August 9, 2010 - Now THAT was fun!
Last weekend was the Flyin' Miata Summer Camp, previously known as the Open House. Some may remember that the car made its track debut at the Open House in 2007 - it's hard to believe it's been three years. That time, the car managed a best of 1:07.977. These days, I'm consistently in the 1:04.xxx range on the same set of tires I used in the race.
The original plan wasn't for me to drive the Targa car. After some memorable battles for the lap record in 2008, a decision was made that the staff should spend more time taking customers for rides. I was scheduled to drive the supercharged 2006, which is a pretty fun car. I did get the Targa car all reassembled and bedded the new brake pads in, just in case. I actually ended up using it as transport to get to the track that morning.
It became apparent fairly early on that something wasn't right with the 2006. It had some wiring problems recently due to a poorly installed O2 sensor hardness and we're still chasing down gremlins. The car was way down on power so we decided to park it. I jumped in the Targa car and took people for rides in that instead.
Halfway through my first session, I just started laughing and yelled out "it's great to be home!" This is such a good car. Without the secondary springs I'd been running before, the 600/450 lb setup made the car super-responsive. The balance was a bit understeery (I hadn't had time to set up the sway bars) but the car still worked well and could be easily balanced.
By the second session, I was taking the "AFCO line" through the chicane, actually leaping the inside wheels across the gap inside the corners and probing the limits of the braking zone. In the FM cars, we had to be a bit conservative to make sure the tires and brakes were good and we gave the customers a good ride. But the Targa Miata is like an anvil, and I could push it to the limit without having to worry about anything. It's made to be run hard.
We didn't have transponders on the cars, but it would not surprise me if I'd been in the 1:03 range. The car felt that good, and a number of my passengers commented that I gave them the ride of the weekend.
Oh man, was that ever a good time. What a great little car.
tags: track |
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