I went to the 2016 MX-5 Drive Event at the Franklin Mills Mall in Philly, yesterday. I was primarily interested in getting up close and personal with the ND, plus a little seat time; but I enjoyed it so much, I went back again today. Not many Miatas showed up either day. Yesterday there was my NB and one or two NDs, but no MAs or NCs. Same thing today. It was fun, but short. The cars were the 2016 GT model with either a manual or automatic, driver's choice. Two courses were set up. The first was for braking. Accelerate as hard as you want for 150 to 180 feet, my rough guess. Then slam on the brakes at a yellow cone and come to a complete stopped within a box marked by orange cones. Each car did this twice. It was fun to nail the throttle, dump the clutch, hit second, then mash the brakes. The second course was a short, but challenging (for me) autocross course. There was one long 90 degree sweeper, a shorter about 130 degree turn, a real tight 190 degree turn (it seemed like more than 180 degrees to me) that ran into a short two-cone slalom. The corners were connected by 200 to 250 feet straights, another rough guess. Each car did three laps here. The neat thing was that they had a video cam in the car that was taking a shot of the road ahead, the driver, with views of a g-meter, tachometer, and speedometer in a box in the corner. This was recorded on a little thumb drive for the driver. It's neat. Plus you get the obligatory key ring with a big Mazda steering wheel hanging on it. Nice and shiny, but too big for the pocket. The steering wheel is 1-3/4 inches in diameter. I was surprised that not that many people showed up. I got there at the start of each session, 12:00 PM, Friday, and 9:00 AM, Saturday, and stayed maybe 2 to 2-1/2 hours each day. There were no lines waiting for cars. Maybe it got crowded Saturday afternoon. It was a fun time and I did get a chance to give the ND a real close look, play with the top, etc.
Del Val Miata Club