Sat, April 7th – (14 Days)

The car made it down to Team MER near Fort Worth, Texas late Thursday.

Robert and the crew from MER have been working on the car since it got there and it is probably going to have the interior, interior panel, and cage painted today and final assembly will start tomorrow.

Robert sent me a couple of cell phone pictures from outside the shop and it snowed a small amount there this morning! Here they are:

  

Things still look good for some testing on the the 17th and 18th of April. Andrew will be flying down on the 16th to help finish up the car and get as much testing in as possible before the car is loaded up and headed towards Houston for the race weekend.

We will keep providing more updates over the next couple of weeks as the car gets finished and testing starts, then we do plan that this blog will be where you can find the latest information on race weekend activities for Andrew and crew. We will be posting directly from the track if we have internet access or we will be calling in reports to Steve Lee from Webs That Work and he will post them ASAP.

Sat, March 31st – (21 Days)

Since the car will be leaving Sunday morning, April 1st (!!) for the trip to Team MER, today was our last day to work on the car at our shop and while we did have a few things to finish we were about as done as we could be.

First we needed to complete putting the new brake pads on and then bleed the brakes with some racing brake fluid. Here are a couple of images of Robert and Ted finishing the brake install.

  

Then Ted started to route the wiring for the Aimsports MXL data system, this was after installing the mounting plate on the steering column. Ted is one of the smaller guys working on the car and as you can tell from the image… that is a good thing!

Robert then fabricated a little plate that he welded onto the top rear of the roll cage to hold the GPS sensor from Aimsports.

After installing the wheels and tires as well as just a few decals of the great folks that helped us so far with this project we dropped the car down onto the ground and took this image with Andrew in the background.

For information on all of the great marketing partners we have on this project, take a look at the “Blogroll” section in the column to the right of the main page of this blog. Please support these fine folks, without their help we would not be able to participate.

They are:

Victory Lane Data
Mazdaspeed
Pinnacle Mazda
Aimsports
Redline Racing Oil
K&N High Performance Filters
Webs That Work
Iron Canyon Motorsports
Mazda-Parts.com
AA Glass Nation
Team Motorsports Racing

Please visit their websites by clicking on their name!! Here is a close-up of the few decals we have on the car for testing. All of our marketing partners be represented well when we get the graphics package placed on the car in a couple of weeks.

After we finished up the car, we backed it out of the shop and put it into the trailer. Here are 4 images of the MX-5 car being loaded up.

        

You probably have seen the bright yellow “smiley face” on the back of the car. This is something that Greg and Christene Bush placed on Andrews Spec Miata during his first year of racing the car and it has become somewhat of a trademark on Andrews car. We had no choice but to move it to the MX-5! Here is a closeup.

Now the first stage of the car build is complete. Team MER will be painting the interior and cage, mounting the RaceTech seat and installing all of the safety gear into the car. They will also be placing a chassis setup onto the car.

In the 18 days since we got the car, a unbelievable amount of work has been completed by a dedicated group of friends. Remember that everybody that worked on the car for these 18 days did so without taking anytime off from their regular jobs. This work was all done in evenings and weekend… with lots of late nights!

Here are the folks that made the build happen:

Scott Soper gave a lot of his time and his shop for the first week of the build.

Steve Lee helped out setting up this blog as well as working at the shop for the first couple of days.

Ted Munday gave a lot of his time and shop as usual. (This is where we prepped our Spec Miata for the past 2 years)

Robert Caddell worked hard for the past couple of weeks and will be traveling to most of the races this year as well.

Others that helped out at Ted’s shop were Rob and Clint.

Ruth (Andrews mom) ran around for parts and food and made eveything easier.

Travis (Grandpa) got the trailer ready and will be towing the car down to Fort Worth as well as all 8 races this year with his wife Kathy.

Andrew worked on the car as well when he was not at work or at school.

Andrew will be going down to the MER shop a week or so before the Houston race to put in several days of testing as well as help with any last minute finishing details.

Robert is also traveling down with the car and will be staying in Fort Worth to help Team MER get the car prepared for the first race.

Things are looking good with a little under 3 weeks to the first race and the Road Atlanta race the following weekend.

I will be able to update this blog over the next 3 weeks on the remainder of the build but I am not sure that I will have images. We will see!

Thanks for following along!

Fri, March 30th – (22 Days)

Good progress is still being made!

 We have finished fitting the interior. Here are a couple of images of Robert Caddell (Andrews cousin) trimming and fitting the panels

  

Robert also has been working on the suspension sensor potentiometers on all 4 wheels that will help us get the car handling great as fast as possible. Here is a image of him cycling the LF suspension so he can design the mounts properly.

One of the next tasks was to remove the insulation in 5 spots on the floor of the car. We used crushed dry ice spread out and it releases the glue and the insulation pops up fairly easily! Here is a image of Andrew crushing and spreading the dry ice.

It looks like we are on schedule for the car to leave our shop and begin the long haul down to the Team MER shop near Fort Worth Texas for the final prep, paint, and testing for the big first race in Houston.

Sun, March 25th – (27 Days)

We are still making good progress on the car. It looks like we are getting close to having completing everything we can do at our shop. We are currently making our plans for transporting the car to the Team MER shop in Fort Worth, TX for the final assembly and testing.

Scott Soper has finished the tough task of re-installing the dash around the roll cage. Scott also trimmed the door panels, completed adding a panel near the cold air intake, and disabled the locking steering all down at his shop. Thanks Scott for all the hard work and the use of the shop!

Then we moved the car to Ted Mundy’s shop where we worked hard on the car all weekend.

    

Ted and Andrews Grandpa (Travis Caddell) installed the Eibach shocks, the racing steel braided brakeline kit, the racing brake pads, test fitted the interior panels. This was on Saturday.

  

On Sunday we started to mount the remote shock resevoirs, the shock travel sensors, the inner door panels and continued working on the interior panels.

We also pulled off the front bumper cover and Andrew built and installed the protective screen for the radiator.

  

Andrew also installed the little rear spoiler.

A few big items still to complete are the interior panel and the Aimsport data aquisition system. These should be complete in the next couple of days!

Things are still coming together great but time is short!

Wed, March 21st – (31 Days)

We got the car back today and the cage is now installed! Here a few images from today as Andrew drove it into the shop while sitting on a milk crate!

     

Here are a couple of closer shots inside the shop:

  

The cage is from “Racing Cages” and they put together a real fine product. Here is their website… Andrew is featured on their front page! Racing Cages

Stuart and Tracy from D&D Fabricating did a great job and got the car finished in a hurry. Big thanks for working around our tight schedule! 

Another full weekend of work is planned for the car as we get to work on the interior panels, limited slip diff, brakes, AiM data system, and a few other small items.

Now we have most of the big items checked off of our build list but we have quite a few smaller items to do and we will be working hard over the next week or 2 to get as many done as possible.

Then we still plan to take the car down to our 2007 race team, MER’s shop at Motorsports Ranch in Texas for the final prep and as much testing as we can get in before the first race on April 21st in Houston, TX.

We also have been working on our trailer getting it all cleaned up and ready for the first trip. New tires have been installed and the triple axles have been checked for alignment. We are re-organizing everything in the trailer for the 2007 season and Andrew’s Grandfather Travis Caddell will be in charge of all of this and pulling the car to all 8 races in 2007.

Mon, March 19th – (33 Days)

On Monday evening we got the car fully prepped to get the cage installed.

We stripped out the dash cover and some other small bits in that area. The door panels that were just hanging there were finally removed fully. This completes the door gutting.

Tuesday the car goes into D&D Fabricating in Puyallup, WA where Stuart will be installing the cage and we hope it will only take a day or 2.

The Team MER folks are continuing to help us out with our daily phone calls. We are targeting about more 2 weeks until we load up the car and tow it down to the MER shops in Texas where the final prep and testing will happen.

Here are a few images from today.

    

  

Sun, March 18th – (34 days)

Great progress today!

We have finished installing the new, sealed engine and ran the car this afternoon. We were able to do this after installing the race radiator. BTW, the Ron Davis Radiator was a very easy install and very nice product.

Here are some images from today.

        

     

The engine sounds and runs great!

Today we also removed the stock steering wheel and drivers side airbag. We also mounted both the front and rear Mazdaspeed racing anti sway bars. They also were installed without any real problems.

Tomorrow we concentrate on removing the dash to prepare for the racing roll cage install that will happen on Tuesday.

Just as a review, since we recieved the car on Tuesday afternoon, March 13th (6 days ago!) we have replaced the engine with a new clutch and oil cooler, stripped the interior, replaced the radiator, sway bars, air intake system, exhaust, installed a oil pressure sensor, and stripped the trunk. Quite a bit accomplished for a few guys that also need to put in a full days work in order to pay for the racing!

Still lots of work to do but we would not be anywhere near as far along without the skilled efforts from Scott Soper who not only is sharing his time but also his shop!

 Thanks Scott.

Sat, March 17th – (35 days)

Today we got a lot done on the car and it is starting to feel like we are making some great progress.

We got the sealed race engine into the car and it is close to being ready to start! We decided to go ahead and install the Ron Davis Racing radiator tomorrow morning so we pulled the stock unit out.

   

First thing this morning Scott Soper pulled the front bumper cover off of the car and installed the fresh air intake system on the car. This went easier than he was thinking and he had it all back together in just a couple of hours. While working on the front end we decided to go ahead and install the new Mazdaspeed front sway bar kit on Sunday.

We installed the new racing exhaust fully and it is now ready to go.

 

Tomorrow we will finish up the engine install and fire up the engine. Also we plan on having both racing sway bars mounted as well as the front brake cooling air ducts.

Things are going great!

Fri, March 16th – (36 days)

Friday we pulled out the engine that was in the car when we received it. The series mandates that we install a tested and sealed engine. This is to try to make the racing as even and close as possible.

We are ready to install the sealed engine and hope to get it most of the way installed on Saturday.

 

Thur, March 15th – (37 days)

Thursday saw Scott gutting out the remaining items in the doors and starting to take apart the dash while I started to work on the race engine by installing the new clutch and pressure plate as well as the oil cooler. I also made plans and measurements for additional sensors for our AiM data system we will be installing in the car.

A hour or so was also spent between Scott and I on the phone with our teammates at Team MER as they answered (quite patiently!) our many questions to try and help make the build process faster.

Things are going as planned so far!