Dilemma: Will turbo make 1st gear useless for autocross?
 

I autocrossed my friends NB with 225 rivals on 15x9's. He has significant weight reduction, great suspension and bolt ons. Theres no doubt that it's quick but heres the thing, the course we drive on is a gokart course and it's basically all suuuuper tight turns and you almost never get into second.

I really pushed it hard and it was sooo much fun and holds the turns great but I noticed that even with the Rivals on 15x9's, when powering out of a tight turn the wheels spin. It does accelerate while spinning so I know I'm making good time but now I'm wondering something..

Will the turbo render first gear useless? I'm not sure but I'm thinking staying in second might not work with the turbo in terms of going from 10mph to 30 or so. I have a 6 speed btw and I currently have a uninstalled t25.

If you can't hook without a turbo, a wild guess would be that it won't get better with a turbo.

I vote to find a better auto-x course :)

Edit, my 1st gear in a 5 speed with 220whp involves a lot of spin at WOT with 205 rivals. I'd imagine 225's won't get rid of it 100%.

There are absolutely no other courses :crx:

.. unless the I consider the mountain road a course lol. I live on a relatively countryish island of Hawaii.

Ouch. I wouldn't say 1st will be useless, but rather you'll be forced to get very good at throttle modulation. And you can always run less boost for auto-x.

An autocross course in which you never leave first? wat?

Throttle modulation.. Yeah I guess that's a solution.

Less boost.. Cant go less than stock waste gated 7psi so I don't think this will make a difference.

Heres the track.

I don't your turbo will be very effective in 1st gear only. Just sayin...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1427143468

3.6 diff gear and 4psi actuator?

When I would autocross with my car, I would launch in first then switch to second before I was even past the starting line. Then usually I would stay in second for most of the course, unless it was a little larger and I had to goto third.

with a 6 speed and a 3.636 1st gear is good for about the first 15 feet from a standing start it gets me from the stage light to the start light usually. I couldn't imagine using first gear for anything but a standing start. if the car is rolling forward at all id be in second.

now running a Quaife wide with a 4.778. second gear ends up real close to what I had with the 6 speed but and first gear is much closer to second and seems much more useful. I'm wondering yet if it will help my 60ft times at pro solo.

8600 rpm rev limit keeps the use of 3rd down for autocross. my car will spin 275 hoosiers at will in 1st or second between ~4000 and ~7000 rpm.

Gearing & past experiences aside. Will a turbo assist OP in 1st gear runs on said go-kart autox course?

looks slow but Dosn't look like a 1st gear course to me that 350 went to second at the first cone in the slolom didn't it.

Interesting idea..

I did like 10 runs of the same sub 50second course and me staying in first gear and powering out of corners and holding the rev limiter for a couple seconds around some turns put me at one second faster than my 2nd gear runs.

It's impossible for me to hit even the top of 2nd, let alone 3rd even in the one straight away in this course and usually that straight has slalom or you gotta turn mid way.

I'm not sure if the 350 went into 2nd but correct me if I'm wrong but the v6 in that z has a lot of low end grunt. Also, that z now has like 275's all around I believe and it ran a second faster than my best run. From my inquiries, seems like most of the miata guys stay in first of course unless one needs to go into second.

With a small turbo you'll pull 2nd gear fine and only downshift to first here and there.

this course sucks balls.

^

I was hitting 4th on the go-cart tracks I have run on. both Pacific Grand Prix and the one at Grand Junction for the Flyin miata Open house. they didnt have all the extra cones or the non standard track direction turns though.

t25 spools from around 3k no? I'll check my rpms today at 10-30mph.

lol. Well it's the only course we have so I'm not complaining :D

Yeah it would be cool if we had a bigger track like that but oh well, it's country side Big Island of Hawaii. :skid:

If this is the only course you have I would stop modding your miata and just buy a damn kart.

Fun fact: Shifter karts used to dominate many autox circuits, until most sanctioning bodies added rules like "vehicle must have suspension" and other to rule out shifters without saying no shifters.