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Originally Posted by HB.
That's crazy how the mazda was pulling away from the S in the straights. Seems like the car was able to handle the turns well too.  |
The MS3 driver is a very good friend of mine and I've driven the car on the track. It handles very well, especially for a FWD car
In the video he runs away much more than he would because it rained all morning long and I was apprehensive about the track being damp. If you checkout the related video ('Playing in the Rain') you'll get an idea of just how much it rained (we got about 2 inches throughout the day). So, it really had to do with my comfort factor.
The front straight of BIR is also used for NHRA drag races and you can't imagine how slippery it is when wet - worse than ice. May be an urban legend but I've heard that if person were on the track and fall down in that portion, they would have to slide all the way to the edge of the track to get back up. You cannot accelerate or deccelerate on it when wet. That said, during the session this video was shot, the rain had stopped momentarily and it was starting to dry out a bit but I wasn't as comfortable with testing it as the MS3 driver (notice a couple of times he also moves back to the center as do others). As such, I didn't fully track out but instead stayed down the center line where it was "safe" and was easier on the throttle through the drag area - hey, I still have to drive my car home.
In normal (dry) conditions, if he's in front of me, he can't run away from me on the straight. At the same time, I can't catch him either. The cars are pretty evenly matched from that perspective. But even during the time trials in the subsequent session (when I felt comfortable to push a little more), my lap times are all at least 3 seconds or more quicker than the MS3 (closest was: 2:03.3 @ avg 87.55mph vs. 2:06.4 @ avg 85.44mph). In addition to better handling, I can easily out break the MS3. That is not to take anything from the MS3 though. With the mods he's made, that car is a ton of fun and worthy of respect.