All great points, we also need to factor in the condition of the tires that are run, I use exclusively SM takeoffs which are past their prime when I get them. It would nice to do a day on fresh rubber but alas that is not quite yet possible for me.

Another topic to consider is chassis rigidity, Laz has a 235k chassis with a bolt in autopower roll bar and lots of bits cut out vs. rover's full cage. You can have the best suspension in the world bit when the chassis flexes like a limp dong there is only so much even the best dampers can do. A cage is definitely in the future plans for Laz because I want to be able to maximize the ability of the shocks by providing a stiff chassis as a platform.

I imagine Andrew is also a better driver than I am, so of course that needs to be factored in.

Finally,
I didn't start this thread to become a MCS vs XIDA comparison, just showing whats out there and my current (still quite minimal) experience with the MCS. Rover has much more development into him at is point compared to Laz and I'm hoping perhaps with a fresher set of takeoffs I can get the car below 1:30.

 

Gotta wonder how much the 1:30.4 record car cost. $1000? $1500? Gotta be at least $1500.

 

this seems like a legit suspension. well at least no one has discovered anything blatantly terrible about it.

so lets not crap up this thread with xida vs xxx. there's plenty of xida threads

 

Savington in the car is probably worth about a second over the above average club racer in the same car. The Kidd can drive. His dad in the same car same day who is an experienced racer himself was doing 1:32's and that was the first weekend ether of them drove the track.

Add another 190-200 hp a bit of downforce on Xida's and I was running 1:21's while weighing a bit over 2500 lbs.

 

If you drop the 1 off the front and add two 0 at the end you're probably close. Front running spec pinatas are stupid.

 

You're saying a front running SM costs 5k to build ???? Shoot time to do SM lol.
Anyways, next time out I'll have my boss take the car out on slightly fresher takeoffs and see what it does. He is a much better driver than I am. I'll post results as they come.

 

More like 50k.

 

Nice edit

 

45-55k

 

^kinda what I figured, his original post said drop the 1 and add a zero. Would you say Rover has more into it than your average SM?

 

I'll take our $2k that's only a half second off. For now anyways.

 

You can buy a mid pack car for 6-10k though. Cheating is expensive.

 

yeah, but midpack cars run in the 32-34s at PIR on fresh hoosiers. Even with the MCS the car has maybe 5K into it including the car, parts, and 3 sets of wheels. Granted we have done a lot of things ourselves but still, bang for the buck its hard to beat.

Anyways, back on topic.

 

"$50k" budget spec miata builds include labor costs from a shop for many things. Comparing that to the $5k in parts and doing all the labor yourself is not apples to apples by a long shot.
Also some of that cost goes into high-end w2w spec safety, which has nothing to do with lap times. Cage, seat, harness, seat mount, fire system, nets... can be $7-8k easy. Not saying every SM has that into it of course, but not all that $50k goes into speed that's for sure

I would guess Rover is not that much higher - it's more about allocating the money to better part choices that SM doesn't allow, not necessarily out-spending the SMs.

-Ryan

 

No that 40k price difference is all about the cheating. Thats where the motors built to the whistler (and not the rules), the tuned ecu, bent upper control arms and other chassis tweak, etc.

 

Just to be clear, I think Laz is awesome, don't mean to detract from the impressive lap times in any way.

 

No worries, just wanted to introduce another option for track oriented motorsport grade suspension for the miata platform.

 

I fully expect the motion controls to be right in there with the XIDA in terms of performance and a 1:30 at PIR with a low budget ~$1000 car with some good suspension on it is a good time.

 

Sounds downright fast considering...

 

A local tuner I know runs them on BMW's and Miata's. He has had nothing but good things to say about em.