Wheels and Brakes

April 14th, 2016

I've been quiet for a while so I wanted to post a teaser update for those of you who have been patiently following this blog.  I recently bought an electric motorcycle, so getting that shipped to New Zealand and legalizing it has taken up a lot of my time.  But!  That hasn't stopped me from collecting parts for the Autozam while I wait for some free time to work on it.

Project Mu B-Spec brake pads!  I've had the Dixcel discs for months with no pads to install them with, so I finally have the ingredients to complete this part of it.

This may sound crazy, but I also decided to buy new rims.  Basically... I went too big with the tires.  Unless I'm using the Silk Road coilovers, which are pretty harsh on the street, I rub in turns.  In fact, I even rub on really small bumps, so they have to go.  Instead of buying new tires and stretching them to fit my staggered 14 fronts and 15 rears, I started looking for 13s.

Why?  13s are what the car came with, and smaller rims are usually better for autocross.  I've always wanted Speedlines (these are my FAVORITE wheel design, even more than the TE37s) and in a random search on Jauce a few weeks ago, these came up.  $500 nzd.  Such a serendipitous occurrence just couldn't be passed up!

So in the next month or so I should be able to start installing all of these parts.  I'll update as soon as I can!

Tire Paint!

February 18th, 2016

Because race car?

I tried traditional tire painting but the original logos were too small to have the effect I wanted.  Being a big fan of the "race" look, and everything RWB does, I decided to photoshop and print out some stencils.

Then I just hand painted them, because I was too impatient to buy spray paint.

It doesn't look that great up close, but nobody will be able to tell AT SPEED!

I dig it.  Next up, ordering new steering parts from Mazda (or, seeing if they CAN order new parts), and eventually having the exhaust installed.  All coming soon!

Springs and Tires and Bars

February 15th, 2016

It's been a long time since I've posted an update, so here's what I've been up to lately!

After my initial suspension swap, everything felt way too stiff and I hated it, so I went back to stock until I could find some softer springs.  A friend at work suggested Autolign in Petone (http://www.autolign.co.nz/) so I had them make some softer springs for the front.  They use a company on the south island called Cobra.  They also come in red.

Here's a shot of the Silk Road shocks under the rubber boot:

^ This is why they're so expensive.  LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT PISTON!!  O_O

The originals were 4k front and 5k rear, so I figured I could just put 3k springs in the front, and move the original 4k fronts to the rear.  The only problem was the difference in size.  Cobra couldn't make shorter springs, so I wasn't able to adjust the front low enough, or the rear high enough.  That and the new springs felt almost as stiff as the originals.

In the end, I put the suspension back together with all Silk Road components the day before Hardpark 2016.  This was an amazing car meet.. possibly the biggest I've ever been to.

There were crowds around the AZ-1 all day long :)  Now that I'd settled on the suspension, it was time to finally put those Yokohama Advan Neovas on!

Plenty of room in there.

Snug.  I dropped the car and tires off at Bridgestone on Adelaide Road.  Even before mentioning that I had fully adjustable suspension, the guy asked if I wanted it set up to any specs.

A few hours later, the tires were fitted:

Beafy!!  That looks right.  I went as big as possible.  In fact, the fronts rub on full lock, and the rears were rubbing on every little bump.  They even rubbed when I accelerated too hard.

The Bridgestone guys aligned it as best they could, but the curb I smashed in my last autocross event bent the right-side steering arm.  I'm going to take it into Mazda this week to see if they can order a new one, and possibly some tie rods.  I'm going to end up replacing everything with new parts eventually.

Japanese auctions are a problem.  I came across someone selling Mazdaspeed strut bars and had to bid.  I was up until 1:30am battling someone for the front bars.  They're really rare, so it was worth it to me.

I love checking out the Japanese newspaper they use to pack everything with.

More bars because race car! :D

In the rear, it got interesting.  I had to raise the springs so the tires wouldn't rub, so while it was all apart, I installed the rear strut bar.  Getting the mounts to fit was a huge pain (you have to remove the intake pipe to tighten the nut down).  I really hope I don't have to adjust my camber again.

Rigidity!  Now it's sitting right and handles like a dream.

A little bonus.... something else came in the mail that I'm pretty excited about.  Stay tuned!

Coilovers!

November 8th, 2015

One of my favorite upgrades to a car is the suspension.  It completely transforms it, and I couldn't wait to install the Silk Road coilovers.  But first, I had to do the obligatory "parts laid out on the floor" photo:

I've been waiting so long to install these!  Here they are outside of the boxes:

The brakes, tires and turbo upgrades will have to wait a little bit longer.  Once the suspension is in, I can have the tires installed and everything aligned at the same time.

With a big new breaker bar and some ratcheting box-end wrenches, I was ready to swap them!

The struts had been replaced before with "New SR" which are made by KYB in Japan.  The stock ride is pretty comfortable, but way too high (am I crazy??) and not quite stiff enough for my tastes.

So in order to have more control of the situation, I went with Silk Road coilovers.  They're pretty exotic and really high quality.  It always feels nice to have new parts in your old car.

Adjustments galore!

Mmmm shiny.  I love it!  What I love more is the new, aggressive stance:

That looks so much better than before (see above photo of the breaker bar for wheel arch gap).  As the suspension settles, it's getting lower and lower.  I may raise it up a bit, and I'm chatting with a local company about having custom springs made for it.  The 4k front / 5k rear are way too stiff for the crappy New Zealand streets.  On smooth roads though, it's responsive and flat.  I'm really excited to finally be working on improving the performance of this car!

NEWS!!!!!!!!!!

October 21st, 2015

Ok, this is exciting!!!!

It suddenly appeared at the front desk of my work.  No name on the packing slip, and the phone number written down was missing a digit.  Somehow the New Zealand customs people let it coast through.  Those little mistakes saved me over $1k in GST fees.  Thank you News!!

The Hitachi HT-07 4A, in all it's insanely small glory.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, really... but it's super tiny.  The only thing funnier is the size of the headers:

Aren't these just the cutest car parts you've ever seen??  Anyway, I originally wanted to have a shop install everything to get before and after dyno runs, and also for tuning.  However, the ecu already has a map on it that works with the turbo, so all I would have to do is install the turbo and adjust the boost.  Seems simple enough that I may try it myself, but who knows what path I'll take in the next few months.  Stay tuned!

Silk Road Coilovers

October 14th, 2015

This is exciting....

Brakes and Bushings!

October 1st, 2015

While I wait for suspension and a new turbo to arrive, I wrote to Soichiro at Monster Sport who managed to find some engine mounts and suspension bushings for me!

The car doesn't have that many miles on it, but rubber degrades over 23 years.  My engine moves around a lot, and the suspension could use a little more stiffness.  Why not swap them all with performance replacements??

These should be awesome!  In the end, it'll be like a brand new car.  Here is the invoice I was sent, just for reference:

And if I'm making the car faster and handle better, I needed some better brakes:

I went with some Dixcel slotted rotors all around.  I hadn't heard of Dixcel, but it came up on a few AZ-1 build blogs in Japan, so they can't be that bad.  They'll at least be an improvement over stock.  Now I just need some pads.