ClubRoadster.net banner

Stormin's stash of memories with Lexi

387K views 4K replies 215 participants last post by  stormin'norman 
#1 · (Edited)
Current Modification List (11/23/15)

Brakes:
Cobalt Friction XR3/XR5 pads
949 Racing SS Lnes
Factory proportioning valve deleted

Drivetrain:
Toda 1.6 7lb chromoly flywheel
ACT HD clutch
SS clutch line
Tomei Trax 1.5 way lsd
4.778 gearing
AWR 70d engine mounts
Autokonexion aluminum differential mounts

Interior:
(2) Recaro SPG Profi seats
Griffith seat brackets
(2) Schroth Profi 6pt harnesses
Carbing High Grip shift knob
Rennen Metal radio delete panel
Garagestar hard top brackets
350mm Momo Mod 78
Daikei hub
NRG v2.5 QR
AEM uego

Engine:
'03 BP-VE VVT
Olde Skewl Toy Head (full pnp, shave, chamber volume matched)
Supertech single valve springs
Tomei 252/256 poncams
Mazda Motorsports Development SUBS
Cometic .027" gasket
Boundary Engineering Stg II Oil Pump
Supermiata Crank Damper
EUDM flat top manifold (port matched to throttle body)
Skunk2 throttle body
Racing Beat header
Racing Beat race pipe
Buddy Club Spec II exhaust
3D printed carbon fiber intake
Reverent MS3
'99 red top injectors (blue printed by RC engineering)
ARC Magic oil cap
Project Mu brake reservoir sleeve
Project Mu magnetic drain plug
Garagestar pulleys

Cooling:
Flyin Miata Setrab oil cooler
KoyoRad "Hyper V 36mm" VH060245 radiator
Coolant reroute

Suspension:
Motion Control Suspension 1wnr dampers
Swift 14/8kg springs
AMR Engineering spherical upper mounts
Racing Beat tubular sway bar
Racing Beat block & bolt kit
14mm OEM Mazdaspeed rear sway bar
949 Racing end links
Superpro rear sway bar bushings
Superpro Poly steering rack bushings
OEM Mazda R package tie rod ends
Energy Suspension Control Arm Bushings
East Street Blueprinted Front Hubs

Chassis:
Carbing 3pt shock tower brace
Beatrush PPF triangle brace
Boss Frog Frog Arms
Boss Frog Clearview rollbar
Boss Frog harness bar

Exterior:
Garage Vary front lip
Garage Vary Large Canards
Rennen Metal tow hooks
Volk Racing TE37SL 15x8 +25 x Bridgestone RE71R 205/50/15
Voltex Type 1, 275mm stands, 1500mm element








The Story Begins


I'm making this thread more as a place to stash my memories in order. The build is rather tame and there are some gaps with no pictures but its been quite a journey and has brought me some fantastic memories through high school and continues to do so, though I have less time to enjoy driving.

My time on the road began with a lowly 1987 VW Jetta Gl. Sold to me for $1 by my grandparents. The car was pristine and had racked up merely 105k miles in its pampered life.




I drained lots of money into this car trying to satisfy my newly acquired appetite for driving. At the time I thought I had created a nicely sorted out car that handled, in my opinion, very well. Armed with tokico shocks/springs along with Eibach sways I understeered my way through teenaged driving nirvana. Summer days were spent foolishly terrorizing the local Skyline Blvd in pursuit of my buddy's 325is. Which is where I realized my freshly built Jetta fell flat on its face to Lucas' 194k oem sport suspension.


The time came to purchase a new car. I knew the rwd e30 platform had ticked all my boxes. I slowly began wading through forums and craigslist for my own 325is. However, my dad suggested I test drive a Miata.

I reluctantly first experienced these little roadsters at a sleezy used dealership in the Seattle area. I passed by a sad looking ’94 red number while visiting some relatives. On a whim I pulled in with my dad and soon the keys were in our possession and we were experiencing the car first hand. Thinking back on it, I probably should have bought the car. The combination of the hardtop, torsen, 1.8 and cloth seats would have been ideal for the direction I intended to take the car.

However, it was like love at first sight when I ran into the 1993 black on tan at Stan Bennet’s BMW “turn around” dealership here in Portland. I bought the car the very next day. He was awful surprised when a 16 yr old kid paid 4800 in cash for the car. The car was incredibly clean and though I may have paid too much. I couldn’t have been happier motoring the car up Burnside Drive popping the barn door lights up and down while rowing through the gears.

Freshly unearthed throw back pics!




A few weeks later I had already fitted a Boss Frog Clearview and some bronze Konig Heliums while some Clubroadster.net stickers riced my ride up for my first autox experience.




Repping the CR.net stickers at an SCCA autocross school where instructors were shocked to see such a youngin show up let alone set down times in the top 5 out of 40 some cars.



Body roll much?




A shot of forum member “Link” whose car I idolized that day.
 
See less See more
13
#2 · (Edited)
Getting some car control practice in the rain courtesy of Willamette Motor Club's Salem Fairgrounds autocross.



A Racing Beat solid front sway bar was soon added along with the, at the time, newly introduced Corksport "drift" exhaust.



Once again, off on my monthly autocross schedule sometime in between my Junior/Senior year of high school. This time belching more noise and improved turn in compliments to my RB bar.







Somewhere along the line I inherited a Nikon d40 and pictures of my car became more frequent. A quick shoot was in order with the arrival of my Garage Vary lip and Tein Basics aligned by AR Auto Service in Lake Oswego.




 
#3 · (Edited)
Showing some old men up in their 911's at a local PCA club day. I was overly protective of my GV lip and taped the hell out of it to ward off any misbehaving cones.



Lexi, scared waiting her turn.
Brought a younger friend out from highschool. Introduced him to autocross. +1 e30 buddy!





 
#4 · (Edited)
And so we begin a new chapter. The car, although pictorially clean, had racked up her fair share of door dings, parking lot encounters, and I had an unpainted GV lip that was slowly fading..

So begins my lessons in autobody thanks to my cousin David who has now moved on to serve our country in Afghanistan. Time constraint and a cranky boss limited us to just dealing with the wounded panels. I prepped the car under the careful supervision of my cousin and the car was ready to paint the next day after working through the night.



Brought the front bumper dimples out with a heat gun!






 
#5 · (Edited)
Fresh paint and some camaraderie with BMW friends.




Stretching the m20 legs on a buddies 325is.




It was bound to happen. Although autocross visits were frequent, hoonage was still to be had and it was only a matter of time before something went wrong. Terribly wrong.

On a PNW clubroadster drive my inexperienced friend Nick got a little too ambitious and went out with style.


 
#9 · (Edited)
One of my many visits to PIR gave me the opportunity to watch, no hearing is more impressive, this beautiful ITE SCCA club racer piloted by John Hudak.



Summer following my senior year was excellent. The roadster was in top form and many warm evenings led to spirited drives out Skyline Blvd.




The engine bay had some untasteful mods thrown its way. Ebay stb~ free, knockoff Mazdaspeed cap~ Goodwill :0 and a DDM Works hot air intake!

Unsuccessfully copying the Slammed Thread boys and Nick found a replacement for his e30. A factory m-kitted Fern Green 328is.



AR Auto's sad white turd shop car.


This time, a succesful Clubroadster meet/drive out to Crown Point just about rounded up my summer.




A brief run in with a Honda Element at a gas station left me a $460 insurance check. An afternoon with a porter cable buffer and I now had some spending money. A new air guide, Mazdacomp motor mounts, Boss Frog harness bar and an Enthuza cat were added just in time with the insurance money for a Cascade Motor Club hpde.

Lookin good the day before.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Slapped the harness bar in and one home depot run later I was set for a day of learning.

Hunting an rx8.



The slow but fun way around a race track.









One of these days I might get real tires. :/ College comes first..
 
#16 ·
Were those hpde pics at a pca day? They wouldn't let me go top down or off for that matter. Kinda sucked
 
#24 ·
#17 · (Edited)
I think I speak for most of the Oregon guys on here when I say local AR Auto Service owner, SCCA SSB class racer, numerous course record holder, and miata/nsx guru, Eddie Nakato, provides lots of inspiration and has been a tremendous role model for me. It’s incredible what the guy does to help out people especially us younger car enthusiasts. He bends over daily loaning out tools, opening up his shop after hours, and comically reinacting racing memories for us.

Here he is rescuing one of his retired miata racers from the blackberries for chumpcar preparation. (pictures aren’t mine)



Here I am putting the final touches on our drop top car wash where many a woodland creature were evicted from their home.

Final product in 787b livery

All this reminds me of a very important part of my story. Following the purchase of my car I immediately began scouring the internet for suspension gathering as much information and opinions as I could. Along the way I remembered seeing an add on miata.net for AdrenalineRacing and was shocked to see their location was just down in Lake Oswego. A quick visit and talk with Eddie left me set on sorting out the suspension next. With some Tein Basics soon after installed and the car aligned by Eddie’s crew I soon frequented autocrosses more and more. I was in and out of AR quite often and as my infatuation with the AR garage grew I decided I must intern there. Armed with a typed proposal and casual clothes I approached Eddie secretly hoping to be shot down because I was embarrassed, intimidated, whatever.. However I was surprised to hear a warm welcome at the idea and I soon joined “the guys” a few weeks later.
I found myself following Eddie around to his SCCA races and his sponsored track days snapping pics of him and customers hurtling their cars around turn 12 of PIR.






 
#18 · (Edited)
A collection of more racing pics and most importantly Eddie's Advan themed SSB Civic Si in multiple stages of vinyl disaster.









Finally, the Civic as it currently stands correctly matched as close to the Advan colors as possible.

Getting to know a shop owner has its benefits. As I mentioned earlier Eddie is a very generous guy. Here we are attacking the suspension on Nick’s e36.




 
#20 · (Edited)
Later that summer I also convinced a buddy and his dad to step into the roadster world. 1 quick tech day later and a HDHCDD, RB exhaust, Goodwin Monsterflow intake, Axxis Ultimate pads, and a RB hollow front sway were added to Brandon’s white ’95.






Going off to college I found I had less and less time to enjoy the car. However a few parts continued to roll in from time to time.
Scored 2 5pt new Crow Enterprize harnesses for $40.. (note it is terribly dangerous running harnesses with stock seats)

Rennen Metal tow hooks

Exedy OE clutch kit and a Findanza 1.6 fly, which turned out to be one of my favorite parts on the car to date.

Going to school at the University of Portland allowed me to squeeze some fun back road driving on Skyline Blvd, Germantown Rd, and Logies Trail. All accessible with just a quick drive across the St. John’s bridge.

My mazdacomp motor mounts were ditched in favor of Drifting Jellyfish Delrin units. These are wonderful addition to the car if you don’t mind wobbly gauge needles and skipping cd tracks.

Quick shoot with forum member Flyin 92+

A freak mini snow storm nearly ditched me on my way home from “Eddie’s Clubhouse”. Thankfully Lexi has a spot reserved indoors.

After some reading I decided to scoop up an old Nikon Series E 50mm f1.8. I was very pleased with my $45 purchase and immediately arranged to take some photos with friends.






More toys arrive. One set of Solid Aluminum Diff mounts in small run by forum sponsor Autokonxion.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Some lame watermarked photos during a PCA hpde. Unfortunately I had no one to join me and take some pics. It was a fantastic day of learning and I scored a ride in my instructor’s Exige.






Picked these little guys up :)

Tein 8kg’s

RB Hollow

Suerpro poly steering rack bushings
 
#28 ·
Thanks!
Good read! And a beautifull NA indeed!
I love your roadster too, Vegard.
Excellent thread! Enjoyed it thoroughly! Are those the S-Tech springs? let us know how you get on with them!
No. :fp: Not s-techs. 8kg front springs taking the place of ots 7kg front springs on Tein Basics.
 
#29 · (Edited)
I set off this little suspension project hoping to document each little step in hopes that it would be of use to someone. However, working 50-60hrs a week this summer I slowly grew tired of taking pictures and notes as I was just chipping away an hour or less a night. Here goes my Energy Suspension Master Bushing kit install!

Rears:

If you’re on the cheap, I recommend getting the 3 jaw puller set from Habor Freight. Make sure you add some lubezz to the threads. These will be under tremendous pressure and some melted.


Removing the control arms is pretty self explanatory. All the nuts and bolts are pretty easily accessible.


LABEL EVERYTHING!!!!! It will make your life easier.

Pop!


Remove the lower shock bolt.

Yummy. This one is a big girl.


Alignment bolts. I heard people say mark the general settings before removal. I didn’t care, the car was going to be immediately aligned right after.


Naked and free.

Out with the old!

Time to drill/tap for zerk fittings as per 949’s recommendations.

One of my vans.. Oh and some drilling stuff.


Tap.

(949racing.com has a brief explanation for the areas that need to/can be tap’d for zerk fittings.)
 
#30 · (Edited)
Time to scuff/clean these up for paint.


Sure why not?


I recommend a vise grip gun/brute force with two pieces of wood to pop these lil guys in. Oh and use lots of poly grease. It will make a mess so gloves aren’t a bad idea, not to mention I don’t think its great to expose your skin to this.


(^ photo by Antioch OG)

As I mentioned I grew lazy taking pictures of the entire process. The fronts are just as simple as the rears. Enjoy
 
#31 ·
Loving the story Nial! Your roadster has long been a favorite of mine and I love how your's is so tastefully modded. Big props to you, I owe you a set of tires man.

Seeing Hudak's NSX brings back so many memories....I'd post my pics from my test, but I don't want to thread-jack you lol.
 
#35 · (Edited)
Thanks kyle! I'm actually trying to see if I can get out to the track sometime in August. Feel free to post pics of the nsx, I don't mind. Its such a beauty.

This car is great. I love all your partsw choice so far!
Excellent thread is excellent!
Thanks for the compliments. Unfortunately this is where the build slows down. Just about all of my summer money is going towards school. I'm hoping to have 1.5k for myself to fix some things on the car and maybe do a track day.

Some of the local pnw CR guys this summer.










 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top