I just thought I'd share with the STi community that my STi's racing days are over.

In October I was able to get a '90 Miata and have been working on getting that car to race in SCCA events in the STS2 class.

I plan to finish the 2006 season here on Maui with the STi at the season ending Runoffs, but that's it. After that the car will be detuned for just daily driving - less agressive alignment settings, softer strut and sway bar settings, etc.

The two cars could not be more opposite. The STi has grip, power, rigidity and relies on the rally bread diff and suspension to make the car handle. You can drive this car very "ham-fisted" and it rewards the driver with good times on the track. In other words, it makes heroes of lesser drivers.

Conversely, the Miata is the exact opposite. It has little or no power and has very little rigidity. It requires clean and precise driving lines which must be driven such that you don't bleed/scrub off any speed on corner entry through exit. It's a total momentum car becuase once you lose any speed, you won't really get it back. It relies on its light weight and near 50-50 weight balance. Poor driving technique will be revealed when you race this car.

The tuning is totally different between the STi and Miata and I'm learning that there is very little in the tuning "formulas" that are interchangable between the two.

I'll keep you guys posted on the progress of the build up and will post some pix once it gets back from the alignment shop with it's SCCA/race alignment.

 

cool ed...post pics when you're done...

 

I'll post pix as soon as I can.

The other benefit of having a "track only car" is that when something goes down or breaks on the car, you don't really stress out because you don't have to drive it to work the next day.

Also, Miata parts are very cheap in comparison to STi parts. Most of my stuff came off a wrecked Miata parts car that we have.