Has Mazda Built the Ultimate Race Car With Its MX-5 Cup Car? 

Great description. The NC MX-5 have been largely overlooked here in the states, but a few recent series have begun adopting them as great forgotten bargains. Glad to see them finally getting the attention they deserve.

@Grassrootsmotorsports Here in the UK they are possibly the most popular and competitive series in Club Motorsport. 40+ grids, star studded driver lineups. All down to the quality of the racing, the cars performance and "bang for buck". I've diced with an LMP2 LeMans winner, The Stig and this season a British Touring Car champ has joined the grid.

Sure. So, in a car like this you really need to manage friction at the tire contact patches to maintain momentum. The tire can produce a lot of lateral bite, but they also give you a lot of slip angle to play with before they fully break traction. But then you're operating at those high slip angles, meaning the tire is sliding across the road surface but still maintaining directional stability, that friction you are producing in sideways force is also a drag on thrust. So, in other words, if you use 100% of the tire's grip for lateral force, you're fine. But the tire is also friendly enough to allow you to use 105% of its capability without becoming unstable. But that additional capacity you're using just becomes friction that restricts the car's ability to accelerate. With a more powerful car, sometimes you can drive around these tendencies. You have enough thrust to overcome the additional, unneeded friction you are producing by not being precise enough. But in a low horsepower car, too much steering input can just produce friction that works against the engine.

Think of it like kart racing. It’s a momentum game. Ace your entry speed, nail the ideal line and shoot out of the corners.

@@GrassrootsmotorsportsI’ve experienced this in this track but don’t have enough time to think here. In gran turismo is more noticeable to me when driving slow cars cause I’m not trying to save the car from a real crash, so I can experiment and take notes too

@@JJPelszynskiI wish I was better at karting. When there are no experts at the karting track I’m always first

Yeah but you have REALLY soft hands, so it makes up for it :) One of the rhythm things that took some getting used to was the downshift blip. It kinda-sorta wanted like half a blip on the downshifts, but not as full a blip as I'd be giving it with a regular 6MT heel-toe downshift. Just a real gentle touch. That would have taken a few more laps to get used to with a right foot brake. Was that just a peculiarity of the demo car, or do you sneak a little heel-toe onto the throttle for downshifts?

Yeah it's kind of a momentum killer but the chassis is so forgiving it really lets you get away with these kind of dirt bike antics without ever getting scary.

flisperformance.com is the approved homologation builder for MX-5 Cup cars. Track-ready cars start right around $100,000.

​@@Grassrootsmotorsports😂😂

Are you talking about the telemetry? The line plots are literally the best way to present this kind of data, especially if you're going to be analyzing throttle and brake inputs. Doesn't matter if you're simracing or on the pitwall of an F1 team. It allows you to see instantly, based on the geometry of the lines alone what's going on. You're literally out doing track days, right, based on your profile picture; time to level up my guy.

Aww. We love the little squiggles. It's amazing how much insight you can get into the characteristics of a car just by looking at a few squiggly lines. Maybe we can throw some CGI orcs or spaceships in there, though. Jazz it up a bit.

@@Grassrootsmotorsports wouldnt hurt man! Maybe the channel will grow lol

@@opmike343there is better more clear ways to show data than this man, hard to take the overweight guy serious as it is, he could be a lot faster if he just skipped dinner..

​@@gigi9467 - the "dumb lil" lines provide you with more comprehensive data regarding engine RPM, brake pressure, and delta times. I wouldn't suggest dismissing them.