Interest Check: Miata and Autocrossing

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Goomba

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You can't go to a Solo II and not see a Miata. They come in all engine sizes, 1.8l to the 1.6l, different generations, and you'll notice, they do well. The small two-seater is an amazingly well built car, with the perfect balance and poise to beat many cars with higher horsepower figures. In fact, it outclasses my 227hp WRX! If you called it a girly-car (like I did) you'll quickly change your mind. So without further introduction to this magnificant Mazda, I bring to the table the first draft of my spot race.

A big goal of mine for this spot race is to have it keep going, and going. If the number of participants is great enough, I'd love to keep rolling with it. So like I said, this is my first draft. Give me some feed back, if you would like to see a different course, tell me. Different options, tell me. Anything you can think of to add to enjoyment of this race will be greatly appreciated.

The Miata is nothing impressive on the straights, so I chose a course that doesn't have a whole lot of them, Cote D' Azure/Monaco. A good number of twisties and turnies to give the Miata some time to shine. As for right now I'm struggling between a hot lap and one raced against the computer. Applying the following section to a race against the computer might make it difficult, but not impossible.

Now you might be asking, "Where the hell is that lemon slice of autocross he talked about?", here it is. If your not familiar on the autocrossing background, I'll give you a quick primer.

After cars have been broken up into similar performance groups (based on overall performance not just speed or handling or braking), there are then different catagories that each car can be put into. A stock Miata going against a Miata that has been greatly modified just wouldn't make any challenges. Therefore there are a four seperate catagories, each allowing their own modifications.

Stock
Street Touring
Street Prepared
Street Modified

I will begin working out the allowed preperations for each, looking to keep them close to what rules the SCCA laid down, but also make sense out of it and try to keep it competitive.

Sound like good fun? Just say you'll participate here and once I reach a satisfactory amount of people willing to participate, I'll lay down the official rules in a new therad. Feel free to suggest any changes you would like to see here. Hope to see you on the track!


Sign-ups (7):
Goomba
Boombexus
CarbonFiber Man
Gil
Neon Duke
LoudMusic
Miata13B
 
You have peaked my interest.
 
Hey, look at that! With a big name like yours I should rake in the people now!!!

By the by, when are you coming down for a real life autocross?
 
I'm hoping to Auto-X my Miata this summer for the first time, since I only live a few miles away from the Tire Rack warehouse where they have some events every year.

I'd probably run some laps at Cote with a stock Miata if this thing gets off the ground.



P.S., Nice WRX dude. I drove one before I bought the Miata, quite a fun car. :D
 
I'll get my *** handed to my by boom, but I'll kick it withl you guys.
Heck, I need a reason to start playing again.:lol:
 
Sign me up!

You know, I ran a comp that was supposed to simulate the Grassroots Motorsports $2002 Challenge. It worked out pretty well, I thought.

What I used for the Autocross portion of it was the first quadrant of Complex String, done from a standing start in Free Run. It made for a very autox-like experience, with a non-lap format and times just below 1 minute. Maybe we could try that here.

Monaco is a good choice too, but I would definitely vote for a standing start to simulate the autox more. All participants line up in a specified slot on the grid in Free Run. The clock won't start till you break the beam at the S/F line, so you sit, compose yourself, and launch when you're ready. You run one hot lap, note the time, and restart. This is very like autox in format.
 
I was actually thinking last night that it would be fun to do the Miata enduro with a competetive car, rather than just running on hards and never pitting (:
 
Well, you know I am down for this type :D
 
Originally posted by LoudMusic
I was actually thinking last night that it would be fun to do the Miata enduro with a competetive car, rather than just running on hards and never pitting (:
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I've started doing something I never thought I'd bother to do: get Gold on my licenses. I golded the B license over the weekend, and my next step is to take the blue Miata LS I just won and run it as is in the Roadster Enduro. Der Alta has done it in the smaller Miata, with oil change and Sports tires, but I wanted to try the bigger Miata bone stock and see what happened.
 
Originally posted by neon_duke
I've started doing something I never thought I'd bother to do: get Gold on my licenses. I golded the B license over the weekend, and my next step is to take the blue Miata LS I just won and run it as is in the Roadster Enduro. Der Alta has done it in the smaller Miata, with oil change and Sports tires, but I wanted to try the bigger Miata bone stock and see what happened.
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. . . the results ??? or have you not run the race yet. . . I remember using that miata and it dominated pretty easily to tell the truth.
 
I bet it's going to be a grueling two hours ... I can hardly wait! (:
 
I haven't run it yet. And it's only an hour and a quarter. But we digress...
 
Originally posted by neon_duke
I haven't run it yet. And it's only an hour and a quarter. But we digress...
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Sure your going to have enough rubber, Apricott Hill does eat away at those tires pretty quickly compared to a lot of course. . . make sure to bring a few extra sets :D
 
Thanks for the support guys! I have a busy day ahead of me but I should be able to get this whole thing organized tonight after work.

Duke, thanks for the suggestion of the standing start, it never even crossed my mind. Now, the two events that I've been to, you're actually rolling when you pass the start gate. So which position do you think we should start at? I would like to state right now that this is probably going to be pretty lineant, nothing where you have to measure exactly. Just so long as your times aren't amazingly fast and your replay shows your crossing that line at 50mph. That first sector of Complex String sounds like a good idea for a later event. And good luck with those licenses!

CarbonFiber Man, thank ya' much. Looking back, I sometimes wonder if a Miata would of been funner for me, but I realize its not near as practical.

Right now, it seems the hot lap is okay with everyone? However, I'll start looking at a race involving the AI where it'll be a challenge.

Hopefully I can get the final race stats up tonight around midnight Mountain Standard Time.
 
Originally posted by Goomba
Duke, thanks for the suggestion of the standing start, it never even crossed my mind. Now, the two events that I've been to, you're actually rolling when you pass the start gate. So which position do you think we should start at? I would like to state right now that this is probably going to be pretty lineant, nothing where you have to measure exactly. Just so long as your times aren't amazingly fast and your replay shows your crossing that line at 50mph.
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We lined up in the #2 grid position. No real measurement; just pull up so that the front line of the box is visible across the bottom of the screen in the in-car view. This gives you a little room to get the wheelspin under control but not enough to hit the course with a lot of momentum. And as you say, the timing wont start till you break the beam, so you can compose yourself a bit before the launch.
 
Does one absolutely need 'replay hardware' for these kind of events?
I mean, even if I did have a digital camera and sat in front of my TV recording the thing I'd still lack a decent connection to put it up somewhere (anywhere)
I can only work on honor; old-fashioned perhaps but it gets me through the day.
 
Until you get in to hardcore OLR, replay submittals are usually not required unless you post an outrageously fast time. For most events simply logging your quadrant times and the total lap is sufficient.
 
Ah, well then I'd like to try this out.
It's always a joy to drive that blue Miata LS you get from "golding" (or goldinating) the B license.
 
I'm going to work on Cote in Arcade Free Run with an Arcade MX-5. Back later! (:
 
Sounds like a plan tonight. . . get spiffed up and stuff :D
 
So I ran a 2:00.7xx with an Arcade Miata (the faster one). Couldn't for the life of me get it under 2 minutes. Then I slapped all the mods on and ran something like a 1:41 I *think*.
 
Sleek, don't worry about it. Like Duke said, unless you post some crazy time, we trust you. I'll be getting my hands dirty soon...
 
Cool, I highly doubt I'll turn out to be mega-fast for GTP's fastest anyway.
Last OLR kind of competition I entered was at the past cheatplanet.com boards, some guy called "SUZUKI_MAN" held a pretty decent series with a simple format, back in the GT2 days though.
Looking forward to this. :)
 
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