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      11-11-2019, 01:32 PM   #1404
dogbone
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Drives: '09 E90 M3 - IB
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: 93 million miles from the Sun

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A couple weeks ago, when I was testing and tuning at Buttonwillow, a Miata spun right in front of me at Phil Hill. I have a pretty good video recording of it since I was hanging out behind him. (I wasn't in any grand hurry to get around him since it was my second lap of the day. I was just feeling the newly rebuilt suspension and letting the tires and brakes warm up.) We were braking down from 90mph. Normally, on a hot lap, I'd be at 125mph at the braking zone.

The braking zone for Phil Hill is not really a common spot to spin while braking---at least I've never seen it happen before this. You're braking generally in a straight line and you're braking up hill......it just doesn't seem ripe for spinning.

So, the question is-----why did he spin? The first guess would be that he moneyshifted. Smoke came from his rear tires first. I guess the rear wheels spun up? They sort of seem to still be spinning when we see the car from the side. So, does that eliminate the possibility of some odd rear lockup?

But if he moneyshifted----wouldn't the engine blow? Or at least something break on the car? The car continued to drive like nothing happened. He continued driving that session and was out on track all day. Do Miatas survive moneyshifts like nothing happened? I'm not a manual transmission guy. I was under the impression that a single moneyshift usually breaks something related to the drivetrain.



(I wondered if the video would show some kind of physical reaction from me to his spin. You can see my eyes in the rear view mirror as he spins. I thought maybe I would see some kind of concern---eyebrow raise or a frown or something, but no....my eyes showed no reaction to his spin at all.....borrrrring....another car spinning.....wave to the flag station corner worker and move on! hahaha)
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