On Sun, 7 Oct 2001, Mark J. Andy wrote:
> Howdy,
>
> On Sun, 7 Oct 2001, Kevin Stevens wrote:
>
> FWIW, of the two 3rd gen (? '99 and '01) miata's I've driven, _both_ were
> tail happy as hell. On one of 'em I was able to get an alignment done,
> and now it isn't horrible, but they definately seem like tail happy cars
> stock. Much more so than my CP Mustang. :-)
I think that's primarily a function of the short wheelbase. In this case
it was really just a matter of learning the car - I was deliberately
overdriving it to see what would happen. You know what I mean; I wasn't
really trying to spin, but that was certainly a possible consequence. The
'00 I drove a couple of times was odd; it didn't do anything consistently,
but would change from oversteer to understeer within the same sweeper, for
example. It was never BAD, though; kind of like driving a car on grooved
pavement, if you don't fight it, it's not a problem.
> I've never actually prepped one with shocks and bars and race tires and
> such however. I assume you can tune most of it out.
This one has the "right" front bar, and GAB adjustable shocks. I'm not
familiar with the GAB's from an autox perspective, The have a single
adjustment knob which theoretically affects both compression and rebound.
The car is very responsive to single clicks (of eight) on the shocks, and
is also the first car I've set up where I could *definitely* tell that I'd
made the front shocks too stiff. Usually I just notice the times slowing,
whereas I can pretty well tell about rear shock settings. But on this car
I was able to clearly notice the front pushing on a specific turn, soften
the front shocks, and have the push go away.
What this car *doesn't* do, that the '00 did really well, was rotate in
response to slight throttle lifts. I'm assuming that's because there is
damn little difference in the torque reaching the rear wheels with the
throttle full on or full off. However, it could also be an alignment
setting - the car came "set up" from the previous owner, who did pretty
well with it; but I already disagree with some of his settings, and part
of his idea about car setup included cutting the springs on a stock class
car. :) I'm taking it into the shop next week to find out what other
tuning tips he may have imposed.
KeS
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