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Drivers of expensive cars : what do they do for a living ? ! ?

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Technically my car is faster than an MX5, faster acceleration and faster top speed, but I get owned on most track days by them. A lot might well be down to my lack of skill mind you! :hihi:

 

Ooh don't tell Justin Smith that, he'll put it down to fact you have two 'X' chromosomes.

 

What car is it sgtkate? The MX-5's could have had some mods (supercharger, weight reduction etc.)

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You've got to be careful and choose the right track day though. Avoiding off-peak, cheap deals where no racing and overtaking rules are ignored by the newbies. Most track day organisers make you sign a waiver which state that you are liable for damage to your own car (regardless of fault). Track day insurance is also expensive depending on the value of your car.

 

Wouldn't want to risk it in mine.

 

THe one I went to was arranged by the lotus owners club. Most of them had done it many times, I was probably the one newbie there.

And I got driven round (terrifyingly) by the owner for a few laps, before we started to take it in turns, giving the car a few mins to cool down each time after about 5 laps.

 

They'd said I was welcome to track my car with them (Z4M), but I didn't get the insurance sorted in time.

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THe one I went to was arranged by the lotus owners club. Most of them had done it many times, I was probably the one newbie there.

And I got driven round (terrifyingly) by the owner for a few laps, before we started to take it in turns, giving the car a few mins to cool down each time after about 5 laps.

 

They'd said I was welcome to track my car with them (Z4M), but I didn't get the insurance sorted in time.

 

Lovely car Cyclone, great chassis and that engine is a peach.

 

I have an M135i, wouldn't track it due to the reasons listed. A guy on the owner's forum was on a track day recently when an car overtook in a braking zone, on a none over-taking track day, in the wet, and crashed into and wrote off this guy's 328i track car. Broken ribs and all.

 

I wouldn't risk the Z4M due to the other idiots, whose actions are outside of your control. :o

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I wouldn't race a Z4M. A beautiful car and a future classic. And where would you put your spare rims??

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Lovely car Cyclone, great chassis and that engine is a peach.

 

I have an M135i, wouldn't track it due to the reasons listed. A guy on the owner's forum was on a track day recently when an car overtook in a braking zone, on a none over-taking track day, in the wet, and crashed into and wrote off this guy's 328i track car. Broken ribs and all.

 

I wouldn't risk the Z4M due to the other idiots, whose actions are outside of your control. :o

 

Now THAT is a proper driver's car. :love:

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Technically my car is faster than an MX5, faster acceleration and faster top speed, but I get owned on most track days by them. A lot might well be down to my lack of skill mind you! :hihi:
Depends if you're talking about a stock 5 or a track-ready/modded 5 :)

 

Some smartly modded 5s (not even necessarily engine mods, just rolling train: weight reduction, lowered, toe-in, tracking, etc.), when well driven, will easily give sportier and much more powerful cars a good run for their money...so long as there's twisties involved and not just straights or long curves ;)

 

If you get a 5 properly sorted (shocks/dampers, springs, brakes, wheels/tyres, tracking/toe-in, etc. first, engine mods last), it takes a lot to upset it in corners.

 

Just like Elises ('normal' ones, not racing-born like the Exige ;)), it's not down to power (I don't think the chassis of the 5 can take more than 250bhp and stay reasonably/safely trackable...and anything north of 200bhp is going to need extensive modding of the rolling train and brakes anyway), it's down to power to weight ratio coupled with the car's weight distribution.

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This is exactly why we are looking to get an MX5 as our track day car, and possibly a racing car too in the v v lowly minor racing leagues, depending on how quickly either or us pick up the racing skills.

 

Cheap to buy an older model and fairly easy to work with both internally and externally when one of us inevitably crashes it!

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I wouldn't race a Z4M. A beautiful car and a future classic. And where would you put your spare rims??

 

Track/Race entirely different things.

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Now THAT is a proper driver's car. :love:

 

They are rather amazingly good fun :) and eminently practical as a daily driver as I found out too.

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Cheap to buy an older model and fairly easy to work with both internally and externally when one of us inevitably crashes it!
FYI, older models (Mk1s) are now going up in value. The decent ones, that is, as -of course- there's still plenty of high-milers, imports and unloved cheapy ones about.

 

Though high miles is not necessarily an issue at all: indeed, they are very much Tonka-like in terms of parts design and build. One of the many reasons why I'm holding on to ours: far less to go wrong.

 

If it hasn't got ABS, there's no other electronics than the ECU -which is Jurassic tech by comparison with modern cars and engines- nor, if you haven't got leccy windows or aircon, much electrics at all either besides the minimum (ignition, lights, wipers, heater) and a radio.

 

The fact that the engine, and much of the drivetrain, was designed for forced induction from scratch, but that Mazda then decided to do away with a turbo entirely whilst keeping the tolerances to spec, helps a lot in the reliability and wear departments. It's also what makes grafting a turbo on it so straightforward (personally, after 15 years or so of driving ours, and a few drives in both turbo'd and supercharged ones in that time, I'd prefer a supercharger).

 

I suggest you try and find a 1.8, less to mod relative to a 1.6 (turbo'd 1.6 end up cannibalising a lot of 1.8 standard parts, e.g. braking system) :)

Edited by L00b

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FYI, older models (Mk1s) are now going up in value. The decent ones, that is, as -of course- there's still plenty of high-milers, imports and unloved cheapy ones about.

 

Though high miles is not necessarily an issue at all: indeed, they are very much Tonka-like in terms of parts design and build. One of the many reasons why I'm holding on to ours: far less to go wrong.

 

If it hasn't got ABS, there's no other electronics than the ECU -which is Jurassic tech by comparison with modern cars and engines- nor, if you haven't got leccy windows or aircon, much electrics at all either besides the minimum (ignition, lights, wipers, heater) and a radio.

 

The fact that the engine, and much of the drivetrain, was designed for forced induction from scratch, but that Mazda then decided to do away with a turbo entirely whilst keeping the tolerances to spec, helps a lot in the reliability and wear departments. It's also what makes grafting a turbo on it so straightforward (personally, after 15 years or so of driving ours, and a few drives in both turbo'd and supercharged ones in that time, I'd prefer a supercharger).

 

I suggest you try and find a 1.8, less to mod relative to a 1.6 (turbo'd 1.6 end up cannibalising a lot of 1.8 standard parts, e.g. braking system) :)

 

 

Do you mind if I PM you about this if it gets off the ground? Sounds like you know what you are talking about...I think we were going to get the model with the pop-up headlights, suspect that's the mk1 model. TBH we are looking for a wreck as we'd strip it out and rebuild almost from scratch. Engine in reasonable nick would be an advantage.

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No bother at all, sgtkate...although I'm far from an authority on the topic (I refuse to mod ours, because it's a UK car, one of the last Mk1s made, only 1 previous owner (with sub-15kmiles when we bought it ourselves) and still 99% OEM-spec and pretty much mint for the year and mileage). I've just learnt, read and gathered a lot of info and experience in 15 years of ownership, is all :)

 

MX5Nutz and the 'more liberal' (i.e. not anal-retentive :D) corners of the OC Forum would be a far better resource than I'll likely ever be, for tinkering and track mods.

 

The (cheaply-) paid-for, go-to resources locally would be 'Rodders' Roddisons (Shepcote Lane down by J34S, stone's throw away from Meadowhall) and Steve at MX5 Motors in Carcroft (Doncaster North) :)

Edited by L00b

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