Spin9k

Maybe we can do a little horse trade SR . I've got my 235/40-18 RT-615s on the way...and I have the same situation as you. Two reasonable front tires, and two pretty worn rear. Maybe you would want my fronts...?

Speed Racer

Tigger also offered up his old tires. I'll give you a call later and we can try to figure out who has more life left in their old sneakers.

vwnh

last week I just had a four wheel alignment rotated tires and changed the brake fluid. I only have 7K on the car what do you guys think i should do before i go out again?

Spin9k

Without spending alot here are a couple suggestions I found helpful:

Buy a CG-Lock to hold you in your seat www.cg-lock.com

Buy & memorize verbatum 'Going Faster - Mastering the Art of Race Driving' at Amazon.com - there will be a test (June 6 :D )

Remove everything that weighs something that doesn't need to be in the car or can rattle around.

See you in 12 days!

Speed Racer

You already have the basics hardware covered. Everything else is just gravy on top.

I'd suggest thinking about your last time out on the track and pick a couple of items to focus on. In my case I found that I wasn't pushing the car hard enough through turn 10 and wasn't using every inch of pavement. I also need to practice my heel and toe shifting to smooth out the weight transfer while I go into the corners.

vwnh

Well I will be bringing a 2005 RX8, Miata and Hopefully a new Mustang to check out and for test drives. Borders has the book you suggested I will pick it up this weekend, Hopefully I will be ready for that test you were talking about. :D Thanks for the suggestions Speed Racer and Spin9K they have been real helpful.

Spin9k

Sign me up for a test drive vwnh!

Oh, you probably meant you were going to test drive, darn :p Hey getting one car there is something....how will you manage entering w/3 ?!

vwnh

No, Not for me to test drive for people to check out and test drive on the street to see if they would like to buy one. No test dives on the track. I will only be driving my rx8 on the track.

Speed Racer

That is cool. I'd like to take one of the new Mustangs for a test drive.

vwnh

If we have one in stock it will be there.

Spin9k

I'd give a Mustang a try as well

vwnh

Well only three days left, who is attending any body know?

RPIRX-8

I am going to attend, but have a question. Was just reading through the prep info and they said bleeding the brakes is a must. I didn't have a chance to do this, will i get flagged and lose my money? If so I will just not go.

vwnh

I dont recall having to bleed brakes. I dont think you will have a problem.

Speed Racer

No, you won't get black flagged for this but as always you will want to be mindful of any change in your braking performance. Just let your instructor know if you notice the brake pedal getting spongy and he will adjust your braking points so that they don't get as much abuse.

See you tomorrow. Spin9k and I will be there at 7am.

vwnh

here is the link i was taking about http://www.autoenginuity.com/

Spin9k

What a day! Great to see four RX-8s represented at SCDA's NHIS track day!

First RIP (I think) to Speed Racer's 8. Have yet to hear the eventual emergency room outcome, but the initial prognosis didn't sound promising. Hope he got home OK! More detail to follow from SR I'm sure > :

And we now have an VERY happy 1st timer track enthusiast - RPIRX-8. His well-modded blue 8 was a big hit in the Novice class, made some great sounds and looked and went like a BOOH! Congratulations RPIRX-8 :D I heard a rumor that he was graduated to Intermediate 1 at days's end!

VWNH graduated from Novice to join me in Intermediate 1 yesterday, where he definitely is getting his mojo working! vwnh and his pit crew were there with a couple show and drive test cars and I understand he's got lots of trackside photos and video - can't wait to see them! Plus they were kind enough to time me with a fastest lap of 1 min 30 sec. I have no idea if that is good or not, but at least it's a time. Thanks vwnh!

And I got to (finally ) test out my mods (sways, strut bars, Falken Azenis 615s). The result - everything I hoped for and much MUCH MORE - in a word AWESOME :D - in two of the last three heats (damn Porsche) I lapped the entire field of cars and even managed to eat into the rear of the field again. What a rush.... my closest competitors were a Supra that couldn't quite catch me (power) and couldn't out-handle me but somehow managed to hold on pretty close until I think he had some mechanical problem and...

... then there was that black Supercharged Porsche 968 that came out of nowhere, and although we had a good back and forth for a time around the twisties, his superior power, 340 RWHP as he told me afterwards, eventually won out. Still he had to work at passing me and that made me feel good regardless.

The Falkens worked just as advertized - they were very, very sticky on track, and just wouldn't let go, very controllable and predictable, feeling like sort of like having well chewed bubblegum connecting me to the ground. On my hardest run, tire temp got up to 154 degrees (measured back in pit), with a brake temp of 411 degrees , so you can imagine I was pushing things a bit, but the car never skipped a beat and was still stopping great all the way to the end!

All in all the things sweet dreams are made of Pics to follow...

RPIRX-8

What an awesome day. This is literally the most legal fun one can have.

Let me say this first. The RX-8 is an awesome piece of engineering. Did my car have the most HP on the track, definitely not. However, besides a Subie STI and a Porches 911 Carerra 4S, I was the fastest car in the Novice class (which included 2 VW R32s, a host of BMWs, 2 Nissan 350Zs). I have to give credit to VW and Subie for their AWD systems. It is amazing to see AWD in action. The STI driver was absolutely abusing his car around the turns. If it were't for the AWD, he would have been off the track after the first turn. Our cars were built for the track.

All of the mod work on the car came to fruition yesterday. The 2 biggest helps were the properly tuned CZ unit and my lightweight Enkei RPM2 wheels. Definitely worth the money. The Falken GR Beta FK-451 tires held up beautifully and stuck to the track like glue. The springs kept the body roll to a minimum so I could carry a ton of speed through the turns. AAND the most fun part. After the second run time the R32 behind me said I shot 2 foot flames out the back of my exhaust. Apparently everyone else who was watching that lap saw it too and I was getting people coming up to me all day and saying how sick it looked. Not sure if anyone got pictures though . I imagine the exhaust temperatures were close to or exceeding 3000 degrees. My exhaust tips were completely white on the inside after the day.

Everyone should get out at least once and try doing this. It is an unbelievable feeling and you learn a ton about driving lines, apex, and even some defensive driving. My instructor was in the passenger seat and was coaching me in and out of every turn. Now I just need to work on my heel/toe shifting and I will prob be 3-4 sec faster per lap. I am now officially addicted. I'll be starting a thread soon about the July 11th SCDA track day at NHIS. Get out there guys!

Spin9k was absolutely smoking everyone in his intermediate class. I watched his entire last run and that Supra was working hard to catch him. This was a perfect example of pure HP not being everything. The supra was probably putting down 1.5 times more HP to the wheels than Spin9k, but it didn't matter because Spin9k carried so much speed through the turns. The Supra spent so much time braking and reaccelerating. And you learn in class it takes twice as long to reaccelerate to the same speed than it took for you to slow down.

VWNH looked good out there, and thanks to his pit crew for being on photo/video duty. I can't wait to see the pictures.

Next mods for me, ss brake lines, DOT4 fluid, and sway bars.

I've just had this annoying, stupid grin on my face since I left the track yesterday. Stay tuned for July 11th info and pics!

vwnh

Track time photos are up.
http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/...refront?c=04FT

Spin9K i need some info on the sway bars that you have.

RPIRX-8

I am going to buy an event CD definitely. These are awesome pictures. Thanks Moe!

Spin9k

They are Whiteline sways....I imported mine directly from Australia, but the US distributor is http://www.globalperformanceparts.com/

I have the adjustable ones, part #BMF49Z FRONT; BMF77Z REAR. Probably cheaper and simpiler to order them within the US, just call and get pricing, they're not expensive. Note on the order to be sure they only ship you product including the lateral movement stop clamps, as that was something I didn't initially get, but supposedly they are now standard w/them and already mounted on the bars.

Aside from their initial stop clamp problem, I'd give the bars a 100% thumbs up. The adjustable part is really easy to do, takes about 20 min per axle. For instance, when I mounted my new tires last week, I had both bars set full hard.... but as Monday approached, I was worried about the possibility of oversteer, and I didn't want to discover it on the track.

So I changed to full soft on the rear about 10PM Sunday night, just to ease my mind. Turned out fine and I may still go 1/2 hard (this setting required adustable HD end links ~$175/set of 4) or full hard as my confidence grows and I become more comfortable with the handling improvements I'm experiencing.

It's certainly a majorly tighter and taughter feeling vehicle w/them

Spin9k

Click here https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...d=1#post909417 to see a video of one of the NHIS heats. Enjoy

spin9k

downshift

Nice vid, Spin9k; and good laps too. Do you know what has been done to the Miata in that video? That thing was flying and screaming! His driving line is good from Turn 3 onwards as he always manage to get on the throttle quite early but got sloppy on Turns 1 and 2, where you caught up on him.

Speaking of Turn 3, do you just feather the clutch out after shifting and let the tranny do the rest? It might be just my car but I find that I can't just put the shifter from 3rd to 2nd gear without having to get the revs to close to a match first. And this is the toughest thing for me because I can't heel and toe smoothly on a 3-2 downshift. So I almost always never get the line correct on this turn due to concentration loss or braking too late.

Spin9k

Actually no, I never caught up w/him after the session, but he had roll bars was all I could see and an aftermarket exhaust was all I could hear. Good vid of us zipping along until I got stuck behind the BMW, then the Subie.

On turn 3 after trying outside, then inside, I settled on crossing the rumble strip with the front tires and cutting into the middle, skipping that dip on the ouside of the beginning of the uphill.

As far as the 3-2 downshift, that's a tough one, time before I was there - I just was doing it to late, and screwing up, so this time, I braked earlier, and I also noticed that where the Bridgestone broke loose really easily under the downshift, these Falkens just don't so I could slip and engage the clutch pretty quickly and it just hooked up. It's the tires - they are pretty sticky, I'm just not used to so much grip.

RPIRX-8

3-2 downshifting is the main thing that slowed me down during this track day. I can't heel/toe worth a crap so i was experimenting with ways of quickly shifting and rev matching. I even tried running an entire lap just in 2nd gear (except for the straight). The good thing is the 8 can afford to have a slightly sloppy shift. A lot of the BMW and VW guys were saying how I was running in 2nd when they were running to the end of 3rd or even in 4th. I was thinking maybe

1. both feet in
2. let off brake for quick rev
3. back on brake
4. downshift
5. let cluch out

I'm going to experiment with this on the 11th.