build diary

August 11, 2005: Time for a little cleanup after the autocross and prep for the upcoming Flyin' Miata Open House track day.
Those who have been reading for a while will know that the Open House last year was the first time the Seven was run hard! The first item of business is to put the new sub belts on, a bit of a painful process without removing the seats. I have a bruised hand from attempting this last night. I might just have to suck it up and take the seats out again. Argh. An escaped hood latch was reattached last night. It must have been loosening off for some time as it seems much tighter now. A bit of rebending of the fender stays and that should do it. I need to remake those fender stays but it's not going to happen this weekend. I will shamelessly follow the lead of Sam Buchanen's Stalker - he redesigned the ones on his car and I like how they turned out. That's a good build diary, by the way, and really shows the difference between a CMC and a Stalker kit. Someday I'm going to make a collection of all of the pictures of people sitting in their half-finished cars and pretending to drive. I know I've done it enough times, but it's a standard step in the build process.

The local track here is a kart track that operates under the looming cloud of small-town politics. Due to some houses in the area (on the other side of an interstate, underneath an airport approach path) deciding they need a 55 dB ambient noise level in their back yard, the noise regulations are very tight. There's no way the Seven will pass as it is right now. Last year, I ran my "kickstand" diffuser but it would drag on every right turn. This year, I've decided to go a little more high-tech and ordered a Supertrapp "disc-only muffler" from Summit Racing. This has removeable diffuser discs that allow me to tailor the amount of noise and backpressure. I welded up an adaptor yesterday but the fasteners that came with the Supertrapp were weak and had to be replaced. So I don't know how well it works yet. My fingers are crossed.

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