Two cars running!

​Hello Electrified Miata and Formula Mazda-E fans! Yeah, it's been a while
since I last wrote y'all.   A lot to write, and little time to do it.   I'll
explain less and give you just the facts.    Last time I wrote it was going
to be a good race between cars, the Electrified Miata or the Formula
Mazda-E would be first to set it's wheels on the ground and moved under it's
own power.

I've worked on both cars, but the e-Miata is at my house, so it tends
to get more attention from me.   Dave got all the parts we were waiting
on and he spent some quality time putting everything together so the Formula
Mazda-E was on the ground first.

On Sunday, Jan 9th, we went to Harris Hill raceway in Kyle, Texas to run the 
Formula Mazda-E for it's first time out. it did not disappoint in it's
current raw state.  We had one battery cell fail, but that has since been
repaired.   We'll continue to tune and test and report back.   Safety
improvements are first priority!

On Feb, 17th, the eMiata was set down the ground an we're able to try it out
for the first time.   Currently, there is no DC-DC installed so the original
car components, (like lights, etc) run off the 12 volt battery.
The 12 volt battery only lasts about 5 minutes, so our tests are pretty short.
We can definitely say the car will be quicker 0-60 than a stock NB Miata.
How much quicker is hard to say right now.   There are a number of factors
to sort out and get right.   One thing that did surprise me is this eMiata
has some type of limited slip rear end, as you can see it leaves dual tracks
when exceeding the limits of traction.Cool


For the Formula Mazda-E, we'll be concentrating on safety changes first.
These include lights to let everyone know if it's on, since it makes
no noise 'idling', but can move quickly, and lights to know about any
ground fault conditions.   Changes also include some more triangulation around
the battery tray.

For the eMiata, we'll work on getting the DC/DC and charger installed. We'll
also focus on logging so we can get some current 0-60 numbers.  At that point,
I'll be asking members of the local Miata group to borrow some wider and
stickier tires, as the current tires are pretty hard. Huge thank you to the
team as they continue to show up rain or shine, steaming hot or freezing cold.
I couldn't do it without y'all.  Thank you for helping put the rubber to the
road and smiles on our faces. As usual, thanks for reading!