You ******' puss.

edit: i take it back, you're apparently a much smarter man than I (god damn this ************ is dense)
For the kids at home: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=580580

 

Another update on the cup car:

MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development

It seems they've discovered the benefits of rim width! Haha.

 

"There have been some other interesting discoveries as well, including something that surprised even veteran racer Long. The team has been trying a variety of tires and also playing with different rim widths, and it's the latter that delivered a curiosity.

“You think, ‘Rim width … OK, wider must be better.’ Sure, testing has found that,” explains Long. “But ultimately, we’re not just interested in going faster. We have to consider things like hub life, the bearing life. The more grip we have, is that going to make the bearings or hubs weaker over a given amount of time than if we were on a narrower tire and rim? So we’re playing with that and the car acts differently and has different characteristics on a stock rim vs. a wider rim, even with the same size tire. From a racer’s standpoint, I like the wider rim – not only because it goes faster, but has better feel in braking and cornering and just overall grip. But we also need to balance that with how it fits in the wheel well, as well as the hub and bearing life.

“It might be obvious to think about, but it wasn’t so obvious to me because I never had experienced the situation with a one-inch rim difference – on the same tire – making a big difference in the way the brakes felt and everything like that. It almost felt like a different ABS configuration, it was that different.”"

 

sorry Emilio I couldn't help myself

 

No kidding. Emilio's been telling us this for how many years now?

 

"It took me until the fourth generation of this car to notice something that holds true for every previous generation."

FTFY

 

 

An acquaintaince of mine claims that Mazda reduced the structural rigidity of the ND Miata in order to cut weight from the chassis. He also mentions that it got poor IIHS crash test results. Is there any validity to his claims, or his he just spreading lies/rumors?

 

From that angle it looks kinda Z3/Z4~ish

 

oh boy don't let Brain see you say that

 

I'm surprised i haven't been banned yet, he must be out stealing ramekins full of sauce.

 

Re: rigidity, sounds like he heard that Mazda focused on weight and drew his own unfounded conclusions as to what that means. All early reports from test drivers (from sources who actually know how to drive) are that the chassis feels very solid/stiff. Achieved in this case with smart engineering instead of just 12-gauge sheet metal everywhere. I don't know about the crash tests.

-Ryan

 

why? he probably wants the +1 i gave him after reading it.

 

I have no problem giving up a star in crash rating for a relevant focus on driving dynamics (instead of having "add-on" crash structures specifically designed for the tests).

 

Your "friend" is obviously very good at reading. Go create another troll account.

 

Not trolling. I am in the market for the ND and Emilio from 949 told me to post in this thread to get more information about it. The comments I heard about rigidity made me think twice about whether or not to buy the car, so I thought I'd see if there is any truth to them before I plunk down all that money.

Granted, my acquaintance may be a bit biased as he races an FR-S and works for a shop that race-preps them. He also mentioned that the new Miata BARELY passed the crash tests yet I can't find any data on that either. Has the IIHS even published their test results on the ND?

Thanks in advance!

 

Ryan,

Yeah, I think you may be right. I think he is probably drawing his own conclusions about how they acheived the weight loss with the ND. What he is ignoring is that many materials did indeed get thinner while other, more important materials, got thicker. That and the fact that the car is physically smaller and uses a lot more aluminum than before would be enough to explain most of the weight savings (in my mind, at least). Also, from Mazda's own press release for the ND, it says "A new chassis is said to be 14 percent lighter than before, yet stronger and more rigid".

Granted it doesn't say if that is torsional rigidity or some other form of rigidity (I'm sure there are many ways to measure it) and it also doesn't say by how MUCH it was increased, but an increase is an increase nevertheless.

 

The new Miata has a bunch of high-tensile steel... much like the rest of cars being made in TYOOL 2015.

It's cool though, I totally believe that you have a friend that works on an FR-S race team. No one believes me when I tell them that my uncle works for Nintendo.

 

FWIW, Having heard from someone who is a very good driver that recently had a chance to drive both the FR-S and ND back-to-back on the racetrack, he said the ND is better in every way. I don't doubt that FR-S/BRZ owners will want to deny that a better lightweight and relatively cheap "fun" car exists. Can't wait to drive the ND myself.

-Ryan

 

<p>Isn't the FRS like 5k cheaper than the ND?</p>