I didn't have time in the end. I did look on their website and suprisingly I can buy them for almost the same price in the UK. Its actually a good thing I didn't buy them as my bags were right on the weight limit, had I gone over the limit my savings would have been wiped out by excess baggage charges :-)

What I will say is that pedal box is firmly on my winter upgrade list.

Brakes arrived today. Flyin Miata Lil Big Brake Kit - Wilwood 4 piston front and rear, 10" slotted rotors, and the ebrake version for the rear caliper. It's nice to have something that just bolts together. Just need to get some longer steel braided line up front and bleed the system and brakes are complete.

What pads did you go for? I tried the Wildwood smart pads and didn't like them I'm now using mintex 1144's and they are much better

The kit came with a set of wilwood polymatrix e compound pads. Dont know much about them, we'll see.

Ok where to begin...It's been a busy few weeks here.

To start I did my second running of the 24hrs of America Kart Race, we finished 12th overall and first in class. Did 1456 laps and roughly 960 miles.


Once I got back and rested a few day, I got back into the car and started back at it. This led to to the first few mistakes I've had as well as some good progress.

Mistake 1: After installing the brake kit I needed to order a set of braided lines for the front. So after measuring and re-measuring I ordered a set of braided lines to fit the front brakes. Well wouldn't you know it, but I never thought to take the steering into account and ended up with a $90 set of lines that were 4 inches to short.

Mistake 2: Assuming that I would somehow be the lucky one that made the $35 brake flaring tool actually work without leaking. Needless to say my front lines which were the first I made leaked like crazy. Thankfully the long line from the pedals to the rear was good as well as the secondary rear line. The upside was I had a set of lines cut and shaped to size, so it was just a matter of having the company that made my braided lines flare me a set of straight lines at the length I needed and then shape them myself. This was another $90, but I was able to return the junk tool as well as a number of other bits and pieces I didn't need and recouped a good chunk of that.

Mistake 3: This less of a mistake and more of a slight hassle. Ordered a aluminum radiator for a 65 ford mustang. I had read that this would fit the nose cone. Well it didn't, and would need to be shortened in order to work. So while looking for someone that could shorten it, I stumbled upon someone on ebay.co.uk that was making and selling a kit car specific aluminum radiator for a reasonable price and was willing to ship to the US. So I returned the mustang radiator, and ordered the kit car one... Which fits beautifully. Cost was about $200.

Mistake 4: This one hurts as the wound is still fresh. On Monday of this week I received a large shipment from kitcardirect containing my scuttle, rear fenders, westfield carbon fiber dash, a 7 grill, and front fenders. Well after mounting the scuttle I proceeded to make a template for the dash, well I made the template set it on the carbon dash and cut the hole for the steering column, not noticing till the hole was done that the template was reversed, and I had just cut a 2.5" hole for a right hand drive car. So now I'm trying to come up with a solid solution on how to hide my mistake without re-ordering one, so suggestions are welcome. So far glove box or some sort of plaque it my pick.



So with all the mistakes in the open, let talk about what has actually been completed.

Brakes are now totally functional and complete with the exception of the handbrake lever.

Clutch Pedal is hooked up and functioning.

Steering is complete - after waiting a month for my fabricator to shorten it and re-thread, he finally got it to me and everything his hooked up. I lengthened the stock steering shaft and tie rods.

Nose cone and scuttle are now affixed with dzuz fasteners.

Next up is the cooling system and hand brake.

Here's the pictures:

I can't see your hole you made by mistake, is it neer the one for the passenger side warm air vent ( unfitted as yet )? ;)

TT

You forgot to mention how much fun it is (albeit a little bit painful, I think my best one was the bruising over my hips due to a badly fitting seat a couple of hours into the race). I've done the UK version three times I think, including racing a few of your fellow countrymen ;).

Yeah we raced the big boy class, so we used the largest seat possible. Not ideal for me, but not to bad overall. My biggest problem was my ankle which get messed up after standing on the throttle for 45min at a time.

Here's what I'm thinking for the dash.