Another car thread. Wanting a sports car. Which one?

BTW what’s going on with the Miata race program?

 

Love to think about it, but i think I'd rather have a ratted out 360 to bang up on. The Stradale is too special of a car to really enjoy to the fullest.

Papa thinks the Enzo is ugly but my lord that thing is really beautiful. And no turbos to muffle the screaming.

 

Papa's correct.

 

Seeing prices starting to come down on used late model Nissan Z with the 400 HP twin turbo engine. Seems that would be a lot of fun...

 

My daughters first new car she bought was a Q60 with the twin turbo and she loved it. Hers only had 300HP, it was pretty quick and they look really good to me. If you are talking about the latest Nissan Z, I don't know anything about them, other than I don't think they look that good?

The Infiniti Red Sport Q60 comes with 400HP. https://www.carfax.com/Used-Infiniti-Q60-Red-Sport-400_t12269

 

yep. can get them for thousands under sticker right now. saw a few for like $5k under

 

That's just silly to me. Anyone lucky enough to have one should drive the shit out of it when the gearbox is working.

 

You are being too kind to the Enzo.

 

I finally got to race it with FARA in November. SCCA cancelled their regional at Homestead, and FARA being the newer and more aggressive organization that it is, offered entry credit and free license to anyone who was registered for the SCCA event the prior weekend.

I couldn't stay Sunday, I had to work, but I got to do Friday practice, Saturday practice and qualifying, and the 15 min shootout Saturday afternoon.

They used the banking in addition to the road course, and the only thing I was worried about was making contact with other cars- I wasn't sure how ready I was to bump draft, especially while holding flat around the banking or into some of the faster corners. Well those guys didn't give me a choice- I got pushed on the second lap of the first session Friday. By Friday afternoon I was doing some pushing of my own. This is how I discovered that the bumper supports were left out when the car was painted- so I did a little damage to the front and rear bumpers, but it's an easy fix and parts are cheap.

The car worked perfectly which was a tremendous relief- after all of the disasters with the rental car I was concerned about reliability- these are 24 year old race cars after all. So all I had to do was worry about my driving. The weekend was very fun and laid back. Tech is a breeze and they make everything super easy. Unfortunately this loosey-goosey attitude also comes into play when setting the grid- for the shootout they decided to invert the field which consisted of some guy coming over and telling me to meet by garage 18 for the pre grid- then everyone just went out willy nilly and I ended up near the back- when I should have been like top 4. (There were 15 Miatas in the field). Unfortunately the absolute slowest drivers who were not interested in being at the front of the pack also went there and were in front of me at the start.

I learned a valuable lesson here- the momentum you lose when you make a pass will set you back and you will have a very hard time catching back up- these cars have no power and you simply can't sacrifice momentum. The guys in front of me pussyfooted at the start and then pussyfooted again through the first couple of corners, so when I made the pass finally the pack was gone. Lesson is- qualify better and be more aggressive about getting to my grid spot. (not a problem with SCCA who does a real pre-grid and you go out in order).

After one of the Q sessions on Saturday I asked around to see if anyone shares AIM data, this led to an impromptu coaching session with the pole sitter which was very kind of him. My best lap was 1:43 on my own, no draft, and the pole was high :39 with a pack of guys drafting- but that was in the cooler morning session. 1:40's in the afternoon. So I have some work to do on the lap times. My car is strong, that was confirmed by some of the guys using me in qualifying to get a tow.

Where I have to work the most is the technique I use to turn the car- right now my turn in is kind of lazy- you have to throw the car in there and get it rotated quickly- almost inducing a spin, then catch it with the throttle and drive out. My brake trace looked pretty good in comparison to the top guys in several corners, so it's just from the brake release to the time I achieve full throttle that needs work.

There's alot going on there, heel toe-ing the downshifts, getting the car slowed, etc and I just need practice to get my timing down- especially since I don't drive a stick on the street anymore. Also I kept asking my crew chief about tires- he insisted they were good but they had about 10 heat cycles on them. But from when? Turns out the first heat cycle was 2021. Had I known this earlier I would have put new tires on for Saturday. I think it's cool to find the limit of the car, but who knows, it might have been a whole different beast on new tires.

Anyway, my next race is February. SCCA won't let me run Majors (Homestead in January) with a novice permit, FARA doesn't run until February. I applied for a NASA license and if granted I'll do Sebring in January too.

In other news, We only have one track day scheduled down here in Jan-Feb and that's N2- something is going on again with Florida Track Days and they have nothing scheduled yet. Which is an absolute bummer because that's the best time of the year to ride!

 

That’s awesome!! Thanks for the detailed info. I know when I raced go karts a tenth was as hard to get as a full second on a bike….at least when you look at the grid on qualifying. Please keep us updated on this adventure, I enjoy it.

 

This is awesome!! Sounds like a good old time!

The driving style sounds like driving a FWD car, we just do the opposite with throttle lift.

bumping is racing! Can't wait to hear about the next time out there

 

I'm really enjoying your race reports, Gino. Thanks for sharing.

 

OK let me tell you guys a funny story about how the race ended, even if it makes me look bad.

So, first you have to understand that when getting your license, or when you're new, all they talk about is the danger and how careful you need to be. These lectures always end with "and then the guy died in a fire" so being on fire is a big thing and every driver's worst nightmare.

Now, I will say that I'm pretty fearless when driving this car- I feel downright invincible compared to a motorcycle, but the only thing lingering in the back of my mind is getting out of the little fucker in a hurry- a Miata is SMALL, so it's tight with all of the door bars, half assed door release, window net, belts, radio cords, etc. (in the event that I'm on fire, of course.)

Fast forward to my race- I was mostly alone running about 10th or so, and I was just focusing on putting in good laps. We had some little issues with the car, the gauges are the fancy ones that turn red when the value gets to a critical range- in the case of the oil pressure it also illuminates some red lights. The gauges were fluctuating all over the place, probably because of a bad ground or something, so the lights were coming on and off alot- especially the oil pressure when the car was hot and I would let the RPM fall, like when braking hard.

In my excitement to be the fastest rookie in FARA history, (I'm a badass motorcycle racer after all) I had zinged the engine once or twice in qualifying, by screwing up the 2nd to 3rd shift- and that was in the back of my mind hoping I didn't' do too much damage. I also didn't tell the crew chief because I don't want him having any reasons to tell the Miata Newbie that the engine needs to come apart or something crazy like that. BUT every time the dash turned red I had second thoughts about all this.

So I'm on a good lap, and here I come into T6 and I'm going to brake a little later and REALLY hard here- which I do, and as I whip it into third the RPM really falls, and the dash turns red and the car suddenly fills with smoke- I look in the rearview and I see a trail of white smoke like a MiG getting shot down.....which triggers in my brain the memories of the zinged engine, the many red lights, the lectures about burning to a crisp..... So I continue braking straight ahead and I say on the radio "Shit I'm on fire!"

I pulled off the track and the smoke dissipates, and the car is humming along at idle, and I realize pretty quickly I'm not on fire. But on the radio they're telling me stop the car and get out! By now I'm smelling rubber smoke so I finally put it together that I just locked one of the rears. So I sheepishly say everything is fine, It was just a tire. Well, there's no way I'm getting towed in in a perfectly good race car- so I pull back on track and as I'm coming around the back straight I see the leaders coming in hot. So down on the apron I go and into pit lane, thus finishing my first race a lap down, and ruining the reputation of motorcycle racers everywhere.

So to distract from that embarrassment, here's a video of me getting a push in qualifying from the eventual race winner:

https://youtube.com/shorts/hfE3VUJ36LA?si=9dNXazT7nM1oUq02

 

I just had a flashback. Thanks for that!

 

Love the Porsche Green!!

Regarding the hand signals, were you trying to tell him which side to go around and he said no I’ll push you?

Wow that was funny. That Dutch guy is a great writer!

 

Should almost always be looking to get pushed along. Two cars run faster than one on those long runs. It's part of the fun of low power racing. Sounds like he's having a hell of a good time though.

 

I must say, very disappointed in your performance. Expect top 3 every race from real deal motorcycle racers.

 

Well look at that, them Miata guys are almost as crazy as motorcycle racers.

 

I honestly came into this thinking that it was going to be easy compared to going fast on a bike. But I have to be honest, it's going to be harder than I thought. Spec Miata is very competitive, probably one of the most competitive classes you can choose to race.

When I'm at an MA race and Alessandro or Rocco comes by me, I have no illusions that I can do what they are doing. The best I can hope is to get within 110% of those guys and that is moving. But in the car, I fully believe I can do it. Time will tell I guess!

@Boman Forklift I was trying to give him the "lets GO!" signal. But I should have just given the thumbs up, that's more easily recognizable. FWIW the hand signals aren't in any of the new racer materials. I guess they don't think you'll be needing it on your first weekend- but then again all contact is banned anyway and I don't think the Miata guys even read that part of the rulebook!

 

Saw this and though of you @ClemsonsR6
https://carsandbids.com/auctions/9XQeWaJO/2019-chevrolet-corvette-zr1-convertible