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Mazda Miata Turbo: Live From Solo Nationals Sep 11, 2009

Our time at the SCCA Solo Nationals has been successful so far. The car behaved beautifully during the 1500-mile trek from GRM headquarters in Florida. Our current suspension offers the flexibility to work well as both a daily driver and autocrosser, so we didn’t even have sore backs when we arrived at the championship event in Lincoln, Neb.

Over two days of competition, our daily driven underdog mixed it up with some of the country’s fastest cars in the Super Street Modified class. While we didn’t have any expectation of an overall win, we were eager to see exactly how our project would stack up against the more serious entries.

We posted some fairly competitive times, but at the end of the first day we had only managed to place 17th out of the 23 entries. The second day of competition went better, and thanks to some bad weather we climbed two places to finish 15th in class. This result was about where we had hoped to be. We were even ahead of some extremely powerful cars, including a Dodge Viper, a Ferrari F430 Scuderia and a couple of turbocharged Porsche 911s.

Despite the “Street” part of our class’s name, we weren’t surprised to see that we were the only ones in SSM who had driven their car to the event. As such, we were a bit overweight and underpowered compared to the other cars, making our mid-pack finish a bit sweeter than it would have been otherwise. Our conservative driving technique may have left some time on course, but we made it through the competition without hitting a single cone.

Just because the Miata is finished, however, doesn’t mean that our Solo Nationals adventure is over. Thursday and Friday, Tech Editor Per Schroeder and GRM reader Joe Gonzalez will test their mettle in the B Modified class; they’re co-driving Joe’s LeGrand Sports Racer. Wish them luck as they chase a trophy!

Comments

thatsnowinnebago:
wow, a canoe comment. Didn't think that would happen. On a more serious note, I was unaware you could fit 275s on a miata. Are those the 15X9 6ULs?
Sep 11, 2009 11:07 p.m.
Tom Heath:
Yep, you nailed our wheel and tire setup exactly. It fits the car well after a rolling the fenders, although we discovered a little bit of rubbing on the upper shock mounts at nationals. When we use these wheels with the 225/45R15 Nittos, there's no rub at all. Our Fat Cat Variant coilovers help; they have a narrower spring diameter than some setups. We think we can fix the rubbing by grinding a teensy bit from the mount. We could also eliminate the rub by going to fender flares and a small wheel spacer, but after installing the wrap I don't plan to go that route anytime soon.
Sep 12, 2009 10:29 p.m.
Jaxmadine:
gunna bring it to deland in november to woop my butt?
Nov 11, 2009 8:36 p.m.
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