build diary

October 6, 2004: An evening of puttering around.
First, I cut a sheet of cardboard into windshield size (12" high by 35" wide), taped it onto the scuttle and started playing with angles and placement. That lip around the edge of the scuttle sure would be useful for putting on a wind deflector but it gets in the way of a windscreen. It's a little steeper than I'd like at about 70 degrees. I'd prefer about 65 - and those 5 degrees make a big difference. From looking at photos, it appears that CMC puts their windscreens in front of the lip. Hmm, I hadn't looked at those photos last night. Time to go back and re-examine.

Once I got tired of playing with my cardboard, I tried some big tires on for fit. BFG R1s (these have been kicking around for a while!) in a 205/55-14 size on 1994 Miata wheels with a +45 offset. In other words, they're wider and taller than the others I've tried but they have the same centerline. They fit brilliantly in the front. In the rear they clear, but not by a whole lot. When trying to fit the rear fenders, I had problems getting them to bolt up to the flat side of the rear panel - they wanted to sit a little further back and this caused giant gaps as the rear panel started to curve around. So I squeezed them up a little and effectively tightened the curve. I only realised last night that this is why my rear wheels don't look quite centered in the fenderwell! CMC has since extended the rear body slightly and this would solve the problem. If I want to fit truly large tires I'll have to do the same but that's not a big deal. These particular tires fit fine. They sure look mean! I have another track day in late October and I'll see if this old rubber will still stick.

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