Mugen leather shift knob and Recaro belt guide

A few weeks ago I noticed King Motorsports listing up a new Mugen shift knob. They finally released a leather wrapped knob with red stitching which is exactly what I've been waiting for so I got on the order list and sure enough after making its trek across the ocean, it's finally here.

Mugen leather wrapped shift knob with red stitching - 4/29/2017

It's lighter than the metal 6-speed one I had before but it's still got a good weight. It's a bit bigger than the CR shift knob and has a great tactile feel (like you're holding a baseball but not that big). I really like it and after driving with it for a few hours today I'm definitely keeping this.

The other thing that's been annoying me lately is the fact that my seat belt keeps getting lost behind the seat because there's nothing to keep it where it's supposed to be. I found someone on S2ki selling some Recaro seats that had these Jade Recaro leather with red stitching seat belt guides and realized that Evasive Motorsports was selling them so I picked that up too. It's a small detail but makes quite a difference.

Jade Recaro leather with red stitching seat belt guide - 4/29/2017

Jade Recaro leather with red stitching seat belt guide - 4/29/2017

First event of 2017

After a fairly mild winter, we finally got to have our first autocross today. With the recent cold spell, I didn't really want to bring out Bumblestook so to get my feet wet for the 2017 season I decided to bring Lupa out instead and have Rad codrive with me since his car isn't ready yet.

NNJR SCCA Autocross - Metlife Stadium - 3/25/2017

I woke up extra early probably because I was excited and got to the site around sunrise. There was some forecasted rain later in the day and we all wanted to get our runs in before the skies opened up. It was the first time for me to run the Solostorm setup I picked up over the winter for datalogging. Hopefully it'll be useful to learn where I can improve this year. At the very least it adds some eye candy to the autocross videos.

NNJR SCCA- 3/25/2017

Overall I think we ran decent times but not fast enough. We were clearly rusty and it was tough getting used to street tires again. While there are certainly improvements that can be made to Lupa's setup, I think a lot of time was lost in our own mistakes. She's a great learning tool though and I'm hoping to do another event next week to see if I can learn some more.

Ready for the 2017 Season

Usually Bumblestook hibernates all winter long but the relatively good weather we've been having has allowed us to complete all the modifications and prep work for the 2017 racing season well ahead of schedule. First order of business was to get some fresh fluids in there.

Oil and Transmission fluids changed - 1/29/2017

While working on the car last week we noticed that the exhaust flex bolts had rusted quite a bit so I opted to replace those now since I was ordering some parts from Honda anyway.

Replacement exhaust flex bolts - 1/29/2017

Exhaust flex bolts to header replaced - 1/29/2017

Finally, we set the sway bars to the settings I wanted as a starting point for this season (1 hole from full stiff in the front and full soft in the rear). We also did the first alignment for the season. Since I have more tire and slightly wider track up front, I decided to reduce the front camber a bit but leave the rest the same to keep the general balance. There will be undoubtedly many more alignment adjustments throughout the year but I think this is a good starting point.

Front:
-3.4 camber
5.2 caster
0 toe

Rear:
-2.5 camber
0.06 (1/16") total toe in

Ready for alignment - 1/29/2017

Alignment specs - 1/29/2017

Big thanks to SJF Performance for getting all the work done before the early season rush. Bumblestook is ready for the first event in 6 weeks where we'll be able to test all the changes.

New ATS Diff and Replacing a Bad Knuckle

Last year we identified additional items that needed to be replaced over the winter. The ATS diff that I had been running for the past 3 years was still working but the clutch packs were starting to slip. Rather than have it rebuilt, I opted to send Lupa's spare OEM diff housing over to Karcepts and have Brian install the new ATS Spec III Type DD LSD in it. Since we had a break in the weather this weekend, SJF Performance installed the replacement pumpkin as well as replaced the passenger side axle with the matching spare to the driver side axle that broke during Nationals as a precaution. We also noticed that one of my rear diff mounts was installed backwards so we corrected that as well.

ATS Spec III Type DD LSD in AP2 diff housing
SJF Performance - 1/21/2017

Passenger side axle replaced - 1/21/2017

SJF Performance - 1/21/2017

When SJF was installing the new camber joints last year, he found that the threads on the passenger side front knuckle were cross threaded from a previous installation. He was able to tap and fix the threads but we weren't super happy leaving it that way. I picked up a used AP1 passenger side knuckle and he replaced the wheel bearing and hub and installed a fresh set of ARP extended studs so I could keep the old knuckle as spare complete unit.

New wheel bearing - 1/21/2017

New OEM hub with ARP extended studs pressed on - 1/21/2017

Spindle, new bearing and hub all pressed together - 1/21/2017

This completes all the major mechanical work that needed to be done over the winter. She only needs an alignment and new fluids before the season starts.

Going Wider

One thing I haven't done to Bumblestook because she was already working well was to try to go with wider tires up front to make it a square setup and increase front grip. With the significant gap we had to the Mazdaspeed Miatas at Nationals, I really have no choice but to try and extract every bit of performance I can get within the limits of the rules. Now that the season is over, SJF Performance was finally able find the time to work on this.

Circuit Garage S2000 front overfenders - 11/26/2016

We mounted the 315/30/18 Hoosier A7s on the 18x11 front wheels leaving the 315/30/18 Hoosiers on the 18x12 in the rear. I previously had 295s up front which were slightly stretched on an 11" wide wheel so the 315s are actually a better fit anyway. I technically don't need 18x12 in the rear but if I can't get the car to balance the way I want on the square setup, I'm leaving the option to go to 335s in the rear. I used to also run 10mm spacers in the front to get maximum clearance and to try and compensate slightly for the wider tire, I went to a 15mm spacer this time. To accommodate the extra tire width, I decided we should cut the OEM fenders some more and add overfenders so I picked up a pair of Circuit Garage S2000 front overfenders. Sadly these overfenders cost about as much as pre-made wider OEM style fenders but since those aren't Street Prepared legal, I had to go this route instead.

Make more room up front - 11/26/2016

It was clear early on that these overfenders had pretty bad fitment and would probably take a body shop a fair amount of time to mold properly to the car. Rather than use the entire overfender, we decided to just cut them up and just use the portion that overlays with the top of the OEM fender. I had my OEM fenders previously widened professionally by a body shop so they were shaped really nicely but unfortunately they were only nice because the shop used a fair bit of bondo to sculpt it into form. Some of the bondo cracked while cutting the fender away. Not a big deal but this was definitely going to end up being a case of function over form.

Front over fenders mocked up - 11/26/2016

Since I didn't know if I'd end up just destroying these fenders after a few events I was reluctant to have them professionally painted so I found a company that sells OEM color paint in spray can from (automotivetouchup.com). They give you a can of base coat, medium coat and clear coat each of your car color. I was a bit skeptical especially since Spa Yellow is often hard to match but SJF and I were both surprised at how well the color matched (at least from a reasonable distance away). Since we were going to color match the front fenders, I opted to also paint the rear over fenders the same color after we cut them up a bit more for extra tire clearance in the rear as well.

Automotive Paint - 11/26/2016

Over fenders painted - 11/26/2016

At the last run of the final event this year, the passenger side front fender got ripped out completely. Luckily I was able to get a pair of brand new ones for a steal from Dan who had it lying around in his garage so SJF installed the new one.

New passenger front fender installed and trimmed for tire clearance - 11/26/2016

The new square setup and the wider front track is going to completely change the balance of the car. Unfortunately, the Gendron front bar and Ankeny rear bar I've been running for years now don't have sufficient adjustment for this setup so I replaced both with a fresh set of Karcepts sway bars instead. I'm running the largest front bar Karcepts makes for the S2000, 1.375" OD with 0.25" walls. For the rear I'm using the standard Karcepts S2000 rear sway bar used by the STR cars (which I also have on Lupa). SJF also noticed that the tabs on the rear subframe used for rear toe adjustment had been warped from all the rear grip so he straightened them out again.

Karcepts 1.375" OD, 0.25" wall front sway bar - 12/4/2016

Karcepts S2000 rear sway bar - 12/4/2016

After we got back from Nationals, we also noticed that the offset camber joint was leaking so we replaced both sides as well with a fresh set. I want to run Solostorm next year for data logging but didn't want to have a tablet mounted in my field of vision so I picked up an NVidia K7 Shield K1 tablet along with a RAM Tablet mount (RAMHOLTAB12U), RAM Diamond adapter (Ram-B-238) and RAM V-Base strap clamp with 1" ball arm which we hard mounted behind the passenger seat.

Tablet mount behind passenger seat - 11/26/2016

We also drained the remaining E85 in the fuel tank and put in pump gas again for winter storage. We still have a few things left to do over the winter to get her ready for next season but thankfully a lot of the major work has been completed.

Front overfenders - 12/4/2016

Color matched overfenders - 12/4/2016

Painted rear overfenders with weather stripping - 12/4/2016

Front overfenders viewed from above - 12/4/2016

End of Year Maintenance

Lupa did pretty well this year putting down some miles. Despite not really racing her past early this season, she did go to Lincoln and we drove up to Vermont and New Hampshire to catch some Fall foliage a few weeks ago.

Driving up Route-100 in Vermont - 10/2/2016

Before tucking her away for the end of the season I wanted to make sure she gets a good once over. I took her over to SJF Performance where we change the engine oil and diff fluid. Glad to report the diff fluid still shows up as nice and clean. I then got her aligned because I wasn't sure if the alignment shifted after competition miles on concrete.

Alignment - SJF Performance - 10/15/2016

The alignment slipped a little bit but overall still in good shape. The rear camber bolts were starting to get a bit hard to adjust so we replaced the rear driver side bolt, nut and washer and will do the same passenger side next time. I also somehow gained camber in the rear despite the ride height not changing. Not sure what's causing that other than me having fresh tires but we couldn't get it less than -2.3 so the final alignment settings were:

Front:
-3.3 camber
5.6 caster
0 toe

Rear:
-2.3 camber
0.06 per side toe in (1/8" total)

I also installed the Science of Speed hood dampers, new PIAA wiper blades (18" driver, 20" passenger) and removed the Valentine One radar detector wiring since frankly I never use it. I also replaced the USB cable going from the head unit to my phone with a flat one so I could route it better and replaced the phone holder with a RAM mount X-Grip version.

Science of Speed Hood Struts - 10/14/2016

Final event for Bumblestook in 2016

It's been a long grueling season for Bumblestook and she's performed her best this year in the 4 years I've been campaigning her in BSP. After last event I came down with the flu and was planning on not being able to make it today but thankfully I recovered relatively quickly. We took her for her final runs in 2016 with the NNJR SCCA to burn off the last remaining Ethanol so she can be filled with pump gas for Winter hibernation.

Ready for her final runs this year
NNJR SCCA - 9/24/2016

It was the most perfect Fall day. Started out cloudy with some showers but by the time we ran, the course was dry and the sun eventually came out to heat everything up. Unfortunately due to the lower than usual turn out, we were almost hot lapping the cars for the 2-driver cars in Pro class making tire and engine cooling a bit problematic. Thankfully with the temps in the low-70s that helped make things a bit more manageable.

NNJR SCCA Autocross - 9/24/2016

Hez ended up getting taken down in PAX by Jeff Hurst in Tamra's DSP RX8 but was able to take FTD of the "normal cars". I think this further extends Hez's lead into the driver's championship in NNJR and should be enough to hang onto it even if we just run Lupa in STR for the final event in late October. I think I was finally happy with the way I drove her today. Maybe it's because I've been stuck at home all week or because I just feel super relaxed but I just felt I could push her and she'd push back and all would be good. I ended up 7th in RAW and 7th in PAX. What a great way to finish up her season.

BONUS:

I got to drive Dan's 997 911 for one run today. It was fun but very different from a S2000. Not sure what I was expecting but it definitely requires a different approach to driving. I think after this car gets fully developed it's going to feel awesome. Thanks for the drive Dan!

Steguis driving Dan's 911 - 9/24/2016