NRVOUS

Whos attending the Advanced Driving day out at eastern creek on wed 22nd, the skid pan and circuit will be part of the days events with some laps of the creek in the afternoon. For those of you who have never had your Rx8 on a race track, this is a great opportunity to get to know the limits of adhesion.

I recieved a faxed invite today and look forward to a day of screaming rotors

takahashi

Enjoy.

In our part of the OZland, I think myself, lexic and dracoMJB are going to Sandown on the 3rd Oct. Will be fun seeing all the RX-8 there!

Received the letter from Murcott - 830 start on a Sunday!

lexic

I am a bit scared now Taka, after going and watching the V8's there on Sunday. (Took the RX8 up for a drive). Everyone who went off the black stuff had to be towed back on!! Ah well looks like I will have to take the 4th off of work to wash the 8.

takahashi

black stuff, you mean the 1st turn. Only when it is wet and muddy lexic.

Go closer on that day, you will be amazed how wide 1st turn is.

I have a meet up plan at a petrol station & Maccas Prior
Check out the Victorian rx8club.au site
https://www.rx8club.com.au/forum/vie...113&highlight=

snoo

I'll be there NRVOUS, should be a fun day. What exactly do they mean by 'mildly competitive' racing in the afternoon, hmmm?

NRVOUS

Awsome Snoo, looks like there should be at least 10-15 RX8's, I know Gibbo should be going as well.
I will be giving the 8 a lube change day before, and do a Dyno Power Run, before I venture into any mods.
I will document changes as they occur, this will be an interesting exercise leading up to the East Coast Targa Rally, where there is only 2 RX8's in a field of 120.
Check out www.eastcoasttarga.com.au
There is a black one from Bathurst John Davis Mazda with a full Hi-Tech exhaust including hi-flow cat.....sounded nice, dont know about the power gains,there was talk of 17kw gains which seems excessive according to some previous threads.

I'm considering a Racing Beat system(proven quality & performance by reputable company) and then do the Hi-flow cat locally. :D :D

Gibbo

Yep I will definately be there.

Sorry bout cutting you off on the phone NRVOUS, I was still in Singapore and just arrived at a meeting.

See you on Wednesday.

NRVOUS

Well Guys

Today was RX8 Mecca with the day unfolding with some spirited laps of Eastern Creek. Gibbo had some incar action with his first camera man forgetting to take the lens cap off from all the excitment, but I'll let him tell the story. Some fast talking from Gibbo scored us a few extra laps to make sure we got some fun footage of the RX8's tail squirming through the twisities!

Here are some pics, Gibbo should have a few more to post, maybe even some video footage!

takahashi

Re quote: ROFL :D :D :D :D
Nice pics all these 8s.

I must bring my camera there

BTW NRVOUS and Gibbo, what is your opinion of the program and your point of view of the RX-8 in Eastern Creek

Thanks

Gibbo

I just want to say that the 8 on a track is mind blowing, peaked down the straight at 195km/h, however the corners were where the 8 came into it's own.
I wont try to put it in words because I could never do it justice.

Taka, the morning of the course was a little slow, 45minutes of talking and welcoming. From there we did about 8 laps of familiarisation with the track (with and without the instructors), then we did 70, 80 90, 100, 110 and 120km/h braking, then slalom through witches hats. From there we headed up and did some high speed cornering and power down stuff to demonstrate the effect of DSC. We then progressed on to ABS braking through corners, once that was out of the way we had lunch.

Then the day got awesome. Out on to the track with helmets, no speed limit as fast as you want to drive. We did this for about 2 hours. The problem both NRVOUS and I experienced was that under high speed hard working the car we would get surging down the straights. I still had half a tank of gas but it felt as though the car was out of gas. If this happens to anyone, pull into the pits and open your fuel cap, the pressure build up is enormous, we ended up filling up with petrol only to find it spraying petrol back at us as the pressure escaped, so it turned out to be pressure and not low fuel.

Now here is where the story gets amusing, we were told to finish up on the track, well needless to say NRVOUS and I managed to convince the instructors that we had to do a couple of final laps to catch on video tape. So I grabbed a guy from the group to sit in the passenger seat and film with my camera. I showed him how to use it and handed it over before we got in the car. Well at the end of 3 hot laps we got out pretty chuffed because I thought we had some brilliant footage of me leading and then folling NRVOUS on some very fast laps, however when I got out and played the footage it was sound and a black picture. The lens cap had been left on the camera. I was shattered, so after some quick talking I managed to cnvince the instructors that we needed to do it again. I double checked the camera, set it up for wide view with passive focus. Off we went set for a couple more brilliant laps. Everything was fantastic and I thought we would have some brilliant footage, NOPE! The zoom was accidently used and I got 3 laps of blurred images with nothing usable at all. I don't blame the camera man at all becuase it would have been very difficult to keep your wits at these speeds under acceleration and braking, however needless to say, the hot footage that I thought I had....is well non existent.

I could have cried, however I then realised that it gives me the best excuse to go out and do it again.

So stay tuned I will have some hot lap action very soon, am getting a camera rig set up in the car to give a left shoulder view.

takahashi

Hahah ROFL :D

Great review and sounds like you have so much fun with your 8. It is good to see.
It is all the excitement that you try to catch a video footage and disappointed when you actually didn't. But hey the memory of driving your beloved car on the track will stay in your memory . It is priceless.

For your prize - I post this link of a video I took off my Sony digicam at Sandown. It was really wet but will show the good track of Sandown.
http://www.step-hen.com/rx8/files/sandown.avi

I will bring my DV Oct 3 and asked for more laps

NRVOUS

Taka,

You've got some fantastic in car footage mate, what camera are you using and how have you got it setup in the RX8.
I have entered in the East Coast Targa Rally www.eastcoasttarga.com.au and this would be great if I can capture some footage of each stage during the event.

As for the Mazda Advanced day, Gibbo has pretty much summed it up nicely, the only dissappointed was that half of Eastern Creek was used, unfortunately for first timers they did not get to experience the twisty back section of Eastern Creek which is where all the fun starts. Overall great day and a perfect opportunity to meet more RX8 enthusiasts.

Gibbo I cant believe the Zoom was out of wack, first the lens cap, then the Zoom.... Looks like youll have to get it sorted for a Puty Road Cruise.
I believe we have some cool footage on video from one of the guys who was filming through out the whole day, I am told that the footage will be edited with music and formatted onto DVD.

takahashi

NRVOUS,

It is a backyard job - easy. Find yourself a smallish camera - nowadays MiniDV and my Sony Cybershot DSC-P10 is great. P10 can take MPEG up to 640x480 (so near DV size) in 2000kps. 250Mb will only take 11 minutes of footage :p

In terms of mounting. I have a normal compact tripod that you can buy in camera shop. Get a strudy but compact one (I believe a traveller's one). Stick it at the back seat box (the one between the rear seats. Then duct type them down :p. Told you it is a backyard job :D. Better to use DV next time as I cannot afford to lose time downloading video to my computer and there is a remote to turn the thing on and off too.

Hymee has a mount that goes across the rotary sign of the front seat - a Hymee homemade product which will bring the camera futher up. But this may not show the tranny action. I am thinking purchasing a stickypod (www.stickypod.com) and stick it to the rear window.

NRVOUS

TAKA,

Nothing beats a little home grown ingenuity!

Mate on a different note and I should probably start a new thread on this but...... Have you actually had your car on a Dyno, I'm hearing some interesting stories about not being able to get accurate readings at the back wheels due to ECU interference that does not pick up any movement of the front wheels? Sounds crazy but can anyone comment on their experience or offer any advise on power run figures on a stock RX8, does the DSC have any effect?

Maybe Hymee could also answer this as he has quoted rear wheel power gains with exhaust mods.

takahashi

Hymee has talked about this a long time ago. Search the thread in this Australian forum. I don't understand it and when the time comes I will ask Hymee for advice.

skc

Gibbo

Seems like it was a great outing. Good to see so such a good turnout. I might check with my dealer reguarding the Brisbane event as I did not recieve anything in the mail.

Two hours of real track time sounds exciting.

skc