Brian's First ND Projects

[skeeler]

Brian,

I'm sure your already plotting your first ND projects. Can you share any of your plans with us? Once the parts become available from you and other manufacturers, I'd love to see a Street Touring build of the ND.

[Brian]

I am real excited about the ND, can't wait to get my hands on it. The mild projects will come first, they have the widest appeal, look to what we did for our Project 2012 as a guide for what we will do first for ND. That will mean the list starts with mild springs and sways, exhaust, etc. We will also jump quickly into figuring what wheel and tire packages fit.

Beyond these points I just don't know yet, will need to spend some miles in the car to understand what is there from the factory. For example, I have talked to Ohlins about getting my dream of getting one of the first ND and driving it all the way across the country to get it on their shaker table so we can start coilovers....that would be a fun trip of hundreds of miles per day that would really help me learn the the ND specifics.

[skeeler]

Thanks for your reply. Now that you mention it, wheels and tires are an obvious early step. The first question will be whether the any 15-inch wheels (6ULs, Storms, Dial Ins, and PF01s, certainly not RPF1s) will clear the brakes. I'm certainly looking forward to what you can cook up.

[Chuck H]

Cook up a straight thru muffler similar to the NC Street or Race single as one of the first projects. The one that's installed on the show car looks ridiculous. That rear valence is just crying out for a good looking small muffler, not the monstrosity that they have on the show car!

[Brian]

That factory rear exhaust cutout is a problem. Factory made it almost oval in shape, and just big enough to fit two SMALL tips in the street car, not big enough for two big tips, not quite right with one big tip you see on the race car, not sure what to do there. We could do custom oval tip to better fit the space but the extra BIG machine costs would make the final result pretty expensive. Will need to lay on the ground under there a while for a better look.

[skeeler]

I think a single oval tip would look good while giving the cross-sectional area for good flow. I'm hoping you find a source for oval stainless tubing, so you don't have to incur those big machine costs you mentioned.

[skeeler]

Brian, do you know if aftermarket parts developers, such as you, will be granted access to the ND before release, in order to kickstart parts development? Toyota and Subaru did that with the FR-S/BRZ/86, and I would hope that Mazda would be eager to engage the aftermarket for their new halo car. I know you are geographically close to Mazda NA's HQ, so I'm hoping you will be involved.

[Brian]

I have asked...and so far Mazda not playing that game.

[skeeler]

Sigh. It's good to know you are on top of the situation, though. It seems like it would be a great opportunity for essentially free publicity among the enthusiasts. Perhaps the car is not finalized yet, and once we get closer to release, they will decide to play "that game."

[Chuck H]

That factory rear exhaust cutout is a problem. Factory made it almost oval in shape, and just big enough to fit two SMALL tips in the street car, not big enough for two big tips, not quite right with one big tip you see on the race car, not sure what to do there. We could do custom oval tip to better fit the space but the extra BIG machine costs would make the final result pretty expensive. Will need to lay on the ground under there a while for a better look.

I think an oval tip would look pretty good. Not sure whether your exhaust fabricator has any existing tip designs that would fit the bill without you having to pay all the machining costs, though. There are a few reasonably priced options out there like this one, though:

http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/p ... cts_id=105. It's about $25 from Summit or Jegs, so I'm sure it's even cheaper at OEM pricing.

For a serious no-bling muffler like the NC RS Race (no fancy polished tip), maybe the fabricator could just expand the end of the tailpipe a bit and then flatten it somewhat into an oval without having to weld on a separate piece?