Here's a short QT mov of the 8 Revving it up. Right-click, save target as.

 

Mazda hit a home-run with this endeavor, billed as the world's largest performance driving school(and cheapest).
My advice is GO, if you have the means. There were Miata club members from Seattle who flew down just to attend! Bring the wife and kids if you want, there are plenty of video games and stuff to do(Participation requires a wristband/waiver, i.e. valid license over 18). After this weekend the west coast events are done and off they head east to Dallas and Houston.

 

Great pictures but the large gaps between panels in the first picture causes concern. Hopefully, this won't be the case in production models.

 

The gaps were more to do with the angle and lighting. The 9-hp 30-mph karts were very fun, but repeated 20-lap sessions can beat the heck out of you, especially on the rough asphalt surface. Oh, my revitup time was 42.725, pretty middle of the road. All the hard-core racers got there in the pm after a tacky layer of rubber was already laid down on the course for more adhesion. Smart guys.

 

Nice pics T-man. looks like it was a good day for it too. now, did you honk the horn on the 8? :p

 

No, but I bumped the horn during the competition in the 6.
The on-site regional sales rep had the key to the blue 8 and started it for whomever asked.

 

oohh! just watched/listened to the vid!! now thats a sound i wont ever get tired of :D :D :D

 

damn where do i begin. mazda pulled out all the big guns on this event

when u first arrive and get in, it seemed like anyone could of just walked in. they didnt even find out that i wasnt 18 and let me thru lol. i even signed my own waiver. so i got to do everything. and since today was invitation only, there were no crowds or lines so it was pretty dope

after u go in, u have to go to the "chalk talk" just basic safty intro. then ur free to roam the base

lemme just tell u guys about the non racing stuff first. they had alot of crazy ****. the fast go karts. a arcade area. some espn thing. a mazdaspeed area. a display area where they had the whole mazda line of cars. there was also an area where u could test drive all the mazda cars, more on that later. they also had 3 rx8's.

the rx8's:
they didnt let test drives. there was a blue one with black int. a red one with red int. and a titanium one with tan int. this was the first time i had seen it in person and it was fuken awesome!!! the back seats are plenty big, i could fit fine. the back cupholders seemed very flimsy, maybe its due to the fact that its been molested by thousands of people. but they need better/smarter/more knowledgeable rx8 reps. the blue and red rx8 both had reps standing there to answer questions. the guy at the red one just had no damn clue. i asked him if the GT package included the 6 disc cd and he went to his binder and all it said was bose audio, so he said bose audio prolly means it includes 6 disc, which is correct, but then he went on to say that he thinks ALL rx8's come with 6 disc changers. then i asked him if the fender vents were functionally and he said no. then someone asked bout the price and he actually said "the larger engine" costs more. then i talked to the guy at the blue one and he knew his ****. again, i asked if the fender vents were functionally and he said yes and even led me infront of the hood and showed me that u could see thru the vents from the hood. then i asked him if we were getting the potenza so3's or the crappier re-40's and he said that they were deciding between 3 tires blah blah blah, basically we're getting the re-40's. just to test him, i asked if the calipers were single piston of twin piston, and he knew his ****. oh and he said its going to be july delivery because this is their flagship and they want to double and triple check to get everything right. ill have pics of all 3 rx8s up. and i also got a vid of the guy reving the rx8 but i have no webspace.

the racing school:
theres 3 "clinics". the slalamom, the braking and turning, and the racing line, each has its seprate course. then u get to do 2 autocross runs. i did pretty shity on the auto cross course, my best of 2 was 44.723 secs.

the go karts:
u could do it as many times as u want. pretty cool.

the test drives:
they had a place where u could test drive almost all of the mazda cars, including manuals. i just learned manual on my bros wrx a few weeks ago and only driven it 3 times. my first test drive was the miate 6 speed. i wasnt intending to do it but somehow i smoked the tires off the line. and i hit the gears so prefectly, i was surprised at how well i drove it considering i had only just learned manual. the car felt sooooooooo natural in my hands. then i got back in line to test drive a mazdaspeed protege 5 speed. i try to get it moving, stall. try again, stall. and again, stall. im sitting there thinking what the *** im doing it right. the mazda guy comes to me and says "this isnt the best place to be learning manual" and as i was about to get out, another mazda guy comes up and tells me the handbrake was on, i felt like such a fuken tool. then off i went. the protege didnt feel as good as the miata.

i was surprised at how sporty the mazda6 was. the brakes on them r amazing and the mazdaspeed exhuast they had on the autocross cars sounded so damn good.

thats about it. ill post pics in a sec

 

red rx8

 

damn it, all my pics r too big to attach

 

fix them! POOOOOOOOOOOST!

 

What did you think about the winning blue color? Is the color darker or lighter compared to the pictures? Does the color look like the 350z blue or the artic blue of the rsx?

 

Winning blue? What can I say, it is gorgeous! Tribal, I merged our threads to keep all revitup posts together. I had more fun with the red Miata 6-speed than any other car there. Where were you?

 

ok i uploaded the pics into yahoo briefcase, hope it works

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/nyrop_...uments&.view=l

also can anyone host my vid of the rx8 revving? its only 3 megs

 

i was all over the place man!!! i dunno man, i tore it up pretty good in the red miata:D

 

as i mentioned in my earlier post (stop that toad:p ) t-man (*glare* ) has a link already to a similar vid at the top of this now combined thread. so don't worry about it.

 

lol Charlie... Hey tribal I saw and I had a feeling it was you, LOL! I was in stealth-mode while you were recording. We both should have gone around the back of the car to get the pure exhaust note but the tent was in the way unless we preferred soot/emissions/water droplets on our cam lenses getting the prime exhaust tone.
:D

 

lol really? i was in a white shirt and jeans. i saw the blue car get revved up like twice. but i recorded the red one being revved. i hope u didnt see me after my hair was all fuked up from the helmets.

 

What, you didn't like the white hair-nets? :D

Hey Azn, what was your best Auto-X time? Mine was middle-of-the-road at 41.725. The braking/apex/slalom course DO help out tremendously if you are rusty or new, so pay heed to the Pro chalk-talk/videos at each station and check your ego at the door if you want to rip off good lap times. You'll be very impressed with how you improve as the day goes on and confidence improves.

 

Great day plenty of sun and no crowds, the karts are awesome
Blue color is slightly darker as better looking than 350z.
They started and reved the engines on both the red and blue cars. Car sounds good but is too quiet. 1st thing to get is a
cat back.

 

i did pretty shity, 44.723.

i dont think the braking clinic helped much. they were just teaching people about ABS. u just went full speed into a turn and stomp on the gas, u dont accelarate coming out of it.

the racing line clinic was the best and funniest but they only let u do that one twice

 

Best lap time 43.23

 

Asked guy at the blue car about production delays. He said that line is running slower than expected. They are building at a slower
rate to keep fit and finnish quality up. First cars to arrive early June, about two weeks behind schedule.

 

Holy crap, I'm pretty sure that was me sitting in the blue rx-8 when you recorded it being revved up... BTW, winning blues looks awesome and I also liked the black leather seats. Hopefully I can get my order changed to the GT package.

The whole event was really cool, congratulations to Mazda. I'd never done any autocrossing before so it was a brand new experience. It's really hard to do well with only 2 laps on an unknown course, but I ended up with a 38.7 which I think was decent.

One of my favoite parts was the test drive center. I had a lot of fun driving the red miata and mazdaspeed protege around the course. Now I just have to wait for my 8 to come!

 

san diego? i was talking to a guy about pre-orders and he said he was from san diego, was that u?