Do professionally made numbers make you faster? Sadly, no, at least when it comes to autocross, they don’t outpace painter’s tape.
This weekend we replaced our Miata’s old, old number panels with some new meatballs from Spinnywhoosh Graphics. The occasion was a Central Florida SCCA autocross on the Daytona International Speedway kart track.
Did we suddenly lap the field? …
Meatballs on white Miatas are where it's at.
Ironically, we had a race car with GRM-provided number panels on it and they were square :)
They caught my eye when we were checking you in. Very nice, and I agree that meatballs look great.
Here's my grassroots version, that I made with a pot lid for a template.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
Thank you. The yellow is a bit "weaker" than expected, to be honest, but it does have a retro look to it. If we have to run numbers, might as well have some fun with it, right?
I used to race with two different race organizations using two different numbers. The perfect solution would have been magnetic 'meatballs' but unfortunately one of my race cars had aluminum doors, bonnet and boot lid and the other was all fibreglass.....
In reply to wspohn :
They now have static cling numbers and panels. Sounds like an intriguing alternative to magnetic.
David S. Wallens said:In reply to wspohn :
They now have static cling numbers and panels. Sounds like an intriguing alternative to magnetic.
I used to carry a set of static cling number ones in my trailer so if someone else had a #50 I could add a one on either end or just over the top of the five or the zero.
wspohn said:I used to race with two different race organizations using two different numbers. The perfect solution would have been magnetic 'meatballs' but unfortunately one of my race cars had aluminum doors, bonnet and boot lid and the other was all fibreglass.....
I had a vendor try to sell me on the idea of magentic stripes for Miatas. Let's see, plastic front bumper, aluminum hood, fiberglass hardtop, plastic rear fascia and bumper - they'd only stick to the windshield header and the trunk lid. And not even that on some of the later cars...
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Yeah, that's not gonna work.
I used to have a vinyl graphics business back in the day..... as a side job when I was in the Navy. I'm thinking of doing this kind of thing again. I'm really looking at getting set up to do my 2022 challenge car. The vinyl isn't super expensive but the hours I'd spend on the design and installation are very real. I have an idea, but I'm almost too excited about it to share it early. I'd love to know the size of the GRM number boards since the car I'm trying to replicate has 3 number boards. I'd like to use the GRM boards for the challenge in the correct race car locations on each side. And I will number the hood to match the original. I'm really, really hoping to get the actual race car number I'm looking to replicate too.
My goal is to build a car that autocrosses very well, looks really cool, but it will not be a fast drag racer.
I need to get digitizing software and get to work on the graphics as they are quite complicated.
See, all those meatballs look good.
In reply to tarmac :
Ta da!
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