Well, a few friends of mine have Evo's, so I decided to crash their party with my Miata. I need to get a base time for the build/prep for the Miata Tuner's Shootout at Miatas @ Hallet '08.
I met a few friends at Whataburger and then we all rolled to MSR, arriving around 8:45am. I went to PST and got the tires swapped out for a set of used (25hr of Thunderhill) SM Hoosiers. My "hired gun" got the car out on the 3.1 course in the 2d session and was running (handheld laptimer) 2:42s the entire first session, and 2:40.2~3 consistently for the 2d session. The best timed lap was 2:39.8.
There were lots of nice cars out there, and you would never have guess it was an Evo "meet" cause there were hardly any there. It would have been mistaken for a Porsche/RUF meet though. Lots of flat-nose Porsche race cars, race 944s, a red 997 GT3, a yellow 996 GT3, a yellow RUF-modified 996 GT3, a black 996 Turbo, the green RUF RGT, a SICK 996 Turbo that sounded like a jet going down the straights, and, the star of the day, a 997 Cup car.
Went back out for a 3d session and I was riding in a friend's 06-07 GLI with street tires and lowering springs (AUTO TOO). We were giving a M3 a run for it's money until we cooked the brakes and cut out with 5 min left in the session.
That's where I got to see the battle between my Miata and 4 Porsches.
--edited for accuracy--
"I came up on a white/blue 944 racecar and a green Porshe (RUF RGT) and they waved me by at the bottom of the new side passing zone. Then the black (996 Turbo) and yellow (996 GT3) Porsche came up and I waved them past. Now I was in middle of 4 Porsches. I set chase on the yellow one, I could hang in turns but not on straights so it was a hell of a fun time till temp came up. Thats when I let the green and black Porshe by. If temp had stayed down he would have not had a chance. LOL" -- the Hired Gun
While we were talking, a buddy who was watching in the stands came out to congratulate us (it is my car) on beating up on the Porsches. "You should go ask the Porsche owners what's wrong with their cars?"
In our final session, I got to ride shotgun, and WOW!! We got waved by by the red 997 GT3, and then my driver saw THE SILVER EVO three tunrs ahead.. This Evo is owned by another friend of ours, tuned to about 400whp, and driven out here VERY OFTEN. There is a little competition between the two, so he went into 100% mode, or as he puts it, "my balls came out" and caught up with the EVO after a few laps and proceeded to dog the hell out of him for a full lap. Sadly, we couldn't manage to pass, since the temp started creeping up again. The Evo has run a 2:35.8 on RA-1s, but he was on Michelin Pilots this event.
Now for the ass-whooping part, courtesy of a 997 Cup. This was in the first few laps on the last session I mentioned above. The track crew warned us of the Cup car before we went on track, "There is a fast Porsche Cup car out there, try to keep out of it's way." It passed us on the front straight and we tried to follow it thru the tightest, SLOWEST section of the course...and it just ran away from us. This is the only time I have ever seen ANY CAR beat a Miata in the tight section, and this guy ran away like he was still on the straight.
I found out that he was shifting at 5500-6000rpm the entire time except when he was fighting the Porsches and catching the Evo. "I don't like to abuse my equipment." Plus he was hanging on for dear life in the corners, since I don't have a race harness, just the stock 3-pt seatbelt.
So now that we have a good idea where the car is, we have got a better idea what we need to improve.
Step 1 - 3 row aluminum radiator, racing seat, 4-pt harness
PS - Interesting thing my driver said when we were leaving the track, "I still haven't gone full throttle."
