Well the gauges got back from Adam at REVlimiter.com last week. I am very happy with the results! Adam was kind enough to photograph them for me before sending them out. Here are a couple of shots.
For anyone looking to keep cost down and have a personalized dash this is the ticket! Thanks again Adam!!
Karlo of KitSpeed.com and Exocars.net asked me to write a piece on my decision process in picking the Catfish for my build. I thought that was really cool! Thanks Karlo.
You can find the article here, enjoy!
Someone got creative when writing their ad! Good for a laugh, Enjoy!
http://nwga.craigslist.org/cto/4191019188.html
1988 chevrolet v10 blazerodometer: 55000
Here’s the deal, kids:
This is a 1988 K5 Blazer. This is not a luxury SUV, or a maintenance-free disposable import. It has a solid front axle, wind noise, and character.
It’s a K5. It rides like a K5. It drives like a K5. All of these are GOOD things.
It is not new, it is not pristine, it is used. This will be apparent in the pictures.
If you do not own a toolbox, have never changed your own oil, and are scared of getting dirty: THIS VEHICLE IS NOT FOR YOU.
If you have been posting on facebook all about how excited you are for pumpkin latte season: THIS VEHICLE IS NOT FOR YOU.
If you get offended easy and often, whine to your co-workers, and bitch a lot: THIS VEHICLE IS NOT FOR YOU.
If you feel you are owed anything in the world & have a bullshit job where you fail to produce: THIS VEHICLE IS NOT FOR YOU.
If you own a bieber album, white oakleys, affliction t-shirts, or those candy-assed stitched-pocket jeans: THIS VEHICLE IS NOT FOR YOU.
If you consider the 2nd Amendment an anachronistic relic and have never owned a firearm: THIS VEHICLE IS NOT FOR YOU.
If, however, you have BALLS OF STEEL and consider adverse weather an excuse to do stupid shit: THIS IS YOUR BLAZER.
Do you laugh at danger, and tempt fate?
Have you ever uttered the words, “Hold my beer and watch this …”?
While bored at work do you pick targets at random and think, “I could hit that from here with the .22 …”?
Have any of your friends quit hanging out because you were too much fun?
Do you have the number of a friend with cash memorized for bail?
When you pass an abandoned flatbed farm truck along a fenceline do you consider taking on another project?
Is your ol’ lady really sick of the random piles of parts, greasy footprints, and empty beer bottles in the garage?
-could you not care less?
Do you have Jalopnik saved on your laptop AND smartphone?
Do you own a service manual for every vehicle you ever owned?
Do you still miss your first ride?
Can you carry on a two hour conversation discussing tools, scars, and hi-lift jacks?
Remember when tool companies had the balls to put half-naked beauty queens on their calendars?
Do you consider the Prius an abominable affront to the Gods of displacement, torque, and All Mighty Internal Combustion?
If you answered in the affirmative to the preceding: THIS IS YOUR BLAZER.
DETAILS:
-The motor leaks a little oil. How much? I don’t know, I’m not collecting statistical analysis points.
I check the oil, I fill the oil, I drive. Not enough to bother me.
-Driver’s side door has dents from random off road ventures along with the passenger fender and door. (I have two extra doors)
-The windshield is cracked.
-Passenger sliding glass in top is cracked. (I have an extra one)
-Dash Pad is cracked in several places.
-The TBI 350 starts and runs like a proverbial champ.
-Tranny and 4WD operate perfectly
-Tires are in great shape and are exceptional off road tires. They are not street friendly. They make a lot of noise. They are 36×13.50 Super Swamper Irok’s
QUESTIONS:
-Why are you selling?
I can’t justify owning it anymore. It sits in my back yard and is lonely. It feels neglected.
Someone else needs to appreciate the Blazer for what it is: awesome mechanical artistry.
-What’s wrong with it?
Oil Leak and other cosmetic issues.
-Does the 4WD work?
Hell yes. Like a Dickensian Orphan.
-Will you sell me the [engine / tranny / tailgate / axle / etc.]?
No. I’m not in the salvage business. Buy it. Love it. Give it a good home.
-Will you take [insert ridiculously stupid low number here]?
No. If I wanted [ridiculously low number] I would have asked [ridiculously low number]
Want a cheap car? Get your kid that lowered tuner piece of shit honda project down the road.
I think I’m plenty cheap for this bad mofo.
-Would this make a good car for my daughter?
Hell. Yes. Not only a good car, a learning experience. Introduction to vehicular maintenance.
-Can you deliver?
NO. I would trust it to drive, but I will not deliver it. You should come get it. Look it over. Test drive it. Etc.
-Will you take a check / cashier’s check / Western Union Transfer / Nigerian Promissory Note?
No. I’ll take Cash. Period. Bring cash or don’t show.
-Will you ship to -?
No. See above.
-No, really, all I have is [lowball dollar amount]?
That’s great, I don’t give a shit. Unicef ain’t running this deal, and until they do I want $3000.
Why? Because I don’t HAVE to sell this beauty. Truth be known, I’d rather keep it.
But if it’s going to a good home – I will sell. Unless you’re an asshole – then no sale.
-Why are you such a dick?
Everything is relative; you should see my friends.
Any other questions, feel free to reply to this email and ask.
Keywords: Offroad off road design muddin mudding bog bogging rock crawler crawling 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1989 1990 1991 82 83 84 85 86 87 89 90 91 c10 c-10 k10 k-10 v10 v-10 Bronco silverado sierra custom deluxe scotsdale scottsdale ramcharger suv truck iroc irok full size superswamper nitto bogger tsl mickey thompson baja claw ground hawg hog
So I own a few cars. I am, admittedly, a petroholic. Each of the cars I have I have for different uses. One to tour in, one to track, one for work, and one for the shear pleasure of all the things that make mechanical curiosities of automobiles. This last one is my most favorite. It is not the fastest, not the best handling, not the quietest, not the… well any of the normal metrics used by the magazines. It is my GTV. The GTV stands out because of all the wonderful sensations it tickles as opposed to numbs. I have often referred to my Corvette as my 430 hp sofa. At over a 1,000lbs lighter and without all the modern advances the GTV is its opposite.
How does this relate to gauges? Well gauges are one of the few things you get to interact with intimately while driving. No matter the scenery outside your windows, the gauges are always looking back at you. Much like the steering wheel, the shift knob, and the transmission; the gauges engage you while your driving.
The GTVs dash and gauges are particularly nice to look at, for me. The GTVs steering wheel is a vintage Nardi with a touch of patina and a unique bit of automotive history. The shift knob is a small piece of resin and wood made by a boutique Alfa specialty shop in the UK. And the Alfa gearbox is legendary. Simply put when I touch the controls of the Alfa, she touches me back.
For my Catfish I am looking to build an equally compelling cockpit. The first component I have found to do this is custom gauge faces. Adam Wolf of RevLimiter.net is just the man I needed for the job. Adam has strong collection of stock alternate gauges faces, which are very reasonably priced, and he offers customization work if one is so inclined. I was 😀
We are working through the final details of the faces for this project but its going to be something along the lines of these gauges he made for another customer. I saw them and they tapped into a deep emotional vain that has its roots in my early motorcycling days.
Adam is great to work with so if you too are inclined don’t hesitate to drop him a line; adam@revlimiter.net
FedEx dropped off a nice little package for me today!
Konig – Wideopen’ – Anodized Aluminum – 15×8 – +25 – 4×100 – 12.95lbs
Still researching the whole wheels and tires business but I am pretty happy with this choice for my first set of wheels. They will allow for better fitment of essentially the same tires the Lotus 2-Eleven is running from the factory and look what it can do on the track. When I need more rubber for the track these will make a good street set.
This issue might be deeper than Lewis Carroll’s rabbit hole. So I will start this post as I finished the last one; do your homework.
These posts on wheels and tires might be more a stream of thought as I am sifting through all the available information so bear with me. This category will make good reading in a few years when one can look back and read them as the development of my understanding of tire technology. Anyway here we go, down the rabbit hole…..
I was assuming a 225 section width in my previous post. For 15″ tires there is a good selection in 225. Above 225 there is almost no options. So if you are wanting to run wider tires, 15″ wheels are not an option for you.
After realizing I was at my upper limit in tire availability I found that I should’t even run a 225 tire. A few of the Miata gurus at MiataTurbo.net recommend that wheel width should not exceed the section width of the tire. A wider section width than wheel width on radial tires stress the side wall inappropriately. Its a function of side wall support, strength, and deformation. So I had, in fact, limited myself to 205s tires for the wheels purchased.
Now something else to consider, most information you will find on web forums is written by either a) knowledgeable folks that are very much limited by their class and body clearances as to what wheels and tires they can run or b) ignorant folks. For every post that says you should not exceed the wheel width when selection a section width there will be literally 10 posts that state “you can easily run a 265 tire on an 8″ wheel, ran that way for years, never have a problem, works great!” If your tracking your CF this is probably not good advice to follow. In reference to the first group of posters, your CF is not an e30, or a Miata, or a fill in the blank. It is an outside the box platform; concepts from these posters can guide us but don’t allow yourself to be trapped by them.
There are two other areas that we will need to considered before getting to a good starting point on wheels and tires; 1)the relationship between weight balance front to rear and tire balance front to rear (there is a reason Lotus’ run 1″ wider rims on the rear and Miata’s run the same front and rear) and 2) air pressure and its relationship to traction and tire operating temperature.
The rabbit hole just got deeper!
I was going round and a round (pun!) for the last couple of months on what wheels to run. I like to wrestle with ideas and this one entertained me for a while. Seeing as there is not a wealth of knowledge out there on the Catfish and what works and what doesn’t it really came down to a theoretical problem of what is the best wheel and tire package for club racing or track day toys. Oh and of course the aesthetic taste of the owner; me.
Caveats before I get on my soapbox: 1. I am learning as I go. I am not an expert at the business of tires and how to maximize traction. But I read as much as I can and ask a great many questions. Most of what I will present below I will back up with links and or site my sources. 2. I limited my self to 8″ wide wheels. In retrospect this may have been a false limitation. When I increase power at some point down the road I will be forced to increase wheel width. 3. As a product of caveat no.2 most of what is written below is based on a 225 width tire. If you want to run a wider tire 15″ become difficult to source.
Cord recommends 15-17″ wheel diameter with low offset and an outer tire diameter not to exceed 24.5″ at the absolute max. You can get more specifics in his FAQ entry on the site: here. Also the Miata uses a 4×100 bolt pattern. So we’ll use these as the constraints of the problem.
Other factors to consider are: wheel weight, wheel cost, tire weight, tire selection, tire availability, and tire cost. Well get into these variables more in a minute.
There is a lot of information out there written on wheels. Some of it good; most of it is not. I think a lot of what is written is propaganda. My driving coach recommended I read some articles online when we first started discussing wheels and tires. After reading the articles I had to question why he asked me to read them. The article were written to answer the question of which wheel diameter was better; 15″, 16″, 17″, & 18″? Yet all three tires tested were of different widths and aspect ratios!! The widest tire with the least weight came out on top, imagine that. If a tester truly wanted to compare diameters they should fix the width; aspect ratio and width is a little harder to control at the same time. Its in the interest of the tire manufacturers to sell the bigger tires; there is more profit in it for them.
Wheel and tire weight; this might be the most important of our variables. The lighter the rotating mass the less your engine needs to work at rotating it and more energy is available for your acceleration (same with the deceleration). Remember the little Miata engine is not a torque machine; its sensitive to rotating mass. Even after the motor swap or supercharger you still want to try and reduce un-sprung weight as much as possible. My initial goal was to get the lightest wheel in the desired size; ultimately my desire to reduce weight dictated wheel size.
I used the NASA Spec wheel weights as a lower limit of acceptable wheel weight. My thinking is NASA does not believe a wheel that weights less than this spec is safe (maybe or maybe its to keep cost in check) and this is the sweet spot for competition between manufactures. This is were the rubber meets the road (pun!) for supply and demand. You can try to get under these weights but its going to cost you.
Spec e30: Wheels shall be 14 by 6 inches, 14 by 6.5 inches, or 15 by 7 inches, and shall weigh a minimum of thirteen (13) pounds. Any brand, unless specified in these regulations, is allowed. – Spec Miata is the same.
Spec 968: The 17 x 7 inch wheel must weigh at least 18.5 lbs. and 17 x 8.5 inch wheel must weigh at least 20.0 lbs.
If you were paying attention that’s a 7lb difference between a 17″ and 15″ wheel!! Tires in the width and aspect ratio that are relevant will add about 1-2lbs per wheel. 36lbs potential weight reduction, sorry, added lightness.
To complicate matters further try finding one of these competition 17″x8″ wheels with a 4×100 bolt pattern, ha! Most tuner wheels make less effort to achieve lightness.
Tire selection, nothing worse than wanting to run the latest and greatest tire and finding out its not available in your wheel size. Try finding tires for 13″ wheels! This is not an issue for the Catfish but if you wanted to build a GTAm tribute car or an original Mini Cooper, good luck. As a function of shear number of cars being used in competition 15″ is a very common size. 17″ is becoming/is a standard too as they are whats generally being offered by manufactures on late model sports cars; lots of choices here. 16″ wheels are less common than either of the other two. Some popular brands have a decent selection but not all of them. The BFGoodrich Rivals, which are the tires I want to run, for example only come in one 16″ size which happens to have too large of an outside diameter (24.9″) given our constraints.
Similarly tire availability can be an issue too. If you have friends who are in a tire war in their class and need to run new tires every other race to keep that 1/10th of a second edge they can be a great source for tires. Given 16″ and 17″ tires are spec’ed in so few classes your are less likely to be able to find deals on slightly used R-comps in these sizes.
And that brings us to tire cost. The smaller the wheel diameter the less expensive (with a few exceptions). I was hoping to run BFGoodrich Rivals as I have read some good propaganda about them. Wear and communication are high on my list of tire traits. So here are some prices for comparison (taken from the TireRack website): 225/45R15 $115.00 – 225/50R16 $136.00 – 225/45R17 $141.00. Not a big difference but those are the numbers.
There are other considerations for final wheel choice; manufacture and manufacturing technique, offsets, style, finish, supplier. Of these offset is the only one that is really worth talking about in the context of this post. Offset is the difference between the wheel’s geometric center and the inside hub face. Too large of an offset and the wheels will be tucked deep under the body and will look poorly. In addition you will reduce your track width; there’s all sorts of goodness that comes with a wider track width. Too little of an offset and you wheels stick outside of the body and you increase the loading on the hub. Goodwin Racing has a good write up on offsets and Miata’s here. Cord recommended between +25 and 0mm for body fitment. I chose +25mm as a function of availability and the ability to adjust down to 0mm with spacers.
(Wheel hubs are designed with a given loading. Exceed this loading too excessively and you risk hub failure. Hubs are wear items. If it is not on your list of preventative maintance items on your track car you should put them there.)
Okay so what did I decide? Konig Wideopens, 15×8 with a +25mm offset that weigh 12.95lbs. I will post pics when they arrive Friday. Weight savings ended up dominating my decision process. Had the lighter wheels cost more than the larger ones I might have had a reason to consider another size.
Additional resources:
For understanding wheel/tire size this site is invaluable; RimsnTires
For a great selection of wheels specific to Miata fitment and with wheel weights confirmed with pictures! Goodwin Racing I can’t stress “with pictures” enough. There are a lot of bogus weights listed out there.
XXR wheels has a really good selection of wheels with 4×100 spacing and offsets that work well for the Catfish. I was pretty close to picking up a set of their 530’s but in the end they did not have available the offset I wanted.
Here is a e30 forum thread that covers wheel diameters well; short and to the point.
There is a lot of garbage written out there on this particular topic. Do your homework.
Now on to Catfish related business. After a couple of months working on side projects and prepping the e30 for last week’s track days the power train was rolled back into the shop. The big news is the arrival of the coilovers!
I had been watching ebay and the forums for a few months now for a deal on performance suspension components for a Miata. A couple deals slipped through my fingers but finally I found one that fit the bill; a set of JDM Tein Mono-Flex Coilovers. The price was right and it had the right basic spec list. True coil overs with both ride height and preload adjustments, 16 way adjustable dampeners, rebuild-able, and electronic force dampening controller compatible.
The spring rates are not quite what Cord is recommending for a hot track setup (9/6 kg/mm) but 8/7 kg/mm. Tein springs are reasonably priced and interchangeable with other manufacturers so it will be a matter picking up a few extra coils for fine tuning. I expect given Sebring is as bumpy as it its my hot setup will be different anyway. I’ll pick up a set of 9 and 6 kg/mm springs and have a nice range to play with at different tracks.
A few months ago I share here on the blog the BBK that came in for the Catfish. Well it literately sat on my desk at work till last week. Now its mounted on the power train. Wilwood make some quality products at very reasonable prices. I was shocked at how light the calipers were when I first received them.
I had another great time with the NASA folks at Sebring last weekend. Good quality track time, good friends, new friends, and a pig roast to close it out. This may have been the last weekend for the e30 at the track. Soon enough the Catfish will arrive and assume the roll of track toy.
A lot of good things can be said of the e30 platform. They are inexpensive to buy, to maintain, and to track. There is a plethora of performance parts that can be had at budget friendly prices. And they are very reliable once one goes through the maintenance that any 20+ year old car needs. The big six in mine did not hurt the fun factor either 😀 !
In preparation for the weekend I added a race seat, harness, and checked the corner balance of the car. Turns out despite a 4% forward weight bias, as it is setup right now the cross weight is nearly perfect. The numbers below are with a 1/3 of a tank of gas and me in the drivers seat.
The weekend was highlighted with an end of the year party with the guys from MAD Motorsports and the Spec E30 racers. Diego of MAD Motorsports was kind enough to supply the pig and the pit support to make it happen. Here are a few pics form the prep, the pig, and the party.
Big fan of the Cup. It’s great to see OTUSA come back from the brink and serve the challenge back to ETNZ. From an engineering perspective, it does not get much better than this!!
Good Luck Team USA!
Catfish? 