Occam’s Racer Greatest Hits

This site recently hit half a million views, and that milestone seems like a good time to reflect on how this all began.

I started this website in January 2019, with the intention of filling gaps in the Miata aerodynamics knowledge base, such as roofline shape (fastback vs OEM vs open top, etc.). I also wanted to make it easier to find information on Miata aerodynamics in general. There’s a lot of great information strewn about online, but it’s mixed up with things that are misleading or outright wrong (ahem, CFD). My intention was to put all the good stuff in one place, and keep adding to it.

Seven years later, my own site is becoming difficult to navigate. I’ve polluted all the good Miata information with tire tests, waded into articles on performance driving, mixed that in with a silly hatchback, and have even used this website as a goddamn diary. Now I have the same navigation problems I was trying to solve! So I thought an annotated list of my best articles could prove useful.

But it also occurred to me that recycling old content is anything but original. It’s like when a band releases a Greatest Hits album… is there a clearer sign that the band has hit the end of their career than re-releasing old songs on a new album? Well I guess there is something worse, they could start writing songs about Rock and Roll.

Song about Rocking are the death knell of writer’s block. Whether it’s I Wanna Rock, or Rockin in the USA, or the worst song of all time, We Built this City (on Rock and Roll), writing about rocking is the opposite of rocking. It’s sucking.

So here we go. Here’s my Greatest Hits of the Occam’s Racer website, and I hope it rocks out!

Top five

The top five songs articles in terms of traffic are:

• Miata Fastbacks and Aftermarket Tops – Alternatives to the convertible and OEM hardtop, with some of my DIY efforts at the end.
• Car Wing Comparisons – I investigate different wings you see on cars, with some low-Reynolds, high-lift standouts like the MSHD, S1223, etc.
• How to Calculate Wing Downforce – I would never use such a simple formula to estimate downforce, but apparently other people use this a lot.
• Spoiler vs Wing – Wings get a lot of attention, but spoilers don’t reduce front downforce the way wings do, and so spoilers are actually better for cars without a splitter.
• Top 10 Reasons Your Splitter Sucks – Most people don’t understand that it’s the underside of their splitter that’s important, and do silly stuff like make their splitter out of Alumalite, or mount their Racebred splitter upside down.

B-sides

These are slightly less popular, but are referenced a lot.

• The Dunning-Kruger of Car Aerodynamics – We all start our aero journey without knowing what we’re doing, but with all the confidence in the world. Eventually that flip flops and we find ourselves in the pit of despair. And then we crawl out.
• Active Aero Wings and Spoilers – Wherein I run simulations in OptimumLap and discover that DRS isn’t that useful on single-element wings and spoilers.
• Thinking in Aerodynamic Coefficients – One of my favorite articles, with lots of different cars. If you like this one, I wrote another article with more examples.
• How Downforce Affects Tires – You go faster, your tires last longer. Here’s why.
• GT7 Aerodynamics – A self-indulgent nerd article on the non-realistic aerodynamics in Gran Turismo 7 results in some pretty cool discoveries, like the speed they use for downforce values, and the aero balance of all the cars.

Performance driving

My identical twin brother has a website, You Suck at Racing, which is largely about performance driving. So I don’t delve into this topic much, but I have written a few articles on the subject.

• Developing a vMin Table for Data Coaching at Watkins Glen – The most significant impact I’ve made to data coaching was an attempt at getting out of it.
• Understeer is Faster than Oversteer – Proof that forcing an understeering car to oversteer on corner entry is faster than catching a car that wants to oversteer everywhere.
• Twin studies – My identical twin brother and I have opposite driving styles, and yet we’re both very fast. Lots of data here.
• The No-Brakes Drill is the Foundation of Performance Driving – If you don’t have a skid pad, this is how to become a limit driver. Come to Pineview and do the 3rd Gear No Brakes drill with me.

Podcasts

These aren’t listed anywhere on this website, but I’ve been on a few podcasts. Some of these are Spotify links, or Apple, or whatever. I don’t manage them, so don’t kill the messenger.

• Aero for Endurance Racing – I try to use the Socratic method with Bill and Vicki, but I get blindsided by questions. This is a good one, though.
• Miata Aero – I go on the Blind Apex podcast to talk about wind tunnel tests on a Miata, and how they don’t match the CFD at all.
• Wind Tunnel Best Practices – AJ Hartman and I discuss BPs with Kaan.
• Taking Driver Coaching to 11 – I recap coaching with Speed Secrets Academy.
• Garage Heroes in Training 439 – My brother and I talk about aero and Lemons racing.
• RacersHQ – I talk aero with a Lemons team, and reveal some results from the wind tunnel.

Miata aerodynamics

It all began with Miata aerodynamics….

• Testing Miata Aerodynamics at Watkins Glen – The test that started it all. This used to be the #1 article on the Hagerty site before they killed the site altogether.
• Visualizing Airflow for 2D and 3D Wings – I put a GoPro on the side of my car and capture video of cardboard telltales at various positions. This is how you figure out the angle of incidence on the rear wing. Good stuff.
• Where Does Drag Come From on a Miata? – I wrote this before I took Phil Sproger’s Miata to the wind tunnel.
• Miata Hood Vents and Miata Fender Vents – All of the things you want to know on venting, backed up by wind tunnel testing.
• Miata Wind Tunnel Report – I take a Miata dressed up in full 9 Lives catalog, and get very different results in the wind tunnel than they got in CFD. Lots of other very cool stuff tested.

Miatas, but not aerodynamics

I’ve written a couple good articles on Miatas that aren’t just about aero.

• Miata Suspension Calculator – Wherein I use Fat Cat’s calculator to examine different combinations of springs and sway bars, and how that affects front roll couple (understeer vs oversteer).
• Tuning a 1.6 Miata – A modern take on the solomiata.com formula. After two previous articles on why I wasn’t going to do a 1.8 swap (part 1 and part 2), I go deep into the weeds squeezing the last performance from a NA 1.6. The puncline is that I’m currently in the middle of a 1.8 swap. However, back when it was a 1.6, there was that one time it beat up a KMiata and took its lunch money.
• Setting Miata Lap Records at NYST – Three Miatas crush lap records at NYST. I’m along for the data.
• First Timer Building a Track Miata – My advice on the subject, in three stages.
• Making Lemonade from 24 Hours of Lemons – Pre-race preparation fails, a DIY shooting brake, shitting all over myself (literally), and then the fine taste of sour grapes, this article has it all.

Veloster N aerodynamics

Hatchback’s have shitty aero, but I keep polishing this turd.

• How Much Downforce Do Canards Make? – I test the exact same canards in three different locations and get anywhere from 9 lbs to 81 lbs of downforce. Astonishing.
• Testing Spoilers and Wings on a FWD Hatchback – This is a must-read for people who believe aero balance should match chassis balance. What’s surprising is that the car goes faster with more rear downforce and no front downforce. I then do the same test at NYST, and the results are even more dramatic, -2.5 seconds per lap only with rear aero. I then try a similar test at Watkins Glen.
• Veloster N Splitters – Kinda everything on the subject, including aftermarket products, DIY build, and wind tunnel results.
• Testing Wing Endplates – I test a bunch of endplates and find out that the 9LR CFD endplate works the same forward and backwards, and that the best of the test is a street sign cut in half.
• Diffusers Without Flat Bottoms – The A2 wind tunnel isn’t the ideal place to test underbody aero, but I do it anyway, and come away unimpressed.

Veloster N, but not aerodynamics

More words on the best car I’ve owned.

• Long-term Track Report – I recap a couple years of ownership, and why I bought the same car twice.
• Tow Hitch – There’s no tow hitch available for the N, so I modified the tow hitch for a base model Veloster. Twice.
• Mando ECS10 for Veloster N – How to install and configure the Mando suspension controller for your Veloster N or Kona N.
• Hood Vents and Cooling – I test engine temperature using 50/50 anti-freeze versus Water Wetter and also hood vents. I later did an article where I installed Race Louvers.
• Engine Modes Dynoed – I take my car to the dyno and get 244 hp at the wheels. And then I test the different engine modes and find out it’s basically the same in every mode.

DIY

I build a lot of my own aero parts, so it was hard to cull this list to just five.

• MSHD GLTC 500 – I build a foam and fiberglass wing with a MSHD profile, 3D shape, and 500 square inch limit. I test it in the wind tunnel and beats all the other wings.
• DIY Selig S1223 – I build a low-Reynolds high-lift wing the old-fashioned way.
• Miata Opera Coupe – This is the stupidest DIY project I ever did, giving my Miata the “She’s my sister and my daughter” look of an opera coupe.
• Gas Can Speed Test – I try different ways to dump 5 gallons of fuel as quickly as possible.
• Cold-side Ram Intake – I make a ram-air cowl induction system that is so loud I have to remove it. In keeping with the DIY theme, I make a manometer out of a soda bottle and yard stick.

Tire Tests

I have hundreds of laps at Pineview Run, and can consistently put a car on the limit. I feel like this makes my tire tests pretty decent.

• Track Tested: Armstrong Blu Trac Race, Hankook RS4, Vitour P1 Tempesta, Pirelli PZero PZ4, Michelin Pilot Super Sport, Goodyear Supercar 3R, Kumho V730 – Self explanatory title.
• Long Live the Hankook RS4 – Data and musings support why this is my all-time favorite tire.
• Tire Testing Accelera 651 Sport – This is a 300TW tire with a 200TW label. But it’s cheap, and I like it OK.
• Is the Blu Trac Race the Best HPDE Tire? – This is a 400TW tire with a 200TW label. Nevertheless, I conclude that the all-season grip level and predictability make this a great learning tire.
• Vitour Tempesta P1 vs Nankang CRS – I take a deep dive into someone else’s data and write the first comparison article on the P1.

Race reports

My race reports are long and narcissistic, and belong in a worst-of Occam’s Racer. Skip these.

• Beating up Miatas in a Yaris – We race Thunderhill backwards in a 100-hp FWD hatchback and beat 10 out of 12 Miatas.
• Everturrible: I race a Honda minivan at Thompson, Thunderbolt, and PittRace. This was my last and best race in it, in which I also used Accelera 651 Sport tires.
• Mid Ohio Part 5. Driver-mod coach and Supermiata driver Sonny Watanasirsuk joins the Occam’s Racer team for an enduro at Mid-O. Alyssa, who had never driven the track before, beats Sonny in every session.
• Sebring Race Report – I drive a first-gen MR2 in the rain, beat the team’s best lap by 10 seconds, break the car, and kill a wild boar.

Snark

Because aerodynamics is a math-heavy, nerdy subject, I try to be both informative and amusing at the same time. Sometimes I have fun is at someone else’s expense, but it’s meant in jest, not to harm.

Who am I kidding? Sometimes I’m out to hurt feelings. I mean, that’s why I drive a fucking Miata. It’s underpowered, a disrespected hair-dresser car. So when I pass a GT4 Clubsport on the outside, and they park it in the next session… bitch, that’s winning.

So here are a few of my most insulting articles.

• The Dumbest Aero Rules? Splitter Rules – I bash everyone who regulates that splitters must be flat and horizontal. And I bash Lee Childs for conflating a M1 Garand and a M14.
• Autocross N00b: In which I try to class my Miata to a fecking ridiculous set of rules, drive poorly, and realize I have Lyme disease. Again.
• The Aerodynamics of Open Windows – This is actually a really useful article, but I never turn down the chance to poke fun at a Porsche owner bringing a Cup Car to a DE.
• What’s Your Excuse for Not Using Aero? – Any article that starts by threating the reader with a dick punch is fucking GOLD. This is a follow-up to my favorite smoothbrain saying, “My car doesn’t have enough power to use aero.”