Racetrack Stuff

[DTMiller]

Check out the ugly guy in the right seat of the new Miata.

[B3DAWG]

Check out the ugly guy in the right seat of the new Miata.0005FATT dayMarch 16, 2018-Edit.jpg

New Miata? Ha! Ugly guy right, Miata no! That's the new Viper, duhhhh!!!!

[Dr_Strangelove]

As an experienced performance driver, how would you rate the AMG? I know Mercedes-AMG has a reputation for making tire-shredders that revel in lunacy rather than making balanced, nimble track cars. I can only go off of the oft-exaggerated lingo of car journalists, and of the few owners I've gotten to talk to at local car meets, none of them go to the track, DE events, or autocross.

[DTMiller]

It was fun but it's not track focused. It's a true grand touring car. Gobs of power (I honestly thought I was going to spin it leaving the pits on cold tires when I drove it for a few laps to show her the line around the track) and wonderful brakes but unless you crush the suspension into race mode it was squishy (technical car expert term) in the corners.

But to be fair I didn't take any chances with someone else's six figure car and my student is very much in the early stages of her performance driving career. But an absolutely gorgeous car inside and out and it was fun to drive. Closest comparison would be a Mustang 350GTR but rip out the interior and throw a Maybach interior in it.

If you wanted to shred tires, flick off the traction control and absolutely you can do that. If you wanted to go fast you'd struggle to control it without the computers and with them it won't let you go as fast as the raw numbers of the car suggest you should be able to.... So yeah, it just really isn't built for that and if I could convince her to buy a Cayman or a FRS it would make my job easier but you go to war with the student (and her car) that you have not the one that would necessarily be ideal for their learning progression.

We are doing another day together in May, I'm looking forward to it.

[Sneaky Pete]

DT.......looks like your student spared no expense on the track numbers....nice ride.

[DTMiller]

Ha! That's actually by design. Program is very much geared toward new to the track folks. One day events. Car number assigned at check in and applied at tech. From this number we can glean that this student was the 11th person to check in for run group 2 on Friday morning. The true eager beaver is car 101. Group 1 is generally 0-3 days track experience.

[FRUNKenstein]

It was fun but it's not track focused. It's a true grand touring car. Gobs of power (I honestly thought I was going to spin it leaving the pits on cold tires when I drove it for a few laps to show her the line around the track) and wonderful brakes but unless you crush the suspension into race mode it was squishy (technical car expert term) in the corners.

If you wanted to shred tires, flick off the traction control and absolutely you can do that. If you wanted to go fast you'd struggle to control it without the computers and with them it won't let you go as fast as the raw numbers of the car suggest you should be able to.... So yeah, it just really isn't built for that and if I could convince her to buy a Cayman or a FRS it would make my job easier but you go to war with the student (and her car) that you have not the one that would necessarily be ideal for their learning progression.

We are doing another day together in May, I'm looking forward to it.

So you told her that her new, hugely expensive sports car is a POS on the track? Wow, you must be a lot of fun as an instructor.

[DTMiller]

Only in the extremely unlikely event she reads this thread. Where did I say I told her that?

[FRUNKenstein]

Um, right up there in that blue box ^ - see?

[FRUNKenstein]

Oh, and you can forget about teaching me to drive my new Vanquish S.