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Meet Phee

35K views 216 replies 43 participants last post by  rapinatore 
#1 · (Edited)
So Phee is my second Miata. She is really a continuation of Jumbata's build, but I won't do everything exactly the same the second time around. I crashed Jumbata less than two weeks ago and through my insurance company and craigslist, Phee was in my driveway four days ago. Very happy with the whole process - especially how fast it was. I feel almost back to normal. Almost.

I named this car Phee, a more girly incarnation of Pheonix. The car that rose from the ashes of Jumbata.

Say hi to Phee.





The goods: never in any accidents. The PO was a 62 year old cool guy who was really into the Miata. He did quite a few mods I hadn't even done with the previous build. All polyurethane bushings through out the whole suspension. Stainless braided brake lines and clutch line. Brand new paint this past November! I looked at all the panels for repair work - he assured me there wasn't even any bondo except for one place on a rocker. Besides being a little dirty and having swirl marks in the paint (but not terrible) I think it looks as good as any stock 1994.

I sold the red hard top to a buddy the same day I brought the car home.

Over the next 72 hours... the last three days in a row, I have done very little besides work on swapping parts into Phee. My family was out of town so all I did was work on the car, eat, shower and sleep. I easily have 45 hours into her.

Swapped in my tail lights and TRM wheels as soon as I got home.



FCM coilovers and sway bar going in. Not a huge fan of the painted calipers but I have wilwoods going in anyway so for now I can deal. Cool upgrade on the stainless lines.



Cool! Racing beat rear end links! My old ones were stock so bonus upgrade!





BEFORE - look at how HIGH Phee's butt is! Ridiculous. Almost embarrassed to drive her like that.



After. SO much better.





Next I got busy on the interior. Swapped over my tombstone, center console, shifter knob, eBrake handle, vent rings, upper door card bolsters... and my brand new Roadster5 door cards. No door handles installed yet. I'm having some custom made.





Phee already feels like home... but she sure doesn't have any guts. She's stock under the hood with 177,000 miles and has left a few ponies out in the pasture. She'll puff some smoke on hard shifts and acceleration. PO upgraded the clutch, which is nice but so did I, so I have a motor with 22,000 miles on it ready to drop in. I really miss my supercharger.

Installed the Hard Dog Extreme roll bar and my custom harness bar. Didn't take many photos, but here is the support behind the seat.



In this shot you can see both backing plates for the roll bar install.



Went ahead and did a little work under the hood just for pride's sake. Nothing I'll need to undo for a motor swap. Gas shock hood raise was first - to make working under the hood easier... forever.





PO did the powdercoated VC and intake manny, plus the strut tower brace. I added the washer fluid relocation, Garage Star cowl cover and the Moroso coolant overflow tank. Need to remove the stock washer bottle to make room for the Rotrex gear. Thought it would be nice to turn that bottle into a water/meth storage tank... but let's not get too far ahead of the build!

Better photos coming, but a buddy of mine took this one after a my first canyon run in Phee, with the new suspension, wheels, roll bar and Project-G bikini top. Not bad for three days of work!

 
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#134 ·
Well Phee has some issues. I think when I blew up the first Rotrex, the motor might have ingested some of the impeller wheel. Phee is barfing oil out of the PCV system - catch can is filling up after one or two days of use. I had to re-route the bypass air to exit under the car rather than in the engine bay because everything in the bay was getting a coat of oil. While I'm bummed about it, I do have a back-up motor waiting to go in so at some point I'll swap it in. Maybe this year...

Until then I'll keep beating the crap out of her. Got some other little jobs I want to knock out.

Got new brake pads - Carbotech XP12 front & XP8 rear. These need to be bedded in so I'm taking the car to an airport where my company does brake testing. Will do a bedding procedure on the runways, which should be fun.

The last few times I was hooning around the canyons, I heard my rear CVs clicking. Got some reman axles to swap in.

Also need to install the Wilwood prop valve extension knob. This passes through the firewall so I can control bias from inside the car, even while driving. Much easier than trying to do it after hot laps.

Finally, I have the FM LBBK parking brake upgrade - it requires removing the rear calipers to do a little modification, then installing the new eBrake cables.

All of this stuff is convenient to do at the same time so hopefully I can knock it all out quickly.
 
#135 ·
Sorry to hear the bad news, Brad. :( How many psi were you running? Still within the units rpm range? :dunno: Hopefully you can get it all sorted as quickly as possible. :icon_cheers:
 
#136 ·
This blower came with the Kraftwerks kit, (model C30-74) that I blew up last year. It was running 8psi at the time. After it died, I replaced the blower unit with the C30-94. All new oil lines, oil cooler, oil filter. The only thing I didn't do was remove the intercooler to see if there was any debris in there from the failed C30-74 unit. I assumed the intercooler itself would be a filter, not allowing larger particles through the heat exchanger. Maybe there were still particles large enough to do damage that have made their way through the system? Not sure.

Now with the C30-94 unit I'm running 10psi. As far as I can tell there is no problem with the new blower. The pulley was sized for 10psi and for limiting the max speed of the blower so I'm pretty sure any issues the motor has is from the last supercharger setup. There is no issue with power - the car feels great. It's just eating oil now. I'm not feeling pressure to get it sorted out immediately. In fact, I know for sure I have two track days in the next couple months where I'll be staying with exactly this setup. I just happen to have a spare motor.
 
#137 ·
Took Phee out to an airport runway yesterday - bonus piggy back on some work my company was doing out there. Bedded in my Carbotech XP12 and XP8 pads and the difference is amazing. Can't even compare it to the Wilwood pads that came with the LBBK.

I also had the chance to calibrate the G sensors in the EDFC so the system is now fully functional with active dampening adjustments. All that remains is entering the set points for each program; G-force levels and the associated dampening adjustments on all four corners.



Big Willow track day two weeks from today...
 
#138 ·
Two steps forward and one step back. Getting ready for my track day next week - picked up new rubber. Got another set of NT01's - my third set in three seasons. They seem to last about 8 track days, plus all the driving to and from the track, not to mention Cars & Coffee events with canyon runs for the year.





And I finally got around to knocking out the remote bias adjuster. Had to dremel off the original adjustment knob in order to attach the extender. Routed it through the STB and through the firewall boot under the clutch master.



The knob (blue) is routed under the door bar by the seat. Still need to fab up a simple bracket but I can use it as is until then.



Pretty cool gadget.

Unfortunately I also ran into a glitch. Tried to take the car to a couple meets this weekend but could not get her started Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Really odd - there is no response from the starter at all; all the lights work, stereo, headlights, gauges, etc. But nothing from the starter. No click, no turn, nothing. Multimeter checks begin tonight but I already have a new starter ready to go on my back-up motor so I may have to pull that off the stand and swap it in if that's the problem.
 
#139 ·
That's shitty. Hopefully you'll get it figured out. I haven't driven my car since feb and it's driving me insane. I need to head up that way to catch some meets and such.
 
#140 · (Edited)
Oh yes, it shall be figured out. Just a little frustrating when it came on all of a sudden. Perfectly fine the last few times I've driven it - including a track day last month. Motivated to get it back up since my next track day is a week from tomorrow. Going to hit it tonight after work to see if I can get a diagnosis.

Just to add to the pressure, my new safety gear arrived. So I'm all ready... but Phee is not.





I've had this helmet since 2012 and never realized it was Hans ready. The hardware supplied with the SHR bolted right up to the helmet. Bonus. Thought I might have to get a new helmet.
 
#141 ·
Got it figured out. My ignition switch is dead - second one in two years! I was showing no voltage at the starter when turning the key. Ran a jumper directly to the starter from the battery and it bumped no problem.

Traced the signal back through the fuse box and up to the ignition switch. Since I've now fried two of them, I'm guessing there is something in the circuit that is increasing the resistance. Could be some broken wire strands, corroded connections... whatever. The current is increasing and melting the switch at the terminals. In the Miata, full power is routed through the ignition switch so I'm going to fix my issue by setting up a relay to control voltage to the starter. Instead of running full power through the ignition, I'll install a start button that uses a 5v command to the relay.

The only question is if I can get all of this done before next Wednesday when I drive the Miata up to Rosamond. Maybe I can rig something temporary if I can't get the relay and start button by then...
 
#142 · (Edited)
As I started to work on a push button start to bypass the ignition switch, I found its not the switch that's bad, but the wire in the harness that connects to the switch. So I couldn't wire the relay in at the steering column. Instead I mounted the relay in the engine bay and fed the trigger wire back into the cabin to the cruise control button. Works perfect because it's a momentary switch.

Proud of the solution - it's pretty trick! I never had cruise control in this car but for some reason had the button. It wasn't plugged into anything so I used spade lugs and went directly to the connector pins.

Sketch and a quick video of the push button start.




Did a canyon cruise on the new tires. Track day on Thursday this week- really looking forward to it.


 
#143 · (Edited)
Awesome day at Big Willow. Wide open run groups and a bunch of amazing cars.





Last session of the day I went off track before turn 9. Came in hot and missed the turn in. Went outside the line and then off at 95mph. Stopped about 300 feet off track. Lots of dust but no damage - I drove it back to the pits to check over everything. Made the drive home without any issues... but I'll be washing and vacuuming this weekend for sure.



The car did great though - definitely improving my lap times but still have a long way to go. Ready to head out again as soon as possible! Speaking of which, I signed up for MLSR and got a track spot on Saturday. Went last year and it was great.
 
#145 ·
Ooh, mud. Doesn't sound nice. Then again if it was raining, the interior was getting wet anyway?

As it turns out the dust came off pretty easily. I spent a few hours this weekend washing, compounding the rockers and then laying down a sealant. The interior took about 30 minutes to vacuum and 30 minutes to dust. I used compressed air in the engine bay but that did about a 75% job so I need to go over it again with some rags.

Made it to the canyons on Sunday and got an entirely new layer of dust on her. Oh well.

Signed up for MLSR in Oct. Hope to get a couple more track days in before then.
 
#147 · (Edited)
This holiday weekend I totally planned on working on a different project car but the Miata was calling my name.

I decided to tackle the Revlimiter dual beam headlight mod - which I have been meaning to do for literally three years. I installed the Moss Cobalt Lowpros using the kit provided and I've never had any problems with this kit BUT after reading Adam's write-up I became aware of the improvements and that is generally all it takes for the idea to stick like a thorn in my brain until I knock it out. I wasn't at all unhappy with the kit but now... I'm thrilled about it. It has gone from good to great.

I started by removing the headlight housings completely. This allowed me to clean up the area under the headlights and gain access to the factory wiring. Did some cleaning then and sealed off the open holes in the body to stop dust from the wheel well from coming in. Some aluminum tape and a light coat of Boom Mat made the mounting area look almost new.

Sketching the circuits two or three times helps me to improve the layout a little each time. I have all the actual parts in hand - from Adam's blog post of parts needed. I added an additional relay (for a total of 3) to control my push-to-start button. This way all three relays are identical and fit into the same relay bases, which happen to interlock together. I posted about the start button circuit a few days ago. It is complete and working but I will be replacing the entire circuit with this new version to finalize wiring routing & finish. Here is the schematic for all three relays.



Where Moss provided jumpers from the factory headlight connector to the new H9 lights, I removed them because the new circuit will provide power wires for both high and low beams along with the mating H9 connectors. The original (passenger side) OE headlight connector containing high, low & ground wires will now become the trigger for the relays. On the driver's side, the OE headlight connector will no longer be used, so I bundled it up and tucked it out of the way.

Crimping on all the spade connectors and inserting them into the relay bases went smoothly. Having the correct crimp tool makes all the difference in the world. I decided to go for 14 AWG wire everywhere except for the 12V+ (from OE fuse box to the new fuse strip) - those are 12AWG. I was able to eliminate a majority of the butt connectors, opting to run single direct wires instead of splicing. Where a tap/splice was needed in two places (High Beams & ground), I crimped both wires into a single terminal. Only the diode required a single butt connector. As a result, the relay wire runs are very short. Only the output to the headlights required a run longer than 10 inches because this is essentially a patch harness between the relays and the passenger side OE headlight connector.



Finally - and completely unrelated, I dropped off my freshly cut rear bumper and new CCP front splitter at the paint shop. Hopefully I have those back by this weekend or next at the latest. That should be a pretty big visual change to Phee. Here is a partial shot - just laying up the cut bumper without reassembling anything before I dropped it off for paint.



And under the heading of, "its the little things" I got my track numbers. Simple eBay custom order. Got my company logo and number, magnetic, 2 peices.



Installation photos for everything coming soon.
 
#148 · (Edited)
Bought a CCP fab front lip with flat bottom splitter. Took a few months before I could get it painted. Before install I attached some ABS skid plates on the bottom because I'm guessing this thing is going to scrape.



Thinking ahead, because I've dealt with too much scraping in the past, I decided to install it in such a way that I could remove it pretty easily. Picked up some rivnuts and an adjustable install tool.



The hardware is all black. Billet fender washers and bolts will stay installed with or without the front lip.



I like it a lot more than I thought I would. Never seen this lip color matched before and it looks really good with the flares. Not quite as smooth in transitions as I would have designed but it fits and judging from the driving I have done so far, actually makes the car more stable at higher speeds. The front end floats a lot less now.





And to go with the new look on the front end, a buddy cut the rear bumper for me, then I had that repainted too along with the front splitter. Installed along with a GarageStar rear brace/tow hook. The bar has an adjustable height, so I set it such that the tow hook was at about the same level as the tail pipe on the other side.







 
#151 ·
Thanks man - me too! Yeah, it totally is a blast. I've been in more powerful, faster Miatas but I really love the balance I've built in to Phee. Sure I could always have fun with more power... but it isn't needed for Phee. She's still a faster car than I am driver.

Until I start getting close to spec Miata lap times, I realize most of the fine tuning I'm doing is really just for fun.

Wow the new additions look fantastic, Brad! :icon_cheers: I have been eyeing the CSP piece since 93eunos posted about it. Still amazes me how well the taillights work on Phee. :)
Yeah I'm with you on that one. I generally don't like the Altezza style lights but they really do go with Phee's theme. The flat orange and red OE lights just don't pop like these do.

I like it so much that I actually traded my old OE lights for ANOTHER set of these Altezza lights, except this time I was going to play with some tinting on the clear lens. Not sure if I will tint the whole thing or mask off parts of the lens to get a two tone tint. Still TBD - plenty of other projects in the pipeline.

---------
The headlight mod with new relays is almost there. Low beams work fine but for some reason I can't get the high beams on. Going to take a little troubleshooting to see why they are not working as planned. The relays are mounted temporarily with some simple brackets. Plan is to make a single complex bracket that picks up two or three mounting points and I'm thinking it might double as a heat shield too. I'd really like to get rid of the bracket attached to the Strut Tower Brace.



Finally picked up a new air filter from Kraftwerks. I've been on the same filter since I bought the Rotrex kit almost five years ago. Figured it was time to replace it.



I had been looking for an AEM dryflow filter to use instead of the Kraftwerks filter but for the life of me I can't find one that fits the same space as the KW filter, so I ended up with another one. About the only improvement/addition I have been thinking about is some kind of an intake headlight lid in order to get a fresh source of outside air direct to the intake filter. Leaning towards a NACA duct or a raised entry like the JAS performance lid. I don't think I want the louvre style vented lid.
 
#150 ·
Wow the new additions look fantastic, Brad! :icon_cheers: I have been eyeing the CSP piece since 93eunos posted about it. Still amazes me how well the taillights work on Phee. :)
 
#154 · (Edited)
Finished the custom bracket for the headlight relays and finally got everything working as it should. Both high beams and low beams come on when high beams are selected, only low beams when low is selected.

What started as a large multi-bend complex bracket for the relays got trimmed down to what essentially looks like a dong with just a bend at the tip. Yeah, an aluminum dong bracket. And I painted it black so that it would disappear against the black engine bay, especially since the polished Moroso overflow tank is on one side and the polished intake on the other.

So after cutting out the bracket and sanding it, I hit the bracket with two light coats of black Epoxy paint followed by a medium wet coat all inside about 30 minutes. Three hours later I installed the part and here are the mounted relays. You can't see the bracket at all, can you? Exactly.



I've thought about some kind of a heat barrier to protect the plastic in the relays and the relay bases - the three bolts visible on the intake side of the relays could easily be used to mount a simple shield.

Finished up the wire harness at the fuses too. Shrink tube everywhere.



My passenger side front EDFC motor starts to creep after hours of use. The motor is slowly turning on the shock body as it is adjusting rebound and compression, wrapping the harness around itself. I read about this on the EDFC forums - not completely uncommon. Until this point I have just been watching it and un-winding the harness when needed but I finally came up with a better, more permanent solution - a box bracket that holds the motor in place. On the other side of the engine bay and both sides of the rear, the motors have not been creeping. If I need another box bracket for the other front side I can always make one but for now things all seem to be working as they should.

Drove the car up to the canyons on Sunday. I Had active suspension settings on and I have to say - it felt more like I had a track alignment rather than a street alignment - grip seemed above average for these well known routes. The car really did stay more noticeably flat on the road. Less weight shift and body roll - exactly what I have been hunting with this suspension... until I soften it up for the highway cruise home. Performance when I want it, comfort otherwise. I know I can further optimize the system too - settings are not as good as they are going to get. Not exactly sure how the front splitter played into the whole dynamic but let's just say the car is more confidence inspiring now than it was before.

Speaking of the splitter - that thing really hits a lot more than I like. At least one time per cruise I scrape because of a hump or incline. My car is definitely not slammed but this front lip definitely sits lower than the rest of the car. It looks great and it seems to be functional but I may need to raise the car a little more if I want to use it on the street. For the track, height is probably fine, or maybe a little lower... but then we are talking about messing around with alignments every time I remove or install the splitter. I made sure it was easy to remove and install but can't see raising/lowering and then getting an alignment every time I do that. I do love it though.
 
#155 · (Edited)
Ahhh, the life of a modified car enthusiast.

So I signed up for Buttonwillow on the 18th and headed out the day before to stay around Bakersfield so I didn't have a long drive in the morning. Phee was not in a cooperative mood.

The prior couple of weeks have been great - canyon runs and hours of seat time with no car issues.

About 14 miles from home and in the center lane of the 405, the motor died. I gassed up earlier that day. I tried a few times to restart with no love. So thinking I'm going to die, I need to get off the road. I get out of the car and start pushing forward. When able, I turned the car across three lanes of traffic and got her over to the shoulder.



Popped the hood - no pressure on the fuel gauge. Fuse box was crazy hot. Tried the key again - definitely no fuel pump running. So AAA shows up, takes me back to the house where I put her into the garage. Without even going inside, I grabbed a bag out of the Miata and took my FX. Ran her for fun.... and it WAS. Fun. And really, really comfortable.

So now I have 7 days to figure out the fuel issue before I need to drive up to the MLSR event next weekend.

Checking for shorts, checking continuity, checking signal voltage.



The fuel pump relay seems to be fine - I pulled it out and tested on the bench.

With the Diagnostic pins jumpered and ignition on, I have 12+ across the Fuel Pump 40A fuse in the fuse box. BUT, when I measure voltage at the relay connector, I'm showing 5.3V, not 12V. I am not seeing voltage at the pump at all. There may be an issue with the pump power circuit.



Along with the independent relays I installed for the starter and the headlights, it looks like the easiest way to go will be do do the same for this circuit. I'm planning to wire in a new relay and have the trigger coming from the ignition switch, except I'll add an on/off switch so that I can turn the pump off any time. Power will come direct from the battery and will be fused.

Of course all of this assumes it really is the power circuit and not the pump itself... so I'll hit the pump with direct power just to confirm before doing any of this other stuff. If it IS the pump, I'm going to stress about getting a new one in hand in time to install for the drive up the coastline next week. Pretty sure I have the OE pump sitting around as a last resort if needed... T-7 days till MLSR.

So bit by bit I have been thinking about the next evolution of Phee. I've done a lot of electrical recently, and so the opportunity to have a switch panel of my own design has sort of popped up. I found a pre-cut console panel on eBay that I modified a little. I found a bunch of different buttons & switches and by playing around with them, I ended up with this.





My current plan is to use this panel for AFR & oil pressure gauges. Buttons will be 1) Engine Start, 2) Fuel Pump, 3) HVAC vent fan, 4) radiator fan #2, 5) EDFC1, 6) EDFC2 and 7) aux lights. The small key lock (8) will be a ground circuit connected to all the button grounds that go to relays. I can break the ground circuit so that none of the relays will work. I don't expect to use this unless I'm forced to leave the car outside overnight. Then the final switch is open right now - no ideas.
 
#156 · (Edited)
Holy crap on a stick. Phee kicked my ass this weekend. Not a whole lot of success... but a TON of frustration. Had to walk away from the car on three separate occasions I was so twisted out of shape. I probably put about 14 hours into the car - almost entirely on wiring and diagnostics.

I had a really hard time accepting multiple failures because of how the car shut down. The problem was fuel pressure. The pump wasn't running. So if I fix that, everything should be good, right? Apparently not.

I posted before about how the fuel pump power circuit was bad - and it was. But as I worked with the car and took voltage measurements, I found the battery was pretty low. So, low voltage on a battery never plays well with the car - gotta fix that to know for sure it ISNT the battery power. So that's on a battery charger. To test the wiring fixes I had to grab another battery.

Then I find that my power distribution module isnt working. I needed it to power the new fuel pump circuit but I couldn't get the thing powered on so I ended up removing it entirely. I think somehow I must have fried it. Really? Freaking clusterfuck. FU PDM!!!



So I go back to old-school. Fused Power Distribution block, made active by using an ignition triggered relay. And a grounding distribution block. Adding these three components, pining a new connector, the wiring & crimping... this took about a half day.



New power & ground to the fuel pump using my Deautch connector kit made for a clean install at the pump. This was probably the easiest thing I had to do.



So, the PDM is gone and has been replaced. The new circuit works; turn the key in the ignition and the pump turns on. Fuel pressure is good. All of the circuits controlled by the distribution block work as they should.

But the car won't start.

Next diagnosis - do I have spark? Are the injectors firing? What is the EMS telling me? This and more to get through before I can drive to Laguna Seca. It's stressing me out. T-4 days before I have to be on the road.
 
#157 ·
With hours to spare - SHE LIVES!

First check of the ECU showed no power on ignition.

Checked the main fuse - still good.

Checked the main relay...





I see the problem! This is a POS model! Hindsight is always 20/20, isnt it? The last time the car stranded me I bought a new relay thinking that was the problem. It wasn't. But this relay is obviously not the same quality as the OE relay. OE lasted for 23 years. AutoZone replacement relay for only $10 less... 4 months.

Apparently this part was under warranty so I got a new one for free. I went ahead and bought a back-up to keep in the car just in case. From now on... only OE main relays!

So the whole fuel pump rewire and PDM failure was a symptom of my jacking around with things that werent broken. Awesome.

On the up side, I get to drive her up to Laguna Seca tomorrow morning. Looking forward to the event!
 
#159 · (Edited)
It all worked out. Not sure we connected - did you meet Phee?

Track experience was amazing - my confidence and comfort on track goes up every time I get out there. I did buy the race day pack - every photo of my car from Saturday hot laps. Will post a few of my favorites when I get them.

The whole weekend is really well done, from arrival at the host hotel and the BBQ and Car show, to the track logistics, photos, merchandise, sponsors... pretty solid. But the people make it. It's rare we get to do things like this in our adult lives and I for one appreciate the opportunity.

Spent most of my time with KINOD & GarageStar crews. No drama worth talking about and once again I came away from the weekend with better friends than I started with.













I half expected Phee to give me problems but she didn't! Made the whole weekend which I estimate to be about 14 hours of butt time, a little over an hour of which was on track. I'll bleed brakes and change the oil this week. her next committment will be to get her cleaned up for the JCCS neo-classics show at Toyota Headquarters on the 23rd.
 
#160 · (Edited)
As anyone reading this thread might know, I joined StopTech as a Program Manager about 18 months ago. I came from Aerospace with a Mechanical Engineering degree at NASA Johnson Space Center as a Boeing Subcontractor. I did prototyping and new hardware development for Space Station, Space Shuttle and even a couple of military/DoD contracts for a little over 17 years in Houston. Then, the shuttle missions ended and I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands at work. I discovered forums and soon after that started doing my own oil changes and low level maintenance. Then the newb mods like intakes and exhausts. Before I knew it I had my daily driver Infiniti in the shop for a full custom fabricated turbo install and I needed a daily to drive while the project was in the shop. Enter my first Miata - Jumbata.

Fast forward five years. I've moved out to SoCal to get into the automotive aftermarket. After a year of networking with car guys I landed my first job as an Operations Manager for FastCars LTD - a shop that specializes in Pebble Beach concours restorations and does service and maintenance on modern Ferraris, Lambos, Masaratis... pretty much any exotic. About a year later I found StopTech and the job description for which I interviewed was almost exactly what I was hired to do for Boeing. I already had a StopTech BBK on my Infiniti, so I was familiar with the company. Unrelated but around the same time, Jumbata was totaled coming out of my driveway one day. Two weeks later, Phee was running with Jumbata's drivetrain.

About six months later I attended my first MLSR in 2015. I met Kenjo Raif in person, owner of GarageStar, although I had been buying from him online for a couple years. Through our conversations that weekend, the Miata BBK became a goal of mine, for StopTech and for the Miata community. A couple weeks later he and Jon Bartolome came down to SoCal to talk about the kit, they visited the StopTech facility in Compton and we soon got internal management support for an application that had never been possible before my employment because StopTech did not have a caliper small enough to fit the Miata rotor and wheel. But now, we do. The very first application for the ST42 caliper to go through the company was for the Miata. Now, the classic Porsche platforms will be using it as well - but they won't release till SEMA.

Internal management support for the Miata BBK was bolstered by the fact that inside of StopTech the General Manager, Program Manager (myself), Engineering Manager and two design engineers all own Miatas. After a year of design, prototype, testing, revisions, pre-production and production supply chain logistics, we finally "officially" launched the kit this past weekend at 2016 MLSR. It's both a pet project and a contribution to the Miata community! Always wanted to help bring something to market that really is better than anything available and I believe that, based on all our results so far.

StopTech has always designed "balanced brake upgrades" meaning the factory balance is retained but of course the balance can be "tuned" using brake pad friction. No need for an aftermarket prop valve or a different Master Cylinder. Anybody not really versed in the system implementation of those items is likely to make performance worse, not better. If you are versed, there are gains to be had but they are finicky and depend on a lot of factors that most of us don't have the ability to measure and adjust at home.

Anyway, the four wheel BBK is based on the NB Sport rear OE brakes. All 1.6, 1.8 NA & NB Miatas will accept the rear NB Sport brakes, bolt on. Then, you pair that with the NB Sport BBK. I love this approach because it really is a 4 wheel design but the rear uses OE parts you can get used, reman or new, from anywhere that sells them. Of course you can upgrade the rear to nicer rotors, stainless brake lines and a pad that plays nicely with the front.

Phee's Future!

NB Sport Rears


NB Sport Front BBK


That combo is the "best" because of total piston area of the calipers. However if you want the best brake system on your car and you are happy with the rear OE brakes they way they are, you can just get a matching front BBK:
-1.6 Front BBK with existing 1.6 OE rear brakes
-1.8 NA/NB Non-Sport Front BBK with existing 1.8 Non-Sport OE rear brakes
-1.8 NB Sport Front BBK with existing 1.8 NB Sport OE rear brakes

Each one of these are model specific! It is not one size fits all for the front BBK - it all depends on what's on the back - or what you want in the back.

There are a few pre-production kits out there installed. Phee's should be coming before the end of the year.
 
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