Ummm... Duh.

Any reason tho why you're braking while turning? Pretty much the main takeaway I took from driving school was to complete your shifting/braking prior to turning otherwise you risk over/understeer depending on your car. I wouldn't imagine it's different in autoX but I've never run it so I don't really know. Maybe you're trying for that affect.

Regardless it's a nice pic. I take it you managed to get a better run then Tony? Maybe that's why he hasn't posted yet... Just let him know it's the Zaino that gives your car the edge.

 

I'm not exactly sure where the picture is at the end of the course, but it ended in 2 right angle turns close together. Looks like I was just completing the braking and very early starting to turn. Must have caught it just at that moment. You'll notice the car is not shifting to the right yet and the wheel is barely turned.

Besides. I'm still new and suck, so I'm probably doing it wrong.........

No, not talking about Tony. You'll have to read up a few posts about the surprise for all the Z cars. Surprise was the Z cars kicked our asses.......... They took the top 3 places. I was 5th. Mr Surprise was 6th......SURPRISE!! (I don't know him well enough to kid him here, so I won't talk too much smack. I'll save that for Tony........... )

New guy showed up driving a Z. He's new to the area but works at Bridgestone and has been driving for years. FREAKIN fast!!! Took first place overall in PAX time. And by several seconds. I have a new hero.....too bad his car sucks.

Gotta tell you, though. The people out there are great. Fun friendly serious competition. Guy kicks your butt on the course, then will be happy to help you try to beat him. Very cool.

 

That's ok...that person that you beat got beaten by someone in his own car. :P It made for a fun lunch over at the lizard. :P Ryan met both of them and can probably picture lunch in his head. :P It was a blast. As for the pictures I took...I am still working on them. I have almost 700 photos to go through and it isn't going very quickly. In 4 hours yesterday I finally made it through group 2. As for your picture Mark...it was taken from Start/Finish as you come out of the Slalom.

 

I realize that. I was in the car, remember........... I just can't tell exactly what second the action was making. It doesn't look like the turn had begun yet.

I didn't see you guys at the lizard. Where were you? I was there. I'd have enjoyed talking with you guys. I don't know Brian well. And had never met the other guy (don't even know his name). BTW, I'm in love with the hostess. Damn I love a cute blonde!!!!

 

Ah. Well technically it sounded like msumlin was the one talking smak but I'm sure Brian did when he showed up. Anyway he probably finished by telling them how he could take 'em in his Foci...

Where you running STU or were you running bstock? I would think lightly modded Zs running STU would have a pretty big advantage over anyones cars on this forum except possibly Beth (her tires alone would go a long way) or possibly Jon.

 

No, I took the car back to stock some time ago. The Zs are stock too. We were running B Stock. I only ran STU a couple of times until I could take the intake off. Tony's the only one around here running STU. And heck,,,,We're all sticking kicking his ***.............doh!

Beth's tires have very little to do with it. We're all on race tires now. Beth's just a damn good driver. I think the Zs would have beat here anyway. The first place guy was unbelievably fast.

Actually Beth is running Nationals this year. Everybody wish her well!!

 

This Friday there's a Money AC at Northfield. Will bring in some really good drivers for the cash. So if anyone hasn't seen this yet, that'll be a good one to come to.

 

The hard left was on the asphalt so you were between the last set of cones and the turn.

We went to the Winking Lizard over on Miles. Wasn't any cute blondes there and Im sure you couldn't have missed a group of 11 loud mouthed drivers. :P

Nah...was Devon. He was sitting next to Marlon and kept going back and forth with Brian. :P They both drove in Brian's car. It was Devon's second time in the car and he said at the end he finally got used to having rear wheel drive. Devon finished 15th overall and Marlon was down at 46. Im pretty sure it had little to do with the driving and more with the car.

I am thinking about going Doc and watching as always. I have to work so it will be an abbreviated stay for me.

 

What time is it at? I'm sure I'm going to get sucked into something for the Fourth but I should be able to get over there for a little while at least.

 

Actual race starts at 10 am. Since there's money up for grabs, there should be some good drivers there. And me.....

 

OK... I'm being dumb today.
What is a Money AC and where is Northfield (Northfield Park or the city)?
Depending on what time/place I might make an appearance. Have to find out what the family is doing (they like to wait until the last minute).
One day when I quit spending money on performance mods, I'll be able to spend my money on new tires, brake pads, and lessons.

Driving home from work I got a CEL so I stopped by Autozone to have the code pulled. I have a small EVAP leak (which is usually the gas cap).
I called Cascade and they looked up my warranty... of course it expired last year. This gave me a good excuse to call MazSport to check on my mid-pipe order.
I talked to Sara at MazSport and she added the gas cap to my mid-pipe order... then looked at the mid-pipe list and said that they are hoping to have mine shipped out by Thursday
I already told Jeff (MazdaManiac) that I was going to be ordering the AccessPort next week.
According to him, the AP and mid-pipe is the best performance gain without going FI... we'll see!!!
Now I must attempt to sleep... its way past my bedtime!

 

Cash Prizes for placement. At Northfield Park parking lot. Enter at the far south gate and drive all way around. Park on far side of course.

 

Nice. Should be big gains. Wonder where you'll be restricting airflow since you'll have aftermarket parts all the way from air duct through to your exhaust tips. Probably the exhaust... But maybe it doesn't matter at that point.

But once you have the AP and tune it you should get ~20hp off of stock. The AP allegedly (and I haven't seen a dyno) gives you almost 10hp just off stock. Midpipe alone gives you around 5hp with stock intake/exhaust and with the RB intake/exhaust plus tuning for it you figure another 5 or so.

You might almost be to the original HP spec for the '04.

 

Northfield seemed like a really nice place to race. However, they are having some problems with turnout I guess and they may end up losing the lot for racing. If anyone knows people that autox invite them out for one of the events, other than the July 4th one without warning because damn is it expensive. Nice large parking lot though and it looked super fun.

 

So who is going to race and who is going to watch (from here)?

With a full 3" exhaust, I wouldn't think that its the restriction. Other "restrictions" wouldn't be noticeable until I go FI... but the kits will replace those components.

Maybe...

 

I will be there to watch before I head off to work.

 

I might be there to watch i'm back from camp for a few days and it would be fun to see you guys make a few runs.

 

Now why would I talk smack! Never I just go out to have fun....If you guys want in, today is the last day to register and the pricing has been changed to $45 for Mazda owners....

Come out and have some fun, do not share the pricing with the NORA/ASCC members. If you have paid already, let Eric know and you'll receive a credit to a future event.


Yes, we are competitive but more importantly, we like to have fun and it is just good natured ribbing from friends. So feel free to joins us, as it is all about having fun and having a good time. Who knows, you may win a little cash to boot or a door prize.

 

Sure looked like smack to me. If it looks like smack, sounds like smack........

What's up with the credit? I didn't know anything about it?

 

I'm glad to see that you all missed me while I've been "away" from the forum.

No, I didn't lose to Mark (yet) nor have I been hiding in shame. Mark knows full well that I'll be the first one to shake his hand and congratulate him when the time comes. I introduced him to the sport and he's taken off with it. He will do better than me eventually due to a bunch of reasons, one of which is more of a desire to excel in the sport.

Ever since being on that road track at Nelson Ledges, my heart and mindset has changed. Circuit racing is where I want to be someday. Not that AutoX isn't fun to me anymore, it's just not the path I'm going to stay on. It's kind of like people's career choices. Some people are content doing some things while others prefer to take alternate paths. I'll still be AutoXing, but my heart will be with 80mph turns and really fast straights.

As for my silence here on the forum, I've been really busy around the house lately. Yard work has consumed my time as I'm trying to do a bunch of projects all at once.

I drove my car yesterday for the first time in almost two weeks. Prior to that it was sitting in my driveway covered in bird droppings and grass clippings from the weedwhacker. I drove it to the hospital today just so I could hear the noise of the intake -as opposed to the loud exhaust on the Jeep- and to get the rest of the rust off of the brakes (and yes, it's still got bird excrement and grass parts on it). The car has been neglected, but I'll make it up to it on Friday morning when I give it a bath.

 

I never said a word, Brian on the other hand may have, but not me. We'll I approached Eric about either having a novice event, where the novices can complete for prizes, to be fair to the new people who are just starting out. Normally you have a lot of regional and national champions particpate in this event, so to be fair to everybody, he said he would lower the fee to $45 and offer a credit towards a future event.

 

Registration is open until 9:00AM July 4, for walk ups. so if you want to come out and have a little fun, you are more than welcome to. What the hell, you can have a little healthy RX-8 club competition amongst yourselves if you shoose to.

Remember time are based on PAX times, not Raw times.

 

Dude. First of all we're just kidding. This is a friendly group.
Second, you wrote about the Surprise for the Z's. Yes, that's smack. Fun smack. But smack the same.

We're just having a little fun here. No worries. None of us (except Beth) is going to Nationals. So sit back and take it easy. It's all good.

 

And I think the smack talking that Ryan was referring too took place at Red Robin at the c6c meet.

BTW...in case you guys didn't notice...Brian made a post today about a Charity AutoX that his gf is putting on. https://www.rx8club.com/mw-rx-8-forum-31/charity-autox-benefit-umdf-july-19-a-149816/

 

I always take it easy and do not take any of this seriously, ask the guys who know me. I always give the Z guys friendly ribbing, because they are good natured friends of mine. They always wish Nissan supported them the way Mazdaspeed supports us. Just an FYI for you, if you are going to continue to auto-X or get into HPDE's I would sign up for Mazaspeed Contingency Program, it will save you some money on parts and if you do well in certain events, you can get a little cash too!