astromikey

group of us at work have been attending track days together here in Utah ... I am the only corvette owner in the group ... we have a boxter, two saleens, an STI WRX and a honda tsx (who sometimes shows up with the child seat still in the back). For obvious reasons I clean up pretty good against all of these guys in the Z07 ... but today one of the saleen owners (who installed a blower in his over the winter after being embarrassed by the zed last summer) just informed me that he bought a race prepped fully caged turbo miata (I usually refer to them as piniatas) ... I think he said ~ 300bhp dyno'd at the rear wheel(s). Do I need to worry?

dar02081961

Assuming he is honest about his hp? You wont have any problems unless he weights less than 2000 lbs. Assuming you can drive as well or better than he can.

mowe

You have zero worries assuming he is not Randy Pobst.

rikhek

LOL. I know Randy and it's sort of funny as I bust his *** about him having a chicks car (i.e., Miata), as a daily driver.

Z06NJ

You got this. Easy as Butter

Bill Dearborn

Actually he may not have it that easy. The Miata can get through the corners faster than the Vette. They don't weigh all that much and on a short track the Vette doesn't have enough straightaway room to catch them. Adding a turbo and getting 300 HP out of that motor will make the car much faster on the straights (usually they are limited to about 125 on a very long straight). This car will still go through a corner faster than the Vette, but it will pull harder off the corner and down the straight. 300 HP at the wheels and 2300 lbs is a lot harder to catch before the next turn if you are coming onto the straight at a slower speed and then trying to run them down with a 650HP Z06 that weighs 3500 lbs.

That weight difference is hard to overcome when half your time you are in corners or braking for a corner all of which completely favor the lighter car. The exit of each corner is like the starting line at a drag strip and you all know it takes a hell of a lot of HP to catch the guy who leaves first and fastest.

It is like sitting at a drag strip running against a car that gets the green light 3 seconds before you do. At the end it all comes down to driving skill and not how much HP you have. The problem here is at each corner the Miata gains a little bit of an advantage till the point it isn't visible through the windshield anymore.

I haven't been on track with a Turbo Miata but I have been on track with ones that have had LS1s installed in them. Weight is about 40 lbs more than stock but they go like hell.

Bill

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

I agree with Bill.

It's going to depend on two things. Driver skill level and the track.

If it is a tight track and he's a good driver, your going to have some work. Longer track with some good straights on it and he can't drive...like shooting fish in a barrel.

jimmyb

I always laugh when the Miata is called a "Chick" car. Reality is that on any given weekend in America, there are more Miatas on race tracks than any other car. Didn't know there were so many "chicks" doing track days.

Jimmy

choppychop

Sounds like your screwed

6104696

I hope your not seriously "worried" about whether or not a 2400 pound Miata can make it around a track faster than a 3500 pound vette. Why would you care? It's apples and oranges.


if it's important to you...then if you are faster then you can claim better driver status or faster car status, or whatever is important to you. If he is faster, then you can tell the truth, which is that it is not a rational comparison.

BaylorCorvette

It's all about the driver.

mxk

It's not the wand, it's the magician. You may be in trouble, you may not.

3 Z06ZR1

Sounds like common sense has left town.

spearfish25

The good news is that if he beats you, moving from a Z06 to a turbo Miata may still save you money.

moose.b3

Some good points made in the above replies. Please let us know how it turns out.

Poor-sha

There's a dedicated track turbo Miata that shows up pretty regularly at the same events I'm at. There are 3 big variables, driver, tires, and track. If you're both on R-Comps and you are an equal or better driver I would think you would be faster on most any track.

I know we're all programmed to believe that a Miata always beats a vette through the corners but I can park my nose up under a Miata in the slow technical section with the C7Z. The car has phenomenal grip and let's not forget we have twice the tire plus some actual downforce for the high speed turns.