#TBT: Two rally novices–and their Miata–take on Targa Newfoundland

Face it: Gearheads get a kick out of rebellion. Sure, topping 120 on a race track straightaway is exhilarating, but there’s an extra thrill in knowing you’d get hauled to the station if anyone caught you doing the same thing on a mailbox-lined street.

Targa Newfoundland lets motorists from all over the world capitalize on this feeling: For the last …

Read the rest of the story

Targa Newfoundland is definitely on my bucket list.

Wow, there's a throwback. We ran that race in 2008. We did go back in 2011 with an LS stuffed into the car, competing in the Open class.

See the cameras on the roof? A customer did a video of that race, and it's a good racing movie.

Meanwhile, the car is still an active platform. It transitioned into a track-biased product torture device, used to test parts and give customers thrill rides.

A few years ago I transformed it back into a more streetable trim. Now it sees track days at our local track and gets driven to work and used for video shoots. The final picture was a week ago.

Colin Wood said:

Targa Newfoundland is definitely on my bucket list.

Then make it happen! The event is considerably smaller than it was back in 2008 - I think there were 63 cars in the Targa division that year. Last year, there were 6 and two Grand Touring cars. That's not really sustainable, so get out there while you can and maybe you'll help save the event. The organizers have managed to bring back a bunch of the iconic stages like Gander, which is great.

Don't forget Keith, the Targa Miata has also played a role in creating a long list of bad ideas (for my wallet, anyway) over the years. =P

Here's a link to this year's event: https://targanfld.com/targa-2024/

The full event runs 12 large Canuck and the shorter 4 large, so about 35 bucks US...

I would love to do that but the spousal unit would have nothing to do with that. At all. Hmmmm...

It's never been a cheap date, but they usually run early bird specials so the earlier you register, the less expensive it is. At the moment, it looks like the costs go up by 10% on August 1. 

Think of it as a season of racing jammed into a week :)

te72, I make no apologies.

Nor should you Keith. Your main relay hangup inspired a bit of careful planning and contingency plans in my way of thinking. Helps keep unexpected surprises from being so much of a surprise.