Nelson Ledges Track Day June 11, 2011

[Evan9999]

By the time you get the CF hood or this lightweight one you might as well get the FMIC. But the hood in that link is very sexy.

If you think you have trouble hearing your engine, try driving a Miata with stock exhaust

Wow that hood is nice, but once you figure in the cost of painting it, might as well do the FMIC.

 

[WillD]

Ya I really like the idea of a turbo NA Miata, but it depends on how much it will cost. I'll have to do some research and figure out how much the costs will be. I should also start looking on craigslist for Miatas to see what's out there. How much do you think I could pick up a decent NA Miata for?

I know a turbo or supercharger is going to be $2-3k depending on how much power that you want to make. As far as a decent NA, I've seen people over at M.net pick them up for $2500-5k depending on the condition and how lucky they got

But I don't really know for sure.

Wow that hood is nice, but once you figure in the cost of painting it, might as well do the FMIC.

I didn't think about painting it!

 

[Evan9999]

Hmm...the Turbo Miata route might be fairly affordable then. My issue is I want to go fast NOW and do track days this season. A Turbo Miata probably wouldn't happen until next year. Although who knows, I might start looking for another job to make more money.

 

[Coppertone]

good times, got a better feel of the tires. Lauri got some pics and I'm uploading the videos, will post them later. It seems the only casualty was my passenger side mount, so it wasn't too bad.

yeah, i got PLENTY of pictures, and some of them are quite good, if i do say so myself. i downloaded them all last night, i will upload them either tonight or tomorrow, depending on time ...

 

[Perro del Sol]

ATE Super Blue, just like Will D said.

 

[THE Phen]

Hmm...the Turbo Miata route might be fairly affordable then. My issue is I want to go fast NOW and do track days this season. A Turbo Miata probably wouldn't happen until next year. Although who knows, I might start looking for another job to make more money.

And once you go that route, you get to deal with all the stupid bulls*** gremelins that I've been dealing with. Yay!

 

[Coppertone]

got about 1/2 the pics onto photobucket ... a choice few for now:

cobalt oopsie!! (2nd crash of the day)

our strange unicorn paddock neighbor

love this car ..

since spicy wasn't there, this was my fav orange car

 

[Evan9999]

Sweet pics thanks, I look forward to seeing them all!!

There's that damn F-150 Lightning that wouldn't let us pass!!

The unicorn on that FC RX7 wasn't very lucky for him haha!

 

[WillD]

The Cobalt guy found out first hand how bad of a thing it is going off at Nelson Ledges!

Nice pic of the F-150 and Evan #2's car! (2thumbs)

 

[princess peach]

The Cobalt guy found out first hand how bad of a thing it is going off at Nelson Ledges!

he got off "easy", the BMW 1 series was way worse, too bad we couldn't get a pick

 

[Evan9999]

Ya, the BMW was way worse unfortunately. Both cars caused some big delays.

My friend has an in-car video of a Mustang spinning out directly in front of me. I'll post it up once I get it from him.

 

[princess peach]

replaced my busted mount today, turned out to be pretty easy. Maybe I'll use after market later on...

 

[Coppertone]

more pics

my friend coming to attack me! but he ducked into his hole about 5 feet in front of me ...

new wheels on my car

talk about a close up!

and the rest ...
http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e228/Haasesum1/Nelson Ledges June 12 2011/

 

[jri4]

Nice pictures! Looks like fun!

 

[MarkusF]

Hey everyone -

1) Lauri - great job on the pix! Well except for the one of the fat photog guy... You are getting good out there!

2) TRACK CAR - turbo Miata: Don't know if you guys saw me out there, but I was running in the advanced group with a non-turbo Miata (blue, white stripes, red top). I had to get up close in the turns to a couple of cars, but after that everyone pretty much let me by. I run like 1:21's around Nelson so not like I'm exactly screaming either. Point being - even a naturally aspirated Miata can be a fun track toy. It can also fit into NASA's highly competitive TTE class. I think someone could build a good car for $7k-$10k even... Yes a turbo would be faster, but also more complex.

3) Pictures: I posted some pix as well. I was trying out some different lenses and longer shutter/blur times so some are a little off and far away - but they should all crop/zoom in nicely.

Link: http://markus.smugmug.com/Track-Day-Automotive-Photos/2011-Open-Track-Days

Not a Mazda, but....

 

[princess peach]

Nice pics! Lauri's photobucket was giving me a hard time but I managed to copy a few.

thanks!

 

[Evan9999]

Hey everyone -

2) TRACK CAR - turbo Miata: Don't know if you guys saw me out there, but I was running in the advanced group with a non-turbo Miata (blue, white stripes, red top). I had to get up close in the turns to a couple of cars, but after that everyone pretty much let me by. I run like 1:21's around Nelson so not like I'm exactly screaming either. Point being - even a naturally aspirated Miata can be a fun track toy. It can also fit into NASA's highly competitive TTE class. I think someone could build a good car for $7k-$10k even... Yes a turbo would be faster, but also more complex.

Sweet pictures, thanks!!

As far as the Miata goes, I will most likely start out with it NA until I get more experience with RWD and light cars with less hp. I would prefer to learn how to race a really light RWD low HP car first, instead of going out there with a high HP RWD car and spinning out. All of my track experience is with FWD, which IMO is a little safer when going past the limit.

I remember your Miata, you were realllllly fast in that A group. I saw you pass cars that definitely had more HP, which goes to show it's not always about HP. It's about the driver and the car's tires, brakes, and suspension setup. HP comes last (unless you only have 50hp lol)

 

[WillD]

My dad is in the advanced group when we run with PCA (he has a Boxster S), and there are always 1-2 SM's in his group that consistently have better lap times than he does. You can do a lot with a low HP Miata! (2thumbs)

 

[MarkusF]

All of my track experience is with FWD, which IMO is a little safer when going past the limit.

Are you doing any more NASA events this summer? If so - you can take my car out for Hyperdrive or lunchtime laps if you want. I have it set up very neutral, it rarely starts getting sideways and if it does it comes back easy. Honestly I'm not the best driver, I can lift mid turn, hit the brakes at the wrong time, basically do a whole bunch of stoopid stuff with it - and it doesn't bite me in the arse (usually).

Mine is kind of a mess - '91 chassis with '95 engine, etc. I'd look at buying a used '99, there was just one for sale on another forum that already had a rollbar, hardtop and I think mild suspension mods for only $5.5k. Someone could buy that, put some 15x8 rims with Hoosiers on it, and pretty much be set...modify the suspension a little more aggressively later, maybe do minor head work, that's it. '99+ SM's are running 1:45 club course or 1:43 pro course at MidOhio - which is fast enough to have fun but not so fast you're really gonna hurt yourself....

Later,
- Mark

 

[princess peach]

I still haven't made up my mind, I've been looking at miatas for a while but then I track the 3 and it's so much fun... riding in Marc's car was a good experience, it goes fast without a lot of power, maybe he can chime in on how different it is compared to a miata?