build diary

March 11, 2008: I spent Sunday at the track.
No, I wasn't driving the hibernating Seven, I was testing the Targa Miata. But I did get a chance to drive the FM Westfield. This car's shown up here a few times and it's turned into a real sweetheart on the track. It has a slightly different character than mine but it's still a ball to drive. Well, Bill spent last week sticking a turbo on it and it now makes somewhere around 250 hp at the wheels.

Does this make the car an unguided missile? Far from it, the chassis is fully capable of dealing with the power/weight ratio. The straight line speeds is, as expected, ridiculous. But the friendly handling remains, and the car eggs you on to push harder and harder like a good Seven should. It only took a couple of laps to acclimatize myself to the car, despite the fact that my last few track days have been in a Miata with relatively soft rally suspension. Soon I was playing with power oversteer in fast sweepers and prodding at the car's limits everywhere except under braking.

It was a completely different beast from the Atom. Where that car was edgy, this one is friendly. And inspiring. I'm trying to think of what I can do to my car to take it to the next evolutionary step...

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