MX5/Miata Thread

MX5/Miata Thread

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BlaRo said:
A local brake shop has ordered me brake pads
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Why did a shop order your brake pads? Please tell me you're not having them put pads in...

Also, you're talking about brake pads on a stock Miata - it really doesn't matter. I'm on still on stock pads and they were just fine at autocross. Any other pad is going to be fine too.
 
The pads will work fine, as LeVeL said. But you may not like them. Different pads have different bite and feedback characteristics. I don't know if you're to a point in your driving where you'll notice it yet, but once you are, it can make a real difference. If you're not worried about that, just go with what's cheap/long lasting /won't tear through your rotors too quickly. If you are worried about bite and feedback, there are some upgraded brakes to look into.
 
LeVeL said:
Why did a shop order your brake pads? Please tell me you're not having them put pads in...

Also, you're talking about brake pads on a stock Miata - it really doesn't matter. I'm on still on stock pads and they were just fine at autocross. Any other pad is going to be fine too.
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Brake Warehouse in Hudson, a shop that was recommended to me. I'll be installing them myself...
 
Welp, stopped by and picked up the pads. They had placed an order for Stoptech metallic pads, and I ended up getting...

...Axxis ULT ceramics.

everything%20went%20better%20than%20expected%20no%20words.png


Like I said, they're good people...if anyone's in central MA I'd recommend them. I got both front pads for around 50 bucks.
 
I just stopped by and picked up my MX5 :)

It's been a long morning and I've just washed it, so I'm having a brief pitstop at home before I take it for a drive this afternoon. Pics to follow.
 
BlaRo said:
Welp, stopped by and picked up the pads. They had placed an order for Stoptech metallic pads, and I ended up getting...

...Axxis ULT ceramics.
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They rock. Very progressive but could literally take my breath away in my old MR2. They do chew through rotors though.
 
Went on a road trip with some friends and played around with the gear/speed combination. Could it be that using 3rd gear @ 3k rpm @ 60kmph is more economical than 4th gear @ 2.2k rpm @ 60kmph?
 
zephyrus17 said:
Went on a road trip with some friends and played around with the gear/speed combination. Could it be that using 3rd gear @ 3k rpm @ 60kmph is more economical than 4th gear @ 2.2k rpm @ 60kmph?
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You can test this quite easily yourself. Drive 20 km at 60kph on 3rd gear and then do the same on 4th gear.

Hint: Results will not surprise you.

Also, why don't you use final gear for 60kph cruising?
 
Yeah, but my fuel gauge isn't very accurate and it's hard to test 20km stretches.
My final gear is 5th, but if I go to 5th @ 60kph, the engine turns at around 1,900rpm, which is lugging it. It's not very practical as well, since I rarely get into the driving cadence to go into 5th gear.

I was told (and it makes sense) that at higher revs, to a certain extent, the engine squirts less fuel at each injection because it's in the torque band. At lower revs a lot of fuel is squirted to ensure enough power is produced. So I just postulated that cruising at 3k rpm could be cheaper than at 1,900 rpm.
 
Otto cycle engine has its best efficiency at high load, so the lower revs and more open throttle you have the better. Of course that doesn't mean WOT at idle revs, but the lowest revs the engine pulls smoothly are the best generally.

Edit: and best doesn't mean most fun :p
 
Only going from the instantaneous fuel consumption readout in my car, it's often more economical to be doing 60km/h in 4th than 5th. If I'm doing 50, its often better in 3rd than 4th. I don't know how many similarities my car holds to an MX-5 in that regard.

That said, I used to use the high gears more often and I believe my overall fuel consumption has increased since then.
 
Yeah, which is what I think has to do with the engine being in the torque band and thus doesn't squirt as much fuel per cycle. I'll do a test after my next fillup and do 40kph @ 2nd, 60 @ 3rd, and so on up to 5th gear. It's probably not good to do 20kph @ 1st, though, I think.
 
I've been driving the Miata to work every day for the last couple months and since I work evening shift it is full daylight out when I go to work. So now I am tanning unevenly (my left arm is noticibly darker than my right now) there is only one solution to this problem. I need another Miata, one imported from the UK or some other country that drives on the wrong side of the road.
 
Clearly you need a Eunos Roadster, Jason.

LeVeL, the Miata has really crappy aero. How fast are you driving for your freeway stints? Much over 65mph and you start losing a lot of fuel to the inefficiencies of the car. Being behind another vehicle helps a lot, especially if it's larger.
 
That is a surprise...the MR2 gets 35-37 MPG on the freeway going 70-80 even with the top down. Just goes to show how aerodynamics is not an eyeball-able science.
 
Usually in aerodynamics it's the details that make the difference, not the overall shape, unless we're talking about totally different kind of cars (Prius vs MX5 for example). MX5 has relatively low drag due it's small frontal area, but the drag coefficient is nothing remarkable. NA has cd 0,33 top up and it drops down to 0,45 top down if I remember correctly. So over 33% difference with the top down!

Another big problem at least with NAs is wide wheels with low offset. Due the design of the front bumper which has a big curve even stock 14" inche wheels show quite a lot of the tire's contact area in the frontal area. Because of that the tire profile causes huge vortexes which are catastrophic effect to air flow, and this is made much, much worse with wide wheels with low offset which bring the wheel even more out to fight against the air. Good front lip might help a bit, but in this area the NB bumper is much better.
 
By the way, Vmaxes? My NA did 175km/h on GPS with to people and boot full of light bags top down. With hard top I got 195 to speedo, which shows about 5km/h too much, but then I had the car loaded up to eleven, even the passanger seat was so full I could barely change to fifth. Stupid and dangerous I know. But then came long downhill stretch of unlimited autobahn and knowing it was probably the last change in Germany I had to try and got it up to 210km/h on the speedo which was, to be honest, a bit intimidating. So 200km/h cracked in the MX-5, but I honestly can't say the car could do it on a flat ground, with luggage or without.

But damn I love the feeling you get when you're pushing the car to it's absolutely last km/h or mph it can deliver, it's quite an adrenaline rush even though we are not talking about vmaxing Countaches or something really manly. So far I've done it in my 406 (209km/h @gps), IS200 aut. (215km/h @gps) and now with the MX-5.
 
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