Here's some information on the autocross schedule for May.

May 7th, SCCA at Texas Motor Speedway Bus Lot
http://autocross.com/texasregion/

May 28th, ER at Pennington Field - Bedford, TX
http://www.autocross.com/er/c.htm

I plan on attending both events in May, and hope to see some other 8s out there as well :)

-hS

If I'm in town, I may come out, just to watch.

JG,
That would be cool. Pennington Field is not too far from you, and you can come watch us smoke the RX-7s... HAHAHA!!! jk

Oh, and this next race will probably decide if i'm getting a vented hood or not. At the last one the temps reached up to 107 degrees C... a little hotter than i would like.

-hS

I would really like to go, but this sunday thing is not cool. :(

We'll have to see.
________
WEB SHOWS (http://livesexwebshows.com/)

BMW and S2000 clubs race on Saturdays, and that is open to everyone as well. The problem is they only race at mineral wells which is FAR and the surface s*cks.

For Sunday its SCCA, ER, and PCA

I plan on attending both events in May, and hope to see some other 8s out there as well :)

I will NOT be able to make it to the May 7th event - I will be otherwise occupied.

I DO, however, plan to attend the ER event on May 28th. I got my front Koni sports today - the rears should be here tomorrow so I have my weekend planned.

I will NOT be able to make it to the May 7th event - I will be otherwise occupied.

I DO, however, plan to attend the ER event on May 28th. I got my front Koni sports today - the rears should be here tomorrow so I have my weekend planned.Sounds good. I'm gonna do my brake pads this weekend.
:)

Oh, and I was looking on the SCCA site. Looks like a lot of people use the same numbers, but its not an issue since they are in different classes. I am sure ER is the same way. Looks like we should be good with the Number 8s.
On, a similar note... my friends are hell bent on making me a Dale Jr. decal to match the 8 magnet.
If they get that on the car... its gonna get bloody.

-hS

Cool. Do you have the rear caliper piston retracting tool?

Nope, but two of my friends both work at local shops... i may just borrow it from them.
If you want to get together and do this.. let me know.

-hS

Ok, apparently ER follows SCCA rules. In that case we will still run in the same classes we do for SCCA.

I would be in BSP and I think you're in BM. Since numbers are done by class it won't matter that we have the same numbers since we're in different classes.

I don't have the piston retrator tool - I just wanted to give you a heads up before you got the calipers off and couldn't get them back on.

Yup, ER is essentially SCCA but with less drivers, and an interesting scoring system that tries to create a level ground for people in different classes.
Oh, and im in SM.

Yup, i new about the tool. A regular c-clamp should get the job done.

Thanks,
-hS

Yup, i new about the tool. A regular c-clamp should get the job done.

That will work on the fronts. The rear pistons must be rotated to retract them. They have a "keyed" face for the tool to fit into so it can turn it.

Ahh ic ic.. thanks for the heads up.

In preparation for the may races... I present this weekend's project.

Koni Sports and Tein S.Techs on all four corners. Should be a fairly solid ride.

http://www.rx8club.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=75880

I decided to prepare in a different manner...

http://www.rx8club.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=75907&stc=1

-hS

(oh and im still doing my brakes this sunday)

Mineral Wells is an awesome sight, I love that surface, if the car is setup properly you can kick some serious @ss

There is an SCCA Pro Solo national-level event a Minerals Wells on the May 21 weekend

Pro Solo sounds like a lot of fun... but i dont know if i can make another trip out to mineral wells again.
If I didn't go last weekend, I would probably go to the May 21st race.

BTW, you are the first person I have ever heard say they actually like the surface at mineral wells. HA!

-hS

Yo TheMightyRed... i got the brake pads in. Where you at?

:)

-hS

Yo TheMightyRed... i got the brake pads in. Where you at?

I was having some serious "fun" of my own. S.Techs and Konis all around. What a pain!

On the plus side, it's a completely different car. A little on the firm (bumpy) side but there is a definite increase in road feedback and a decrease in the car's response time. Just feels tighter and more responsive.

Also, wheel hop and squat is seriously decreased under heavy acceleration and braking. I feel a lot more "hooked up" to the road.

I need to get it out on the track and see how much better, if any, it REALLY is now.

Excellent. Glad to hear your liking the new suspension setup. Come on out this Sunday and take it for a spin at TMS :)

-hS

I would love to but my wife "accidentally" scheduled a huge party/barbecue at our house this sunday. Going to be like 20+ people there. I will not be able to race that day.

Kind of a bummer because I would like to go but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Next ER event.. I will be there.

Yo TheMightyRed... i got the brake pads in. Where you at?

Install your pads yet? I'd offer to help but this week / weekend is not (will not be) good for me.

Yup, got the pads in on Sunday. That rear piston wasn't so hard... just used a set of needle nose pliers and elbow grease.

Saw this posted on the RX7club forum, and thought I would share it here.
http://autocross.com/tr/2006school.shtml

For $50 you get to attend the Autocross Novice level driving school on Saturday, and Race on Sunday. The race in itself would have been $30. This is extremely cheap for an autocross school.

I'm thinking about doing it. Anyone else?
Registration deadline seems to be today, but I won't know if I can attend or not until tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I can call in and have an exception made :)

-hS

That rear piston wasn't so hard... just used a set of needle nose pliers..

That's the other way to do it. Easier with the tool but can also be done that way when you're in a pinch. I've had to do it myself that way as well. It isn't pretty but it works.

As for the autocross school - I will using Saturday to prepare for Sunday's house party.

But I am itching for a race - bad. I have my new suspension setup and the car just begs to be thrown around every turn. I will definately be at the next ER event.

I'm gonna have to miss Saturday's school as well. Sucks, but if I knew earlier I would have been all over it.

I'll let you know how it goes this Sunday.

-hS

http://www.dlbracing.com/Clubs/drivers.aspx?EventID=1973

Looks like there are 9 Rotarys Registered... including 4 RX-8s. This should be fun.
:)

-hS

I'm out of town this weekend

looks like I'll debut the STU project at the BMW CCA event on Saturday May 13 at Pennington Field

BMW is coming to pennington field? I thought all their races were at Mineral Wells.
If i knew this I would have skipped SCCA this week, and done BMW instead.

DANG IT!!!

-hS

apparently you can afford to do both now ... :D:

http://www.lscbmwcca.org/autocross-schedule.html

If you see another one of those deals I'd be interested, but not immediately. With enough advance notice I might be able to do something like that.
________
MastersPassion cam (http://camslivesexy.com/cam/MastersPassion)

apparently you can afford to do both now ... :D:

http://www.lscbmwcca.org/autocross-schedule.htmlHow many runs do you usually get at the BMW autocrosses?

-hS

Awesome.

BMW on May 13th at Pennington
ER on May 28th Pennington

I will do my best to make it to both.

Looks like there are 9 Rotarys Registered... including 4 RX-8s. This should be fun.

I see three so far. The Blue RX in BS is a husband/wife team. Then there's the red one in STU (he has those Enkeis I want) and you (Harry) in SM.

There may also be a yellow one showing up too.

I'd be curious to see how you and your turbo car on street tires compare the the Blue Stock RX on V710s. More power versus more grip. Should make an interesting article.

I guess I'll see you May 13th - perhaps?

I counted the husband/wife team as 2 :)

I'll look into the BMW race to try and track home many runs they've been getting so far this year at their races... then again its almost gauranteed to be more than SCCA so i shouldn't complain about that.

If i were taking autocross more competitively i'd want to have better grip versus more power. I think they definetely have an advantage in that sense. Then again.. these Falkens aren't slicks... but they grip REALLY WELL.

In the end it'll probably come down to who's the better driver.. in which case i'm almost gauranteed to lose.

BTW, I know that white STi in SM class fairly well. That car is a beast.. and driver is good enough to extract it as well. It's going to be a massacre :(
Oh, and one of my friends who's a photographer and works for HotSubarus.com will be there taking pics. So we should have some good photos up later the next week.

-hS

I

Am

So

F*cking

Tired.........

But other than that the race went really well today. It was run very smoothly, and I had a lot of fun. I got out of their by 2pm... which is a new record for me, and this is with 100+ drivers. The weather was excellent, a little on the cold side, but by the time the track and tires warmed up the grip seemed to be much better.
Overall my times were nothing impressive, but i'm edging closer to a few friends of mine that I am using as a benchmark, so that was very encouraging. The car held up great, so no complaints there at all.

One big thing i'm happy with is that this time I was able to read the course really well, and after my first slow run... i had it down.

It was good to meet up with the 7/8 owners... always great to see yall again.

Now I can't wait for the next race at Pennington Field. Only 3 weeks away.

-hS

PS: I'll post pics from the race later this week.

How many runs do you usually get at the BMW autocrosses?

-hS


typically 8 runs, broken up into two groups of four

Hmm, very tempting... but i can't make it out this weekend. Have some religious stuff on Sunday that i need to attend.

I'll keep checking in on the BMW events though. I've heard good things about the night race. Might have to make another trip out to Mineral Wells this year for that.

-hS

Glad to hear you had fun. Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

I'll be racing with BMW this weekend at Pennington. Too bad you will miss it.

Perhaps I will catch up with you at the next Equipe Rapide Event on the 28th.

I was talking to some of the drivers at SCCA, and a lot of them were looking forward to BMW at Penn Field next week. Sounds like its going to be a lot of fun.

I'll be at Penn Field with Equipe Rapide on the 28th.. most definetely :)

-hS

Here's one pic from Sunday. I should get a few more from the photographer sometime this week.

I'll be at TWS with the fam on the weekend of June 10th, wanna make a drive to college station?

I just registered for the BMW AutoCross. Only 34 registrants so far and I'm the only RX8 so far. I'm all psyched up for this. Should be great!

Come on.. 8s gotta represent - get over there and sign up!

http://www.dlbracing.com/default.aspx?view=1

I just registered for the BMW AutoCross. Only 34 registrants so far and I'm the only RX8 so far. I'm all psyched up for this. Should be great!

Come on.. 8s gotta represent - get over there and sign up!

http://www.dlbracing.com/default.aspx?view=1

Aww. I do the PCA/BMWCCA autocrosses in Houston all summer and I've never seen another 8 out their either, just some FD's.

I just registered for the BMW AutoCross. Only 34 registrants so far and I'm the only RX8 so far. I'm all psyched up for this. Should be great!

Come on.. 8s gotta represent - get over there and sign up!

http://www.dlbracing.com/default.aspx?view=1



Nice meeting you today :wavey: as well as Jason (didn't get his forum name)




.

In the end it'll probably come down to who's the better driver.. in which case i'm almost gauranteed to lose.The results from the SCCA Race at TMS has been posted.
http://autocross.com/tr/tr306.shtml

Jason smoked the rest of the 8s (no suprise there), but i'm stil very happy with my results. Can't wait till the next race on the 28th

Nice meeting you today :wavey: as well as Jason (didn't get his forum name).I think Jason's forum name is "McCall"
(http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=88272)

So how did it go today? TeamRX8, how did your car hold up?
I wish I could of been there, but I'll have to wait a few more weeks until the next event.

-hS

no, that's a different RX-8 owner, maybe I goofed his name, he was driving a yellow RX-8 with appearance package, he did a damn good driving job too, his first time out on Koni's with Kumho V710 tires

I'm still adjusting to the street tires, but the car screams ...

HAHA, street tires... welcome to my world. My current street tires are an upgrade for me, so the adjustment process has been wonderful.
Are you going to be at Penn Field with ER on the 28th?

BTW, i think breaking down the Races in seperate monthly threads has been working well. We should keep this going for the rest of the season.

-hS

he was driving a yellow RX-8 with appearance package, he did a damn good driving job too, his first time out on Koni's with Kumho V710 tires

That was Jon. He's been autocrossing for a few years but only recently with the 8. He is a good driver and makes it look easy. Nice guy too!

His new 245 V710s made the car an amazing ride. Completely different feel than mine.

By the way - Equipe Rapide at Pennington on the 28th! See you there.

Question - how do you register online?

Good question.
I thought it would be on that same DLBRacing.com site, but i can't find the event on the calendar.

:dunno:

the ER events aren't listed there for some reason, not sure what's up with that :dunno:

http://www.autocross.com/er/about.htm




.

I went to the ER website but I still dont' see a way to register. I hate the thoughts of showing up that morning to register just to get turned down because registration is already full.

I just spoke to the ER rep; if you didn't prepay for the entire series by April you have to show up and register at each event. You will not be turned away if you arrive and register on time, there is no limit.

Ahh... good to know. Thanks for the info.
I am usually there 1 1/2 - 2 hours before the drivers meeting, so this shouldnt be a problem.

Looks like i'm out of the next race (May 28th at Pennington Field)

Here's why...
http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=90547
The damage is easy to fix, but this is just making things too tight at the moment.

Well, i'll return June 11th to the PCA race at Penn Field. See ya'll there.

-hS

Looks like i'm out of the next race (May 28th at Pennington Field)

Unbelievable. Will we ever end up at the same event at the same time?

actually, now that i've had time to sleep on it... i think replacing this hose will be pretty simple and i'll do it on saturday.

my friends are still going to the race, so if things feel right, i'll come out as well

ZOOM ZOOM

-hS

actually, now that i've had time to sleep on it... i think replacing this hose will be pretty simple and i'll do it on saturday.

No kidding! It looks like the hose is held on by a hose clamp at each end. Couldn't be easier!

You'll probably need a few quarts of oil to replace whatever comes flowing out when you take the hose off.

See you Sunday. Be prepared for a demonstration of mad skillz... on hard tires :D:

you got new tires?
WHAT YOU GET???

"Demonstration of skills" <-- LOL, i can't wait to see this.

No, I wish! Nothing would make me happier than to report I have some great tires and wheels. Unfortunately, They are the same ones. I've just determined that the rubber is too hard.

I don't know too much about these sort of things but... I found an open parking lot to practice a few sharp turns to see if I could "dial it in" a bit more. I set the front shocks to full soft to see if I could reuce my understeer problem.

The front end had no bite and was skipping out bad. Not just sliding or pushing - skipping. I romped it hard and spun the rear around - the tires left NO marks on the concrete.

So between the front skipping, the rear dancing, and lack of tread marks after "laying it down," I've concluded these tires are just too damn hard. They have no bite. No grip. No hold.

So, that's my story.

The skills I was refering to is keeping this beast inline around the cones while riding on "steel rimmed wagon wheels".. I think I've figured it out and can make decent time.

I can guarantee I will NOT be first but I'd put a :beer05: on it that I won't be last either! At BMW I got 6th place out of 8 in my class - just a fraction faster than a 350Z that came in 7th.

Heck yeah that's worth bragging about - with my tires! Mad Skillz I'm tellin ya.. :lol:

Sunday is going to be so much fun!

HAHA, i have totally got to come out to see the "steel rimme wagon wheels". You may want to let one of the National Pros there co-drive your car to see if they can diagnose the car.

The hop makes sense from making the shocks too soft. Harden them up again (not all the way), and keep it even between front/rear. Run 33 Psi on all 4 tires, and use this as a baseline for sunday. This is my suggestion, and we can then inflate/deflate your tires based on how your runs go while at grid.

-hS

Front end was hopping when the fronts were 50%. Since I considered that understeer, I reduced the front shocks to counter. It didn't really make any difference. (edit - oops, I actually turned them the wrong way and made the rebound full stiff).

I have a few theories and I have put them i nthe order I think is most likely. Looks like I have my work cut out for me.

1) Maybe the tire pressure is too high. I was getting tire roll so I cranked it up to about 42 and now they're hopping. I'm going to drop them down.

2) Front rebound set too high. I'm going to try setting it full soft and go from there.

3) Alignment may be off. I've gone 24K miles and no alignment - I should get this done.

4) Tires may be too hard - maybe not.

5) S.Tech springs may be too stiff.

I think I have it worked out now. I'm ready. Did some shock rebound adjustments and changed tires pressures around a bit. I've got it right where I want it - for now (I think).

Of course I won't REALLY know until this weekend - but it feels better than it has in a while.

Excellent,
Sounds like your learning a lot this season. Good Job.

See you on Sunday.

looks like I'm relocating to Reno, NV for my current employer so you won't have me around to beat up on much longer ...

Awww, really? Well... i'll have to see you at a few more events before you leave.
When are you relocating?

-hS

Well.. I hope it is a good thing for you. It must be if you're willing to go. Good luck and all.

Will you be at ER this weekend? I wanted to see if I can close in on your time. Surely I can do better than 6.7 off.

Just got back home, and the event went really well. I didn't run the PAX classes so i only had 4 runs, instead of the extra 2.
Once again the car performed excellently. I turned it up to full boost (12lbs), and it was SCREAMING!! The new brakes are helping as well, and are giving my wheels a nice orange coating of powder.
I found a few areas i need to practice on, and may set up some cones around here to give it a try.

Good to see everyone out there again. Now its time for June!!!

-hS

Yeah - I had a great old time myself. I think I'm starting to get things dialed in a bit. I raced in STU - my humble RX8 against four STIs. I beat one of them and got 4th so I can't be too disappointed. I wasn't that far off from 3rd but sometimes trimming off that last second can be tough especially when you're still a rookie like myself.

I got to see BigO's mean turbo - it was screaming! I made a little video of the blow-off in action with my camera phone. It's just a camera phone video so don't expect much. But here it is.

http://www.reddragonproductions.com/BigOLundh/BigOLundhTurbo.3gp

I think you'll need quicktime to view it.

By the way, that "new" turbo kit I was telling you about was Protech. There's an article on it in the July '06 edition of Car and Driver. Thread below.

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=90654

Dude, thanks for the clip... that was bada*ss