2017 Mazda MX5 Cup Racer - (Track) One Take

Опубликовано 13 июня 2017, 11:00

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The Mazda MX5 Cup is a factory-built spec race car based on the MX5 Miata Roadster street car. While it uses the standard drivetrain from the MX5, it is beefed up a bit for track work, and features extensive chassis, suspension, and brake upgrades; also included are slick tires. The MX5 Cup is razor sharp and a riot to drive.

Transcript:
Good morning, everybody! Welcome to the Thermal Club Racetrack, a beautiful facility outside of Palm Springs, California where the kind people at Mazda motorsport have invited me to drive the race car.

This is not a converted street car it has the standard 2-liter SKYACTIV engine.

I may not talk so much during the driving because it's - you know - the race cars require a little bit of focus but hopefully, you guys will get a really good idea of what it's like to drive this.

This thing is $58,900 as tested and that's for an out the door, ready-to-race car.

You just bring your own seat and, as a tall person, I can tell you it's comfortable so let's fire it up! Ignition on, and start button, and that's it and now we're ready to go out on the track! Can I get a thumbs up from somebody? Thumbs up? Okay, we're clear.

Let's get our mirrors ready and here we go, we're going to head out on thermal this is going to be really fun; my practice session in this thing was absolutely kick-ass.

This is a really fun car to drive, as I will demonstrate.

This thing is really light, really tight; you can really feel the rigidity, lots of extra grip from the slick tires.

The steering feels a lot more direct than the road car and it's much more planted and firm.

Beautiful little track here; a lot of fun for this car.

Supposed to run much wide here, much wide, up and over these s's.

Oh yeah now I've got a little more grip in these tires.

Now I'm just worried I'm gonna stuff the thing! That's really an entry speed corner there.

Really good - really good pedal feel, both in the brakes and the accelerator; easy to modulate.

This car's a little ripper, man; it's only 2300 pounds.

I can really - in these slow corners - I can break it to one and a half, no problem.

This thing is an absolute riot! Really liking the trailbraking rotating under braking.

I raced the older version of his car with Road and Track in the American Endurance Racing series and this car's around 200 pounds lighter than the old car.

Our other race car does not have slicks and AER is a street tire series so the levels of grip aren't exactly comparable Come down, come down, come down.

Go, go, go, go, go! Second gear's really short it's really easy to hit the rev limiter on that.

Wide, wide, wide, wide, wide into the return road. Back out late on the left, late on the left.

Maybe if I could smooth it out a little this time, get the car to move around a little bit less.

Probably also a little less there and trail brake a little harder but.

Go go go go! Smooth, smooth, smooth! It feels like short shifting third but, in actuality, second gear is very very short and most racetracks are going to be taken in third and fourth year in this car.

This is a blast, though! I would love to be racing this car.

I get smoked but I think for my first time on this car, my first time on this track, I'm doing okay.

Wide wide wide wide wide! Constant radius, over the top, late late late.

Oh, this was great! This car, you know $58,000 for an MX-5 really sounds like an awful lot of money when you compare it to - you know - street cars, a Corvette, a Shelby, something like that.

When you talk about a fully prepped race car with the reliability of an MX-5 ready to race out of the box, there's something right about this you know after driving the MX-5 street car and then getting into this I immediately know where the $25,000 went.

It is not like, "Ah, they're ripping me off!" You drive this and it feels like a sorted car.

The brakes are really bang on, you know a lot of people have been through this so the tires have been have been worn in pretty good by now and it's very hot out here so that explains a little of the slip-sliding but - you know - to have the safety stuff and the fire stuff and the fuel cell, the cage, the data pack.

I can fit, it's comfortable, it's just lovely to drive it really is.

It's predictable and obviously, if you get a little out of sorts you can recover it without much trouble so I want to thank first, the people at Mazda for inviting me out to do this; this is a wonderful little treat.