View Full Version : Zoom Zoom Live
Did this over the weekend. Fun event--typical car co. ride and drive setup, though Mazda wants/expects you to go more balls to the wall than most.
Some random reactions:
Mazdaspeed 6 -- This car doesn't do anything for me. There's a turbo lag issue, and when the power comes on it's not enough to really peel your hair back. Lots of understeer, lots of weight on the nose. This is not an autocrossy type car, esp. on the tight, short course Mazda had laid out, which mostly highlighted the car's inherent push and turbo lag. Interior appointments are basic Mazda 6 spec, which means they're acceptable but not fantastic.
CX-7 -- Nice chassis setup, for an SUV. Minimal roll, decent steering, etc. Not a lot of room inside, either for cargo or people. The 2.3 turbo is an odd choice for this product, though. It's laggy off the line, but the fuel economy numbers are no better than what Ford cites for the 3.5L in the Edge. And the 3.5L has more power and doesn't need premium fuel.
Miata -- Damn, damn what a fun car. There are more powerful cars. There are faster cars. There are more expensive cars. There are (lots) more practical cars. But in terms of just being fun to drive, the Miata is hard to beat. The new version is bigger and faster than the one I used to drive some (a 96 1.8), but has lost none of what makes it a blast to drive.
lemming
08-14-2006, 10:27 AM
Did this over the weekend. Fun event--typical car co. ride and drive setup, though Mazda wants/expects you to go more balls to the wall than most.
Some random reactions:
Mazdaspeed 6 -- This car doesn't do anything for me. There's a turbo lag issue, and when the power comes on it's not enough to really peel your hair back. Lots of understeer, lots of weight on the nose. This is not an autocrossy type car, esp. on the tight, short course Mazda had laid out, which mostly highlighted the car's inherent push and turbo lag. Interior appointments are basic Mazda 6 spec, which means they're acceptable but not fantastic.
CX-7 -- Nice chassis setup, for an SUV. Minimal roll, decent steering, etc. Not a lot of room inside, either for cargo or people. The 2.3 turbo is an odd choice for this product, though. It's laggy off the line, but the fuel economy numbers are no better than what Ford cites for the 3.5L in the Edge. And the 3.5L has more power and doesn't need premium fuel.
Miata -- Damn, damn what a fun car. There are more powerful cars. There are faster cars. There are more expensive cars. There are (lots) more practical cars. But in terms of just being fun to drive, the Miata is hard to beat. The new version is bigger and faster than the one I used to drive some (a 96 1.8), but has lost none of what makes it a blast to drive.
it is rather shocking that a Neanderthal such as yourself would be so amused by the mx5.
;)
i like it, too, but not enough to eject the solstice from the #1 spot.
it is rather shocking that a Neanderthal such as yourself would be so amused by the mx5.
;)
i like it, too, but not enough to eject the solstice from the #1 spot.
The thing with the Miata is that driving it on an autocross course or twisty back road is just a hoot, but living with it every day is a giant PITA (too small, too slow for the cut and thrust of highway driving, etc). Still, it's refreshing that for 23K you can get still get a sports car that is (relatively) light and perfectly balanced.
I like the way the Solstice looks better, but I need to drive one to see if it has that same balance that the Miata does. My guess is no, based on the reviews I've read, but I'd like to see for myself.
Mazdaspeed 6 -- This car doesn't do anything for me. There's a turbo lag issue, and when the power comes on it's not enough to really peel your hair back.
I guess it's a matter of what you're used to. When I drove the Speed6, I was really impressed with how much the car pulled when the turbo kicked in. Really sets you back in your seat. Yeah, does have a lot of lag, though.
Miata -- Damn, damn what a fun car. There are more powerful cars. There are faster cars. There are more expensive cars. There are (lots) more practical cars. But in terms of just being fun to drive, the Miata is hard to beat. The new version is bigger and faster than the one I used to drive some (a 96 1.8), but has lost none of what makes it a blast to drive.
That is pretty much how I felt when I did the event las summer. I'll be going again this coming Saturday.
John V
08-14-2006, 10:42 AM
I drove an MX-5 this weekend as well, but not at zoom zoom. One of my buddies picked up a new on this weekend. It's got the sport package, which consists of 17x7" wheels, the LSD, and the 6-speed manual.
The shifter is typical Mazda, which is to say awesome. Slightly notchy, easy to find the gates, with short, low-effort throws. The motor is great, too. It doesn't quite have the throaty growl the early 1.6L Miatas did, but it's very flexible and feels very zingy. It feels like it has a light flywheel from the factory! It's reasonably quick, but with the 6-speed and 7,000 RPM redline it only does around 50MPH in second. Weird.
The car is VERY eager to turn-in and feels light on its feet. The rear end is pretty lively, too. My initial opinion though is the car is just way too soft. It gets out of shape easily during mildly spirited street driving because of the excess body motion. Combination of really soft springs and really underdamped shocks. Sorta disappointing. Once someone makes a set of decent aftermarket shocks for the car, it could be more interesting.
I loved the interior and the flip-back top. Really wish the Boxster could have made do with a non-power top because the MX-5's is just slick.
BahnBaum
08-14-2006, 10:44 AM
If you did it on Sunday, and you neglected to walk over to the other side of Fedex, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Alex
If you did it on Sunday, and you neglected to walk over to the other side of Fedex, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Alex
Had to get back to the ranch. I only get a limited amount of free time for frolics and detours these days.
lemming
08-14-2006, 11:14 AM
I drove an MX-5 this weekend as well, but not at zoom zoom. One of my buddies picked up a new on this weekend. It's got the sport package, which consists of 17x7" wheels, the LSD, and the 6-speed manual.
The shifter is typical Mazda, which is to say awesome. Slightly notchy, easy to find the gates, with short, low-effort throws. The motor is great, too. It doesn't quite have the throaty growl the early 1.6L Miatas did, but it's very flexible and feels very zingy. It feels like it has a light flywheel from the factory! It's reasonably quick, but with the 6-speed and 7,000 RPM redline it only does around 50MPH in second. Weird.
The car is VERY eager to turn-in and feels light on its feet. The rear end is pretty lively, too. My initial opinion though is the car is just way too soft. It gets out of shape easily during mildly spirited street driving because of the excess body motion. Combination of really soft springs and really underdamped shocks. Sorta disappointing. Once someone makes a set of decent aftermarket shocks for the car, it could be more interesting.
I loved the interior and the flip-back top. Really wish the Boxster could have made do with a non-power top because the MX-5's is just slick.
that's the most when it hits me re: the stupid solstice top design. i used to be able to put the top up/down in about 3 seconds while sitting in the driver's seat in my old miata, even with the hard dog rollbar in the way.
the solstice top design is stupid and that's why i'm fundamentally opposed to the car.
Went to the Zoom Zoom event this morning. My reaction was pretty much identical to JST's.
Some additonal comments:
The Mazdaspeed6 seems like a great car for people who want to keep a low profile abut still have guts and AWD. I can't speak for the AWD, other than it didn't seem to be RWD-biased. The car is nose heavy and felt large and that much more sluggish compared to the MX-5 and RX-8. The BIG minus was the brutal turbo lag. Like JST said, the tight course, probably made things worse, but still. Once it kicked in you absolutely felt it (and in a really tight course made it unexpectedly annoying), but it just brought the acceleration ~ up to par with my 330i. Must be nice to have that power for highway passing, etc, but on that course you could not use it or see it much. I liked the interior. The clutch was a PITA compared to the two sportscars, which felt superb.
CX-7. To add to JST's comments, I hated the raised view/limited visibilty and the combo of the tranny and engine was not smooth - I felt lag, slow shifts, etc. But it cornered reasonably well.
The RX-8's interior seemed nicer than I remembered. OTOH, the lack of telescoping on the wheel didn't make me very comfortable - my arms were more outstretched than I'd like. Bringing the seat closer made my knees hit the dash (this also applies to a lesser extent to the MX-5). I never noticed before, but visibility out the sides and back is not great.
The MX-5 felt as awesome as I remembered. Fun as hell, incredibly balanced, easily controllable power oversteer, just awesome...
...on an Auto-x course. And that is the thing I thought about today. In those short, twisty courses, the two Mazda sporscars felt awesome: nimble, agile, enough power to have fun, etc, but I dunno how they would feel outside those conditions.:dunno:
zcasavant
08-19-2006, 06:58 PM
Went to the Zoom Zoom event this morning...
Yeah, Kristin and I saw you there. You were getting into a gray miata when Kristin said, "isn't that Fernando?" Sure enough. Wanted to say hi when you finished on course but never found you.
oh well. We had fun too. I was reasonably impressed with the speed 6. The miata was as fun as I remembered it from the previous year. I wasn't as impressed with the rx-8 though. I think maybe the course wasn't set up ideally for its power band. :dunno:
lemming
08-19-2006, 07:16 PM
i heard about this again on the radio yesterday and i really wanted to go today.
:-(
(was committed to do a 40mile ride today --would have had more fun driving).
Yeah, Kristin and I saw you there. You were getting into a gray miata when Kristin said, "isn't that Fernando?" Sure enough. Wanted to say hi when you finished on course but never found you.
oh well. We had fun too. I was reasonably impressed with the speed 6. The miata was as fun as I remembered it from the previous year. I wasn't as impressed with the rx-8 though. I think maybe the course wasn't set up ideally for its power band. :dunno:
Shame, I would have looked out for you had I known you'd be there.:(
Yeah, the RX-8 impressed me in different ways. The courses were way too tight in general. The thing about these events is that the courses are so short, and new, that I end up paying to much attention to getting through and not enough to the actual car. It's almost like I take mental notes and reminisce about the car experience afterwards. I may think about one aspect of the car while driving, but miss two dozen others. I forced myself to take my time getting to the gate just so I could pay attention to the shifter throws, clutch, etc.
lupinsea
08-21-2006, 11:49 PM
The MX-5 felt as awesome as I remembered. Fun as hell, incredibly balanced, easily controllable power oversteer, just awesome...
...on an Auto-x course. And that is the thing I thought about today. In those short, twisty courses, the two Mazda sporscars felt awesome: nimble, agile, enough power to have fun, etc, but I dunno how they would feel outside those conditions.:dunno:
I used to drive a Miata as my primary, everyday car. . . to/from work, around town, etc. It did just fine. . . actually, in some respects I prefer it to the ZHP. The ZHP is very powerful and I love the solid chassis (in comparison) and the torque . . . but the Miata just felt alive!. All those attributes mentioned about nimble, agile, just enough power, etc. applies equally to regular driving and made it a blast to drive ever single time I got behind the wheel. And actually I much prefer the Miata in traffic than the BMW. The 330i is just plain old BIG in comparison and I feel that I have to be VERY mindful that there's still a lot of car behind me. With the Miata I could just squirt here or there or wherever there was a break in traffic. The little roadster had enough trunk space (trips to Costco were certainly possible) to be useful, and like everything else about the car it was "just enough".
The only thing that got old after a while was the car was low to the ground and the roofline (top of door opening) was also relatively low and it made getting in an out more of an exercise.. . but still not too bad.
And after the recent trip to California I have thoughts of a dirt cheap, stripped out, old Miata, a roll cage, and a super/turbocharger dancing about in the back of my head. I figure for $8g's you can get a 200+hp forced induction Miata with a roll cage weighing in around 2300 lb. :eeps:
Sharp11
08-22-2006, 12:06 AM
I loved the interior and the flip-back top. Really wish the Boxster could have made do with a non-power top because the MX-5's is just slick.
It's not so good when it's up and you're doing 90 mph on the highway in the rain: it's really noisy and the rear window oscillates badly.
I'd imagine it'd be tough to do an insulated roof as a flip up (I assume the Boxster has the insulated roof?).
Still though, the MX5 is the most fun-to-drive new car I've driven in a long, long time - it really does feel like a 71 MGB (without the nasty live axle and unreliable electrics).
Ed
...the MX5 is the most fun-to-drive new car I've driven in a long, long time - it really does feel like a 71 MGB....
And that's a good thing? :?
Nick M3
08-22-2006, 10:14 AM
And that's a good thing? :?
If you discount the nasty handling and the 3 mile interval between strandings, why not?
Did it last Sunday in thoroughly soaked Englishtown. I went at the very end of the two-day event so most cars/tires/brakes had the crap beaten out of them. No lines though :)
1. MS6, powerful but I didn't like it. Jumpy clutch (though one gets used to that) and not very communicative. Perhaps worn bridgestones & wet added to that. The FWD bias was proven from watching spinning front tires. The speed challenge was the only one that had a line so I went once, took it easy and was a few secs off. Didn't bother a second time. My audi owner friend blew a dozen cones in one swoop deserving the cut on his day pass! Another cut and he'd be going home..
2. CX7: To my surprise I really liked it. I don't know the other vehicles in its class but it must be best one. Loved the laser/line precision challenge. Did best of hour score (woohoo).
Back to the cx7: Up to 40mph it is quiet, comfy, powerful enough with decent steering and not too laggy if you're not flooring. Kept AT in M-mode and then just left it in 2. It was agonizing to sit as a passenger when D-mode hunted around. Still, I love the cx7. Smiled when reading the edmunds review two days later (it won its class).
3. Gymkhana (chose cx7). Did a good time and missed a great one by 0.003. Would have been dumb luck had I made it anyway.
4. MX-5 & RX-8. They had a nice, almost road like test drive set up. (Not a parking lot but a cute, curvy road with cones to narrowing it, adding chicanes lowering speeds). While a solid car, the mx5 engine underimpressed me. Loud but still not much pull and time to shift. Not a big fan of the s2000 engine either, but that car is way better.
RX-8. Wow. It was like spending a night with that true love of yours from a decade ago. Last year's event had provoked me on a flurry of rx-8 shopping that ended due to various excuses. I'm really mixed up now. I really really like driving this car. The bits it gives to the mx5 in nimbleness and immediacy it makes up for in spades with comfort, smoothness and nice engine feel. Did not feel so gutless as it's geared very well for the torque. Is it time to say goodbye to the zhp again? Once again the contenders will be the rx-8 and the m3. This time I won't put you guys through this...
John V
08-30-2006, 07:16 PM
RX-8. Wow. It was like spending a night with that true love of yours from a decade ago. Last year's event had provoked me on a flurry of rx-8 shopping that ended due to various excuses. I'm really mixed up now. I really really like driving this car. The bits it gives to the mx5 in nimbleness and immediacy it makes up for in spades with comfort, smoothness and nice engine feel. Did not feel so gutless as it's geared very well for the torque. Is it time to say goodbye to the zhp again? Once again the contenders will be the rx-8 and the m3. This time I won't put you guys through this...
The RX-8 is a great car and some excellent deals can be had on them right now. Do it.
clyde
08-30-2006, 07:32 PM
The RX-8 is a great car and some excellent deals can be had on them right now. Do it.
Particularly on a specific 2004 Titanium Gray example with Sport and Navigation. Well, change "right now" to November, and you get the idea.
John V
08-31-2006, 07:56 AM
Particularly on a specific 2004 Titanium Gray example with Sport and Navigation. Well, change "right now" to November, and you get the idea.
Low miles, only driven Sundays?
Perfect, easy sunday miles with a granny driver...
John V
08-31-2006, 11:31 AM
Perfect, easy sunday miles with a granny driver...
Actually, there is one granny that does drive this particular car on Sundays (and I'm not making a funnAy about Clyde). :dunno:
clyde
08-31-2006, 03:08 PM
Actually, there is one granny that does drive this particular car on Sundays (and I'm not making a funnAy about Clyde). :dunno:
literally
I do wish the miles were lower, but oh well. At least the Boxster won't suffer the same fate. :eeps:
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