Here's some video from my Cooper on the track at New Hampshire International Speedway at an SCDA driver's ed event.

http://homepage.mac.com/jtross/iMovieTheater45.html

You'll probably need quicktime 7 to see it.

 

Yup, SCDA. I'm not sure what I think of SCDA vs BMWCCA. A lot probably was due to the crappy weather we had at the SCDA event. But, there didn't seem to be as much interaction between the people with the SCDA. And their tech inspection kinda surprised me - they didn't look at the car at all.

I lucked out in terms of instruction because I know two of the SCDA's instructors that were there. They're local Vermont guys who drive spec Miatas (and a turbo Miata, and an M3 at times). So, there was no "getting to know you" phase or getting up to speed on how I drive, they've seen me drive before. And since they usually drive spec Miatas, with the same horsepower as my Cooper, they knew what lines would work for my car.

I got a ride as a passenger in a spec Miata with one of the instructors. That was pretty scary. It had much better brakes than my Cooper, or it's just so much lighter that it can stop so much faster. And oversteering through corners was a new experience too.

I was surprised when I checked the lap times on my video (just using the length of video segments) and found that I was actually fastest in the first session when I was running solo - and I thought I was driving poorly and unfocussed. I'm not sure how much lap time I lose by adding a passenger to my car...

 

Very nice driving Jason . I would say that the only difference in our time might be the equipment driven.

Yes, passenger weight will slow you down a good amount.

 

Thanks Greg. I just did the poor man's split screen video, comparing one of your laps to one of mine. Even with you getting held up a bit by traffic (and me having a clear track), you were about 10 seconds faster for one lap.

 

Some good driving! That sounded like Cliff Collins? I know you had a good time. Too bad they (Jeff & Cliff) couldn't come to the Sept SLMP. Great instructors, lots of fun.I realy missed them.

Yuo must be lovin your JCW suspension Pkg. I just took off the Eibach springs and put on the runflats for the winter. The JWC is a good compromise compared to RDR camber plates and Eibach springs. Boy did that ride suck. It did lead to better than 1.5 second differance at SLMP for me (or was it the pulley?).

 

Yup, Cliff was riding in my car. I got a ride in Cliff's spec miata with Jeff at the wheel... Jeff corded a tire early in the day, so they pulled the seat from Jeff's car and put it in Cliff's (they have two spec miatas, and each one usually has just a driver's seat, they moved seats around to get a passneger's seat in the car with good tires). Super nice guys to go through that amount of effort when one of them couldn't drive anymore. And the trip around the track in the miata with Jeff at the wheel was incredible.

Yup, the suspension is treating me very well. It doesn't behave very differently from the stock suspension in terms of oversteer / understeer. It just lets me go faster through a turn before it starts complaining.

The outside shoulders of my tires are pretty much toast. I'm still thinking of doing camber plates for next season just to try and cut down on tire wear.

 

Would it not have been easier to switch wheels??

 

I knew I wouldn't explain that right...

They've got 2 miatae (miatas), each with just one seat usually. When one car ate its tires, they pulled the seat from it leaving one miata with no seats, and one with 2.

 

Another video from the same event... longer, lower quality, still my "slow" Cooper, still Quicktime 7, more "story" oriented...

http://homepage.mac.com/jtross/NHIS-storytime.mov

 

I have RDR camber plates. They work well from a fit and adjustment standpoint. No mods (Cuts) are needed to the car sheetmetal. The are lacking in the ride dept. MoreFun has some from Ireland Eng. They use the rubber and bearing from a set of factory plates and are "fixed" to 1.2 deg. Morefun says that the amount goes up some as you lower the car.

Thanks for doing the longer movie. It's fun to run with you via the onboard video!