That course looks fantastic, and so does the car.

 

Two fuzzy pictures of a cage seen on Autosport last weekend

 

The muffler clamps are a nice touch.

 

that cage is barfalicious. I've been meaning to head down to the sd bmwcca autoX and bring my wifes new (to us) 135is. They lay out some loooooong courses down there so you can really play with the car. The unfortunate thing is that it's a work autoX.

 

Meaning that as a driver you also have to be a flag / cone worker? What other kind of AutoX is there?

 

Yeah I didn't know there were autocross events that were staffed. Are they like $200?

 

speedventures (a local hpde/autox group) has no work autocross (they have peopled hired that fetch cones and handle flagging). I much prefer this because my wife always forces me into working her cones as well as mine. This means that I basically end up standing in the middle of a parking lot for 80% of the time I'm there while she sits in the shade.

It's a relatively small price to pay for having your wife be into autocross... but still it sucks when it's really hot.

 

Prime example for cage made by lazy fabricators... Lazy notching everywhere, not one tube is landed on a joint.

 

Some club autocrosses have instructors. BMWCCA events, instructors don't **** cones.

 

I've got no problem at all with instructors being relieved of course duty. They're contributing far more by making themselves available to sit in the right seat than they ever could by waving a flag. I remember very well the first time I ever took an instructor out on the course; I was so embarrassed by my performance (and thankful for his advice) that I bought him lunch.

For everyone else, though...

 

My local autocross organization has many volunteer positions that don't involve picking up cones. Usually the more experienced/knowledgeable participants take the cushier jobs, like instructing, gate duty, radio, announcing, etc.

 

There's also chiefs. I'm the equipment chief for ye ol local scca so I dont **** cones, I just have to get the before everyone else and leave last due to unpacking and packing everything, and I have to deal with truck storage, and figuring out equipment that breaks or that we want to improve, after a few years of it I'm ready to go **** cones again, its a lot less work.

 

Yep. When I was heavy into autocrossing, I always announced for my work shift. Sat in the shaded truck, kept a close eye on all the competition, 1000x better than shucking cones.

Now it's dat instructor life at track days. Love me some free track time.

 

Back when I used to autocross regularly, I volunteered for trailer timing duty. It's a bit of a tradeoff -- you get to sit in the shade rather than standing in the sun, but it also requires a lot more mental energy because there's a new time to be recorded every 20 seconds, and you need to be on top of cars that DNF and go off course without tripping the finish lights, etc.

One cool thing at SCCA events was that fairly frequently the SJSU Formula SAE team would show up and volunteer to do work assignments in exchange for a donation to their team. There wasn't a fixed price (it's a donation, not a purchase), but generally people gave them $30-40 for it.

--Ian

 

continuing the thread de-rail. I prefer no work autoX because I'm fetching cones for two people because we both runs. It's not great but the tradeoff is I get a say in what my wife drives as a daily. :P

 

A lot of people balk the $/seat time ratio of autocross as-is, I would think having paid course workers would just push that number further towards $lol territory for some parking lot racing.

 

It seems like you could run an auto-x where people could opt in to double work assignments, thus creating a slot for a no work person, who could be charged an extra $100 to pay the double work person. As worker coordinator that would be a huge pain in the ***.

 

it got to the point where i'd ask to be paid to show up to an autox.

 

To get this back on track . . . .

Today I took my daughter's '15 PRHT GT to the dealer for it's complimentary oil change. And while I was there, I did what every red-blooded Miata guy would do, took a test drive in the ND.

I don't know about the rest of the country, but the dealer here has a tough time keeping ND's in stock. They had sold quite a few and only had 1, a base model 6-speed which was right in the middle of the showroom. It's only option was Soul Red paint, and it was gorgeous.

I grabbed a sales guy and we went for a drive in the cold but sunny afternoon. He showed me how the top works. Are you kidding me?!? 1 latch and then flip?!? All thoughts that the PRHT is a cool feature have been banished.

Driving the car, it felt much lighter and more sprightly than an NC. Had good low-end grunt -- felt a lot like my Red car in that regard -- although it's no turbo Miata. The suspension seats were great, you sink-in, sit low and are well supported. Made me wonder how these seats would fit an NA or NB.

With the ND, there doesn't seem to be much "base" about the base model other than the price. It was a really nice car. I think Mazda nailed it with this car. Will probably get one in a couple of years (I need more garage space).

 

The base model mostly lacks Mazda Connect and Bose, neither of which are particularly important in a Miata IMO.

That being said, I'd buy the Club because I love Mazda Connect and advanced keyless entry. But that's just me.