Going to 1st Autocross in the RX-8
 

Not my 1st rodeo however been Autocrossing a very competative Porsche 914 for several years.

But just got the OK from the wife to take her car out to the Autocross event next weekend.
Pretty stoked as it has a high speed in 2nd gear than my 914 does in 3rd. :Eyecrazy:

Might be nice to arrive and drive without changing tires and adjusting shocks and no heat and really loud and ......

No grip might be a problem... and what do I do with 130 extra Horsepower?????

Oh yea, Winning Blue 05 Sport with spare tire option.

sounds like you're in for a fun weekend! There are a bunch of people here who autocross their 8's so I'd check out some of the threads in the racing section.
You probably owe your wife BIG TIME for this but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

which one are you going to?

Just remember to tell you wife that you can buff out all those scrathe from the cones you hit and the cone that got shoved up the exhaust mainfold won't stink after 2 weeks.

HaHa have fun!

And let us know how you did.

My solution was to take the wife with me and let her drive too. She had a blast! Depending on the course you may be able to do the whole thing in first gear. I've done that on at least one course.

Well the wife is driving also.
Most the courses are up to 60 mph so 2nd gear will be fine.

I haven't driven a car on street tires in awhile so this could be a challenge in traction management. Last time on street tires it rained cats and dogs.
I'm not worried.

This one is at Zephyr stadium New Orleans. 88 BSL and 188 BS

Well had a great day Autocrossing the RX-8. we did fairly well 1st time drivning the car at the limit.

Impressions were it pushes like a dump truck on black ice.

Finally got it to rotate around the corner but that ended up more like a drift than gripping and going. :hahano:

Got to the top of 2nd gear in spots. Loved the way the car reacts to turn in and transition through slalom cones.

So if there was more front grip I am sure the car would have been much faster.

Never screwed around with tire pressures (stock potenzas) I wasn't rolling over on the side wall but I suspect I could have tuned some under steer with changing rear pressure.

How's your camber in front? That can help the pushing.

next time: take your spare tire kit out for the day. :-)

convince the wife to let you get a full Mazdaspeed suspension for the RX8. It's 100% worth it, you get a nice drop, almost no body roll, and it handles like SEX!

Yea well I wasn't looking to drive the car 10/10ths.
Left the spare tire in the car and never pumped up the tires. Mostly this was driver training for my Wife.
I figured if she was goingto have a fast car she might as well learn what it will do and what it will not do. Also how to handle the car when it gets out of shape.

I had traction control off for one of here runs. Got wiggly and she recovered quite nicely.

I could not drive the car with traction control engaged. too tight and did not allow me to get to the edge of handling to carry any speed. ABS was good as I managed to get it to engage a few times. Rather not have ABS on a car but hey what can you do.

My buddy was telling me about 2 steps or levels of DSC. I obviously only got the 1st stage with push the button and indicator light on cluster comes on. I don't know what he was talking about.

Suspension is not required as it will put me in a different class. However if I were serious the car would get MOTON shocks and Hoosiers.

I am back to racing my 914 in X prepared. Go big Go fast or stay at home. :mdrmed: