Racing the Mazda MX5 Cup car with our private race group

Well, I've had the MX5 Cup car for about six months now and it continues to impress me. Our track club, the Turn 2 Driver's Club, has some excellent racers and drivers amongst our group. They race in everything from Porsche Cup cars to historic MGs and from Lamborghini Trofeos to Formula 3 and Formula Mazda. But every one of them that gets in the MX5 loves it. Just as I do. For me, it's the perfect companion car for my Datsun 510 historic race car. They both rely on light weight, balance, grip and cornering ability to get around the track fast, as opposed to out right power. They both teach you more about brake pressures, brake release and throttle points than almost any high-horsepower supercar with tons of driving aids. They are pure  and raw cars for driving, and that is what makes them so popular and compelling.

So, I thought I'd share a couple videos and thoughts. This first one is a 3-car video shot during one of our small private races at Thunderhill Raceway in October. Of the five cars on track, only three had their video cameras rolling (I was not one of them). I'm in the red/white/black car #5. I qualified in second, so I'm starting on the right side of the front row and you'll see me go around the outside of Turn 1 at the start of the race to take first place going into Turn 2. But I lose that position in Turn 9 and it's instructive to see why. These cars are so well matched and highly sensitive to mistakes. If you pick the wrong gear (in my case) or get to throttle just a tad late, the next guy will catch you. As I said, it is a car that makes you better because you need to focus on every small detail of your race.

And here is another video from inside the MX5. I went to a track day with Hooked on Driving on Dec 2 at Thunderhill Raceway with a few friends from our "Turn 2" in our MX5 Cup cars. Good fun was had. I was a bit off my recent personal best time of 2:03.9 from that prior race day, but I did manage a 2:04.9 on tires that weren't fresh. Not too much traffic on the track, but it's sometimes hard to convince those GT3s that yes, in fact, that MX5 is still on your tail! 

The MX5 is so much fun, and I let a couple GT3 drivers test it out (off track) because they were curious how the heck it corners and brakes so well. They came away impressed, which says a lot. I'm still two to three seconds off the lap pace that my professional MX5 driving coach can do in this car, so I've got more to learn about trusting the car at high speeds in corners like Turn 1, where I'm losing several MPH. Of course, at my age and stage of life, I have a slightly different motivation and risk-aversion profile than the 23-year old pros that drive this car for a living.