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I was over at David Whitener’s shop the other day just before he left for Las Vegas. I think an RX8 will have a very hard time keeping up with him, along with the other top twin drivers.
He laid down strong times in Beeville with 3rd in the Challenge, and appears to have just finished on top today out at LV. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, but my expectation is for him to motor on for the win and top of the index finish.
edit: eating my own words with a side helping of crow, congrats to Manfred Reysser for taking the STX win at the 2024 LV Pro Solo event. Good job!
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as fast as Whitener is... I have Jon Caserta, James Tatad, Darian Taggart, etc etc. locally to compare to so I'll be able to benchmark myself and the RX-8 fairly quickly. The big thing is the RX-8's struggles getting going out of slow corners. If it's below ~35 mph the twins have a pretty big advantage in accel. After that the RX-8 pulls away a bit. Proven on data time and time again locally when I had the RX-8. It would even run with STR NDs on accel... above 35 mph haha.
The twins can also run in the 2500s on weight, I definitely can't get our S2 down to that weight.
As the shameful RX8 driver the excuse I have is that this is the first time the car has been sorted out and problem free in years - as a result I way, way, waaaay underdrove the car. We'll see how next week works out.
Definitely curious what you think of the new setup!
as fast as Whitener is... I have Jon Caserta, James Tatad, Darian Taggart, etc etc. locally to compare to so I'll be able to benchmark myself and the RX-8 fairly quickly. The big thing is the RX-8's struggles getting going out of slow corners. If it's below ~35 mph the twins have a pretty big advantage in accel. After that the RX-8 pulls away a bit. Proven on data time and time again locally when I had the RX-8. It would even run with STR NDs on accel... above 35 mph haha.
The twins can also run in the 2500s on weight, I definitely can't get our S2 down to that weight.
From all the old B stock and C stock videos I've seen of the S1 RX8s, the top drivers didn't hesitate dumping into 1st for those corners. It's something I should have done this weekend.
Definitely curious what you think of the new setup!
Now that I don't have front roll rates going to infinity randomly, the grip level is pretty astonishing. Hard shaking off what happened at Nats where every run was a safety run because I had no idea what the car would do - now it just does what you ask.
From all the old B stock and C stock videos I've seen of the S1 RX8s, the top drivers didn't hesitate dumping into 1st for those corners. It's something I should have done this weekend.
yeah... I love shifting but not so much down to first. Feels so bad for the car, but if needs be...
Originally Posted by RE-Vision
Now that I don't have front roll rates going to infinity randomly, the grip level is pretty astonishing. Hard shaking off what happened at Nats where every run was a safety run because I had no idea what the car would do - now it just does what you ask.
Funny how that works, haha. Had a bound up front swaybar much of 2021 and similar issues trusting the front end to work.
I don't see why the S2 couldn't do it - the gearing is nice for slower corners and it doesn't weigh that much more when you get them both race ready. Steve and I have discussed building a S2 STX car, but I think he's too deep into Hoosier territory to ever actually go back to street tires.
Also, I will gently remind everyone that the class composition hasn't changed in 5+ years. Same cars, better tires, arguably the drivers are just as good. It's still a driver's battle in STX for me.
well clearly there some unique conditions going on the one day, I’ve yet to see an S2 be comparable to an S1 back when, and unfortunately the lower rear gearing is mated to the wrong transmission gearing, but ok.
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Not bad. Evan was codriving with me, we made a ton of setup changes and went the wrong way, made some changes for my last runs (re-runs) and the car was a lot better but more to tweak. Evan definitely drove better than me, he was a few tenths faster than me in various places even before we made the car work better so he'd probably have been high 57s.
Also, I'm fairly convinced an OS Giken LSD would help a lot, it was a massive improvement on my BRZ and the RX-8 seems to be running into the same limitations that I eventually got the BRZ to. The diff helped a lot in that it was more stable on entry and rotated/carved way better on power, so you could be more aggressive with shocks on entry and let the diff stabilize the car.
Here's my videos from Charlotte. Sadly various issues with data and video (long story for both) lead to not having Amy's fastest runs either day, but I uploaded hers as well.
Conditions were awesome Saturday. Sunday not so much, haha. 101 runs on our tires, amazed we didn't just hydroplane everywhere considering the tread depth.
a lil’ bird told me somebody else had a good result locally this past weekend
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Well, the cat's out of the bag!
Perhaps it was a good rx8 course, or perhaps the ohlins are to credit, but i PAXed 2/117 at the local WDCR SCCA event. that's with old stock falkens (mid-2022 date codes). The #1 PAX is an STR ND that has trophied nationally. i was 0.065 behind in PAX. a properly prepped rx8 on good tires would've taken top PAX for sure, and i made a few mistakes that cost me time.
I saw that Harp sold the rx8 back to you guys and then I saw these results! Coupled with my GLTC kmiata chat constantly saying "ah **** we shoulda bought rx8s!" I'm now heavily shopping for a S2 😁
We're loving the RX-8 so far. Still working on development. Besides the Shaftworks USA coilovers we've got all super simple just bolt on stuff... So we're going to focus on losing weight and adding grip. At NJ ProSolo, STX decided to roll across the scales for fun, being an unleveled lot and whatever the actual numbers are maybe not super relevant but the difference in weights should be. The top STX BRZ/FR-S were ~2565 lbs and we rolled across at 2870 lbs. Looking into seats and maybe some other light weighting stuff now.
Having compared data and lots of videos, we're looking at adding front camber and spacers to add front grip, then run stiffer front bar settings and play with rake to add grip to the rear end too without hurting cone proximity.
Now that I went over some of the boring stuff... I pulled off 5th in STX at NJ Pro with Evan in 9th after skipping Day 2 (by accident, lol), not as good as I'd like but also... not as bad as I'd expected pace wise? Really interesting how the courses played out and some driving mistakes on my end lead to giving up some time. Looks like Evan and I could both have been in the 38s on the right side and maybe a few tenths quicker on the left side.
Amy pulled off third in L3 class, unfortunately red lighting away some big time gains That said, Amy won the Ladies Challenge! After the event she told me she's literally never won anything at autocross before, not even a class at a local... and she's finished 2nd at nationals before. What the hell, haha.
Will you be going to the Brunswick National Tour in June?
Sadly no, couldn't make it work with vacation time and costs. We'll be doing the ProSolo there the week before and then Finger Lakes National Tour though!
Huge Congrats to Amy!! Job well done!! Glad she was able to pull it together after coning away some solid runs in previous days.
I was listening in on Saturday and Sunday. The STX action was so intense! Crazy to see the top 9 separated by .1 or .2 after a whole day.
As an additional frame of reference for weights, last year at the Charlotte tour, I weighed in at 2845lbs. I do have aftermarket seats and it's an S1 with all the "extra" heavy stuff still on it.
03-19-2024, 08:11 AM
At NJ ProSolo, STX decided to roll across the scales for fun, being an unleveled lot and whatever the actual numbers are maybe not super relevant but the difference in weights should be. The top STX BRZ/FR-S were ~2565 lbs and we rolled across at 2870 lbs. Looking into seats and maybe some other light weighting stuff now.
That said, Amy won the Ladies Challenge! After the event she told me she's literally never won anything at autocross before, not even a class at a local... and she's finished 2nd at nationals before. What the hell, haha.
