Here's a short QT mov of the 8 Revving it up (http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup.MOV). Right-click, save target as.


http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup1.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup2.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup3.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup4.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup5.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup6.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup7.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup8.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup9.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup10.JPG

http://www.strages.homestead.com/files/revitup11.JPG

Mazda hit a home-run with this endeavor, billed as the world's largest performance driving school(and cheapest).
My advice is GO, if you have the means. There were Miata club members from Seattle who flew down just to attend! Bring the wife and kids if you want, there are plenty of video games and stuff to do(Participation requires a wristband/waiver, i.e. valid license over 18). After this weekend the west coast events are done and off they head east to Dallas and Houston.

Great pictures but the large gaps between panels in the first picture causes concern. Hopefully, this won't be the case in production models.

The gaps were more to do with the angle and lighting. The 9-hp 30-mph karts were very fun, but repeated 20-lap sessions can beat the heck out of you, especially on the rough asphalt surface. Oh, my revitup time was 42.725, pretty middle of the road. All the hard-core racers got there in the pm after a tacky layer of rubber was already laid down on the course for more adhesion. Smart guys.
;)

Nice pics T-man. looks like it was a good day for it too. now, did you honk the horn on the 8?;) :p

No, but I bumped the horn during the competition in the 6. :)
The on-site regional sales rep had the key to the blue 8 and started it for whomever asked.

oohh! just watched/listened to the vid!! now thats a sound i wont ever get tired of :D :cool: :D :cool: :) :) :D :cool:

damn where do i begin. mazda pulled out all the big guns on this event

when u first arrive and get in, it seemed like anyone could of just walked in. they didnt even find out that i wasnt 18 and let me thru lol. i even signed my own waiver. so i got to do everything. and since today was invitation only, there were no crowds or lines so it was pretty dope

after u go in, u have to go to the "chalk talk" just basic safty intro. then ur free to roam the base

lemme just tell u guys about the non racing stuff first. they had alot of crazy shit. the fast go karts. a arcade area. some espn thing. a mazdaspeed area. a display area where they had the whole mazda line of cars. there was also an area where u could test drive all the mazda cars, more on that later. they also had 3 rx8's.

the rx8's:
they didnt let test drives. there was a blue one with black int. a red one with red int. and a titanium one with tan int. this was the first time i had seen it in person and it was fuken awesome!!! the back seats are plenty big, i could fit fine. the back cupholders seemed very flimsy, maybe its due to the fact that its been molested by thousands of people. but they need better/smarter/more knowledgeable rx8 reps. the blue and red rx8 both had reps standing there to answer questions. the guy at the red one just had no damn clue. i asked him if the GT package included the 6 disc cd and he went to his binder and all it said was bose audio, so he said bose audio prolly means it includes 6 disc, which is correct, but then he went on to say that he thinks ALL rx8's come with 6 disc changers. then i asked him if the fender vents were functionally and he said no. then someone asked bout the price and he actually said "the larger engine" costs more. then i talked to the guy at the blue one and he knew his shit. again, i asked if the fender vents were functionally and he said yes and even led me infront of the hood and showed me that u could see thru the vents from the hood. then i asked him if we were getting the potenza so3's or the crappier re-40's and he said that they were deciding between 3 tires blah blah blah, basically we're getting the re-40's. just to test him, i asked if the calipers were single piston of twin piston, and he knew his shit. oh and he said its going to be july delivery:mad: because this is their flagship and they want to double and triple check to get everything right. ill have pics of all 3 rx8s up. and i also got a vid of the guy reving the rx8 but i have no webspace.

the racing school:
theres 3 "clinics". the slalamom, the braking and turning, and the racing line, each has its seprate course. then u get to do 2 autocross runs. i did pretty shity on the auto cross course, my best of 2 was 44.723 secs.

the go karts:
u could do it as many times as u want. pretty cool.

the test drives:
they had a place where u could test drive almost all of the mazda cars, including manuals. i just learned manual on my bros wrx a few weeks ago and only driven it 3 times. my first test drive was the miate 6 speed. i wasnt intending to do it but somehow i smoked the tires off the line. and i hit the gears so prefectly, i was surprised at how well i drove it considering i had only just learned manual. the car felt sooooooooo natural in my hands. then i got back in line to test drive a mazdaspeed protege 5 speed. i try to get it moving, stall. try again, stall. and again, stall. im sitting there thinking what the fuk im doing it right. the mazda guy comes to me and says "this isnt the best place to be learning manual" and as i was about to get out, another mazda guy comes up and tells me the handbrake was on, i felt like such a fuken tool. then off i went. the protege didnt feel as good as the miata.

i was surprised at how sporty the mazda6 was. the brakes on them r amazing and the mazdaspeed exhuast they had on the autocross cars sounded so damn good.

thats about it. ill post pics in a sec

red rx8

damn it, all my pics r too big to attach

fix them! POOOOOOOOOOOST!

What did you think about the winning blue color? Is the color darker or lighter compared to the pictures? Does the color look like the 350z blue or the artic blue of the rsx?

Winning blue? What can I say, it is gorgeous! Tribal, I merged our threads to keep all revitup posts together. I had more fun with the red Miata 6-speed than any other car there. Where were you? ;)

ok i uploaded the pics into yahoo briefcase, hope it works

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/nyrop_finals/lst?.dir=/My+Documents&.view=l

also can anyone host my vid of the rx8 revving? its only 3 megs

Originally posted by Toadman
I merged our threads to keep all revitup posts together. I had more fun with the red Miata 6-speed than any other car there! Where were you, Tribal?
:D

i was all over the place man!!! i dunno man, i tore it up pretty good in the red miata:D

Originally posted by tribal azn2
also can anyone host my vid of the rx8 revving? its only 3 megs

as i mentioned in my earlier post (stop that toad:p ) t-man (*glare*;) ) has a link already to a similar vid at the top of this now combined thread. so don't worry about it.

lol Charlie... Hey tribal I saw and I had a feeling it was you, LOL! I was in stealth-mode while you were recording. We both should have gone around the back of the car to get the pure exhaust note but the tent was in the way unless we preferred soot/emissions/water droplets on our cam lenses getting the prime exhaust tone.
:D

Originally posted by Toadman
lol Charlie... Hey tribal I saw ya, and I had a feeling it was you, LOL! I was in stealth mode while you were recording. We both should have gone around the back of the car to get the pure exhaust note.

lol really? i was in a white shirt and jeans. i saw the blue car get revved up like twice. but i recorded the red one being revved. i hope u didnt see me after my hair was all fuked up from the helmets.

What, you didn't like the white hair-nets? :D

Hey Azn, what was your best Auto-X time? Mine was middle-of-the-road at 41.725. The braking/apex/slalom course DO help out tremendously if you are rusty or new, so pay heed to the Pro chalk-talk/videos at each station and check your ego at the door if you want to rip off good lap times. You'll be very impressed with how you improve as the day goes on and confidence improves.

Great day plenty of sun and no crowds, the karts are awesome
Blue color is slightly darker as better looking than 350z.
They started and reved the engines on both the red and blue cars. Car sounds good but is too quiet. 1st thing to get is a
cat back.

Originally posted by Toadman
What, you didn't like the white hair-nets? :D

Hey Azn, what was your best Auto-X time? Mine was middle-of-the-road at 41.725. The braking/apex/slalom course DO help out tremendously if you are rusty or new, so pay heed to the Pro chalk-talk/videos at each station and check your ego at the door if you want to rip off good lap times. You'll be very impressed with how you improve as the day goes on and confidence improves.

i did pretty shity, 44.723.

i dont think the braking clinic helped much. they were just teaching people about ABS. u just went full speed into a turn and stomp on the gas, u dont accelarate coming out of it.

the racing line clinic was the best and funniest but they only let u do that one twice

Best lap time 43.23

Asked guy at the blue car about production delays. He said that line is running slower than expected. They are building at a slower
rate to keep fit and finnish quality up. First cars to arrive early June, about two weeks behind schedule.

Holy crap, I'm pretty sure that was me sitting in the blue rx-8 when you recorded it being revved up... BTW, winning blues looks awesome and I also liked the black leather seats. Hopefully I can get my order changed to the GT package.

The whole event was really cool, congratulations to Mazda. I'd never done any autocrossing before so it was a brand new experience. It's really hard to do well with only 2 laps on an unknown course, but I ended up with a 38.7 which I think was decent.

One of my favoite parts was the test drive center. I had a lot of fun driving the red miata and mazdaspeed protege around the course. Now I just have to wait for my 8 to come!

Originally posted by mp5
Holy crap, I'm pretty sure that was me sitting in the blue rx-8 when you recorded it being revved up... BTW, winning blues looks awesome and I also liked the black leather seats. Hopefully I can get my order changed to the GT package.

The whole event was really cool, congratulations to Mazda. I'd never done any autocrossing before so it was a brand new experience. It's really hard to do well with only 2 laps on an unknown course, but I ended up with a 38.7 which I think was decent.

One of my favoite parts was the test drive center. I had a lot of fun driving the red miata and mazdaspeed protege around the course. Now I just have to wait for my 8 to come!

san diego? i was talking to a guy about pre-orders and he said he was from san diego, was that u?

Originally posted by tribal azn2


san diego? i was talking to a guy about pre-orders and he said he was from san diego, was that u?

I'm from san diego, but I don't recall talking to anyone about pre-orders except for the mazda representative there. I guess you were talking to someone else :) I was wearing a black shirt & black hat...

i take it that this Rev It Up was at the Hollywood Bowl?

i am going to the El Toro one tomorrow morning...anyone going? i am getting a little worried though, since it has been cloudy all day today. hopefully it does not get washed out.

take it easy

santino

No this was at El Toro today. Here is a pic from today.
Tribal which one is you?

It was the Media Day at El Toro, Friday. If I have any one tidbit of advice on SAT/SUN participants it is this:

-= GET THERE AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE! =-

7:00-8:00am is good. No lines, sign-in and off you go to hit the mandatory 30-min. chalk-talk(pay attention, pls.). It's highly suggested to hit each "clinic"(slaloms, turn/braking, racing lines) before tackling the competition. And you can go multiple rounds on the tracks if no line is waiting. You can also come/go to the parking lot as you please so pack a lunch if you want but wear your pass.
Sunblock/water is a good idea.
:)

was media day invite only or was it open to the public?
and how did Tribal get in on media day? good for you though.

either way, i will have to wade through all the people tomorrow morning.
thanks guys

santino

Originally posted by Zoom49
No this was at El Toro today. Here is a pic from today.
Tribal which one is you?

I don't know which one is Tribal, but the dorky guy pointed to by the yellow arrow is me. I guess we were all hangin out in the same place :)

Hey guys I stopped by there today. I have some pix and a short video of the Blue 8 being reved to 9k. I am at work (from El toro Marine Base... to MCAS Miramar heh go figure) right now and won't be home until late tomorrow afternoon to post everything. All I can say is IT IS THE BEST EXEPERIENCE YOU WILL EVER GET IN LEARNING HOW TO DRIVE LIKE A PRO.

The 6 was the main car of the show and there were only 3 8s. Titaium is awsome. It' looked okay in the morning because it was cloudy, but when the sun came out ... you could see the lines of the car very nice. There was a red GT in a tent and a blue which looked very nice. The 8 looks a lot better in person like everyone says. I saw it first at LA auto show but after seeing it again my jaw dropped and made a six foot hole in the ground.

The Slolom course was nice as you get to whip the 6 in to schickanes (sp?). I test drove the MPS Protoge. AMAZING responsiveness. All I can say is Racing Line clinic and the actual competition track is the best thing you can do. If your in so cal don't hesistate to go. I don't think you will ever get to drive a car as hard as you want ever for nothing (i got in because I preorderd from my dealer). I think it's $40 this weekend. I'm thinkning about going again Sunday.

Well gotta get back to work... got a network to get back to. I'll post the pix up shortly.

Rev it up!

Originally posted by Zoom49
No this was at El Toro today. Here is a pic from today.
Tribal which one is you?

lol do u see any azn's in that picture?:p

Originally posted by santino
was media day invite only or was it open to the public?
and how did Tribal get in on media day? good for you though.

either way, i will have to wade through all the people tomorrow morning.
thanks guys

santino

http://www.rx8forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3780

I read somewhere that they won't let you use your own helmet. Any idea of the reasoning behind that? I'd much rather use my own Snell SA-rated Bell Mag4 than their generic loaners, if only because I know it fits me perfectly.

Liability reasons. They'll have a helmet that fits, small to XXL.
They're pretty nice and brand-new. Also during chalk-talk the video discusses how to strap in the Sparco harness, yet the competition cars only had the standard shoulder/lap belt.

Those of you who got to see the RX-8 for the first time, was there anything that surprised you?

I for one, would like to hear the good, and the not-so-good.

Originally posted by Toadman
They'll have a helmet that fits, small to XXL.Well it's not just a matter of size - different helmets suit different head shapes, and mine fits me like a glove. Oh well.

what RPM (approx) was he reving to in that mov file of yours toadman?

Originally posted by rxeightr
Those of you who got to see the RX-8 for the first time, was there anything that surprised you?

I for one, would like to hear the good, and the not-so-good.

it was awesome. but like i said, the back seat cupholders were flimsy as hell

Went to the Irvine Rev It Up event to check out the RX-8s on display (didn't do the driving stuff -- I'm too much of a wimp! :p ). It was my first time seeing the Titanium and the Winning Blue in person. The Titanium looked verrry nice -- not as dark as I thought it might be. The Winning Blue was quite pretty -- almost makes me wish I had chosen it for my color. Someone asked if it looked like the 350Z or the RSX blue. I'd say it's closer to the 350Z's blue -- very bright and eye-catching (the only blue RSX I've seen was a rather dark blue).

The rep by the Titanium one said that Mazda's running about a month behind schedule and that delivery likely won't be until July :(. She also said that the reason why they didn't let people test drive the RX-8 was that they weren't able to get a factory model out to the event, and they didn't want people driving a pre-production model. I listened to her rev up the Titanium to around 8k. I was struck by how smooth and easy it sounded!

Anyway, I thought I'd post a few of the pics I took -- hopefully you're not all tired of seeing pics of these cars yet! ;)

Oh -- one other thing I forgot to mention. I saw it posted on another thread, but I thought I'd mention it again here. If you go to the Information desk you can ask them for a copy of the RX-8 booklet -- it's the Road & Track supplement that went out to subscribers :D

I'm not a big fan of brown, but the black w/tan inserts looked better in person than I thought it would.

Red with headlights on...

yeah, the moonroof is kind of ugly in the up position...

Stereo console lit...

winning blue rear view...

I was trying to get a good shot of the lip spoiler. I hope they make it available to us in the US!

love the RX-8's headlights...

Nice pics of the blue 8. What's up with youe camara (halo look)

i am big fan of the winning blue RX8. to me it is very close to the 10th Anniversary Miata's blue--"innocent blue".

the titanium was very classy looking in person.

i asked to see the gauges lit up, and i like how it is white during the day, and amber/red at night. so, that LED shift knob from Japan will be a perfect match.

overall, i was pretty happy with what i saw. nothing bad comes to mind after seeing the car and sitting in it.

santino

Moonroof looks gawdy when it's up.. guess I'm keepin mine closed haha..

How does the 6's moonroof retract, does it go up like the 8 or does in slide inside the roof so you cant see it?

The 6's moonroof retracts inside.

Originally posted by RotorGeek
Nice pics of the blue 8. What's up with youe camara (halo look)

Heh, I'm still getting used to my new digital camera (i.e., it wasn't intentional). I was using a UV filter and a polarizing filter on some of the shots, and I ended up with that effect on some of the ones where I had both filters on together. :p

The results from the Irvine Rev-it-up have been posted at http://www.mazdarevitup.com/results/f_default.asp.

Unfortunately, I don't see my results posted... do the times we ran on Friday count for the actual competition? I was looking forward to seeing how I matched up with everyone else.

do the times we ran on Friday count for the actual competition? Nope, only paying drivers' times get counted nationally.

Originally posted by mp5
The results from the Irvine Rev-it-up have been posted at http://www.mazdarevitup.com/results/f_default.asp.

Do you have ANY idea how these things are scored? I saw on the results page that everyone has points, not a raw time. What has to be done to accumulate points?

Originally posted by tpryor


Do you have ANY idea how these things are scored? I saw on the results page that everyone has points, not a raw time. What has to be done to accumulate points?

The announcer guy at the event explained how the points are calculated. The formula is as follows:

1. Take your time in seconds and subtract the Pro Index time in seconds.
2. Take that result and divide it by the Pro Index time in seconds.
3. Take the cube root of that result and multiply it by 1000.
4. Subtract that result from 1000, and that's your score.

You're also assessed a 2-second penalty if you knock over a cone.

Originally posted by Toadman
Nope, only paying drivers' times get counted nationally.

:confused: :confused: , during the chalk talk, the guy said ours counted

Originally posted by tpryor
Do you have ANY idea how these things are scored? I saw on the results page that everyone has points, not a raw time.Your score is a measure of how well you did against their Pro drivers. From the FAQ (http://www.mazdarevitup.com/faqs/f_default.asp):
Getting back to the competition, does the fastest time win?
Not necessarily. Your time equals your time around the course plus any penalties assessed for hitting cones and for other infractions. Your score is a product of how close your time is to the Pro Driver Index. The winner will have the highest score after all penalties. Actually, the winner will probably have no penalties whatsoever. Speed plus control, remember?

How will you make the events fair and similar for the competitive drivers ?
Your score is a product of how close your time is to the Mazda Rev It Up™ Pro Driver Index (the Pro Driver Index is the time to beat). Match the Pro Driver Index and get 1000 points. At each event we will have the pro drivers in attendance run the course and set the time to beat - the Pro Driver Index. In fact, we plan to have them run the course and reset that time periodically throughout the day of the event.

Can someone who has attended one of the events, explain the classing structure? I see Pro, Club, Novice and Fun classes in the results - how do they decide what class you're in, and what are the implications of being in a particular class?

i uploaded my video of the rx8 revving. its nothing special but whatevers

http://www.geocities.com/tribal_azn2/myfiles/