First Track Day Woes in a Modified MX-5 Miata RF — Full Brea

[00:00] Today, we are back in the Miata for its first inaugural shakedown at Gingerman Raceway. We're out at the race track. I'm here with Substitutofour. Hello, he's gonna be riding with me.

[00:12] We have added tons and tons of grip to this car with a set of Richstone RE71RZ tires. These are the two 2545R17s.

[00:24] They have a few different options for 17-inch sizing. This is what fits the best on these 17 by 8 1-1-half inch Koneg Heliogram wheels. It's a little bit larger of a diameter tire. It's a heavier tire.

[00:36] This weighs about 25 pounds per corner, which for Miata is a lot. And it does make the car feel a little bit slower because of that larger diameter. But I intend on daily driving on these tires, and it does offer quite a bit more pothole protection on Michigan roads.

[00:49] Everything fits, everything clears just fairly. We're scraping a little bit of fender liner under slight lock But for the most part, the tire fits, it ships, and it feels awesome out there on track.

[01:02] I've had a few brake cooling issues so far today. Maybe I just need to change the fluid out every session I've been coming in with a turkey-based during kind of pumping all the fluid out of the reservoir. There should be high-temp fluid already in there. I'm putting some more in,

[01:14] and we also have brake cooling ducts and Glock R12 pads. So maybe I just need to go through the car, change all the fluids. I should have done that anyway before I took this out here. That's on me. So we're gonna take it easy on the brakes in today's session.

[01:29] The rest of the car, we have the Olien's DFV dampers, Saki-bomb garage spec, 8K spring rates in the front, 4K in the rear. We've got the front set, 10 clicks from full stiff, and the rear set 12 clicks from full stiff.

[01:43] Dampers, suspension, everything feels amazing. Carcepts front sway bar is on the third stiff of setting out of five, and that feels just about right for this NDM Yada. Good rotation, really nice turn-in,

[01:55] and again, no rubbing. So let's head out there, we'll do a few laps, and we'll see how these RE-sovereign RZs feel on the Miata. We're in about three degrees of negative camber on the front.

[02:07] Tires should be at about 31 psi hot. So we'll see how everything feels. I have not been in this car on track yet. Oh my gosh, it's lovely. So I'm excited. I'm excited for you.

[02:23] Yeah, the car sounds fantastic. It really does. It's got 36.5 miles to the gallon on the way out here, which is just insane.

[02:38] Spicy exhaust. Oh yeah. All right, we'll stay left to the bloodline here. There's so much grip, Chris, for our goodness. It's absolutely insane.

[02:51] There's no power, but all the grip. Good grip, I'm great. Ah, sometimes.

[03:03] So according to TJ, a tire rack, who just did a fantastic video on these tires, you get one really, really fast out lap when the tires are cold kind of for time attack,

[03:15] and then they stay really consistent after that, but they're not quite as fast. A little bit of safe understeer at the limit. Look at the fall out of the car.

[03:27] Yeah, these seats are bolstered, but not quite enough. It's just point aim shoot. I think there's a suspension modification

[03:39] to your really improved steering feel and tightness of this chassis. I get a lot more steering weight from these wider 225s.

[03:52] There's just so much grip. We have low windshield washer fluid.

[04:05] That was 1.36G. Engine sounds great.

[04:20] It hurts. It hurts.

[04:33] You can just go flat out into and out of every corner.

[04:51] Thank you. Thank you.

[05:08] It's insanity. How much traction there is? Surprising. My neck's spring. Yes, you need a little half cool down behind the super here.

[05:21] It's just so poised, it's like it's on its tippy-toe, it's just kind of crawling around every apex. I did miss a top-down track day experience.

[05:38] It's bonkers, just bonkers, try to stay off that flat line where I oversteered earlier.

[06:07] It's just flat-out everywhere, that's what it is. Let's see how our brakes are feeling here, we're doing okay, I guess. This is when they start to get a little bit tired.

[06:22] Use it all the track. We'll let this be RC by, there we go, got a lift, he says no, okay, he wants to hang,

[06:47] but I don't have brakes. He doesn't know that. He doesn't know that. I've never been in another car road here that has this little grip, oh it's insane, it's great, absolutely wild.

[07:02] It's so linear on how it grips, because the camper curve of the tires, here's a viper,

[07:17] that's a point where I can do it full throttle, there we go, the teamwork, the stuff of dreams, it smells good, it does smell good, it kind of looks insane, that bike was set up for all

[07:33] the cross, but it looks right at home here on a racetrack. The comforting thing in this biata is that you know you can take corners faster than everyone

[07:45] else. But in every other situation, except for braking, they have you. RC is hanging pretty well, actually.

[07:57] Oh yeah, well we're not pushing hard, I think we might have to do a cool out here too.

[08:11] I'm running out of brakes, we'll see, yeah, I can kind of maintain them a little bit.

[08:23] It is full on track though man, you barely need brakes, but, ah! I love the shifter, the steering is better in the ND3, quite a bit better, I think it's

[09:03] better, but still this is so much better than the stock ND1 is, I can tell what's going on with the front tires, that's all I need.

[09:16] Go ahead, go for it sir. Wow, what's up bird?

[09:31] Alright, so as far as lap times, I think my fastest lap today is a 1. 150.1, but again, I'm holding back, because I, yes I have track insurance, but I don't want

[09:45] to put this thing into the grass or into the wall, I just don't trust the brakes, what is it with ginger when it breaks? You don't have to CS, I know man, alright so the big question is, how's the biata on track?

[10:06] It's slow car fast and it's kind of what I've been used to all these years, the handling and the grip is such a good teacher too, it highlights all your mistakes, you have to kind

[10:19] of be perfect with your line, otherwise you lose so much speed at time. Do I miss the brute power of the SS1 Ali? Yes, yes I miss the SS1 Ali, it was time for a change, I probably sold that car a little

[10:36] bit too early, I could have held on to it for another year, but I really wanted to get a wiper, so that's the trade off. I think once I get the brakes sorted on this, I'll be pretty happy, for now the handling,

[10:49] the grip, the suspension feels perfect, he's already 7.1 RCs are just insane, and they're fairly wearing down because they weigh 24 pounds, lifting here on the straightaway, brakes

[11:08] are feeling better, maybe those reservoir changes are helping a little bit, we're going to do a cool down lap, hit in, and then we'll go after one more session, I need a back brace

[11:21] for this to work. The Gs are insane, absolutely insane, Jake the snake and the Mustang, Chris, what do you think?

[11:33] Right seat impressions? It's insane, and I'm doing a workout over here, actually, yeah, good thing you've been doing some straights for any reason, right, yeah, training my neck today, the autos are just so

[11:47] impressive, you know, you do like three things to them and then they can do this. Yeah, so like I said earlier, I don't think I've ever been around here in something that

[11:59] grips like this does, I mean I don't even think this Civic type R, oh no, yeah, I mean these tires, this chassis, it's just bockers, just bockers, you need some like racing seats

[12:12] in here or something, yeah, no, I do, I think I'm okay in these stock seats just because they're cloth, well, they were leather, we'd be all over the place, it would be an absolute

[12:25] disaster, I don't know if I entirely trust the ABS system in this car, sometimes I've had some weird like ABS intervention that kind of goes into ABS ice mode, oh that's weird,

[12:39] so I don't know, I'm gonna need to kind of do some research on the braking systems here, we have people recommend, we have the Brembo fronts and the Brembo rears but no Brembo pads,

[12:55] just the G-locks, so we'll see, maybe it needs a fresh set of pads and it's a fresh fluid, my fault for not getting a proper baseline in this for its first track day, yes, well, that's

[13:13] right, this is such a chill day, it is, it's very chill, not a bad like test to do, no, absolutely not, yep, I think you've got a good setup, love the exhaust, the car feels amazing, yeah,

[13:25] the grip is nuts, yeah, I was worried that the suspension and everything would feel a little bit too soft with how much grip these tires have, it's great, it handles it just fine, I have some stiffer spring rates in a box in the garage for these oleans but I don't think I need

[13:42] them, I like the compliance that this has on the street, yeah my only impression prior to this was on the street when you were on the all season tire and it did handle that pretty well, oh my gosh, it was nuts, it seems just like a do it all, do it all a little package here, no,

[13:57] I mean the idea with this car is just enjoy it, send it, have a great time tracking it, it's reliable, it's got all the right parts, I love how easy the car steps front sway bars to adjust,

[14:10] just climb under there with a 14 millimeter and you can move it from one to five holes and it's just like it's just beautiful, pump, hold, down, all right, good to pump, hold, down,

[14:33] all right, just blood the brakes, we're going to go out for another session and see if that made

[14:49] the difference or if we need different pads for the next track day, I've got Chris from shifted X in the passenger seat, we're both rocking the same driving shoes, nice and narrow rounded heel,

[15:01] two a couple days to break in but another super comfortable and they look at two, you guys may have seen them in the Viper video as an integration, you brought your Lotus out here, you have two bright

[15:14] orange cars, both of which we need to film once you get the Lotus sorted again, but yeah, you need a tow back home, so hopefully, it's not too bad, hopefully it's not too bad, yeah, all part of the game,

[15:26] all part of the game costs to do in business out here, it is a hot or day out here today, 82 degrees, so people are getting hot, cars are getting hot, brakes are getting hot,

[15:38] gingerman really tests the limits of stock cooling systems and cooling capacity, for some of our blood breaks at the track was today, usually I do it beforehand,

[15:54] but I did not do my homework, so we were cram in the last minute, didn't take too long though,

[16:09] all right, nobody coming, we'll respect the blend line,

[16:24] brakes feel better, a lot firmer pedal, there was quite a bit of air in the front, calipers

[16:37] just got to use every inch of track,

[17:07] there it is, just long enough to wind out,

[17:37] some weird ABS tendencies I'm noticing,

[18:07] let me know if you feel weird, I'm a terrible passenger, I'm like pure comedian,

[18:37] and there's brake fade, all right, 150 flat, nice,

[18:55] all right, well I think that's all the car has in it, maybe a good couple hot laps, so I think we're gonna have to kind of over build the braking system on this car for it to work,

[19:07] at least on gingerman on a hot day, thinking larger diameter, front rotor, and maybe a different pad, something a little bit more high temp, we'll see,

[19:25] we'll do a cool down lap, what do you think about the Miata? Fantastic, it's just slow, it holds the road so well, the grip is insane, the suspension is insane,

[19:37] yeah, yeah, slow on a straight maybe, yeah, yeah these are, so many one RCs are just like the next level grip, they're insane,

[19:54] they seem to be pretty consistent too, yeah man, I've never had like a dedicated driving shoe, and they make a difference,

[20:07] like that rounded heel, it's so much easier to transition from accelerated brake pedal, you don't have that resistance, with that like squared off heel, and I was surprised, because these soles at first seem pretty stiff, but I have good pedal feel, maybe they've just

[20:24] taken some time to break in a little bit, and the soles are super grippy, so there's no question you know where I'm placing my foot, what it's doing, it makes a difference, like I've never had I said a racing shoes or driving shoes, I just kind of just use whatever barefoot shoe I'd

[20:39] you know feel like wearing that day, these are nice, yeah no I'm I'm enjoying driving in them and I kind of have to wear them for the vipers, because everything else I have is just a little bit too wide,

[20:53] but this still has like a decent toe box that I can spread my toes out in, not too cramped, no yeah not too cramped, so good job with the side,

[21:08] all right we'll pit here, that's probably enough, I'm used to the type bar which would just I could just stand on the brakes all day long,

[21:23] and it would rearrange my organs, and I should be able to do that with the Miata, we can get there, yeah absolutely, yeah there's no matter fine in the right thing, exactly, configuration, and maybe pull in the ABS fuse, I don't know there are some weird ABS

[21:40] things that go on when you're not, if you've got a little bit of steering lock and you're coming into a corner, you want a trail brake, ABS will freak out, okay, so, and you feel it in the pedal? I feel it in the pedal, it's like ABS ice mode, and that sketches me

[21:54] out a little bit, I don't like that, I'd rather have no ABS than weird brake force distribution stuff going on, right, the car doesn't seem like it likes to have the brakes stabbed on, you need to be

[22:09] really progressive with your pedal input, so we will experiment, it's what the today's all about, yeah it's all about that, yeah about the experiment process,

[22:25] all right, so kind of some mixed thoughts on the ND Miata after its first track day, mostly disappointed with the brakes, disappointed with the fact that we're scenes of fade, but that could always be remedied, but more so the ABS system here, not sure if it's the pads

[22:41] that I'm running or just the inherent system on the Miata, tried disconnecting an ABS fuse and the car freaked out, so I've got a check engine right now which I just have to clear, but yeah it does some

[22:54] weird things going into corners sometimes, it's a little bit inconsistent in how ABS functions and operates, it gives me a little bit of ABS ice mode if I try to trail brake sometimes, so I don't quite

[23:06] trust the braking system in this car just yet, and I don't know it makes me a little bit leery driving and honestly, so at least that track, tons of grip from the tires, the suspension is amazing,

[23:18] I think we can get the brake fade taking care of pretty easily with a different set of pads, but yeah, I just see some early brake woes here and a little bit mixed thoughts on the Miata on

[23:32] its first track day, the grip is insane, the handling balance is amazing, the power is expected, I knew that going in, it's been fun bringing it out here, but honestly after owning the Type R and the SS1 Ali which we're pretty hands off after a certain point in modifications, I think the Miata

[23:50] needs a little bit more brake, at least to run out here at Gingerman, which is really tough on brakes, we'll keep you updated as we make some changes and improvements to this car, thank you so much for watching, we'll see you guys in the next one, hello, it's me, it's you from high school,

[24:09] yeah, oh no from lost misconnections on Craigslist, oh yeah, are you ready? yeah, all right, have fun, thanks