moff

I managed to win a place on the Mazda 'Zoom-Zoom' Challenge, which was held at Rockingham yesterday. This was the second day of the event with the day split into two sessions with 80 people per session. I was in the afternoon session and it was very wet, but the day was amazing (since it was free!) and my friend and I had a really good time.

Our day started with some laps on the inner circuit (not the oval). Your first 3 or 4 laps are just for track familiarity and you go out in a Mazda 6 or Mazda 3. We went out in the 6 and it was quite good fun since it was so wet, but the car is a little too slow and liked to understeer. After the Mazda 6, its straight into the pits and you jump into the a race spec RX8 (same cars as used in the Mazda RX8 Woman's competition on TV). Their is a good instructor with you to help, but basically its up to you to decide how fast you want to go. I naturally went for it and had a great time. The RX8 is an amazing car to drive, and it was a real eye opener. The traction control system was awesome, and it needed to be with huge amounts of standing water. I was able to comfortably slide and control the RX8 with the aid of the T/C, without it I am certain I would have been off at least 5 or 6 times. My instructor was very familiar with the S2000 and commented about how easy it snapped in the wet and threw you off the track! He is currently employed to racing a 700bhp+ DB7 (nice). I was really getting into the RX8 and having a great time on the track, my instructor helped a lot and was really encouraging me to push harder and to overtake other cars. On the final lap I eased up the inside of another RX8 and just made it around the corner, but got slightly disorientated and overcooked it into the next. Luckily the T/C system sorted it all out. The RX8 driving was my high point of the day, and I was really surprised when the instructor told me I was the best he had seen over the weekend (thanks Jay Sheperd!). I scored 24/25, and was only marked down the 1 point for my near off on the last lap! After your laps you swap over with the intructor for a fully lap of sideways action

Next up was a very bizarre test. We were in MX5's, with a plastic bowl on the bonnet with a tennis ball in it. The object is to drive around a small autotest style circuit with cones and a mini roundabout as quickly as possible without the tennis ball falling out. This is quite tricky and its hard to work out how quickly or slowly to go. Not my best event and I only got 33 secs compared with the days best of 28secs. Apparently the women are amazing at this test and it was a lady who had the record.

Another autotest followed again with a small coned circuit, with two slaloms and a small roundabout. I think the lap record was 20/21 secs in the dry and I managed a 22.3 in the wet, second fastest in my group. You really had to cane the MX5 and leave it in 1st gear, the MX5 is such a chuckable car, and it was great fun, even though ours was soaking inside.

The final test was in a road going RX8 - a brake test and a brief on the road session with an IAM instructor. The brake test was a doddle, but the drive after was a tad boring (only lasted 10 minutes). It would have been better had it been on open country roads and not just around Corby. I was told off for crossing my arms when steering. I tried to tell him that I had been taught it (by Andy Walsh) and that it helped me work out where the centre of the steering wheel was, but he was having none of it and he marked me down

The regional winners of the competition get an RX8 delivered to their home for the weekend to drive to the south coast. Then its a trip down the Solent in a 200ft sunseeker Monaco style boat (I am not good at boats!) and then on for a flight in an aerobatics plane. Not bad considering it was a freebie.

Overall I thought it was a fantastic day and an amazing way to get people to buy Mazda's. I for one have totally changed my opinion of the RX8. I love it, its an amazing car to drive and compared to my recent week with the 350Z - its much more fun and better to drive. If I needed a 4 seat car, there is no doubt in my mind now that it would be an RX8.

The final thing I have decided is that the S2000 would really benefit from the same fully switchable traction control / stability system that the RX8 has. There really can be NO argument against a fully switchable system, and it allows you to push on in wet weather, especially on a track, providing 100 times more control over the car. The RX8's system is brilliant, it does interfere, but only in a controllable manner and can easily be fully disabled. Without it I WOULD have been off the track 3 or 4 times in my 5 laps.

Great day, thanks Mazda!

Blurter

Great write up yet again Moff . Seems like you had a blast

MarkB

Top driver is Jay. Used to know him when he was racing Tuscans a couple of years ago (guess how he knows how sharp the S2000 can be in the wet ).

Sounds like a good day out - interesting to hear you prefer the RX8 to the

AlexC

Sounds like a great day, you lucky bugger!

[QUOTE=moff,Jul 25 2005, 08:56 AM]The final test was in a road going RX8 -

moff

[QUOTE]Top driver is Jay.

AlexC

Funny, as that was the one aspect that disappointed us - we had been considering an RX8 as our sensible 4 door car, but were very put off when we sat in it and had a good look round by the quality and feel of the plastics and interior generally - but this was after sitting in the new Golf GTi, which just felt in a different class in this respect, and also felt pretty damn good on test drive.

dws2000

That sounds like a great day. I've just luckily got an invite by Mazda, it came through the email this morning. I'll be going to Oulton Park on 14th Aug, looking forwards to it, especially after this write up.

Moff - how the chuff are you supposed to be able to drive a car keeping the tennis ball in the bowl?

s2000please

I test drove the RX-8 and was mightily disapointed by it. It didn't fell at all fast, the whole experience was fairly dull and it sounds like a wasp in a tin can. I'd rather have a Toyota MR-2.

moff

Its a hard test and actually a little tedious! But its a good test of smooth driving ability. You only get two runs, so cane it on the first go and take a few risks! I did that, was on for a good time, got lost trying to find where to stop and screwed it up.

It is a good day and the events team were very nice.

MR2????????? But WHY??? Pile of ugly looking cheap plastic.

The RX8 was great on the track. Hard for me to really judge speed as the track was covered in standing water, but it really didn't feel slower than the S and is in a different league to a poxy MR2

salty

Good write up Moff. The RX8 is amazing value at 22k given the looks, interior style, practiciality and performance. If I was after 4 seats I'd have one and put up with the oil/fuel consumption.