It was the best of times, it was… well, it wasn’t the blurst of times, that’s for sure. I spent my weekend at Laguna Seca behind the wheel of Flyin’ Miata’s newest California-legal turbo ND MX-5, part of a five-driver team (me, Danger Girl, IndyCar standout Alex Lloyd, LeMons racer Zandr Milewski, and FM customer Richard “Rick Deckard” Dekker) that drove the car in every single session of the two-day “Miatas At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca” event. I’m pleased to report that the graphite-grey Miata ran flawlessly for fifteen hours at speed. The only problem we encountered was a clunking noise in the swaybar, likely caused by my habit of putting two wheels in the air every time I drive the Corkscrew and easily rectified during Sunday’s lunch break.
In addition to driving thirteen separate twenty-minute sessions in the turbo ND, I also drove a supercharged ND and the “Habu” Miata powered by a 525-horsepower LS3 V8. I’ll have some video up in the near future. As you can see from the above photo, Keith Tanner and the Flyin’ Miata crew planned everything to the last detail including the brake pad swaps — what you see above is what remained of padset #3 after I brought the car in from the last run of the weekend.
The cars were cool, and being in central California always fills me with a sort of wistful longing for the Spielberg-film childhood I’ll never have, but the true pleasure of the trip was having the chat to meet, and speak with, about two dozen of my readers. Every one of them had a unique and important story to tell me about themselves and their interactions with what I’ve written. Arriving as they did at the tail end of a year where I’ve spent far too much time feeling sorry for myself due to various injuries and professional disappointments, these single-serving discussions were both gratifying and inspiring.
Alright, let’s roll the tape from last week.
For R&T, I introduced the readers to “Ava”, our new MX-5 Club, and briefly reviewed a $78,000 F-350 Limited pickup.
For TTAC, I followed up on the Fred Lambert foolishness and speculated about the conquest sales of the Jeep Wrangler.
This week I’ll have a review of the Range Rover Evoque and the first of our PCOTY preview articles. It’s time to meet the manual-transmission GT3 HEAD-ON!
Jack, does R&T permit you to offer longer form observations regarding the cars in the PCOTY field? Ie unedited and more detailed
We have “breakout” pieces on all ten cars going online in the next few months. After PCOTY I might write something additional depending on how the primary article is edited and presented.
“and the “Habu” Miata powered by a 525-horsepower LS3 V8.”
hnnnnnngg
As long as there was pad left on the pucks, no matter how little, it was good, right ? .
Your driving team sounds epic ~ I can’t drive very well but I’m sure watching you alls would have been great fun .
It’s good I have patience as I’m still banned @ TTAC and they refuse to even answer my queries .
(maybe some day)
-Nate
All tho there have been changes there at TTAC, some even for the better, being banned is no great loss. I see the usual sycophants all chiming in, in unison, in the comments. I read only Jack, Mark and Murrilee and have given up on posting comments. The last few times I did comment, the howls from the “B&B” would have woke the dead. You would have thought I had been caught doing un-natural things with their momma’s.
Well ;
I try to remain focused on the vehicles, I don’t mind topic drift too much .
I read some awful hateful/dishonest
comments there and get off site queries as to why I’m still banned .
I like the subjects and discussions there for the most part .
Agreed, there are many professional butthurt brigade members there but that’s the internet (and poorly raised Children) for you .
I hate it when I fail to catch worn pads in time and chew up the rotors .
-Nate
Why did you get banned? You are one of the most genial commenters I read on a regular basis.
There are two claimed reasons ;
The truth and because supposedly they didn’t like my using a bad word :”ni66er” .
I understand that’s a very odious word but it gets said to my face nearly daily so I simply deal with it .
I learn a lot from all the various boards I’m on and occasionally have something I think might be of value to offer .
So far they’ve flat refused to answer my polite queries, this is chicken shit asd best, I’ll just deal with it .
-Nate
BTW :
Thank you for your support ! .
-Nate
Nate, I disagree with what they did, but Ronnie lost his job at Hemmings for simply quoting somebody else who used that word. It’s just too toxic for nervous people to accept. You and I know that you have worked with the “black community” for decades but the Canadians in TTAC’s Toronto office have no way to understand that.
They didn’t care until ronnie butted in & tattled on me , that’s the fact Jack .
As always, I claim whatever I do/say unlike some here/there so I’ll just have to live with it but I will not go quietly into the night .
I thank you and the others who are supportive and allow me to speak my mind .
Now, back to cool stories about GearHead life please =8-) .
-Nate
I know this won’t change your mind, but Ronnie is no snitch. The post was caught by a word filter.
The timing belies your statement Jack .
Maybe my til foil hat needs adjustment but the weenies @ TTAC still allow far worse almost daily .
-Nate
Did you get the ass or crotch?
The ND is blossoming quite nicely under the tuners’ care. V8’s, turbos and supers, oh my!
You’ll have to start hanging at miatanet now. It’s more sane than the vortex, but you may need an AARP card to fit in.
I don’t understand the question…
I bounced off your (presumed) ‘single serving’ Fight Club reference. My comment does seem odd otherwise.
My fault for not picking that up… it was a long weekend!
“The Diablo VT Roadster was more or less unsurpassed at being outrageous, which is probably why Donald Trump bought one in 1997, but like Happy Gilmore at the beginning of that movie it was far from possessing any sort of well-rounded excellence. In the years that followed, Lamborghini was acquired by VW Group, which promised to improve the everyday usability of the product. In other words, they were going to teach Happy Gilmore to putt.”
What delightful mischief you play through subterfuge, insinuation and plausible deniability! Bravo!
Will R&T or TTAC publish a substantive review of the LS525 ND Miata?
A very clean NB Miata LS525 swap creator saw 0-60 times of 4.1 seconds ( https://youtu.be/ACbyIrMvr7s?t=11m29s ) … leading one to think that V8 miatas might be lacking adequate tire width.
Was that your impression? What would you do with your 80 grand?
Little late to the party here - but Sam Smith did an R&T review of that Miata last year. Also, Cart and Raver did instrumented testing and measured 3.5s 0-60 in the same car that Jack and Sam drove.
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/first-drives/a31759/first-drive-2015-flyin-miata-mazda-mx-5-v-8/
If Jack wants more seat time in the car, I’m happy to oblige.
That ND LS525 — if there were some way to package 180° headers into that piranha…
Interesting story on the F-350, and I find it amusing that trucks have become aspirational luxury goods. Of course, I’m now old enough to remember when one of the selling points of luxury cars was that they were better assembled from higher-quality materials, and were therefore good value. I guess things do come around.
It was good to meet you in person, Jack! And Danger Girl as well, she’s fun. Thanks for exercising our little beastie for hours and hours and hours.