Hey all,
My wife and i are really interested in getting into auto cross and some track driving. We both have 2012 speed3's.
Anyone know of any instructions or driving courses offered in colorado? we found a cool one in portland, but it's rally cross.
We have a bit of a challenge since we are apartment dwellers, and have no garage to work in.. we are also looking for info on any community garage sites? if that even exists..
any info is greatly appreciated.
p

Jamiel is the local autocross guru. I know he's super involved with it. He can likely answer any question you have.
Also, in terms of not having room to work on your car, plenty of people here are super friendly and will have mini (and not so mini) meets to help people out working on their cars and get stuff done. Ecam helped me figure out what was wrong with my 6 when I had it along with having Christi, Pat, and Henry over to get stuff done. Mog1017 helped me with an oil change on my Legacy when I first got it and also helped me install my amp and sub when I wasn't really sure how to go about doing it. Everyone is super friendly and people are pretty willing to open their homes and garages to help each other out.

Learjet45 wrote:Jamiel is the local autocross guru. I know he's super involved with it. He can likely answer any question you have.
Also, in terms of not having room to work on your car, plenty of people here are super friendly and will have mini (and not so mini) meets to help people out working on their cars and get stuff done. Ecam helped me figure out what was wrong with my 6 when I had it along with having Christi, Pat, and Henry over to get stuff done. Mog1017 helped me with an oil change on my Legacy when I first got it and also helped me install my amp and sub when I wasn't really sure how to go about doing it. Everyone is super friendly and people are pretty willing to open their homes and garages to help each other out.

and that's something I'm truly going to miss about the colorado Mazda club.

Some advice I can give is just to show up at an autocross, intro yourselves as newbies, find Eric (ecam here) or Jamiel and they will make sure you have a great time at the autocross.

Welcome to one of the better automotive "families" there is

I can speak to the track day side as I track my MS3 all the time. First, its FUN!!! I got into track days with the National Auto Sport Association (NASA). They run a program called High Performance Driving Event (HPDE) and it's a great place to get started. You can start in HPDE-1 and you get an instructor who is always extremely helpful and nice. Check them out here: http://www.nasaproracing.com/ and here is the forum for the Rocky Mountain section: http://www.nasarockymountain.com/nasa_forums/

The MS3 is a lot of fun on track! Hope to see you at the track!

What kind of prep work did you do to your speed before you tracked your car ( Stainless steel brakelines ? what kind of pads and what kind of brake and oil did you do? ) Did you replace the rear diff fluid and tranny fluids ?

Thanks for all the info we love these cars and want to learn how to properly care for and how to Drive them !!!!

See if you can make it out to: http://www.coloradomazdaclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8046

Hi pyrrhus17! I PM'd you more in depth about the http://rmsolo.org/ autocross program. As Columbia said SCCA and NASA both run good HPDE programs if you want some track time, and HPR and PPIR have open lapping days as well. Autocross is a great low cost, low risk, low prep way to have a blast learning car control, and the rmsolo group is really helpful, friendly, and welcoming to newcomers.
As far as schools go, the rmsolo Speedtrain autocross school is June 9th http://www.rmsolo.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11487 and all rmsolo autocrosses have Speedtrain instructors to help newcomers.

pyrrhus17 wrote:What kind of prep work did you do to your speed before you tracked your car ( Stainless steel brakelines ? what kind of pads and what kind of brake and oil did you do? ) Did you replace the rear diff fluid and tranny fluids ?

Thanks for all the info we love these cars and want to learn how to properly care for and how to Drive them !!!!

Prep is relatively simple. In a nutshell it's make sure everything works and is in good working order. For me I check all my fluids, check the brakes for wear and pads, check that nothing on the body/undercarriage is loose, check my tires, their pressures, the lugs are properly torqued, etc. If you want a full break down there is a pretty good checklist of sorts on the NASA website.

For brakes I'm running dba series 4000 rotors with hawk hps pads and I can't say enough good things about this setup. Better than stock, and that's saying a lot because I think the stock setup is actaully really good. I don't have upgraded brake lines but it is something I do want to do soon. I give the stock and dba w/ hps setup a street and track review on page two of this link: http://coloradomazdaclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6130

By rear diff I take it you just mean "the" diff since we MS3s only have the one. I didn't replace any trans or diff fluid. The stock fluid is pretty good and has not done me wrong.

Overall I can tell you the car is strong. It will take the abuse on the track and ask for more! My first track day I was terrified I would break something or hurt the car, but if you think about it these cars are strong and it take a lot to upset them. If a nearly bone stock MS3 can tackle the Targa Tasmania, and compete wheel to wheel in World Challenge, a little track day won't hurt her.