Hence the awesomeness of a heat extractor scoop, like the mini cooper scooper. $50, a little fabbing, and a LOT of that heat gets out of the engine bay before it has a chance to heat soak everything.

What? No pic of wrapped down pipe?

It was pretty well covered up by heat shielding pretty quickly and hasn't been out but once since then. I thought one of the shots showed it pretty well but you can't see the whole thing.

For those of you who don't know, Troy wrapped exhaust header wrap around the downpipe in expert fashion for me. It made a difference in underhood heat that was palpable. He said that wrapping a 3" single downpipe was child's play compared to wrapping small tightly bending headers that are right up against each other. He did a great job. Thanks.

I did a bit more sealing around the mouth opening in the bumper and around the radiator to force air through it today. There are lots of little gaps that are hard to see hiding everywhere.

I also got the ride height back down a little to help add negative camber. I am currently at 5.25" front and 5.5" rear. I would still like more bump travel than I have but it will hopefully suffice. Sebring has undulations in sections of big sweepers that can seriously screw you up if you hit the stops. I'm on the 550/350 springs now so it might unsettle easier. We'll see.

Did I say that I mounted one of my Gopro mounts in the mouth opening of the front bumper? It is a neat angle and I stole the idea from Flier's video on The Dragon he posted recently. The other will be from over the passenger's shoulder looking out the front windshield.

Awesome, I can't wait to see the video from the mouth.

Test video.


I finally got a youtube acct set up in preparation for having something to share.

sweet, i like how you can hear the engine and turbo clearly, but its not to loud at the same time.

I love it and I love hearing the turbine. Can you get it a little farther forward to see more road instead of mouth of miata?

Actually no. Gopro mounts with special 3M adhesive tape are permanent unless you scrape them off and have more tape. I'll be using the suction cup mount for the interior footage.

And you see the road from one foot in front of the car to the horizon. If I moved it forward you would only see more sky and that would mean lens flare whenever the sun hit it and worse picture quality. Additionally, the further forward it is moved, the more the wind noise and less of all other sounds. It's all a series of compromises and I tried to account for what I could...

awesome. so inspiring! you tracking her soon? :D

Successfully campaigned the Slow Torture™ turbo Miata at Sebring International Raceway all weekend long without mechanical failure.

On track videos were taken, cars were passed, turbos sang, exhausts bellowed, tires squealed... innocent dirt got plowed...

Videos will be uploaded to youtube as soon as I'm able (I'm actually driving home right now as I type this on my laptop). And yes, I passed the 599.