RX-7/RX-8 Track Day at Motorsport Ranch
 

The Dallas/Ft. Worth RX-7 Club is holding a half-day open track event at Motorsport Ranch, south of Ft. Worth on November 1st. This will be a rotary-only event! It will start at 1:00pm and run until approximately 6:00pm. Cost will be $95. See www.dfw-rx7.com/events/trackdays/Nov2003/ for details and registration.

Tim Schuh
President
D/FW RX-7 Club

Wow, 1.7 mile, 11 turn road course, fair for rx8 :D

rotary only.

Scared of the miatas? :D j/k

It'd be an interesting matchup, but I think the straights and the speeds you can carry through Little Bend and Big Bend in particular, would probably give the RX-8 the edge. There's just not enough in Corkscrew / Wagon Wheel to give the Miata a break.

MSR's a fun track - I'd love to get the RX-8 out there, but my November track time is already planned for TWS later in the month.

Naw, even the turbocharged Miata's aren't much of a threat to the turbo RX-7's. :)

I'll be driving my 84 RX-7, my wife drive's the 93 on the track since I drive it to work every day. I usually pass her after four or five laps but I guess some DOT race tires and 1.5g laterally help just a wee bit. :D

Tim Schuh
President
D/FW RX-7 Club

I just looked at the registration. I'm actually disappointed that no RX-8's have been registered yet. Hopefully that will change soon. <hint hint>

ts

Forgive me but...
 

A few questions:

After the classroom stuff, do we all pile on to the track and start going at our leisure?

Any history of crashes (wife's question not mine).

Racing each other? The clock?

Is there a gas station/pump on site?

Can anyone ride with the driver? (making home movies!)

Will the RX-7 group make fun of my lack of driving and shifting skills?

--DeBug

I just did this same half-day with the local Z club a couple of weeks back. The format is:

Class
Lead/Follow
Class
Lead/Follow
Class
Session 1
Session 2

This is a BAD event for experienced drivers in that you find out what it's like to be a member of MSR. We had 17 people show up and they split us into two groups. Only 10 cars were on the track in my two sessions. Why is this bad? Because if you're an MSR veteran, you can go BALLS OUT with plenty of open track and easy passes. I overheated 1200 degree pads because I was pushing a little too much and braking WAY late at the entry to Rattlesnake. ;)

I want a membership now. 100+ car DEs are no longer cool after getting a taste of open track.

Have fun!

Re: Forgive me but...
 

See my post for other info.

There has never in the history of MSR been any car-to-car contact during any type of Driver's education event. You're not racing. There are no lap timers for the DEs. Passing for these small club days is only allowed on the front straight between Big Bend and Rattlesnake (T11 and T1) and on the straight between Ricochet and Little Bend (T5 and T6).

Get gas in Granbury or Cresson before you hit the track.

Passengers can ride along in the Lead/Follow sessions.

I'm signed up...


I did the event last July withe the Rx7 group and it all went very smoothly.

Just keep in mind that the basis of this is a "drivers event" and not a "racing" day.. They split the groups into novice & experianced groups and you run with those groups accordingly.

Rides have been alowed previously during the lead/follwo laps only. (these are a whole lot quicker than you'd think)

Normal pump gas is available about a mile up the road, and various grades of race gas are available trackside, assuming Bobby Archer's shop is open that afternoon.

I do not know of any history of crashes at driver education events, but it's no different than street driving, things do happen. Check with your insurance, but since this is not technically a timed "racing" event then you should be alright in case the worst woudl happen.

And I promise that us Rx7 guys won't make fun of you all more than we'll make fun of the rest of us... I'll probably have the least powerful car out there in fact..

In my experience, most RX-7 guys don't know how to shift either. :) I've been doing heel-toe downshifts for over 10 years and only driving competetively at autocrosses for the last five years. I have netted 4 championships in that time so I'm probably not the best benchmark driver to use for comparison.

My boss probably is. He's owned his 93 RX-7 for about two years and it's only his second manual car. He has a hard time grasping the concept of a heel-toe downshift so I encourage him to avoid them until he is comfortable doing the three-pedal dance.

I had the fortune of instructing a lovely young lady from Houston in her 450+HP Supra at the last RX-7 club DE. She didn't do heel-toe downshifts, race short shifts, power shifts or any other fancy thing. She just drove smoothly and learned a lot about how her car behaves. That's what these things are really about. It's always better to learn about your car BEFORE you need to exercise that knowledge in an emergency situation on the street. I don't know how many times that knowledge has saved my hide but it's a LOT.

Any ideas as to how long it would take to get there from San Antonio? I'm thinking about going up there w/ my 8 (it should be broken in by then...) . I don't need to do anything special to the car since it's not "racing", right?

And BTW: This is my first manual trans....

It's about a five hour drive with wife and infant. I'd guess about 4 hours in an RX-8. :)

Any RX-8 drivers planning to attend? I was planning to attend a Driver's Edge event first (I have zero experience), but I believe the only one before Nov 1st is already sold out. I'd like to get some instructor time before trying to tackle the course by myself :)

What's Driver's Edge (you can probably tell I've never been to one either!)?

The Driver's Edge is a group of guys who run alot of track events during the year within range of the DFW area (Hallet, TMS, TWS, Motorsport Ranch, etc.). I highly recommend them for first timers. There also isn't any "marque" politics in there (unlike some Porsche club events, for example).

---jps