Miata Reunion 2023
The great Miata gathering has returned to California! Therefore I must take mine out to play, which requires dusting off Cremesicle to see if she still runs. Overall this event is always a blast, seeing many flavors of Miata. I’ll be supporting the event as an instructor, teaching students the basics of driving their cars around Sonoma Raceway. But first I need to do a little preparation.
Cremesicle
Borrow RS4’s from E30 for Cremesicle as I don’t feel like buying a new set of sticky tires for one weekend
Change oil, still golden yellow
Top off water in radiator, only down tiny bit after sitting for 3 years
Full brake fluid flush with Motul 660
Check brake pads
Wash
Colleen’s Miata
Replace stock suspension that was blown, slight upgrade to KYB AGX Struts for a bit more adjustability without changing ride quality for daily.
Install new rear hub after snapping a stud
Green Miata
Fill with gas
Friday Evening Car Show
Great turn out and huge variety of cars, from stock to heavily modified. Including a very pretty 13b swapped NA making all the best brapp noises, a fun SMOL NA, and few very clean NDs.
Saturday Track Time
Morning started off exciting. Driving to Sonoma in Colleen’s Miata we had to stop for fuel, this turned out to be very lucky as her engine puked up oil and created a small fire on the header. Pulling into a gas station we noticed smoke upon stopping, popped the hood assuming is was merely a bit of oil smoking off the headers (known issue with blowby out dipstick). Turned out to ben actual little fire, quickly blew it out and watched carefully while wiping up oil mess. After waiting a bit we jumped back on road to track, hopeful it wouldn’t relight. We made it safety and immediately put a 10 lb fire bottle in the passenger seat. This meant she wasn’t going to tracking the car today unfortunately.
Taking Cremesicle around Sonoma for the first time ever, somehow I have never driven it here before. Time to change that. Turned out to be a nice cool day. Between instructing and chatting with friends I really didn’t get much seat time. Overall car felt great and was able to successfully make a friend sick. Perhaps not a success, but still amusing as Garrett didn’t puke and recovered quickly.
By the end of the day I managed a 2:03 on the long course using RS4s. I’m confident I can get down to 2:00 with the current setup, just need to build confidence through esses. Something for another weekend.
My students were great, showing them the track and general line with a focus on feeling their cars through corners. Learning the cars feel is much more valuable than the particular school line. Learning how the car will wiggle or slide from power or braking transfers to any other track or daily drive, while a line is just a line that no one except the driving school uses.
At lunch we enjoyed parade laps with hundreds of other Miatas!
Sunday Clouds and Rain
Weather forecasts turned out to be partially correct. It did rain in the morning, but then continued to sprinkle throughout the day. Making the track an interesting blend of wet and dry spots. Turn 10… giant puddle of sliding while turn 7 was almost completely dry and had zero traction issues. Great opportunity to play with car handling. Less great to be an instructor riding along with someone of unknown self preservation traits. Both students for the day were great and kept their cars well under control with a few small slides along the way.
Driving in the rain is a negotiation between you and your car, sometimes it comes to the table with less grip than you requested…
Some folks weren’t as lucky with traction, surprisingly though there weren’t any significant crashes.
Extremes of Miata. From exploring desolate territory to chasing lap times… Miata Is Always The Answer!
Tom Matano having fun as always! So grateful him and the original Miata design team created this awesome vehicle.
