John - Actually, I use a relatively old tech tape-based Panasonic camera I have since 2001. It is not HD, but does a decent job. Tapes are a pain in the rear to handle though, they lock in the middle, you cannot use them more than 4 or 5 times, etc. So, I would not recommend it.
Ken - this Mazda event was certainly a reminder of some old fundamentals for me and the results were quite teaching.
The Miata in front of me at the beginning with white and orage paint on it was my friends' spec series that they built last winter. 3 of them were driving it in the A (adv.), B (interm.),C groups (I was in the C group as well, Beginners), and there was D (novice). The car is nearly completely rebuilt with all new parts with the exception of engine chassis, etc. The one in the A group is an ex-rally driver from europe who competed mostly in Group N cars and was considered a mid-pack back then, he has enourmous car control skills, he also won the last month's Houston SCCA Solo 2 National Tour in the STU class with an STi. The one in B group has a track-prep'd
Evo that is very well setup and during last months' time trials at Beaverun, he was faster by 7 secs than many GT3 and 911s with the
Evo. The third of my friends in my group is the apprentice, just like me.
I gave the short history of drivers, so you guys can relate better. Now they purchased that Miata from a person that was driving it for daily commute for $4K, they had to put in another $4.5K to bring it to SCCA Spec Miata compliant, so they can do some road racing, may be endurance. The A driver did most of the work as he is very good with car mechanicals, including the paint. The car is ready to go racing, it is very well prepared. It of course has Toyo RA-1s per spec, and I think it weighs about 2200 lbs, which might even include driver, I am not sure, and has about 110-115 hp.
They have lap timer in the car that is externally trigerred, which was placed right at front straight tower. So, driver A's best lap time was 3.18, B's best was 3.22 and I think C's was 3.28. My best lap time measured via video camera's timer was 3.26, which is significant improvement from my March time of 3.47.
The Cayman has 3 time more hp and trq, and cost 7 times more; but a good driver with a light weight car will beat a mediocre Cayman driver on a track with a lot of turns [img]/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/wink_smile.gif[/img].
Of course most Miatas were not driven that well.
Edited by - FT on 06/19/2006 6:56:19 PM
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