I scored 478 =( with a time of 34.071. I guess i should be happy about the improvement from my 36.8xx during the first run hehe. Those mazda3's are fun, but that mazdaspeed miata at the test drive was waaay fun. I wound up taking some girl's mom or something as a passenger cause she had another passenger come meet her in line. Mebbe next year we'll race miata's =p

 

Badly... 40.6x and 39.55 (325pts) and yes, the mazdaspeed miata is quite fun to drive :D

 

Had a great time, but my score sucked, only a 403 (36.174 sec). I think I need a lot more practice. I'm really not used to automatics at all, I've driven manuals for about 30 years and most of those have been RWD. FWD auto was really different. Still it was a fun time.

 

I had more fun test driving the Mazdaspeed Miata than running the course with the "auto" Mazda 3... (why they hell did they choose to use automatics?). Anyway, I did 37.3 on the first run, and 35.2 on the second, I think I could of done 33's on the second run, but I ate the last apex cone, oh wells. The course should definitely been a lot longer; they should of switched the test-drive course with the competition course, don't you think?

Overall, I had an OK time.

 

Oh, and did you guys notice the "tiny" intercooler on the Mazdaspeed Miata? How cute :D

 

yeah it was pretty small...but then again it's a small car...i wound up bouncing off the rev limiter in 1st ...my first thought was . o O (i'm only at 6k...) then i realized i wasn't driving the 8 hehe

 

I scored 404 points. Also on my second run I snap spun the Mazda3 after the big sweeper and the last slalom. My 10 seconds of fame came in the form of the announcer saying "Jack Suzuki redesigns the track!"

I hope they use the Miata next year. My nine years of flinging the Miata around will come in handy... <grins>

 

I suspect that's exactly why they won't use the Miata any time soon - too many people have been campaigning them for too long, with too much success.

Rev-it-Up is, when all's said and done, a marketing exercise. Using newly-released models not only provides welcome exposure for the cars, but also helps to level the playing field so that novices aren't totally behind the 8-ball against the seasoned autocrossers.

 

so i was really impressed with the falken azeni sport tires they loaded on the mazda3's, but when i checked their booth, i didn't see a tire size that fit the 8... anyone w/ a lil more knowledge can confirm this?

 

I heard the announcer say that the pro started off in 1st, and then manually shifted to 2nd, keeping it in 2nd all the way around. The first time around I did that and it went pretty smoothly, but seemed to get bogged down after the final turn.

Some autos will shift up when they get close to redline, so I decided I wouldn't shift into second for the second run, and let the car take care of it, but it didn't shift into second and just hit the fuel cut-off. Took me a moment to realize that before I pushed it into 2nd. Then I tried to shift down to 1st at the last corner, and probably wasted a bit of time concentrating on the gearshift rather than the line ... and it didn't shift down to first as instructed (probably too high revs).

Don't remember my times, but the second was over a second faster than the 1st, and my score was 440. It was a blast. Great for $40. The clinics were good, and I liked the Mazda3 better than the Mazda6 (from last year) - better throttle response, and tighter handling.