Ring Reviews

Testing the newest Nurburgring rental...

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Parent Category: Nurburgring

Created on Tuesday, 11 October 2011 13:48

Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 April 2012 22:04

Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2011 13:48

Written by Dale

You'd have to be living under a rock to escape the fact I work at Rent4Ring selling rental cars for the Nürburgring Nordschleife. One of the best bits of the job is, undoubtedly, the occasions where I need to actually drive something on the track. The new rental Mazda MX5 (or Miata) pictured above was one of these moments.

Currently at Rent4Ring we only run three different models of cars; Swifts, Corsas and a new Citroen DS3. And before the start of this season there were only Swifts. All of the R4R cars are front-wheel-drive. You can recognise a Rent4Ring car by the specification; most of the cars are what we call 'Stage 2'. That means semi-slick racing tyres, full rollcage, racing seats and harnesses. Suspension and brakes are heavily upgraded, and Fredy takes great pride in the final result.

In some aspects the brand-new MX5 is a big deviation from the normal Rent4Ring car, in other ways it's the perfect logical progression. Right now it's still work in progress, but boy is it fun! Fredy asked me if I'd like to take a lap in the car to give my opinion on the work so far...

As you can tell from the noises above, the company credit card already took a real hammering from the German MX5 tuning experts ilmotorsport.de, and the results are impressive. So far the modifications are limited to the following:

• Barely legal racing exhaust and 4-2-1 manifold. She wails like a super 1600 rally car coming 'on cam'
• Eibach springs and anti-roll bars matched to the Bilstein sports dampers with Fredy's geometry

So you're probably thinking "This car is not going to be for the average guy".

And you'd be right.

In fact, we're almost certain that unless your first name is Sebastian and your second name is either Vettel or Loeb, you're certainly not going to be allowed out in the wet! Standard tyres and stiff ARBs on a freezing wet track result in massive oversteer in these videos. But with the smaller, wider wheels wearing sticky R-rated tyres and hiding uprated brakes (vents are already sorted, look at the foglight in the top photo!), we expect the car to be a totally different experience in the dry. Naturally the car will also be getting a full cage, bucket seats and proper harnesses. More on that when we get them fitted... but I already suspect this might be my new favourite rental car ever...

See the full, unedited lap of the new Mazda Miata/MX-5 Nürburgring VLN course below. It will be available to hire on the Nurburgring soon!

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Comments   

 

#1 klr8 2011-10-11 16:28

Damn that looks fun!

So what's the deal now? You can only rent it in the dry or what?

 

 

#2 admin 2011-10-11 16:34

Yep, that will be our advice I'm sure! Either that or hide the ESP button somewhere VERY difficult to find!

 

 

#3 astrophysathingy 2011-10-12 05:25

Not even for people who have hooned taken their own NA MX5 for a spirited rain drive time and time again on their ring-like slippery home track... and so far been able to somehow iron out their screwups not crashed? Pretty pleeease???

 

 

#4 Phil Snowden 2011-10-12 21:24

Sounds lush

 

 

#5 F1Yorkie 2011-10-15 12:48

That'll be fun on a dry track!!

 

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