Road Racing Thread

[Advancedynamix]

Lol, my front toe hooks are quite worn as well.

Thanks danny!
Movin, your right about not wanting to ride at the top of the stroke. I try to set my cars up with about an 1-2" of sag in the back. I find this perfect for normal roads and track duty. You are also correct when you say our objectives are different, but that's not to say I wouldn't set a festiva up like you have, because I think it's a great idea, just not for road racing. lol. I grew up on skidder roads though, and know that terrain well, but I used to prefer old subie 4x4 wagons or tracker 4x4's. No doubt the Festy is a trail monster with those atv tires.

[Advancedynamix]

So, I got a chance to thoroughly thrash a Mazda 2 around the track for a day. I'll be posting video and I'll write a little more about my impression of the car. The test was a couple weeks ago, but I havn't had any spare time to post. Here are a couple teaser pictures. Stay tuned for a little write up. It's not a Festiva, but may be the closest new car were going to get.

[nitrofarm]

I read in Motortrend mag that the Fiesta is going to get @ 1.1L turbo engine designed for fuel economy only (not performance). Not sure how long before its released. But cant wait to test drive the new Turbo Focus. My wife loves the pics in the mag of it. But I just dont like the fuel mileage(but at least it finally beat the GTI in their shoot out). Why cant Ford make a hot little engine for the Fiesta? Instead of just a economy one- They always make the cars weigh so much by adding all kinds of bells & whistles.

[nitrofarm]

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[bhazard]

Re: Road Racing Thread

There's supposed to be a 1.0 3 cyl and then a Fiesta ST coming.

[Bert]

Do you folks get the Mazda 2 in the US? When they were introduced in Canada a couple of years ago the Mazda 2 beat the pants off a Ford Fiesta (same Ford-Mazda shared platform) despite fielding a smaller engine than the Ford. And what else; it was also noted to be available world-wide (except n America) with diesel power.

[bhazard]

Re: Road Racing Thread

Yeah there's a couple members with them including nerd racing.

[Advancedynamix]

Just realized that I never gave my impression of this car. Lol.
Well, the little 2 has a great chassis. Mazda hasn't forgotten about what a great idea the 121/festiva was and they have done it again. They built this car with the intent of keeping it light. It's not Festiva light, and that shows on the track, but it's all over the Miata. I was able to drive this car back to back with several different setups of Miata. NA sock, NA spec race car, and NB turbo. What's funny is the little 2 will put the smack down on a stock NA. It runs about even with a prepared NA spec race car. and it's a couple seconds slower than the NB turbo. This was a bone stock 2, that we tried several different wheel and tire combos on and I ran some laps with the front bar disconnected. Disconnecting the bar didn't really affect my lap times at all, but it scared everyone watching as they thought I was going to roll the car, so they made me put the bar back on. lol. I just wanted to prove that body roll shouldn't slow down a driver.
Heres the run down. Power is boring, typical econobox stuff. Gets out its own way, but not going to intimidate anyone. Handling is excellent, even though the suspension is horribly off the mark, the chassis is balanced and easy to work with. I feel safe drifting this thing at nearly 100mph on performance street tires (195/60-14 Falken Azenis rt615k). The traction control and ABS were hardly noticeable, and you can turn the traction control off, but I didn't notice a difference. I'm told that this car has electric assist in the steering and that felt good as well. I did manage to make the car angry several times as the dash board lit up like a christmas tree. I'm not sure what it was angry about, I guess I just tickled it in a bad spot. Brakes weren't anything to write home about, but with stock HP you barely use them anyway, it is like a go kart at the fair, just hold the gas around the whole track, lol.

My worst gripe about the 2 was it's gearbox. The gear spacing is horrible. It doesn't have the grunt to pull third in most corners on the track, but I was bouncing off the limiter in second (yeah, probably why the dash would light up and flash at me). This is very frustrating because the car can take just about any corner flat out in second and it's boring waiting for the next straight to come along so I could shift up. This may be better with properly tuned suspension and more power because I may be able to carry enough speed to hold third, but "as is" it sucks. If third were a bit closer to second then this car would easily keep up with the Turbo NB miata we had to test with. Either way, the little 2 is a heartbreaker at the track and the gearbox issue is something we can work around.

If Mazda or Ford (this is essentially a fiesta) offered this car as a 3 door in this country then I'd have one, but I have no use for a 5 door sub compact so they aren't getting my money. Lol. If you bought one of these, feel free to flog it ruthlessly at a track day, they hold up well.

[sketchman]

^So, basically, it's needs a B6T, or maybe a BPT given the added weight?

[bhazard]

There are much more modern engine swaps that'd work way better than an 80s engine in a new car.

[kumalaba]

There's supposed to be a 1.0 3 cyl and then a Fiesta ST coming.

you are right bhazard for 2014 the st is around 23K & its a dohc 1.6 turbo with 6 speed manual,2700lbs,197h,p, 214tq. my sis bought the mazda 2 in the green color after we test drove the fiesta first yaaawn then the mazda, it seemed so much more fun to drive than the fiesta.

[kumalaba]

my favorite new car is the mazdaspeed3 with lsd,6speed manual,263hp & 280 tq. these are 14 second cars & will run over 150 mph top end, i just dont want a car payment anymore or i would snag one!

[Advancedynamix]

^So, basically, it's needs a B6T, or maybe a BPT given the added weight?

There are much more modern engine swaps that'd work way better than an 80s engine in a new car.

I'm thinking MZR 2.3 turbo. Plenty of potential there.

[sketchman]

Something funny. I had a 09 Focus for a while, and my little sister had a 3 wagon with the MZR 2.3 in it. Mine was a D20. I was just curious, so we pulled up nose to nose and popped the hoods. Ford and Mazda up to their old tricks again. However the technicals go(either the D20/23 is based on the MZR or vise versa) it was like the old Bs. Motor mounts are even the same. I think the MZR has VVT or something and maybe an aluminum block, but otherwise dimensionally very similar.

Just a little off topic fun bit of trivia there.

[Advancedynamix]

Ford and Mazda will always be kissing cousins.