV adds the "pssshhhhh" sound at throttle release, which is kinda cool, and reminds me of our 2.5L intercooled turbo Spirit. More importantly, though, is that in autocross, you tend to be a lot in or all out of the throttle, which puts a great deal of heated, turbulent air right in front of the turbo to be gulped back in as soon as you're on the go-pedal again. Venting that hot air to atmo keeps intake turbulence down (which will be more relevant when we get a smoother intake tube) and intake charge cooler. It won't be full seconds in an autocross, but it should be a mild improvement... and of course reminding everyone they're watching a turbo snake slither through the course!

Installation was pretty straightforward. The socket cap screws are a little tricky to get to, but not bad, and the only thing to unplug or remove is the DV itself and it's electrical plug (just like you'd do for an oil change). The TS BOV is sandwiched between the turbo DV flange and the DV, and you bolt it up with the included longer screws.

The BOV can be st stacked with the GFV DV+, which is what we're running on our Dart.


Ready to begin!


Slide the locking tab (yellow) downward, then press the black clip and unplug the diverter.


Crack loose all 3 screws


Remove diverter valve


Install all 3 screws finger-tight (top first is easiest)


Finish torquing down all 3 screws


Done!
 
#26 ·
Mod 10 - 7000 mi. - 10/24/2017
Polyurethane Differential Mount, DMR

I've been eager to do this all season!.

With the 124, since the differential is isolated with the typical kind of mount you'd see in a modern FWD application, it has a similar issue to the wheel hop you get in most FWD cars. It's a sort-of two-in-one mount that bolts to the top of the diff and has two rubber isolators that mount to the rear subframe. The isolators have a metal through-bolt insert and two rubber "legs" that connect to the outer ring. This design is pretty common, and they always fail in the same way. The rubber legs get stretched or compressed, they lose their elasticity, and eventually just crack, dry-rot, and disintegrate. Even when new, they allow enough acute movement to contribute to wheel hop (and in a FWD manual trans car, missed shifts) and contribute to their own self-destruction.

It took more time than I wanted to figure out how to replace the mount without dropping the whole subframe and diff,. The FSM says to drop the whole thing (and more) to get the diff out, and doesn't talk much about just removing that mount. And then there was getting the molds made, only to find the mount for the manual, which fits both MTX and ATX, has a beefier metal housing (rubber inside is the same) than the ATX one I bought. So, you could use a manual mount for either, but you shouldn't use an auto mount for a manual. It's slightly lighter, but not as strong. But I finally got it done, got our mount made (in our "firm" 75A durometer polymer fiber reinforced polyurethane in lime green) and installed. Pics below. I look forward to completing the final Solo2 event of the season with a little better traction, especially coming out of turns. To keep weight under that of the stock mount, I trimmed most of the material from the counterweights on the mount. I'm guessing they help eliminate some tiny bit of NVH at a particular speed, but I'm more concerned about keeping weight down. Just in what I've driven on the street so far, launching is better, and traction loss has a more even, predictable feel and effect.


Original prototype for the ATX (the mount we thought we were going to use until looking closer at our OE mount).


Manual trans mount (our original mount), chemically cleaned and filled solid.


The original mount (pictured previously) for comparison. Pretty common motor mount design, with lots of room for unwanted movement.


Getting our mount in place after snaking the old one out. Kinda reminds me of changing that front sway bar! Notice I trimmed off the counterweight. So the mount I have in Mamba is not only stronger, but LIGHTER than the piece it replaced.


All done with the install and just need to get the wheels back on.
 
#27 ·
First, I have to say, the rear mount WORKS! The chattering wheel hop is gone, and the tires scrub and go as expected. Powering out of turns is easier and more predictable. And, because I trimmed the counterweights off our mount, we managed not to gain weight with this mod, too.

Now with race season over, we can now recap the season. We've been doing mods pretty consistently all summer. Nothing too deep, like engine work, but everything we've done has been for functionality as a means to the end of having the best possible Solo2 car. We have big plans for next year, of course, but this year has been a learning curve, not only for me with racing a RWD car, but for our new driver and student machinist, Isaiah, who had never raced before this year. Kim, Deyeme Racing's co-owner, also made it to a couple of events, and she'll be hitting the scene more with us next season. She's been largely responsible for racking up the daily driver miles on each mod, and tracking performance aspects (MPG, street handling, etc).

I feel like we have a good handle on the car's capability, and on our capability with her, with what we've done so far. So, here's the recap! We only attended StL MO regional events this year.
As before, 100th percentile is last place, 0% would be first. Percentiles calculated in raw time for all vehicles attending. We ran the car in D-modified, which is small-displacement production-based cars. I get the 1st place trophy this year, but Isaiah is catching up to my time, and we convinced a couple Miata guys to cross over into D-Mod for some competition.

EVENT -- TRAVIS -- ISAIAH -- LATEST MOD
1 -- n/a
2 -- 82% -- 98% -- trunk and hood springs
3 -- 87% -- 92% -- (wet) Front Brake Vent Kit
4 -- 78% -- 93% -- 16x7 Enkei wheels w/ Bridgestone 215/45-16
5 -- 69% -- 84% -- Cusco 14mm solid rear sway bar
6 -- n/a (cancelled)
7 -- 61% - 83% -- Cusco 24mm hollow front sway bar
8 -- 70% -- 88% -- TS BOV (and bad alignment)
9 -- 60% -- 64% -- DMR Firm Rear Differential Mount w/ trimmed counterweights
10 -- n/a

Overall, we've improved through the year. I'm sure my driving has improved, but only a little. Isaiah's driving has improved quite a bit from his first race. Aside from driver improvement, the car is definitely faster, and each mod has helped in its own way.

We'll be hard at work over the winter planning out what to do with the car for next year, and seeing what the Mazda ND guys are doing as well.

The OE alloys will be getting winter tires on them, and the 16" Enkie's will be the summer/rain tires. There are some REAL racing wheels and tires in store for next year. Between that, the coilover suspension, and LS Diff, we'll be making some serious moves up the index next year.

The last things we're doing to Mamba are a short antenna and car cover from Good-Win Racing. Haven't had a chance to do more than open the box on those yet. Still need to clear out some garage space, :D
 
#28 ·
First, I want to thank Good-Win for the quick shipping on the TheStubby antenna and car cover. I'll be driving Mamba today for the last time until spring (with the exception of about once a month to keep fresh fuel and battery charge in her). I need to get some space made in the garage, and she'll be tucked under the car cover.

I haven't had a chance to fit the car cover yet, but I did get TheStubby antenna put on. I have to say, I don't like it. Reception is down (which is to be expected) but weight is actually up. How you can go from a 16" antenna to a 3.75" antenna and actually GAIN WEIGHT is beyond me, but it's over 50g, compared to the 40g OE whip antenna. Since it's short and won't be damaged by the car cover going on and off (the original reason for buying it), I'll keep it as a "winter" antenna for now, but I'm still looking for a good shorter-than-stock and lighter-than-stock antenna as a permanent replacement. TheStubby may be "cute" but the dent in the wallet combined with the lower reception and the weight punishment isn't really worth it. I could have had my son turn a block of aluminum on a lathe and stick a M5-0.8 stud in it if I wanted a brick for an antenna mast, lol!
 
#29 ·
It's a foggy, rainy, late March day... in late February. :-/

But I finally got the cover off Lil Mamba and drove her into town, which has been a bi-weekly or so ritual, when the weather cooperates, just to keep the fuel flowing and battery charged. We have a comprehensive mods list planned for the year, and we've gotten schedules from the local and divisional SCCA Solo2 ! So while we work on getting our old race car trailer up to par with new floor and removable fenders, I decided to do something to shed a few pounds and make a little more room in the trunk. Yep- gutted the trunk. I didn't weigh everything, but I'd say it's somewhere around 5-6 lb. total, including a few Ti and Al fasteners to swap out the regular steel stuff with. We'll get started with more serious mods next month, and the first thing looks to be either a 5+" wind splitter or an OE (124 Abarth) limited slip differential!
 
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