Opportunity to run the car down an airport Runway today
 

Local community airport had a half day opportunity to run your car down their air strip.

So I did. $15

I felt that the car became a little floaty at around 125. Seemed very unsettled.

What do you figure......poor suspension or is just plain aerodynamics, resulting in not enough downforce.

Just curious.

Only 1 run allowed... I wanted to do another, but no go..

isn't just awesome to run on an airport...lol


over here it's twice a week to run the runways only during summers of course.
& as many runs as you want within operating time limits.

Yes, it floats. If you were driving on an Autobahn you would be better off with a big, heavy touring car. The sweet spot on the Z set up for the USA is in the 55-90mph range.

Best small car I ever drove for road adhesion (in stock condition) was a Mercedes A-Class (on a European rental). The whole front was a wedge pushing your nose down, so you were absolutely glued to the road when you had the throttle mashed. In fact, that massive downforce limited the diesel to only about 220km/hr. Too bad MB never imported this "lesser" model.

Mercedes A-Class - holds the road like glue...

:icon18:

damn....i was hoping to see how he saves it!

He didnt...

Maybe it got confused being on the runway and was trying to take off?

Lol try that over here at midway. You'll get a great cell at cook county prison.

lol I want to see the 2nd part of that video...

I drive past 125 every now and then and car seems feels just fine :) I wouldnt necessarily take tight turns at that speed since its not a LeMans prototype, but it didnt feel unsettled to me on the stock suspension. Much less now with the KW's.

I pushed to 125 MPH and felt very stable/rigid.

Pushed it to 145 for about 5 seconds. Granted there were no cars for miles and I was staying in one lane, it felt stable but not as planted as I thought it would be.

+125 it just doesn't feel planted IMO.

I did 150 on a track with a looong straight and it felt fine...but who knows in a slow curve?

I've always been under the impression military bases should open up for racing on the weekends... Especially here, we have 2 runways, so if you start in the center and go out, you can feasibly have 4 strips at once. And then use the normal base road map as a little road course. I dunno what the rates are for normal dragstrip runs, but if you charged say $15 bucks a head, or per race. I'm sure they would completely cover the cost, and including all the vendors that would want to come out... I dunno why they wouldn't approach this idea lol.

They had some (cough) "issues" when the model came out. One of the cheap European-only MBs, either the Smart or this very model, had a massive recall and each sold car supposedly got a $500 traction control retrofit.

I was talking about straight-line highway driving, not (obviously) a slalom.

I've hit 125 once and I felt like it was fine, very suprising when I hit it. My last 2 cars (WRX and RX7) felt very floaty at 125, with the Z I felt pretty planted

Yea, i havnt noticed much of a diffrence at 120mph.

It should only feel "floaty" if the road you are travelling on is not smooth. Bumps and dips in pavement or concrete can make a huge impact at speeds over 100 MPH in any car.

When the suspension unloads...