Let's chat - tell us about your most recent drive

[ManiacLachy]

On the weekend my partner finally had a drive of my MX-5 for the first time!

I'd always offer her a go when we went out, but she always declined. I think she's a bit nervous of it in a "what if I do something wrong" kind of way, but I'm pretty liberal with letting people have a go and was not concerned. Her car is a little Ford Fiesta manual (not the ST), which she loves for the feel of driving it.

We had a little drive around the local area, and she had fun. She thought I was pressing a button to make the turbo noises Now she knows it about the throttle and load. She found the gear shift quite difficult to, it's stiff and precise, but she was getting used to it by the end. It was a fun little drive, it's always a different experience from the passenger seat

Now I need to get out and give it a proper drive, it's been too long!

[KevGoat]

My wife can't drive my SE. She just can't get a comfortable or safe driving position. She has short legs and finds the seat doesn't go forward enough, and the lack of steering wheel adjustment doesn't help. If not for that, she would have taken possession of it and let me find myself something else! - what little she has dríven it, she loved it.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

[greenMachine]

Well, G1 (Grandie No1) had a birthday, some three hours hence on Saturday. Stinking hot weather. MX5 has no aircon. Not taken it for more than a run into town yet. What do you do?

Bite the bullet, fuel up the SE, load the presents and head off, windows down ...

Mistake No1 - take wrong route out of Canberra to the Barton, get stuck in major traffic jam in 36* heat. After sitting in the heat, watching the coolant temp for movement, inching forward, after around 20 minutes clear the blockage (someone broken down, tilt tray making matters worse), another not-quite-so-bad holdup at Hall, the open road beckons ...

Out past Yass, more roadworks, lane closed, 40kph limit, everyone crawling, when they can move that is. Dunno what they were doing, by the time I got to the end they were picking up the cones and packing up for the weekend!

Then, about 20kms further - grassfire! Again, not much happening except for mopping up, but lots of trucks and tenders, firies on the side of the road and in the median, probably the other side too as it was also burnt. Not a great holdup, one lane was open, and traffic flowed cleanly if slowly. But the traffic banked up the other side for who knows how many klicks, glad I was travelling in the direction I was.

After that it was plain sailing, off the highway at Gundagai, out through Junee to Coolamon. The SE was a joy on those roads, keeping to the speed limit, more or less, pushing on the twisties, it never missed a beat, never looked like having a problem in the heat.

Return trip was same, except decided to go via Coota and Harden-Murrumburrah except now it seems to be reversed. Whatever, the coffee stop is the bakery cafe up the top of the hill in Harden unless ruined tastebuds are your thing - take it from one who has suffered to bring you this! Also was reminded on leaving Coota to keep a decent distance behind stock transports ... the cows were venting big time, and overtaking required careful planning, definitely avoiding any curvature of the road that might prompt liquids to escape laterally All I got was the odour, but it could easily have been a different outcome.

As a stress test, the car passed with flying colours, no sight of overheating (except for the driver), no troubles. A new rattle has appeared in the exhaust, so a trip up the hoist is called for but that would seem to be no big deal. I now have more confidence in it as a tourer, this is always a process after major work, but looking good right now!

[ManiacLachy]

That was a good stress test. Glad to hear coolant is staying within limits, especially in gridlocked traffic.

I took mine out for a quick run last week, my AC really doesn't do much. I can tell it's working slightly, the air out of the vent is a little bit cool, it's just not having much effect

[rascal]

Took mine out for its last track event of the year the previous weekend.
Poor thing had been sitting on the hoist for three months since the last event. (Calendar was a bit lopsided this year, and I’ve been that busy at work haven’t had any time to touch it)

Did the pre event inspection/prep on the day before (only free time I had) and to my dismay found a crack in a spoke of one of my wheels. At 3pm on a Saturday I had no time to organize a replacement so made the sad decision to run with my spare rims on the front, complete with their circa 2014 ad08s. I did consider putting them on the rear as last time a similar scenario occurred was at Winton and I went quicker with the dud tyres on the back than the front, as could still point in and out of corners and steer it from the rear, whereas on the front just took way too long before I could get on the gas.
This time however Phillip island is a much faster track and the thought of the car trying to swap ends at 200kmh in turn 1 wasn’t something I wanted to experience.

Ugh, this was going to mean a very painful day.. and at Phillip island too, imho the best track in Australia.
This proved to be so. You kind of forget just how good A050s are till you put something that isn’t back on.

Entry to Honda changed from braking at 100m from 180kmh, to braking at about 250m (approx as brake markers don’t go back that far!) from 160kmh, and still only just making it round the corner.

Interestingly, turn 1 wasn’t that much slower as the splitter and rear wing obviously work, cos grip wasn’t anywhere near as lacking through the fastest corner on the track.

Ended the day with a 1:54 which was five seconds slower than last time out, the only difference being tyre condition.
New rims on the way, and at least I’ll have a couple of spares now so won’t need to fall back to my road set if happens again

[greenMachine]

Was that an AROCA track day Rascal? I contacted them earlier in the year, they told me there was nothing at PI until early 2024 because of track re-sealing and heavens knows what else. Specifically, their late Nov - early Dec trackday would not be happening in 2023.

As it turns out the car would not have been (is not) ready, and even if it was my schedule probably would have precluded it anyway, so while I am a little bit cranky at (possibly?) being misled, I'll give them a pass as it turned out I would not be an entrant anyway.

I am keen to get back on track, been far too long! I am especially keen to get on a track that will give me a chance at a Vmax attempt, post-rebuild. SMP is closest, but the entry to the straight is slower than PI though it is all downhill to T1. PI is uphill for a way, but IIRC I am short-shifting to 5th on the last turn in the atmo car, so definitely a 5th gear entry in the SE, picking up 6th before the start/finish line. Conrod would be the best choice - long, downhill, plenty of time to let it wind out in 6th. But they are charging an arm and a leg, I have ticked that box a couple of times now and so I'm not sure that I want to pay that much for a try at a top speed run.

[KevGoat]

Decided it was time to take mine for a drive recently... unfortunately it was ruined by too many roadworks, too many rental RV's and too many drivers who can't drive above 30k's below the speed limit!... got way too much sun (pretty unusual for us since driving MX-5s actually) and then felt crook for a couple of days after ... it's been raining and thunderstorms since the drive, then today, just a few days later, I found the battery had for no reason lost its charge ... Currently have the battery on repair mode .... far out!it's not normally all this hard

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[rascal]

Was that an AROCA track day Rascal? I contacted them earlier in the year, they told me there was nothing at PI until early 2024 because of track re-sealing and heavens knows what else. Specifically, their late Nov - early Dec trackday would not be happening in 2023.

As it turns out the car would not have been (is not) ready, and even if it was my schedule probably would have precluded it anyway, so while I am a little bit cranky at (possibly?) being misled, I'll give them a pass as it turned out I would not be an entrant anyway.

I am keen to get back on track, been far too long! I am especially keen to get on a track that will give me a chance at a Vmax attempt, post-rebuild. SMP is closest, but the entry to the straight is slower than PI though it is all downhill to T1. PI is uphill for a way, but IIRC I am short-shifting to 5th on the last turn in the atmo car, so definitely a 5th gear entry in the SE, picking up 6th before the start/finish line. Conrod would be the best choice - long, downhill, plenty of time to let it wind out in 6th. But they are charging an arm and a leg, I have ticked that box a couple of times now and so I'm not sure that I want to pay that much for a try at a top speed run.

Yes it was Aroca. We were also told our traditional dec round wasn’t available and originally didn’t have anything after sep in the calendar except for the 10hr which I don’t do, but at the last minute (early nov I think?) Phillip island became available so we quickly slotted that in. Maybe the resurfacing was held up, or lyndsay didnt want to spend the money?

Re vmax at PI, What final drive do you have?
I have a 4.1 with six speed and 215/50, and unrestricted I hit the limiter in sixth (at 231kmh) crossing the finish line and have to lift to not buzz it all the way to turn 1 turnin. Last corner (12) is definitely fifth with some power and I grab sixth on the outside ripple strips on the way out .
So if you have a taller diff ratio then you should be good for 250ish? As you could keep your foot in it.

I plan to go back to Bathurst possibly next year for my third visit , and first not nat asp, and have a sourced a 3.6 which I’ll need to fit beforehand otherwise it will be a painful trip down Conrod constantly modulating throttle to keep off the limiter..

[greenMachine]

Thanks, if I had known, I would have been tempted, but then frustrated on not being able to go. So, to 2024 ...

I have the 3.6 rear end, I reckon if I can pull 7k rpm in top that will be 240kph. All I have is the stock SE aero, so I will be low drag, but still that won't come easily. I have never run aero there, all my laps have been in clean cars, most was an SE spoiler on my NB (which actually made a difference through SMP's T1 - noticeably more settled at the rear).

Yes, I have run the 4.1/6-speed combo, but not boosted, I wish I had looked at my terminal velocity on Conrod but I was too busy!! And the next time around I was shaking down the racecar and it was wet - I was even busier!!

[greenMachine]

Monday I looked at last week's email newsletter, saw the Canberra Chapter were going down to have fish and chips at Burrill Lake with some of our coastal cousins ... haven't done a run in ages, why not, fish and chips and water and cars, what's not to like? Rang my Renno-loving mate down there, he was up for it (shows that he is otherwise sane!), and we set off from Bungedore on a rather brisk morning, hoping for better along the coast.

First issue was a big delay at some roadworks with a red light stop-and-go, the queue of cars was monumental, and travelling at 40km took forever to clear, but there was utter stillness for maybe 10-15mins when they obviously felt the need to have no traffic in the site for some reason!

Second issue was, travelling in convoy at a touch over 100kmh, passed by a big Merc van, and a little lady in a Camry on the overtaking zones. Then we get to the twisties, they want to slow, we want to go . The van was the first to surrender, slowing at the last overtaking opportunity before the mountain to let us by , the LLC held out for a while going downhill, before letting us by just before an overtaking lane , but from there on it was great fun.

Picked up my mate at long Beach, got back out to the highway, and waiting to tun right was another MX5 - got to be going our way, right? Turns out he was, and not only that, the driver was a bloke who worked for me for a few years back in the 80s!! Small world!

Came back separately after catching up with Dave from Carco/MX5Solutions, and had a good run up the mountain.

Conclusions? Must do more of these. Need to quieten my exhaust, conversation quite difficult even with windows up.



The fish and chips? Excellent!! The company - excellent, the weather - not quite excellent but near enough

[ManiacLachy]

Sounds like a great drive, the kind I'd like to do more of this MX-5 Season (April-October, when temps aren't >30* and humidity isn't >80%)

You just needed to take some pictures to include! You know we're a visual bunch.

[bruce]

Such a dampener all these roadworks happening. But I guess they are needed and we do complain about the crappy roads.

[greenMachine]

Yes, some photos would be good, but they didn't happen, so the writeup is the best I can do!

I'll try and do better next time!!

[greenMachine]

The 10th anniversary edition of this little car show, held in a rural residential area near me - run by the local community association in conjunction with their produce and general monthly market.

Ten cars from the local Chapter met up at the Sutton bakery, and convoyed down to Wamboin - 15 minutes away - one NA, two NBs, three NCs and four NDs! We met up with another ND who travelled separately, for a total of 11.


Just a short drive, but a great rollup of cars. The highlight for me was a pristine one-owner Bugeye - 63 years and counting! That car could have been mine, I regret selling it but I just can't see that I could have done what this bloke did.

[Jeo]

I made it out to Wheels of Wambion yesterday too. It was my first visit to the show and colour me impressed. Was a great little show with incredible variety, including a number of local cars I hadn't seen before.

The thing that made the drive interesting however was that I wasn't in my car, but instead dad's recently acquired Cobra. I had a quick putt around suburbia near my place the day after he picked it up, but this was my first extended drive. He drove us out to Wambion and then threw me the keys for a slightly longer route home via Nanima and a quick stop off at a hot rod show also happening at Hall. Was a little cool when we set off in the morning but otherwise an absolutely glorious day.

As for the Cobra - driving wise it's honestly a little agricultural for my millennial tastes, but it definitely makes all the right noises and was well suited to the task at hand yesterday of cruising country backroads at approximately the signposted speed. Wasn't what I'd call confidence inspiring when given a little push, but also who cares when you look and sound that good.