Originally Posted by
mr brg
Well, the cars which overheat don't respect Bernoulli's Principle. Seal the front of the heat exchangers, rather than increasing frontal area, and lower pressure behind them (vented hood and / or belly pan that goes back to the steering rack) and the car will cool effectively. The local racecar I've crewed for has a sheetmetal chamber in front of the heat exchangers with a vented hood on a v-mount set-up with a foil to direct only 1"x24" of air to the radiator and the car cooled just fine in 100* heat in the desert. TDR cars do not overheat because not only do they use a good radiator, but Gary makes ducting to go along with them. I have ghetto heat exchangers and didn't need the fans until 90* because my plastic ducting tore through the rivets. I will be able to run this car on the track in 100* heat without using fans when I get the hood on it.
I agree with Altain...250whp is just right. Its enough to throttle steer the car in 5th or 6th on sweepers, but not an obscene amount where you have to worry about oil pump failure, gear oil temps, and it still allows for some margin-of-error.
I am too, but when you get in a miata that makes enough power to use the suspenson and mechanical grip in every corner, you'll like the power too. Sure, most douch-bags with big power cars like to treat the course like a drag-strip...you become a man when you can do more.
I've recently realized that I made a MAJOR mistake with my turbo kit and I'm spending $2k to remedy it because not only do I track the car frequently, but apparently I drive at a different level than the average consumer out there based upon my problems with turbo fasteners. I don't think people realize the demands we put on our cars mechanically. Look at endurance racing from big money teams...we want Audi's racetrack reliability in a $5k kit and I bet you expect to get more than 12-track events out of your car (24-hours of seat time). You're going to have to pay a bit to get there but you get it in TDR's kit...I've had to do a lot more to get my turbo car there...hopefully I've made it.