Yep, tuned by Jon at Shaftworks USA. We've got a case of the OSG oil, I have one in my BRZ and had one in my ND Miata as well, I love them!

Sadly can't do a 5.12 in STX, have to use the stock rear gearing.

In the middle of rebuilding the entire rear suspension of the car and refreshing things/rust treating things, so the diff isn't installed yet.

 

I owe you one if you're able to make it out to an event we're at!

 

That's awesome to have experience running the OSG in so many platforms, I've been very happy with its' performance in the 8 and think you will be too. Sounds like you've got a solid plan and always encouraging seeing another owner putting love into their ride.

What's the story with your BRZ? Class / club build as well? Still driving / in development?

 

BRZ is a bit more extreme, haha. Still my daily driver, but it's an XA class car but it's mostly just for fun. I've done a ton of personal parts development on it, 3D printed a ton of stuff myself, 3D printed stuff in aluminum, did suspension geometry stuff... but it's mostly just a Street Touring class car with wider wheels and basic aero for now.

 

Woah sweet BRZ! Awesome collection you have and imo really some of the best modern jdm momentum cars out there. I personally think they did a great job with the twin update and generally speaking its' too bad the formula of small and lightweight with modest power has kinda fallen out of favor for bigger everything.

If I may ask, if you were to make comparisons between your 8, brz and nd, what would you say is their most defining characteristics about each experience? And if you had any preferences towards any particular vehicle for any reason. I've driven a prepped ND2 on track but never any of the twins. Just curious.

ps- super cool to be able to design and print your own parts like that.

 

Agreed, the update was exactly what the car needed. I had a first gen BRZ and it was the only car I've owned that I kinda regretted selling, haha.

The three cars are so wildly different. ND exemplifies light weight while still being a totally usable street car. RX-8 is the most comfortable and confidence inspiring of the three but is definitely defined by the engine. BRZ just feels like "this is a competent RWD sports car" in that it's a great jack of all trades.

Of the three I like the ND the least, the brakes are pretty awful, on the Brembo equipped ones anyway since Mazda made zero hardware or software changes for much different brakes. The ND steering is also way too light and doesn't have much feedback. BRZ is my favorite car to own, mostly just because it's way newer and so good at doing everything. RX-8 is such a phenomenal chassis it's definitely the best performance car of the bunch.

 

Ryan Davies with PhasedApproach (conveniently my codriver) made us some delrin diff bushings. He's going to be offering them for sale too They fit perfectly, no real NVH increase, and they don't just fall apart like our old poly bushings did.










Also got the car back together and aligned it. LONG day on Sunday but well worth it. Just a few odds and ends to deal with before the season!

 

What are you doing for battery relocation? Not having super great luck finding a kit out there.

 

Good question. For nats I lazily slapped a lighter battery with a piece of wood as a spacer under it into the stock box...

 

Man red r3's are the cleanest color. I personally wanted a red one but black was the only thing available at the time. Seriously looks awesome with the G025's though, excellent choice. Like one of the coolest Volk wheels ever imo. I figure you're running 18x9.5, did you happen to weigh them?

About the battery, I'm not sure if it's legaI for STX but I had mine relocated between the rear seats at the base of the cubby pocket. Not much more than a plate and rods for interior tie-down, etc. Been that way for at least 4 years now running AG battery with zero issues.

btw out of curiosity, what was the color of your ND? From how colorful the rest of your garage has been, I'm guessing something good

 

Designed and printed a new MAF housing for my wife's car today

 

Ha, they're actually not G025s. They're Rays Gramlight 57FXZ that Mazda had purchased for their ill-fated TCR program and they offloaded them cheaply ~5 years ago. They're 18x10 and heavy (I weighed them but forget the weights) but they're great street wheels and they look AWESOME.

Yes, battery relocation is legal, but I'd have to double check if it's OK to be inside the cockpit.

My ND was Soul Red Crystal

 

Regarding the battery, unfortunately no - between the rear seats is non-compliant.

14.9 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
A. The make, model number, and size of the battery may be changed but
not its voltage. Relocation of the battery or batteries is permitted but
not into the passenger compartment. If the battery is relocated and the
original battery tray can be removed by simply unbolting it, the tray
may be removed or relocated with the battery. Holes may be drilled for
mounting or passage of cables. Longer cables may be substituted to permit
relocation. The number of battery or batteries may not be changed
from standard. The area behind the rearmost seat is not considered to
be within the passenger compartment. The area under the rearmost
seat is considered to be within the passenger compartment. Battery allowances
do not apply to electric and hybrid-electric vehicles.

 

+1 awesome street wheels. Didn't know about those and yeah bummer about the TCR program. Sweet you got a deal, that's always welcome.

Regarding the battery, I wouldn't consider it inside the cockpit / passenger compartment and is definitely located in the trunk; interior is completely oem (nothing removed or deleted). I see the rules clearly state "the area behind the rearmost seat is not considered to be within the passenger compartment." Maybe this has been discussed before but the seats obviously have a slight angle to them, so the relationship of their mounting points isn't symmetrical and suppose it boils down to how one / you / an organization defines the given area of those particular spaces. Within the area I just described, there is clearly space "behind" the rear seats (albeit in between them as well). I don't have any rules to appease so my mods don't have to face any scrutiny other than my own. Sorry if I wasn't clear, semantics can be a funny thing. I can take a pic if anyone wanted to see.

 

I'd be interested in seeing how you mount it, but Matt is right, we can't mount them inside the cockpit for scca. I'm most interested in finding a solution where I don't have to drill through the carpet/floor to mount the battery box. I had ideas on mounting the box to the top side of the chassis part of the trunk, kind of where the factory amp sits.

 

Took a couple pics real quick of the rear seating area and with shoulder panel removed exposing the battery. I'll take interior trunk pics when I get a moment (it's clam-shelled between the chassis mounted wing and takes a min to remove). I personally consider this to be mounted inside the trunk for all intents and purposes. Maybe some have a different opinion though. Happy to discuss.

 

Yeah I view that as in the trunk and therefore legal. Makes sense to me.

 

as far to the right side and as forward as possible within that allowance is the correct understanding …
.

 

Designing a new master cylinder brace, the Mazdaspeed bar was the only option and that thing is HEAVY. I plan on making a batch and selling them for folks that are interested.

 

Top PAX for day 2 at Red Hills tour. Car is working well, the hard work this off season has been worth it

 

I've also been a busy little beaver over the winter with the help and thanks to multiple people, Ryan Davies, Ryan Field, Ken (DocWalt), Ciprian with RotatryTronics. Ended up changing quite a bit with the car over the winter, now running the new 200tw hotness which is the vitours. I think they're a great tire, they feel even better than the re71rs which I ran last year.

- Delrin subframe bushings
- Delrin diff bushings
- Poly engine mounts
- Moved to an RX8 progress tech front bar from an NC progress tech front bar, also put my NC progress tech rear bar back on
- Added helper springs and shorter springs for my sakebomb FP spec ohlins in the rear
- Repaired some transmission tunnel insulation that was falling apart with boom mat
- Did a battery relocation to the trunk with a noco NLP20
- Installed odula intake manifold heat shield
- Installed RotaryTronics ashtray gauge pod
- Started running the Vitour P1s

First autox was 4/19 saturday, a great scrub in day for the P1s as the ambient temps got to nearly 80F up here in Mass. My funclub NE-SVT now does PAX for the autox hardos, I ended up placing pax position #7 on saturday, ended up with 14 runs. On Sunday I ended up in pax position #1, ended up with 18 runs for the day! Really love the way the P1s work, did not need to spray them at all over the two events, a definite upgrade over the re71rs.


Went with delrin subframe bushings made by Ryan Field, what a pain in the *** it was removing the forward most ones.



Also went with the delrin differential bushings made by Ryan Davies.




Ended up getting the Nicon poly engine mounts, not sure if I like them or not. They're pretty harsh on the street, but not really noticeable or distracting when getting at it in autocross. Everyone who rode along with me commented how much better the engine sounds through the cockpit now. I'll likely end up keeping them as I don't really want to pay twice for the same product that do identical things.




While I was down there I ended up installing my odula intake heat shield I got forever ago, that is also fairly annoying to install but easily doable with the engine in the car.




Ryan Field sized us up some nice washers for the subframe mounts from SCS, and I also started using my NC progress tech rear bar again.




Replaced this section of transmission tunnel insulation with boom mat. This stuff is really use to work with, highly recommend using a roller to apply it. I think it turned out great




Noco NLP20 battery relocation to the trunk, with the mount 3d printed by Ryan Field. Absolutely crazy weight savings over my previous AGM battery




Ciprian's ashtray gauge pod over at RotaryTronics. Very cool kit, adds oil pressure and temperature, can set custom alarm alerts through the interface, and also works with the existing accurate gauge cluster mod if one already had that done.





Don't have the pax sheet from Saturday, but here is Sunday's results.




I plan on doing more official SCCA events this year. Now that my funclub which runs at the same venue started doing pax, arguably has much better and longer course designs, and offers free pizza lunch with the registration cost, it's hard to decide between the NER SCCA club events and NESVT!

 

Well, turns out the Vitours have pretty horrible rubber affinity issues at Lincoln so this year was a struggle. With rain at Spring Nats and then again during nats we couldn't test for that and we got screwed. 0.1G down in grip on day 1 vs the Yok & Stone folks.

It was a great year though and we learned a lot and got to meet a lot of cool people and celebrate their successes at least!

I'm also going to stop being lazy and start making the master cylinder braces for those that were interested.

Oh and some neat stuff from this year. I designed a header collector for a *cheap* header I found that has 1-7/8" runners and got it 3D printed in stainless for ~$265 shipped. Cool noises and cut a bunch of weight... but didn't make any more power. and we took it off at nats because we were afraid of blowing sound haha.






Then even more fun, I was selected as a course designer for nats!