video // trackday Zolder // August 13th 2008
video // trackmorning Zandvoort // July 31st 2008
Newsletter 8 // August 1st 2008
Newsletter 7 // June 30th 2008
Newsletter 6 // June 3rd 2008
Newsletter 5 // May 14th 2008
Newsletter 4 // April 14th 2008
Newsletter 3 // March 23th 2008
New pictures online // March 23th 2008
What color should the Ring Mazda be? // March 23th 2008
Autoblog.nl wrote an article on the ringmazda project: // February 25th 2008
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video // trackday Zolder // August 13th 2008
Slippery when wet at Zolder
During the trackday at Zolder the ringmazda had to cope with a lot of water, not too easy on semi-slicks with a driver without driftingskills, as you can see in this movie from Steven Nauta.
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video // trackmorning Zandvoort // July 31st 2008
From within a 330 Hp BMW on slicks the Ringmazda was filmed while finding it´s way around the track. The circumstances where not ideal for superfast laptimes due to the high temperatures of track and air. Times clocked with a watch alongside the track were between 2.05 and 2.06 when battling with a Renault R5 DSC-competitor.
Filmed by Aad Hoogendoorn
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Newsletter 8 // August 1st 2008
Testing of the Ringmazda on the track
Building a car on a minimum budget with maximum outputexpectations is definitely a way to have slow buildingprogress because cheap solutions have to be found for most of the "problems" that are encountered in the proces. Lots of time is spend thinking, drawing scetches, measuring, fitting and modifying.
But once in the car out on the road all the hours, money and physical effort spent are worth every bit of it.
With the powersteering in place again the car is more easy to drive which helps the overall performance.
The new clutch can handle the power of an estimated 200 HP at about 11 psi which is
enough to propell the car from 100 to 180 kmh within the desired 11,5 seconds.
Topspeed is limited to 220 kmh due to the rpm where the little GT25-turbo runs out of breath.
With the adjusted suspension and fresh french semi's some testlaps were driven at the Ring on 22nd of July. Heavy (holiday)traffic with accompanying accidents prevented "undisturbed" laps, despite that the finding of these 3 testlaps was that the rollcouple needs more biassing to the front and more rebound at the rear.
A trackmorning at Zandvoort was organised by Driving-fun.com at 31st of July where some testing could be done. The circumstances where not ideal for superfast laptimes due to the high temperatures of track and air.
An improvised solution for more roll-couple at the front was mounted (thicker and heavier front-swaybar which MX5Theo had in store) to reduce oversteer.
When the suspension was adjusted it showed that 1 degree 20 minutes was the maximum negative camber possible at the front, by lowering the car 10mm at the front this was increased to approx 1degr 30minutes. Lack of time prevented drilling out an airbleednipple of one of the brakecalipers and the old brakefluid could not be changed............ a soft brakepedal was preprogrammed.
The car was very enjoyable to drive although in this configuration it needs a firm hand to deliver it's speed and a rather loose tail isn't the fastest way around the track.
In the 25 laps usefull information was noted. The data from the logger need to be further analised but indicated in the 3 sessions laptimes between 2.08,23 and 2.09,31. Another MX5-driver had timed three laps of the Ringmazda with his watch between 2.05 and 2.06 which could indicate that when sparring with a fast Renault R5 2.0/16V on slicks the laptimes came down.
To drive a BtG8.00 you have to lap Zandvoort within 2.02 , this indicates that the combination Car / Driver falls 1,0 to 1,5 sec/kilometer short.
Since the track was, due to the temperatures, about 1 second "slow", the brakes could not be used to their full capacity because of brakefluidvaporisation, the suspension had improved with the thicker swaybar but can and has to do more for this car when further finetuned, with no roof and bottomplating the weight was reduced with approx.20 kilogramm, but the poor aerodynamics and cooling worsened the overall performance more then the weightreduction improved it..
Although the last seconds are the most difficult ones, confidence is there that the scheduled
improvements and finetuning will give the car the needed speed.
On the 13th of August there is another trackday from Driving-Fun at Zolder where, if ready,
the modifications can be tested to see how close the Zoldertarget of 1.55 can be approached.
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Newsletter 7 // June 30th 2008
Preparation for BtG, the continuing story
Cancelling of Time Attack 2008 for the Ringmazda gave AST more time to prepare the suspensionkit, which is now fitted on the car.
Though equipped with stiffer springs the car is still very good drivable on the average roads. The rolling of the car during cornering is noticeable less which willmost likely improve handling and grip.
The intercooler with the tubes found its way in the enginebay.
Installing the additional enginemanagementsystem was the last hurdle to get the engine properly running with the turbo.
Testing on the rolling road for mapping did damage two of the current semislicks, obviously a matter of overheating. Lack of time forced us to a rather rich setting for safetyreasons but the engine just loves it.
From a very short testdrive on the road came good and bad news. The good news is that the
engine performs like expected. The bad news is that the original clutch cannot deal with the
extra torque the engine is putting out now, which means extra work and extra cost for a
stronger clutch. This clutch was rappidly provided by Theo and put in with Theo last
Saturdayevening.
After some minor adsjustments and fixations the car was taken out to the Ring today for some
testlaps, unfortunately without the datalogging-device.
The first thing noticed was that the car grips like a kart but that it also needs the
steeringforce of a kart, which means that the powersteering will come into action again
despite the extra weight. Due to the high steeringforces and because of the rather heavy traffic
for a mondayevening only two laps were driven.
Still a lot of work to be done but the main thing is that the car is drivable now and is reliable
enough to go out for more testsessions.
One of the coming days the suspension will be professinally adjusted by the Pitbox-crew and
equiped with new semi's. The engine will have it's finetuning and it's aeropackage
installed.
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Newsletter 6 // June 3rd 2008
Prepairing for BtG and Time Attack at Circuit Park Zandvoort on
08 june 2008
For a short period the ringmazda was on the Time Attack-ProStreet-entrylist, but as the organisation made a mistake it is now on the reservelist again, but that can change anytime.
Therefore all efforts are directed to getting the car drivable end of this week, .....pressure is building.
'Will she be ready?'
Engine
Intercooler from Car Cool Systems Helmond (carcoolsystems.nl) is now assembled and should be ready by Wednesday and fitted on the car with the additional managementsystem and 5th injector can be fitted in the evening. Tuning on the rolling road Thursday late in the afternoon ???
Suspension / Tyres / Brakes
The ordered suspension has not arrived and is not known when to arrive so AST / Advanced Suspension Technology in Valkenswaard (ast-suspension.com) was asked to build a lowbudget-suspension for the ringmazda. This will give the car a much better suspension as originally planned for.
Assembly on the car is planned for Thursdayevening, together with the Carbon Lorraine performance-brakepads for the frontbrakes donated by Modiho / movit-nederland.nl.
Pitbox (pitbox.nl) will donate the needed semi's and hopefully will get the desired size before Saterday to mount them and do their valued suspension alignment.
Body
Ruud at Ozephius Productions modified the hood to my specifications and together with some other minor changes the weight has come down to the original kerbweight of 990 kg.
Some ducting is planned for to get the cooling air there where it is needed and this should fill my "empty" hours on Friday.
'Weightwatching all the time'
Testing
There is simply no time for roadtesting so if Time Attack comes through then on Sundaymorning during some practice the car will have it's shakedown and about 1,5 hours later will do the Time Attack if all goes well.
The intriguing question will be "what laptime can be expected from car and driver" with this schedule. I have a figure in my head where the seconds are the same as the minutes but if that is feasable ???
'scoop!'
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Newsletter 5 // May 14th 2008
Prepairing for BtG
Working on a low budget means (much) more time has to be spend on searching for missing parts, repairing of well- or very-used parts, figuring out how to place, connect and construct simple and as-cheap-as-possible parts to make this the intended fast, reliable and lowbudget BtG8-beater.
Combined with the content of my bankaccount this causes progress to be lacking behind on (my) schedule.
Engine
More power has to come from a turbo, mainly because it is supposed to be relatively cheap and simple. Besides it is interesting to get into a new area of tuning for me.
The MX5Theo donated Garrett T25 turbo is now blowing on the engine which took us (Leo Randd and me) several days to get all the parts together in working order. Because the turbo had been lying around for years after use and it turns out that the oilsealing doesn't work properly anymore, at idlle the car is smoking like a BBQ, that is the flipside of lowbudget.
The new exhaustsystem, assembled from pipes and bends by Leo, nicely welded together by Louis van Krieken, is also on the car. When the car drives as it sounds now ................ With no intercooler on it the car is limited drivable and has been taken on the road for some trips in the nearby countryside........nice nimble funcar, at ¼ throttle the injected fuelamount can just cope with the boost of 8 psi without pinging.
Next step will be adding the much needed intercooler, an extra managementsystem and a 5th injector. Hopefully this can be arranged the coming weeks because some time has to be spent on adjustment to get the desired power of approx 205 - 220 Hp without noticable loss of reliability.
Driveline
No budget was foreseen for any changes here, we gamble on the original clutch that it can deal with the coming abuse and also for the gearbox, propshaft and final drive.
Suspension
At the moment nothing can be done while waiting for parts to arrive.
For the tyres as supplier Deep from pitsbox.nl has been brought in which is another benefit for the project because of his expertise on this subject.
Brakes
The Carbon Lorraine performance-brakepads for the frontbrakes have been donated by Modiho / movit-nederland.nl and will be put on together with the suspension. That is all that the budget allows.
Body
Some weight has been taken off by replacing the seats with well-used racingseats from 1995.
The hardtopshell will also be fitted for better aerodynamics and a little weightsaving.
To counteract some of the lift on the body a frontspoilerlip has been put on and a kind of diffuser will be "constructed", supported by the skills of Ruud at Ozephius Productions.
Creativity of MX5Theo on the headlights saved a fair amount of weight.
The weightscales will tell the results the coming weeks, target is to get the car on the original kerbweight because it was about 40 kg too heavy when weighted during the importprocedure.
'Out in the countryside'
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Newsletter 4 // April 14th 2008
First shakedown
Rainy weather prevented the MX5 from being taken out for its first spin on the Ring. Because of the weatherpredictions and the planning Ton decided to go on the first weekday when a fair chance of dry weather could be expected, that turned out to be April 1st.
Given the laptime, with a chipped Diesel with 160 Hp, 1407 kg on 12 year old 205/60/15 semi's of BtG 8.42 he reconned BtG 8.30 with the lighter ( 1025 kg) though less powerful (131 Factory-Hp) MX5 was a good target.
Fist lap on the Ring, after 11 months absence, was disturbed by a light rain in the first kilometers. The car felt not too bad given the fact that there was no time left for serious alignment of the suspension. Lateral grip looked good though a little twitchy at the limit. The brakes worked well since the engine (and / or the driver) couldn't get the car really going in the windy conditions. Kesselschen with 145 kmh as topspeed in 4th gear at 5800 rpm, from calculations this meant about 120 Hp at the flywheel.
Second lap on nearly dry track showed BtG9.10. Improvement was aimed for in the next laps but then the Eifelweather intervened and in the third lap became a wet one after just 2 kilometers which meant that the first shakedown was over for the Ringmazda.
Because of the work ahead to build the car to the "BtG8" level no further attemps are scheduled with the basic configuration.
Rolling road
On April 6th Leo has put the car on the rolling road of Kronenburg / Geldrop.: Maximum power 88,8 kW at the flywheel at 6210 rpm.(=121 Hp instead of the factoryspecification of 131 Hp at 6800 rpm).
88,8 Kw, a remarkable figure, because "8" seems the symbolic figur for this project.
Planning
The car will now be prepaired with the little secondhand turbo, provided by mx5teo.com, which should increase power to about 215 - 230 Hp (to be proven on the rolling road during adjustment sessions).
Hopefully the stiffer springs and shocks will arrive in time to have the car drivable again in a couple of weeks so that we can see how this configuration performs on track.
Overall cost untill now
- Car 2000,-
- Transportion 173,-
- Import tax 344,-
- MOT + licenceplates 288,-
- Sale of 17"wheels - 350,-
- Rims 7 x 15 400,- (new)
- Tires 225-50-R15 350,- (year 2004)
- Driverseat +
Passengerseat (1995) 50,-
- Frontspoiler (used) 10,-
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- Total 3265,-
Bought / ordered, to be mounted
- HGP Turbo with manifold
(used, incomplete) 250,-
- Fifth injector (used) 50,-
- Tubes/hoses/hydraulic lines 150,-
- Exhaust pipes/bends/silencer 100,-
- Hardtop-outershell (damaged) 25,-
- Shocks and springs 600,-
- PU-bushings 250,-
- Brakepads Front 175,-
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Newsletter 3 // March 23th 2008
Bringing the 1994 MX5 home from Germany, with Ivar at the wheel, showed that the car was not running smoothly above 3500 rpm.
After the car was imported (tax), equiped with its obliged MOT and dutch licenceplates the car was driven for some kilometers and after changing the fuelfilter is now running ok, though not really thrilling with its modest 131 Hp (if they are all there ?).
Since I dont want to drive 17"rims because of cheaper tires in 15" the wheels were immediately sold for €350,-.
A week later the ringmazda-team had its first meeting and since half of the members came in the team through internet most of them had never met. It turned out to be a pleasant and good meeting. Several subjects were adressed and we shall see if we can keep todays momentum in the project. For the short fotosession the MX5 was equiped with the wheels of Ivar.
The plan is to drive the car in its basic configuration on the Ring ( 131 Hp, 1100 kg Car+Driver+20 liters of petrol), with a set of streetlegal-semislicks .
My calculations expect me to pass the Gantry after about 8'.30", now it is just waiting for dry weather to prove my calculations right.
Next step will be to get the turbo on and add some reliable power, 100 extra is the target. Weight should come down with about 50 kg, despite adding the turbo and a rollbar. Suspension will have to be stiffer. Brakes need more bite and durability from better pads. Then this configuration will be driven and will show how far we are from the desired target
To be done:
- Input of the measurements for calculating the suspension characteristics of
the MX5 in the suspension-programm
- Ordering more needed parts as a suspensionkit, stabilizers, brakepads, rolbar
- Building the pieces together
- Testing / measuring the enginepower and corneringpower
Overall cost untill now
- Car 2000,-
- Transportion 173,-
- Import 344,-
- MOT + licenceplates 288,-
- Sale of 17"wheels - 350,-
- Rims 7 x 15 400,-
- Tires 225-50-R15 350,-
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- Total 3205,-
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March 23th 2008:
New pictures were added to the chapter pictures
go to pictures >>
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March 23th 2008:
What color should the Ring Mazda be?
During the first meeting on March 13th, we argued about the colour of the car. Some said red (as it is now), some said orange (Dutch National Racing colour).
What do you think?
If you're willing to sponsor us, you can decide the color of the car.
view some possibilities >>
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February 25th 2008:
Autoblog.nl wrote an article on the ringmazda project: (in dutch)
read more >>
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waiting for track to dry during first shakedown on April 1st
rolling road factoryspec
fitting the turbo
checking the clutch