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Track Test

Our first track day took place at the Logan City R/C Club’s circuit in the southern suburbs of Brisbane. It’s bumpy surface combined with a mix of high and low speed sections, and low-medium grip offer a real variety of conditions ideal for this first outing.

Far from the perfect race surfaces of picture-postcard World Championship tracks, Logan is typical of real-world tracks most of us race on week-in and week-out.

A quick shake down run before qualifying began revealed what would become very familiar characteristics over the course of the day. The car was beautifully balanced, and very smooth to drive.

A couple of quick changes to gear ratio and belt tension and we were set.

Now I have to confess, over the past five years I’ve done about one annual TC race, and spent the rest of my time playing 8th GP offroad and 10th SC Trucks. And for the last year I’ve not raced much of anything.

I say this to excuse myself for being a bit rusty.

The car however, was anything but. I found the Mi5 simply a delight to drive. Turn-in is crisp, and the car holds good speed through the middle part of the corner.

With this standard setup, on this track, on this day, it was particularly strong in Logan’s pair of high speed sweepers, balancing perfectly on the throttle and never getting out of shape in these corners all day long.

In fact, that was the hallmark of this test session – a car that was unfussed and well behaved. Switching the Mazda Speed 6 for something like an LTC-R would sharpen it up even more – and the Mi5 generates such prodigious rear grip that it will easily handle a sharper bodyshell.

Happily the car flowed well too – critically important in a spec class where keeping corner speeds high makes such a difference to straight line speed.

The chassis gave me every indication that it will cope well with more power – and that’s a feeling I’ll get to in the weeks ahead with a planned return to Modified class racing.

After the first half-dozen runs, both diff and shocks were still consistent and leak free.

That high degree of lateral flex meant that the car generated good traction even in the slippery early conditions, and coped with every bump and tram track the surface has to offer.

Drivetrain performance was flawless on this day, and with the option soft grey belts waiting to be installed before our next run, we should see even better performance.

Over the course of the day I experimented a little with battery placement – starting in the middle position and switching back and forth between middle and rear-mount. The rear mount offered slightly better turn-in, but I found the centre mount a little smoother and more consistent to drive.

On track the results were good, with TQ and the win coming for a car that was thoroughly enjoyable to drive. The turnout for this club event was small, and a better indication will come in two weeks when south-east Queensland’s best gather for the second interclub series round for the year – but initial indications are very exciting.

We’ll definitely be getting a whole lot more track time with the Mi5. It’s a car that has rekindled in me a dormant desire to go TC racing and right now I’m counting the days until I get to wheel it again. That’s about the highest praise I can think to offer.