Hey everyone,

I'm a pretty big motorsports enthusiast originally from Connecticut, now living in Laguna Beach, CA. I've got a 1996 Mazda Miata supercharged and intercooled that sees a bit of autocross and track use. Is currently my daily driver as well unfortunately, so I've just made a purchase of a 2002 Cooper S with just about every option under the sun and I'm excited to be a part of the community. After making my 29~mpg miata into a 20-22~mpg "street legal" race car, I am definitely excited to have a decent economic car with a kick. FWD is a hard nut to swallow butI love how the car drives and I'll get over the turning radius eventually .

I'm a member of 949 Racing in Lake Forest, CA where we race the miata platform in several classes in the Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC) and various NASA hosted spint/TT/endurance events. Our premier car won first place in the E1 series, first place at National Championships at Mid-Ohio Raceway both TTC and PTC events, and First place E1 at 25 Hours of Thunderhill all this year. We're on quite a bit of a roll and loving it. The mini is one of the few successful FWD hatch cars I've noticed at some of our track events and doesn't seem to attract your typical "ricey" scene, which is exactly what I wanted.

Ohio Nationals (me on the left) with owner of 949 Racing, Emilio Cervantes (right)


T25 and crew


I'll post pics of the mini this weekend when I get it cleaned up and compare it to the mazda lol. I'm really hoping to find a decent socal community in these cars. I came to Miatas from BMW's because they were the cheapest RWD alternative and a hell of a lot more fun to drive. The social scene for mazda miatas in the Orange County region is probably bigger than anywhere else in the world, and I love that kind of community. I look forward to finding a group of mini enthusiasts to get as experienced as possible on the new platform!

-Tom

 

Wow very cool! OC represent! Welcome aboard!

 

thanks looking forward to making a recognizable mini in the community

 

Any pics of the MINI?

 

I'll post some tomorrow, I haven't yet busted out the camera! I wanted to get a side by side with my miata

 

Does anyone know of any orange county mini meets or regular gatherings? I know the miata scene is gargantuan so there's a meet in like every city haha but I'd love to hang with some mini gear heads and learn the cars

 

Check out some of the other forums like NAM for subregional posts about ongoing events. I know there's a Euro meet at the In-N-Out in Irvine/El Toro every Thursday or something - check their facebook.