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build diary November 22, 2005: Hey, a real update with real information in it! My new muffler arrived today. It's monstrous. 6" in diameter and 27" long. It's a big change from the 3.5" resonator I have now. I suspect it will muffle the Seven almost completely. That's not such a bad thing, it's a vocal little beast and while I'll probably miss the flames and racket, this will let me hit full throttle without wincing. The resonator didn't really work well for actual muffling. I'll get used to this new monster eventually. Hopefully. Maybe I'll have to exchange it for a 4 x 22" one or something. While reading various Carroll Smith books and Miata technical manuals (how sad is that?) I realised that I have a potential area of improvement. My shocks came with little hard bumpstops. Nothing fancy, just something to take the worst shock out of a bottoming. The original Miata came with a similar setup with a little more attention paid to the shape. In 1999, Mazda introduced a much softer bumpstop that looks remarkably like the ones described by Smith. They're made of urethane and according to Mazda, "Because urethane has damping force, the bump stopper reduces the skipping sensation experienced during strong laternal gravitational force on rough road surfaces and improves cornering". Hmm, I expect the engineer that wrote that was Japanese. But I have a set here off a Miata and I'll give them a try. Bill Ritzel, a Miata enthusiast, sent me some pictures of a clever plug wire cover he made. I think that will be a nice addition to the Seven and keep the wires from scuffing on the hood. Watch this space! entry 1074 of 1439 |