DC Tour
05-27-2004, 09:34 AM
#1
www.TeamWTF.org
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 747
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
DC Tour
So, the SCCA's Solo II Tour is going to be in DC this weekend and it looks like three people will be driving RX-8s. Me, a guy codriving my car (who is currently listed in another car) and another guy that just bought his RX-8 and will be running on street tires.
For reference for those that will be checking the results in a few days, my car is a 6MT. Sport and Nav are the only options. I'm running 245/35-18 Hoosier A3S04s (currently 9 runs and 2 heat cycles plus an initial heat cycle from Tire Rack) on OEM 18x8 wheels. I also have prototype DA Koni Yellows installed (which I am not making full use of). I haven't changed the front sway bar as I haven't had any understeer issues that weren't directly attributable to driver error. No other modifications.
My alignment settings:
Front camber -1.4 (as much as I could get)
Caster 6.6
Front toe 0
Rear camber -1.5
Rear toe in 0.03
The car is truly faster than I am and it should be capable of running with the 00-03 S2000s. If I don't place well, it will be because of me and my less than stellar skills.
For reference for those that will be checking the results in a few days, my car is a 6MT. Sport and Nav are the only options. I'm running 245/35-18 Hoosier A3S04s (currently 9 runs and 2 heat cycles plus an initial heat cycle from Tire Rack) on OEM 18x8 wheels. I also have prototype DA Koni Yellows installed (which I am not making full use of). I haven't changed the front sway bar as I haven't had any understeer issues that weren't directly attributable to driver error. No other modifications.
My alignment settings:
Front camber -1.4 (as much as I could get)
Caster 6.6
Front toe 0
Rear camber -1.5
Rear toe in 0.03
The car is truly faster than I am and it should be capable of running with the 00-03 S2000s. If I don't place well, it will be because of me and my less than stellar skills.
05-28-2004, 07:56 PM
#3
I'd rather be auto-xing
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 86
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The "another guy that just bought his RX-8 and will be running on street tires" is me.
1280 miles on it so far. 6 runs on the 24 second practice course. The fast S2000s were running 24.2's and I was at 26.0. Since this is the first time I've autocrossed a RWD car, I have a bit of a learning curve. As long as I'm improving I'll be happy. I just hope I don't finish DFL.
My front swaybar is sitting in its box on my bedroom floor. It showed up on Thursday, an hour before hard storms. The guy I was buying my wheels from backed out, so my R compounds are sitting in the garage, begging to be used.
Oh well, I need to learn the car a bit more before I flatspot my tires anyways.
Brian
1280 miles on it so far. 6 runs on the 24 second practice course. The fast S2000s were running 24.2's and I was at 26.0. Since this is the first time I've autocrossed a RWD car, I have a bit of a learning curve. As long as I'm improving I'll be happy. I just hope I don't finish DFL.
My front swaybar is sitting in its box on my bedroom floor. It showed up on Thursday, an hour before hard storms. The guy I was buying my wheels from backed out, so my R compounds are sitting in the garage, begging to be used.
Oh well, I need to learn the car a bit more before I flatspot my tires anyways.
Brian
06-02-2004, 01:41 PM
#4
www.TeamWTF.org
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 747
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
In case anyone was waiting with baited breath 
....
Friday was kinda fun. I got there in the early afternoon and watched a little of people doing the practice course, but didn't buy any tickets to run it myself. Mostly, I just sort of hung out with people I knew and met a bunch of new people (many of them courtesy of Mark Sipe, who codrove my car at the event). In the evening, I got the wheels changed, put the car through tech and registered. Then I walked the course three times. It looked long and fast and very fun. I left my car there and got a ride home.
I got there early on Saturday and walked it a couple more times. Then there was the drivers meeting, followed by an extremely long wait for the grid sheets which should have clued us all in to how many delays we would face throughout the day. B Stock was in the first heat and I'd like to say that why I drove so sh:tty was that the tires never got up to temp, but it would be a lie. I just drove like absolute crap. Seriously, it felt like it was my worst outing in the car by far (later confirmed by my tracking spreadsheet) . I didn't come close to performing at my normal, mediocre level. It was a 64 second course and my best was a 69. Mark beat me by over two seconds and it was his first time in the car. I was 5 seconds off the BS leader, and I was surprised it wasn't more. I was just bad (and not in a Jules type "bad motherfcuker" kind of way). I sucked on my first run and only sucked a little less on the following two. The competition at the front of BS was pretty intense with just .5 seconds separating 1st and 5th (in a class of 16).
I hung my head in shame the rest of the long day. They didn't finish the sixth and final heat until after 8pm. I think they expected to be done by 5pm. I worked the fourth heat. They sent us out there and it was 30 minutes until the first car went off. Never heard what that delay was about. The walkthroughs of the Sunday course got started after dark. It was mostly the same course being run in reverse with a few changes...changes that were being made after the walkthroughs started.
Sunday morning I got to the site early and walked it pretty quickly twice. Then I sat down and drove it in my head about 20 times. Got up and walked it twice more. Aside from a short hiccup where someone forgot to change the start and finish light wires, things got off almost on time and the day ran very smoothly compared to Saturday. Our grid spot really sucked on Sunday though (same spot as Saturday). We were near the four portapotties covering all ~360 entrants + their "support" personnel and they hadn't been emptied overnight after being filled before the end of Saturday's portion of the event.
The important thing was that my driving improved a lot and I turned in a more normal mediocre performance. I was calm and relaxed and had done a better job of visualization than I had on Saturday. I was less than 3 seconds off (56 leader to my 59). Mark had some difficulty keeping it between and off the cones on Sunday so I don't have a good a comparison time. I still need to learn to drive the car.
Overall, I learned a lot. Most important...if possible, work the gate Friday morning for two hours and be done with my work assignment for the weekend. DC region autocrossers have not cornered the market on friendliness or helpfulness. It's great to see that it's something that appears to be nearly universal. Getting your *** stomped by good drivers is a good thing (at least once or twice). It was a great and eye opening experience.
So, where does it leave me with the car? I need to add some rear rebound (which I've known, but been too lazy to do). It's kind of an involved process. We tried to do it Saturday night, but as we got started dropping the right shock, we were quickly running out of light and we decided to just put it back together and do it some other time. I'm still undecided about getting the Racing Beat front sway bar, but it's looking more likely.
FWIW, Mark (if you don't know him) has been autocrossing for quite a while, is on the SEB and knows what he's doing a lot better than I do. He's currently campaigning a well prepped B Stock Z4 in the ProSolo series and running it at some Tour events. In the past few years he's also run an M Coupe and a Z06. I found his comments and insights very useful. When people asked him what he thought of it, he was nearly gushing. He had this to say on a BMW board last night:
Upon reflection, I don't think that the control arms need to be dropped to adjust the rear rebound, but my brain was too mushy at the time to realize there was another way to get to the adjustment tabs when the shock itself was unbolted.
....Friday was kinda fun. I got there in the early afternoon and watched a little of people doing the practice course, but didn't buy any tickets to run it myself. Mostly, I just sort of hung out with people I knew and met a bunch of new people (many of them courtesy of Mark Sipe, who codrove my car at the event). In the evening, I got the wheels changed, put the car through tech and registered. Then I walked the course three times. It looked long and fast and very fun. I left my car there and got a ride home.
I got there early on Saturday and walked it a couple more times. Then there was the drivers meeting, followed by an extremely long wait for the grid sheets which should have clued us all in to how many delays we would face throughout the day. B Stock was in the first heat and I'd like to say that why I drove so sh:tty was that the tires never got up to temp, but it would be a lie. I just drove like absolute crap. Seriously, it felt like it was my worst outing in the car by far (later confirmed by my tracking spreadsheet) . I didn't come close to performing at my normal, mediocre level. It was a 64 second course and my best was a 69. Mark beat me by over two seconds and it was his first time in the car. I was 5 seconds off the BS leader, and I was surprised it wasn't more. I was just bad (and not in a Jules type "bad motherfcuker" kind of way). I sucked on my first run and only sucked a little less on the following two. The competition at the front of BS was pretty intense with just .5 seconds separating 1st and 5th (in a class of 16).
I hung my head in shame the rest of the long day. They didn't finish the sixth and final heat until after 8pm. I think they expected to be done by 5pm. I worked the fourth heat. They sent us out there and it was 30 minutes until the first car went off. Never heard what that delay was about. The walkthroughs of the Sunday course got started after dark. It was mostly the same course being run in reverse with a few changes...changes that were being made after the walkthroughs started.
Sunday morning I got to the site early and walked it pretty quickly twice. Then I sat down and drove it in my head about 20 times. Got up and walked it twice more. Aside from a short hiccup where someone forgot to change the start and finish light wires, things got off almost on time and the day ran very smoothly compared to Saturday. Our grid spot really sucked on Sunday though (same spot as Saturday). We were near the four portapotties covering all ~360 entrants + their "support" personnel and they hadn't been emptied overnight after being filled before the end of Saturday's portion of the event.
The important thing was that my driving improved a lot and I turned in a more normal mediocre performance. I was calm and relaxed and had done a better job of visualization than I had on Saturday. I was less than 3 seconds off (56 leader to my 59). Mark had some difficulty keeping it between and off the cones on Sunday so I don't have a good a comparison time. I still need to learn to drive the car.
Overall, I learned a lot. Most important...if possible, work the gate Friday morning for two hours and be done with my work assignment for the weekend. DC region autocrossers have not cornered the market on friendliness or helpfulness. It's great to see that it's something that appears to be nearly universal. Getting your *** stomped by good drivers is a good thing (at least once or twice). It was a great and eye opening experience.
So, where does it leave me with the car? I need to add some rear rebound (which I've known, but been too lazy to do). It's kind of an involved process. We tried to do it Saturday night, but as we got started dropping the right shock, we were quickly running out of light and we decided to just put it back together and do it some other time. I'm still undecided about getting the Racing Beat front sway bar, but it's looking more likely.
FWIW, Mark (if you don't know him) has been autocrossing for quite a while, is on the SEB and knows what he's doing a lot better than I do. He's currently campaigning a well prepped B Stock Z4 in the ProSolo series and running it at some Tour events. In the past few years he's also run an M Coupe and a Z06. I found his comments and insights very useful. When people asked him what he thought of it, he was nearly gushing. He had this to say on a BMW board last night:
actually the car has a lot of oversteer and when pushed hard in the slaloms it would get a little crazy or being the first driver out on cold rear tires 
we dialed a lot of it out with air pressures, but really needed to change the rear shock settings. We tried to do this Sat evening, but discovered it was going to require dropping the rear control arms and it was quickly getting dark so that didn't happen. My Sun. raw times don't show the cars potential as tires were cold on the first run, on my 2nd run I was absolutely blitzing and even made it past the slalom that caught me on my later runs when a downed cone was right in the middle of the line so I had no option but to stop for a rerun 
, then on my rerun I coasted a ways after getting sideways and hitting the slalom pylon, did the same thing on my 3rd run but coasted past the next slalom cone so DNF. IMO Clyde's RX8 was easily capable of a 57 sec run on Sunday's course, I just didn't get the job done 
All the cones I hit Sat were also getting crossed up in the slaloms, and even on my last run just slowing down to get through clean rather than hitting cones and coasting resulted in a clean but faster time.
All in all, the RX8 is perhaps the most fun Stock class car I've ever driven. I love the handling even with the off-throttle oversteer which only requires some driver adaptation and suspension tuning. It's a monster in the sweepers, OMG if only my BMW would hang like that with the throttle planted all the way around
we dialed a lot of it out with air pressures, but really needed to change the rear shock settings. We tried to do this Sat evening, but discovered it was going to require dropping the rear control arms and it was quickly getting dark so that didn't happen. My Sun. raw times don't show the cars potential as tires were cold on the first run, on my 2nd run I was absolutely blitzing and even made it past the slalom that caught me on my later runs when a downed cone was right in the middle of the line so I had no option but to stop for a rerun , then on my rerun I coasted a ways after getting sideways and hitting the slalom pylon, did the same thing on my 3rd run but coasted past the next slalom cone so DNF. IMO Clyde's RX8 was easily capable of a 57 sec run on Sunday's course, I just didn't get the job done All the cones I hit Sat were also getting crossed up in the slaloms, and even on my last run just slowing down to get through clean rather than hitting cones and coasting resulted in a clean but faster time.All in all, the RX8 is perhaps the most fun Stock class car I've ever driven. I love the handling even with the off-throttle oversteer which only requires some driver adaptation and suspension tuning. It's a monster in the sweepers, OMG if only my BMW would hang like that with the throttle planted all the way around
Last edited by clyde; 06-02-2004 at 01:43 PM.
06-03-2004, 04:25 PM
#5
Registered
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Biggest Little City
Posts: 197
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks for sharing. Saturday must've been exhausting.
I thought about Mark's comment you included, 'All the cones I hit Sat were also getting crossed up in the slaloms, and even on my last run just slowing down to get through clean rather than hitting cones and coasting resulted in a clean but faster time'; I'll have to remember that at my next event. I had only 1 clean run each day this past weekend in Hawthorne. I started wondering if I was hitting cones with the back of the car because I'm misjudging how wide it is in the rear.
Were you satisfied with your alignment settings?
I thought about Mark's comment you included, 'All the cones I hit Sat were also getting crossed up in the slaloms, and even on my last run just slowing down to get through clean rather than hitting cones and coasting resulted in a clean but faster time'; I'll have to remember that at my next event. I had only 1 clean run each day this past weekend in Hawthorne. I started wondering if I was hitting cones with the back of the car because I'm misjudging how wide it is in the rear.
Were you satisfied with your alignment settings?
06-05-2004, 07:22 PM
#6
www.TeamWTF.org
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 747
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm happy enough with the alignment for now, although I wouldn't mind adding a touch of toe out up front.
From what I saw (which was only about 1/3 of the course because of hills), Mark was hitting cones because he had some trouble adjusting his slalom technique to the car and was smacking them in the rear because he was too sideways.
From what I saw (which was only about 1/3 of the course because of hills), Mark was hitting cones because he had some trouble adjusting his slalom technique to the car and was smacking them in the rear because he was too sideways.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
CMRine04
Series I Wheels, Tires, Brakes & Suspension
5
09-17-2015 10:04 AM
dweezil22
NE For Sale/Wanted
12
09-09-2015 10:50 AM
akagc
RX-8's For Sale/Wanted
7
08-11-2015 07:07 PM