Despite giving up about 50 horsepower to the competition, our Miata performed well in its SM2 debut. Our editor's fiancee, Michele, co-drove the car at the event, her first official autocross.
We autocrossed the car this past weekend with the Buccaneer Region SCCA at Jacksonville’s Cecil Field, a recently decommissioned naval air station. The Miata didn’t like the somewhat rough pavement used for the event, as the car wouldn’t drift smoothly around the turns—instead, it pretty much hopped from point to point. Stiffer springs, which are on the way, should help, keeping the car off the bumpstops and providing better handling.
As this was our first SCCA event with the car this season, we competed in the new Street Mod 2 class for modified, road-going two-seaters. Our main competition came from a turbo Miata, and, well, he beat us by a tenth or so. Still, all competitors got to take six times runs, which is nice.
The only change done to the car for this event was a cosmetic one, as we recovered some old magnetic numbers with stick-on shelf paper. The reflective class designation letters came from the mailbox section of our local Lowe’s.
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