Mazda Zoom-Zoom Live 2006, Alameda, CA

For the first time since I bought a new MX-5 Miata in 2002, I got around to going to a Mazda Zoom-Zoom Live event. Four courses were in operation, but I only opted to drive the RX-8 and MX-5 on the sport course, and the CX-7 on the "Timed Gymkhana" course.

While waiting for a turn in the RX-8, the people running the line kept calling out for anyone interested in driving an car with automatic transmission. How silly! There was usually a taker, but sometimes they'd call for several minutes. Mazda seemed to bring about half each of auto and manual; three-fourths manual would have made the lines go faster.

Once I drove the RX-8, I liked it. It was smooth, quick, handled pretty well for having such a cushy ride and flogged well through the (untimed) course in second gear. Woo-hoo. Too bad the car is butt-ugly and is an apex-seal failure waiting to happen.

While waiting for the MX-5, I noticed the same problem with automatics, though it was even worse than for the RX-8. The automatic MX-5s just sat there for several minutes at a time. Meanwhile, one of the MX-5s with a manual tranny pulled-in, with a very loud engine knock. The driver got out and mentioned that the check-engine light was on; that car was spirited away a few minutes later after sitting there, idling and making me think the event could be Knock-Knock Live. This, of course, made the line move quite a bit more slowly...

My 2002 Special Edition is due for new suspension after 40,000 miles, but the 2006 I drove was clearly tuned for a cushy yet reasonably tight ride. Everything about the car felt different; they even moved Reverse to where first-gear is on my '02 (glad I didn't punch the throttle before noticing that). The car was quick, smooth and just felt bigger in vague ways than my '02. My '02 is definitely stronger (since it's running a Jackson Racing Supercharger kit) but the '06 was nice, even if it's not exactly a Miata.

Last, I decided to give the CX-7 a whirl on the Gymkhana track (the line was the shortest and it seemed like a challenge to flog one of those). In Gymkhana, the goal is to precisely hit the target time (27.000

seconds in this case). I had two turns to see how I'd do, and I figured the first turn was a throw-away. A luck would have it, I came in at 27.1 seconds on the first turn. Woo-hoo. I'm sure I'd do worse on the second try, so I bailed at that point. The CX-7 was surprisingly nimble, I didn't actually hate it very much, and it was certainly pretty quick. I didn't feel like waiting in the longer lines for the other tracks.

It was amusing that each track had a different incentive associated with it. The sport track (with just the MX-5 and RX-8) had no competitive scoring and was limited to two turns, clearly people want to drive these cars. The rest of the courses had some kind of competitive scoring, either target times or fastest-overall. Mazda marketing is smart - they know most people into cars are pretty competitive and are suckers for a driving contest. So the most exciting cars didn't need an incentive, but the more boring rides all had some kind of reward for trying them.

Overall, not a bad way to spend a few hours on a sunny Sunday morning. Maybe I'll do it again next year.