Quote:
Originally Posted by dogbone
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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I bet it was ABS lockup.
Some cars, like the E36, default to a rear bias when ABS is disconnected.
For some inexplicable reason, some ...people... think it's better to not use ABS in their dedicated track cars.
This may have happened at AER in one of our E36s. Team captain was convinced it was a moneyshift or a very abrupt downshift but in fact it occurred while braking in a completely straight line with zero involvement in shifts
Of course if you are not part of those ...people... who believe disconnecting ABS is good, you do not expect stupid shit like this to happen, so by the time you connect with the wall at 100mph you are still wondering WTF is happening.
Perhaps the Miata also defaults to the rear when ABS is disconnected