Yeah the event wasn't the greatest.... But was a good chance to work on car control. The MX-5 (Miata challenge) was all about car control. I was there on SUnday and the time to beat was 38 seconds. I was able to do it twice in 35 seconds without losing any of the golf balls. The first time I ran they thought i did the clock was off so they asked me to fo it again. So i did the same exact thing and got 50 pts for that. The real fun was the RX-8 challenge. The line wasn't as bad as it sounded on saturday. This one was were they just let us go and let us run the autocross track. It was pretty fun. I didn't get to try the Mazda 6 or Mazda 3, but I had my fun with the Miata and RX-8. At least I got a free hot dog and shirt out of it. LOL

 

haha screw control....i just ran the miata as hard as i wanted....i didn't even push it and still got 31 sec....some guy was really pushing the car and got 27 sec...that's when they said "this is NOT a race for the fastest time....it is a test in SMOOTHNESS"....haahha i didn't go there to be easy on the car

 

hahaha yeah i was there and like WTF? whats up with the balls, anyway i did lose the balls at the start, so i did my autox move and got 27 sec. + 10 sec penalty so its 37, still less than the time to beat HAHA... the guy didnt care but just told me if i want autox, to go the RX8 and miata challege, so we went and scared the instructors at the RX8 but the miata challenge, they cut down the runs to 1 run... i did a 42.xx and didn't beat the 42 sec. posted time well normally at autox, we get to walk the course before running it. oh wells.... some of those staff are being a$$!! thats ok, i dont like their cars anyway

 

Darn i really wanted to go today, but i was stuck at the office all weekend due to that damn overtime..

 

Well, the re-designed MX-5 is not a bad car really. The top now folds like the MR2-Spyder and Z4, no boot cover is needed; the wheels are huge; and there is enough power for the light car, mated to a 6 speed transmission (though we never got past 2nd during the test drive). A lot of people were driving the MX-5 really hard at the MX-5 challenge course, many of them went through the first turn in first gear and really really rev'ed the engines. And every time someone did that, people in line would shout "Shift, shift, ..." To the point that the announcer came on the PA system and said: "Shifting is your friend, you can go a lot faster if you shift ..."

 

It wasn't that bad considering it is totally FREE! I mean what'd you expect for free, especially since 90% of the folks there did not and still do not have any intention of buying a mazda at all. I got the drive the rx-8 and 3, pretty fun. Especially the rx-8. I must admit, it's very very smooth, but I heard it's a crap car. The lines were long though. I think it's because they had too few cars on the track. Lexus and MB had at least 4 or 5 of each car, there were only 2 3's on the track. Missed out on the Performance challenge, guess all the folks that spun out ruined it for the rest of us because they closed it at 4ish. But rx-8 made up for it all.

 

well, here's an idea...don't let everyone in the freaking world in on these events....
perhaps schedule like a one hour window where only a LIMITED # of people are allowed to drive the cars.......i'm sure somebody can do that math on how many people that is as to limit the lines to about 10-15 min MAX.....after that one hour window of driving, then you can eat your hotdog, check out the interiors, etc.....
also give a guy more than 1 LAP (30 sec) for waiting 1 HOUR.....how bout a COUPLE of laps, or even 3 laps......i learned very little about the characteristics of a car from 30 sec of driving it.

oh and don't put the gigantic bowl with the golf balls on the hood of the car.....i can't see out the windshield...how about putting it in the trunk or attach a g-meter (small one) to the windshield or dash.