Var

Who's going? I've signed up for Sunday, March 7th, 12pm @ Alameda Point in Alameda
http://www.mazdarevitup.com/starthere/f_default.asp

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SilviaNinja240

I'm going on Saturday afternoon, w00t!

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Halz

I'm signed up for the first day in the first run group

TRUENOCOUPE

shiet... I think thats the day I got married... Lemme go check.

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DRIFTxBATTLE IS GONE | MYSPACE | NORCAL DRIFT | ZipTied Tee's

stillmatic

Okay, who else is going to this one? What day and time? General admission is free so if you don't plan on driving any of the Mazda cars you can still go and have some fun..

Blues13

sux, all full... are u guys on the waiting list? when would u show up?

gotrice240sx

i though u only have to pay if ur compeating and it was free to drive there cars? i was thinking of going on sunday. i never been to one of these, what is it by the way?

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Var

i think you can test drive some new mazdas but to race the course you have to sign up. I think they have go-karts for the general public too(you have to pay of course) I would show up early just cause it will be less crowded. 10:30am?

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asdf54

Whats there to do there for fun? I may stop by since im droppin by berkeley

stillmatic

I'm not sure. Go to their website, mazdarevitup.com and click on fun zone.

Halz

Last year, there were a bounch of race cars on show in some of the booths, some free video games (Xbox, i think), plently of Falken and Mazda reps to talk to, some other vendor booths with some things on sale, some TVs running some motorsport movies...
and ofcourse, the vehicle test drive area! It was intended that the cars be drivin slightly harder than they might be on a test drive from the dealership. This area seemed to get very abused; people were managing to knock down cones, and even spin the car. The people running the booth didn't much like that, so I'm sure the feedback got up the chain of command for the later events and it might be entirely redesigned this event.

SilviaNinja240

I hope not. I wanna mash the bejeasus outa the miata again

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gotrice240sx

so if i go there, not signing up i still can mash on their cars? and what day is everyone going? i was thinking of going down on sunday

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asdf54

So since its not at the dealer, you dont have to pretend you're interested in purchasing the cars do you... i hope not, i look too young, cant test anywhere

tsunami0ne

from the website, somehow I got the impression that we'll be driving automatics (Mazda3).... can someone confirm this? I hope this isn't true.

SilviaNinja240

yea, for the competition they are all autos, just the test drive area features MTs. Anyways, the whole event is just about over now. It hella sucked this year, I won't go (compete) again next year.

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tsunami0ne

really? can u give details? the one i'm going to starts next week so i'd like to know what sucks about it.

SilviaNinja240

Maybe it will be different at the other ones but what problems I saw at the event was:
1) Skills Clinics are a joke, they barely gave any advice, a lot of the instructors didn't even look like they wanted to be there
2) The lines are outa control. Last year there was around 400 people at the event, this year it was 1400. It took an hour and a half to test out the 8, skills clinics were around 45min wait. It was like a bad amusment park, the rides were pretty short too.
I guess if you have an early sign up time it would be okay, but for people with later time, your'e rushed, only had time to do 1 skill clinic, 1 test drive and my 2 timed laps.
Last year I was able to get 6 skill clinics, 8 test drives and my 2 timed laps.
It's really more of a marketing gimmik than anything else.
But... if you already signed up, it can't be help. Maybe it'll be better for you than it was for me. Some people had a blast

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Var

hehe sounds like shit. i didnt even make it cause something else came up i had to take care of. Waste of 40 bucks but at least i didnt waste my day there.

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D1drifter

Yeah, but hey, where else can you test the sht out of a brand new rx8 for free? On top of that, entrance and test area was free!!

Var

so how was it overall? the waits? did you drive the mazda 3?

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twofortydrifter

i drove the mazdaspeed mx-5. it is much better than i thought it would be. the thing can really haul a$$. Around corners, it feels like a miracle.

twofortydrifter

the wait was about half an hour for me to ge thru the line. it was pretty bad.

D1drifter

the rx8 is pretty agile, incredibly fun to drive, although the acceleration was abit slugish, (I drove the auto, wait for the manual, was tooooooo long) the cornering ability felt neutral, slight push, yet could be easily corrected by depressing the gas pedal to get the rear end to follow. i pushed the 8 to its limits, and in doing so, impressed my friends on my driving abilities. The wait was long, but well worth it id say.

Halz

I thought the event was pretty much the same as last year, in terms of how long the wait was to do the skill clinics and whatnot. At around lunch time on Saturday, I did each of the skill clinics once, and the wait was about 20 minutes each.. The test drive line for the Mazda3s 5 door was something like 10 minutes. The RX8 line and Miata line were just too long to bother with.

For the skill clinics, I felt like they should have let you stay in the car and run as many times as you had availible to you, instead of having to get out and get back in line. It would have taken less time, and the information from the last run would be fresh in the driver's head.

In the compedition, I placed 5th overall.. and if it hadn't been for what I believe to have been a 'super emo-sensitive cone', I could have had a place at Laguna Seca
The cones were nailed to the ground, and had a sensor in them that when touched would register as a hit. I was pretty damn certain I just kissed the corner of it.. oooohwellll!

Var

the automatic one i thought has a lower redline and 50 less horsepower.

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D1drifter

yeah it did, it redlined about 1k rpm lower. on another note, i heard that the rx8 was fairly easy to stall. Not sure why, but dang, those cars get worked HARD.