Ok, time for a few more updates.
First, I ditched the gas pedal extension. I kept hitting it when someone did something that forced me to hit the brakes and felt that it just wouldn't do for the track. I put the older aluminum pedal cover back and and bent the gas pedal a bit over to the left. It's a good compromise.
Back in April, I added a few more things. I installed a Track Dog Racing front splitter. Now, I had no illusions that it would do anything for my handling. Rather, I know that the R-package airdam that I have does improve airflow for cooling the engine so I thought that maybe this will help a bit, too. It did seem to be good for a couple degrees of oil temperature. I also found that on the track that suddenly my folding license plate hinge kept getting flipped back, allowing the plate to block off the radiator (and requiring me to buy the factory front plate mount to put the plate back on the front bumper and out of the radiator opening). I don't have any pictures with the new plate location but who cares... that's boring!
So, yeah, I think I have more airflow.
I also put on some spiffy carbon fiber mirrors (complete impulse buy). They actually worked surprisingly well despite being smaller. Unfortunately, I kept having to readjust them because people kept bumping in to them so I had planned on painting them to match the car. I never got to it, though, since a hail storm cracked the reflectors and turned the car into a golf ball.
Deciding that my inaccurate oil pressure gauge had to go (it's disconcerting to be flying down the main straight and reading about 5 psi!) I bought an oil filter sandwich plate and installed an aftermarket gauge in place of the volt meter "blank" I had in my gauge pod. I also installed two idiot lights because, for some reason, Mazda decided that the car didn't need one of those.
While in there, I moved the oil temperature sender from the drain plug to the sandwich plate where it'll read a more accurate temperature as well as keeping my oil temp gauge from becoming unplugged while driving in the snow.
I re-installed my Flyin' Miata rear swaybar. I kept the stock bar in because the aftermarket one kept shifting and clunking into the passenger rear spring. I had heard the solution was getting adjustable end links but I wasn't really ready to spend the money on that. I finally got around to it and put it back on. No pictures, though, because it's under the car.
Edit: Scratch that. It clunked again, badly. I looked under the car and the whole swaybar was shifted about 2 inches over and was jammed into the spring. I even had to jack up the car to get it out. I pulled the aftermarket rear bar (again) and stuck OEM one back on. I'm done fighting with this thing.
Lastly, I got a free racing seat from Colin so I installed that along with a 5-point harness. The install wasn't as plug-n-play as I had hoped and I won't be able to use the stock seatbelts with it (meaning that I have to strap into the harness every time I go somewhere!
) so I predict lots of seat-swapping in my future...
So, there you have it. For all intents and purposes, I'm done modifying this car because I have now met my goals with it. That's not to say I won't find other things to do as time goes on, but there is presently nothing left on my "to do" list for it beyond maintenance, repairs, and track days.
BB.
