Nugget-The '94 Miata

[theothersawyer]

I drove the hell out of it at Road Atlanta, and it held together just fine!

Also, I'm no southerner! Born and raised in Michigan!

[NCGreasemonkey]

I drove the hell out of it at Road Atlanta, and it held together just fine!

Also, I'm no southerner! Born and raised in Michigan!

Glad it held.

And I'll give you a 'True Southerner's' card for that fix.

You had no choice on where you were born. You shot out!

[— kung fu jesus —]

Ex-pat Michigander here too.

[theothersawyer]

I knew there was a reason I liked you! lol! I don't think I saw you or the car on Friday!

[— kung fu jesus —]

I had a conference call in the morning, but made it to see the green group pit out for the incident on 12. I decided to not push the car, I just didn't get enough miles on the new engine to go out there in it. I parked it up at the tech pavilion and helped out James. I went out for a ride in the red e28, left around 2:30.

I'll be ready for the fall events. I am going to add some safety gear though.

[theothersawyer]

The more I attend track days, the more I debate turning this car into a dedicated track car. Replace the bumper with a stock one with a lip, lose some weight in the interior, etc. But I don't know, because I like it the way it is!

The only other bumper I would want is an M2-1001 bumper! Ugh those are so pretty!

[— kung fu jesus —]

If the Bimmer is your main car, it would be wise to leave the Miata streetable. Trust me on this. ;)

[—tsingson—]

The man speaks only the truth.

[theothersawyer]

Well the car is in like an in between stage. Partly street partly track and so it's like I care about how the car looks, but at the same time I just say screw it, it's a track car! Lol I wanna go one way or another with it! Maybe it's just because I don't have much else to do to the car! I intend on keeping it street able one way or another!

[NCGreasemonkey]

Take the red pill with me. And get another MX-5 for a back-up for the Bimmer. Win win! LOL

[— kung fu jesus —]

Well the car is in like an in between stage. Partly street partly track and so it's like I care about how the car looks, but at the same time I just say screw it, it's a track car! Lol I wanna go one way or another with it! Maybe it's just because I don't have much else to do to the car! I intend on keeping it street able one way or another!

Because there isn't much you need to do to the Miata to track it heavily. Besides safety, regular maintenance, and grip, it is virtually track-ready out of the box. Slow car fast.

If you want to improve at the track, improve your safety systems and start filming your laps and data so you can see how to go faster.

[theothersawyer]

I think the next purchase is going to be a GoPro! Ill use it a ton since I wanna use it for mountain biking as well! And I need a new helmet since mine is out of date!

I guess really what it is, is that the bumper is so fubar'd that it makes me wanna go a different direction instead of getting it fixed/spending money on another fiberglass bumper. This bumper has kind of turned me off of having something so fragile on the front end!

[theothersawyer]

My trip to Road Atlanta was a great time! As always James from Jzilla Trackdays put on a wonderful event. I finally got to run this track after attending races for the last 14 years, and after being at multiple track events to shoot pictures! The track deserves every bit of respect that people say it does! It is a ton of fun and can be very safe, but it can also bite you in the ass! Turn 12 is...interesting! You come up over a hill and then drop probably 3 stories off camber with little to no run off room.

Turn 12:
IMG_6103 by Danny Sawyer, on Flickr

Every event I have ever been to at RA the track eats a car. Focus ST one year, $100,000+ GLI race car another, and this time it was a Lotus Elise. A 21 year old kid lifted in turn 12 and hit the outside wall and bounced back into the inside wall. He was taken to the hospital via helicopter, he broke his C4 and needed surgery. He has made huge improvements and is gaining back movement in different parts of his body. This track day family is amazing. Everyone got together and signed a big get well soon card and have been visiting him in the hospital. And in 24 hours they have raised $2,500 towards his medical expenses!

I luckily got one picture of the Lotus before his incident. It was used for his get well soon card.
IMG_6430 by Danny Sawyer, on Flickr

This happened during his first run group. This makes things a bit scarier for the rest of us. Seeing as I get free 1/2 track days because I photograph the events, so I debated not going out, but then I remembered this happens every event and I have a little bit of track experience under my belt. If I didn't go out I'd regret it! So I went out after lunch and started out easy. As many times as I have been to this track, you'd think that I would know it pretty well! It is a whole different experience being on track. The elevation changes are WAY WAY worse than you think. Forza doesn't even come close to capturing the elevation!

See how small these cars look on this STEEP hill?
IMG_6343 by Danny Sawyer, on Flickr


I was running Novice since it was my first time at RA and since I don't have a ton of experience since I only ever run a half of a day at the events. Even though my run group was a bunch of newbies and I, there were some fast cars! A new Viper, an older Viper, Lamborghini Huracan, and a Z06. All were very intimidating to see in the rear view mirror of my tiny little Miata! I joked that my mission for the day was to pass the Lamborghini! Now the Lamborghini driver was cool, he was out there to just have fun and learn about his car. He didn't have an ego to get in his way! Not your typical rich dude!

IMG_6417 by Danny Sawyer, on Flickr

My first session was nice and slow learning the track and getting a feel for it. The track is a blast! The esses are probably my favorite part! Hopping the car over the rumble strip at turn 3 and then going down hill into the next set of esses is a blast! I still have yet to master it, but it is still so much fun! I came in early on my first session because the temperature gauge was moving back and forth. Since I just JB Welded my radiator together two days before the event I figured it was a good idea to come in and check things out. No leaks and it wasn't overheating! Either air in the system or the needle itself is loose since they have been removed before it may have worked itself off a bit.

The Miata looks tiny out there! Obviously this picture wasn't taken by me! lol
IMG_7938 by Danny Sawyer, on Flickr

The second session was way more fun since I was more comfortable and had just ridden with some of the advanced drivers. They made me feel SLOW!! I rode in my buddies Cayman S and another buddies Miata. I have a lot to learn after riding with them! I was really starting to feel it out there! After nailing together a few turns I was clapping and cheering myself on in the car! The back straight is so long and the Miata is so slow that it seemed like ages before I had to hit the brakes for the next turn! The car topped out at 103mph on the back straight! The major difference between the first session and the second session, was in this session I was passing cars!

My buddies Cayman S:
IMG_6648 by Danny Sawyer, on Flickr

I was getting a lot quicker out there and was coming up on some cars and getting the point by! Sometimes people forget how ungodly slow a Miata is in a straight line. So when I got the point by from a Challenger, he didn't lift and I couldn't pass! I was full throttle and was gaining no ground on him! Opportunity missed and I was stuck behind him for a few more turns. The next time a passing zone came up, he gave me the point by again and started pointing erratically. I get it bud, you want me to pass and I am trying to!!! He finally hit the brakes and let me by, never saw him again!

IMG_7943 by Danny Sawyer, on Flickr

Now was the fun part! The 370z and the Huracan were ahead of me going into the esses! A bit of a conga line ensued and the Huracan was at the front, followed by the 370Z, and then me! Coming out of turn 5 the Huracan let the Z pass, but he had more power through the straights and I wasn't close enough to get the point by. A few laps go by and I continued to be right behind the Huracan! Going through the back straight he was a good bit ahead of me, but I took 10a/10b pretty well and caught some ground. Then on the front straight away I saw his hand come out the window and over the top of the car. I GOT THE POINT BY! I couldn't care less if he was a slow driver or he was having car issues or whatever could have happened. Passing a $200,000 car in the car I picked up for under $3,000 just feels good! Mission accomplished!

IMG_6226 by Danny Sawyer, on Flickr

I left the track wanting more and can not wait until the next event at Atlanta Motorsports Park in September!

This got way way longer than I thought! lol

[theothersawyer]

I had a wonderful time two weeks ago at Atlanta Motorsports Park at the Jzilla Trackdays event. This track is always fun and I look forward to going to it twice a year ( not nearly often enough!) I have so many photos to go through and not enough time to do it! I shouldn't even be making this post right now since I should be doing a lab report for my Heat Transfer and Thermodynamics lab...Oh well!

Here is the car anxiously waiting to get out on track! I love this photo because you can't tell how terrible the paint has gotten on this car! Thanks to my friend Bobby for the photo!
DSC00307 by Robert Brunelle, on Flickr

Here is a video of one of my laps with no traffic!



As always, Jzilla puts on a wonderful event and there were no accidents or issues! It was an all around perfect day!

[—tsingson—]

I hope to partake in one of the events in the future.