This video was posted in the Miata.net Track Forum. It's generated some interesting discussion and thought it would be fruitful to open up the discussion here too.

For those of you familiar with Seattle Raceway, give us your critiques.

 

The grass is greener in an S2000?

It was an '04 S2k. Maybe a press car?

One look at that track tells me right away why I race oval track cars now: trees at the edge of the track, dirt mounds, higher speeds than the safety equipment can handle.

There is another video of a wreck also in that thead. More reasons not to be racing a unibody street car.

Note: I am a big fan of Daytona Prototypes (which I think will be a dominant class in a few years), Trans-Am, Spec Racer, etc...

 

That track looks about as safe as NHIS, where I raced motorcycles for a while... instead of trees in all the runoff areas, NHIS had nice concrete walls. I saw more than one person plow headlong into them, and they're not very forgiving.

Anyway, I had trouble reading the text at the beginning of the video, but I believe it said the Miata was making 130rwhp... which means it's quite a bit stronger than stock.

Other than that... who knows. Bad driver in the S, great driver in the Miata? Or maybe the they actually do run comparable times, for whatever reason.

I've got nothing against the Miata, and although I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, I found my Miata to be much more controllable at the limit than the S is. The Miata was just VERY easy to drive, whereas I always feel a bit unsafe in the S. That kind of feeling on the track could certainly lead to a couple seconds difference in lap times. (I'm assuming the S was in stock trim).

 

Someone on the Miata board identified the cars as a stripped and gutted S2000 running moton shocks, and the "Track Dog" Miata of Flying Miatas running a turbocharged 2.0 liter Kia engine. Does the S2000 belong to anyone we know .

 

Looks like you didn't read that much The Track Dog and the gutted S2000 were mentioned in OTC context and have nothing to do with the video.
IIRC the Miata in the video is Chris Chu's '90 Miata (1.6L) which has IRTB intake (probably 150-160 hp at the crank, ~130 hp at the wheels)

 

The '00 S2000 in the vid is Tedsters, and he has a pretty relaxed pace in the vid, but it is a clean line. I think this was from his first season of running on the track at all. He tends to brake pretty early or I think maybe even lift a little prior to the brake zone for 5.

The Miata seems to be driven more aggressively throughout the track, still clean though. I have seen both of those vids before individually, and have run Pacific quite a bit.

The other vid in that post is of my wreck last year. Big mistake. It was in my CRX, which is was put back together after that and went on to win the championship. Get a HANS device, I highly recommend it, and wish I had one on in the wreck. The ambulance/hospital bills for that one time would have amortized the expense.

 

I think the S2000 is Tedster's MY00 car. There is a lot of potential to drop lap times at Pacific Raceways by taking turns 5a, 5b, and 6 closer to the edge. However, the price for getting it wrong is pretty high. Each year that complex eats a lot of cars.

 

JHill, the footage was a damn scary reminder of how quickly things happen in an unsettled car! What were the extent of your injuries?

 

Yup, that's me in the S2000. M/Y 2000, Toyo RA-1s, basically stock.

I think that combined video is an interesting comparison. Pretty cool.

I don't think it's really worth trying to prove which is the better track car or driver by comparing those two specific videos, but for the record: I chose that lap to post as a clean lap where I drove a reasonably close approximation to a good line. I did about a 1:47. I've run in the low 1:45s, I believe at the same event as that video. Other N/A S2000s have done 1:42s that we know of (see NSXfiles.com hall of fame). I make no claim to being a fast driver.

Yeah, Pacific Raceways is a bit scary in places, although it was my first track so it feels 'normal' to me; other tracks seem overly generous in their runoff room . It's also a very fun track, with nice elevation changes and a variety of corners. And yes, turns 5/6/7 eat a million dollars worth of cars each season. No reason not to have fun, though!

The full, hi-res version of my video is available over here:

http://www.gofastvideo.com/seattleraceway

(it's the second one) along with some others from Pacific Raceways.

If you have any questions (or want to blame me for ruining the S2000's track rep by posting slow videos), fire away!

Ted

 

Heh, just f'ing with ya Ted.