Matt Black Racer

[built4speed]

Hello people, my name is Jarred and im addicted to racing!
A change in personal situation meant i had to retire my Evo Circuit/Time attack car. Its for sale atm if anyone is interested, 2013 Pro Street Champion



Begining of December last year i was convinced to build a cheap hack to do the new mx5 cup in. Que searches of trademe and sella.
The latter i happened to stumble upon a very cheap mx5 which was in palmy.





A couple of text messages later and the owner was able to drop the car off to my mates at Mag and Turbo Palmy.
Within 5 minutes of the car being there i got the call that i had to buy it and had to do it now, dont ask questions.
So i settled on a price of $1700 and the owner left the car there for is journey to badness to begin.

Fast foward 2 months, i decided to pop down to see my purchase.
I had ordered a fiberglass hardtop and had been told the car had aftermarket extractors, thats it.

I arrived to a car with a full cage fitted and hardtop fitted, was stoaked!
Excuse the shit pics, the Lifeproof case was a tad dirty.





I then got informed the car has bilstiens in it and that all i need is sleeves to turn them into coilovers.
A quick text to my right hand man Paddy from Autolign Palmy had this sorted.
Ive got a stash of springs from when we played with rates in the evo, so wont have to purchase any springs.

I left Palmy after a heavy night on the booze rather excited about life, apart from the fact im now chasing sponsorship from the likes of Just for Men...

Moving along, i made an order with Racetech for a Saker model seat. These lay back so give a lot more headroom for taller people in such little cars.

Mag and Turbo traded a set of 15x7 Atech rims which i have now claimed for cheap.

Pics from the next work session















Had an arvos work on the car mid May. The boys had the seat mounted, after a sit in the steering column needs lowering.
I filled the rub down the passengers side. So its ready for painting now after a quick scotchie.



The boys at Craig Patterson Fabrication and Bar gave the car a lick of paint a couple of days later.

[built4speed]

2nd of June was my first days racing and testing. Few issues with the car and i was pritty rusty from the 8 month gap since my last door to door race.
Camera is a Contour Roam2 mounted on my helmet. Gives a good drivers perspective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASrY5H_VH9E

Graphics on the car was a combination of me and friends while drinking, the mrs and some 6 year old kids we gave the box of chalk too.
Got plenty of people talking!





This pic is the outside view of the near miss in the video.



To follow my racing on Facebook, like my page. 77 Motorsport

http://www.facebook.com/JarredBirdRacing

[MrGrey]

very very cool!

what a great purchase for $1700!

[Furai]

Welcome! Great little build up, such cheap race cars!

Good job avoiding those few little mishaps in the video! Got close a few times.

Im not a racing driver but one suggestion you might(Hopefully) find helpful after watching your video is to try keep 2 hands on the wheel as often as possible and at 9 and 3 or there abouts.

You can see in this video I get sideways a few times and having two hands on the wheel helps.

http://youtu.be/0eOzZYddueY

Not the same as racing of course!

[built4speed]

Welcome! Great little build up, such cheap race cars!

Good job avoiding those few little mishaps in the video! Got close a few times.

Im not a racing driver but one suggestion you might(Hopefully) find helpful after watching your video is to try keep 2 hands on the wheel as often as possible and at 9 and 3 or there abouts.

You can see in this video I get sideways a few times and having two hands on the wheel helps.

http://youtu.be/0eOzZYddueY

Not the same as racing of course!

Thanks man, the driving is a mix of things. Bad habbits play a big part, but a lot is to do with there not being room.
Im quite large/wide and the mx5 cabin is rather small. 9 and 3 doesnt really work because of the door bar in the cage. My arm is constantly hitting the door card and bar, remembering im seated very low.
The wheel is only just above my legs, looking at a smaller wheel.
The driving style while im working on fixing it, isnt really holding me back.

The spin was on old near bald r888's, it had drizzled just prior to our start and someone had dropped oil through parts of the track. I was pushing pritty hard to catch a mate and just overcooked it a tad.

Im looking at rack spacers so i have a better chance of catching the big slides with more lock. Anyone done this before?

[Snapfrozen]

Welcome! Great little build up, such cheap race cars!

Good job avoiding those few little mishaps in the video! Got close a few times.

Im not a racing driver but one suggestion you might(Hopefully) find helpful after watching your video is to try keep 2 hands on the wheel as often as possible and at 9 and 3 or there abouts.

You can see in this video I get sideways a few times and having two hands on the wheel helps.

http://youtu.be/0eOzZYddueY

Not the same as racing of course!

Thanks man, the driving is a mix of things. Bad habbits play a big part, but a lot is to do with there not being room.
Im quite large/wide and the mx5 cabin is rather small. 9 and 3 doesnt really work because of the door bar in the cage. My arm is constantly hitting the door card and bar, remembering im seated very low.
The wheel is only just above my legs, looking at a smaller wheel.
The driving style while im working on fixing it, isnt really holding me back.

The spin was on old near bald r888's, it had drizzled just prior to our start and someone had dropped oil through parts of the track. I was pushing pritty hard to catch a mate and just overcooked it a tad.

Im looking at rack spacers so i have a better chance of catching the big slides with more lock. Anyone done this before?

Spaced the rack before in my old race car. Was successful but always felt a bit dodgy in the back of my mind. Remember reading that there was an RX7 manual rack that fitted quite easily and was very good lock to lock (approx 3? turns?). Smaller wheel will help, same thing, my door bars in the EG were really high and I'd knock my elbow on them, smaller wheel brought the arms in.

[Furai]

Welcome! Great little build up, such cheap race cars!

Good job avoiding those few little mishaps in the video! Got close a few times.

Im not a racing driver but one suggestion you might(Hopefully) find helpful after watching your video is to try keep 2 hands on the wheel as often as possible and at 9 and 3 or there abouts.

You can see in this video I get sideways a few times and having two hands on the wheel helps.

http://youtu.be/0eOzZYddueY

Not the same as racing of course!

Thanks man, the driving is a mix of things. Bad habbits play a big part, but a lot is to do with there not being room.
Im quite large/wide and the mx5 cabin is rather small. 9 and 3 doesnt really work because of the door bar in the cage. My arm is constantly hitting the door card and bar, remembering im seated very low.
The wheel is only just above my legs, looking at a smaller wheel.
The driving style while im working on fixing it, isnt really holding me back.

The spin was on old near bald r888's, it had drizzled just prior to our start and someone had dropped oil through parts of the track. I was pushing pritty hard to catch a mate and just overcooked it a tad.

Im looking at rack spacers so i have a better chance of catching the big slides with more lock. Anyone done this before?

I can understand that, Im 6'5" myself so had to remove the door handle and that for a good fit.

I drift and have iConcept tie rods(effectively one lock spacer but beffier and more thread too) and these work great. You dont need much more just a little more.

[Furai]

Feels like Im spamming but this is the angle you can recover from with an extra spacer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj9p2lkG ... page#t=18s

[built4speed]

I can understand that, Im 6'5" myself so had to remove the door handle and that for a good fit.

I drift and have iConcept tie rods(effectively one lock spacer but beffier and more thread too) and these work great. You dont need much more just a little more.

They sound the ticket, how much and where from?

[Furai]

$170 from Japan, Ill send you a PM.

[marcellarius]

Feels like Im spamming but this is the angle you can recover from with an extra spacer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj9p2lkG ... page#t=18s

Looks to me like you recovered it by decelerating enough that your tyres regained grip, rather than it being due to a small amount of extra steering lock.

I generally believe it's more effective to look critically at your driving technique before opening the toolbox

[Furai]

Feels like Im spamming but this is the angle you can recover from with an extra spacer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj9p2lkG ... page#t=18s

Looks to me like you recovered it by decelerating enough that your tyres regained grip, rather than it being due to a small amount of extra steering lock.

I generally believe it's more effective to look critically at your driving technique before opening the toolbox

Its hard to say but I know if I had stock lock I would have spun. Its surprising how much that little bit helps. I went from spinning every second run to hardly spinning at all just with those tie rods. In saying that it takes away about 1.2M from the turning circle.

[Mad Kiwi]

Not sure why no on ehas picked up on it but

TELL US MORE ABOUT THE SEAT!!!!!

I am really struggling fro room in my road/race car (6'2") and my bad back (MX accident) means i need to lay down.

I am on my 2nd race seat and still cant get it right.

That seat looks awesome

P.s awesome deal with the car, I am hoping to enter a couple of those races while they are still allowing open mods (turbo)....

[built4speed]

I generally believe it's more effective to look critically at your driving technique before opening the toolbox

Driving technique adjustment isnt going to help when you are on the edge of physical grip. I did my fastest lap times with small exit oversteer due to the speed id carried. All it took was someone dropping oil, coolant or a shower of rain to make things interesting.

[built4speed]

Not sure why no on ehas picked up on it but

TELL US MORE ABOUT THE SEAT!!!!!

I am really struggling fro room in my road/race car (6'2") and my bad back (MX accident) means i need to lay down.

I am on my 2nd race seat and still cant get it right.

That seat looks awesome

P.s awesome deal with the car, I am hoping to enter a couple of those races while they are still allowing open mods (turbo)....

The seat is amazing, im 6' and pretty wide at 115kgs. You can see how low it sits you from the video and the pic of the slide. It does make your knees close to the steering column and I had to space the wheel down.

As above its a Racetech Saker model. Around $700 from memory.

[Mad Kiwi]

Sweet, will have to look at that tomorrow. Your car isn't in auckland is it?

Also, with the long blond hair and so on (photo above), you dont look 115kg's...you carry it well! [/img]

[built4speed]

Sweet, will have to look at that tomorrow. Your car isn't in auckland is it?

Also, with the long blond hair and so on (photo above), you dont look 115kg's...you carry it well! [/img]

Car lives in Palmerston North atm sorry. Haha im a touch larger than the blonde.

[Mad Kiwi]

Hi Jarrod, does your race series head up any further north than Manfield?

Being 2 seats in and still not quite comfortable, I am really keen to sample the seat before I place the order....

You wouldn't mind me trying it out for size at some point would you?

Mark.

[built4speed]

Winter series is Manfeild only sorry. Yea not a problem to try it out.

[MN]

http://www.motorsportmanawatu.org.nz/ev ... -racing-nz

[MrGrey]

now that's cool!

[built4speed]

Racing again on the 6th and 7th

[Mad Kiwi]

built4speed, is there any word on the taupo rounds. The web site link says tbc or something.

After racing bikes for years I am a bit over the drive and stay in manfield, not to mention that place is freezing cold......almost colder than Taupo!

Would be very interested in a taupo round.....

[built4speed]

built4speed, is there any word on the taupo rounds. The web site link says tbc or something.

After racing bikes for years I am a bit over the drive and stay in manfield, not to mention that place is freezing cold......almost colder than Taupo!

Would be very interested in a taupo round.....

Havent heard anymore about it, ill ask next weekend.

[MN]

13 MX5 Cup cars at Manfield today plus another three "5s" (including the V8 ) in 3 other classes. The Cup cars looked very impressive and there were several evenly matched groups within them. One group of 4 even managed a synchronized spin in the last race. Racing in the rain wasn't really a problem for the driver but coming back into the pits at the end of the race at pit lane speed in the middle of a down pour was quite another matter!