Not a done-did post, just interesting thing that happened today... :woot:
Was at a classmate's kid's b-day party this AM, & on the way back to treat a client, had a woman in a GMC taxi van d-bag-ishly weave her way through traffic in front of me on the 4-lane in town... highway narrows to 2 for the rest of the trip, so kept my distance....
A bit further out there's a cliffside road called the 'Pali' between my classmate's town and mine, very technical set of curves for 2.5 mis -- my second fave road to drive on this island, as with some skill/experience and no other drivers, it can be taken very, very fast, very, very satisfyingly (great sportbike road too, if a bit dangerous due to rock faces and hundred-foot drops into the ocean :wideyed: ). The stonewalling, cruise-on-speed-limit tourist in the lead V6 Mustang droptop of our four-car train, finally decided to up the pace once we began climbing onto the Pali, as he had no cars in front since town... and the #2 Astro (which stock is nimbler than you think) and #3 d-bag taxi lady give chase... Astro pulled ahead to match the 'Stang :jaw drop:, and the van and I began to up the wick in the back, to my delight...
Now, in my mid-20's the old Paseo and I took this road daily on a 4am commute to work. Got pretty good at threading the curves together, but couldn't get the bone-stock, 100-hp, beam-axle coupe faster than ~55 mph average over the course -- and I time-attacked it everyday there wasn't a car sharing the road, for a year. Think that axle was the limiting factor -- the stock dampers and springs just could not keep the rear end planted in bumpy midcorners (which the Pali is full off). Now that I have this Escort, noticed the rear end lacked completely that side-skittering crap which I'd accepted in the Toyota, of course because it has a superior indie setup. But how good it is, wasn't as obvious until today...
This van chick was committed (as was the Astro)... cutting corners going over the white line, flooring the throttle at every straight... but with all her knuckle-dragging 310-hp V8 power and torque... my 95-hp, 100K, 4-spd auto, bad-tie-rod-&-ball-joint 3gen chassis was right on her bumper, with the A/C on -- my club racer mind in combat mode. :astronaut: Only where the Pali had sightline again, did she manage to get away, all to fail once she hit a corner... and there I was. And to my delight the tires weren't even squealing, while hers howled like week-old Huskies under a full moon. Proper line and setup meant I could crawl all up-ins and wave to her in the side mirror midcorner... which must've chafed her d-bagger delicates a bit -- good. :whistling::rage: Given the same conditions as my Toyota 20 yrs ago, could comfortably thread this needle ~5-6 mph faster than the Paseo, which is astounding given what this car was meant to do. Not the same as me owning a Porsche GT3 or anything... but good enough.
This episode's takeaway: Trackdays are training every hi-po driver can use to good effect on the street (within reason of course)... allowing you to get the most out of any chassis. But this BG showed even with multiple faults... it's still a Mazda in the twisties. I like that a lot. :thumbsup:
Was at a classmate's kid's b-day party this AM, & on the way back to treat a client, had a woman in a GMC taxi van d-bag-ishly weave her way through traffic in front of me on the 4-lane in town... highway narrows to 2 for the rest of the trip, so kept my distance....
A bit further out there's a cliffside road called the 'Pali' between my classmate's town and mine, very technical set of curves for 2.5 mis -- my second fave road to drive on this island, as with some skill/experience and no other drivers, it can be taken very, very fast, very, very satisfyingly (great sportbike road too, if a bit dangerous due to rock faces and hundred-foot drops into the ocean :wideyed: ). The stonewalling, cruise-on-speed-limit tourist in the lead V6 Mustang droptop of our four-car train, finally decided to up the pace once we began climbing onto the Pali, as he had no cars in front since town... and the #2 Astro (which stock is nimbler than you think) and #3 d-bag taxi lady give chase... Astro pulled ahead to match the 'Stang :jaw drop:, and the van and I began to up the wick in the back, to my delight...
Now, in my mid-20's the old Paseo and I took this road daily on a 4am commute to work. Got pretty good at threading the curves together, but couldn't get the bone-stock, 100-hp, beam-axle coupe faster than ~55 mph average over the course -- and I time-attacked it everyday there wasn't a car sharing the road, for a year. Think that axle was the limiting factor -- the stock dampers and springs just could not keep the rear end planted in bumpy midcorners (which the Pali is full off). Now that I have this Escort, noticed the rear end lacked completely that side-skittering crap which I'd accepted in the Toyota, of course because it has a superior indie setup. But how good it is, wasn't as obvious until today...
This van chick was committed (as was the Astro)... cutting corners going over the white line, flooring the throttle at every straight... but with all her knuckle-dragging 310-hp V8 power and torque... my 95-hp, 100K, 4-spd auto, bad-tie-rod-&-ball-joint 3gen chassis was right on her bumper, with the A/C on -- my club racer mind in combat mode. :astronaut: Only where the Pali had sightline again, did she manage to get away, all to fail once she hit a corner... and there I was. And to my delight the tires weren't even squealing, while hers howled like week-old Huskies under a full moon. Proper line and setup meant I could crawl all up-ins and wave to her in the side mirror midcorner... which must've chafed her d-bagger delicates a bit -- good. :whistling::rage: Given the same conditions as my Toyota 20 yrs ago, could comfortably thread this needle ~5-6 mph faster than the Paseo, which is astounding given what this car was meant to do. Not the same as me owning a Porsche GT3 or anything... but good enough.
This episode's takeaway: Trackdays are training every hi-po driver can use to good effect on the street (within reason of course)... allowing you to get the most out of any chassis. But this BG showed even with multiple faults... it's still a Mazda in the twisties. I like that a lot. :thumbsup: