Greetings all,
it was good to put connect some names to nicknames finally

And my new toy got to make some friends to which was good.
For those who don't know, it was only towards the end of the day when James jumped in my car with me that we figured out why it wasn'y quite right - disabling DSC means simply stabbing the DSC off button, which i had been doing, but
you have to hold it down for 8 seconds to get traction control (ie) everything off. Come on Mazda, off should mean off! Rather upset with Mazda about this, haven't read or seen this anywhere. James, the instructor from the UK, worked with Prodrive so he already knew about it as he has worked with the NC before. He said it was not common knowledge even amongst dealerships.
That aside, still had great fun, particularly with the cars lift-off oversteer characteristics. The NC really does have alot of grip though, and the softer setup makes it more difficult to feel what is going on compared with NB/NA. Still very fun and chuckable though. And the body roll is not as bad as it appears, the car just leans on its tires and you get more grip. Great road setup, but needs to be a bit stiffer/sharper for this sort of thing.
Got plenty of pics, will post up some of the better ones when i get time.