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equinox92 02-06-2022 08:46 PM

Got the itch and finally got my sim rig back functional. Fun comparison between Mid O IRL and Mid O VR (with an NC Miata)


equinox92 02-22-2022 09:44 PM

Lift is operational. Let's party. Fun times in the works now.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...88fe8f796a.jpg

equinox92 03-04-2022 10:45 PM

Front Brake Ducting

Well, unfortunately I think this takes the cake for "longest planned and worst implementation" of a car mod ever for me. I had been planning these brake ducts out almost 3 years ago at this point.. and it turns out that none of that mattered.. so let's get into the fun bits.

I had planned out years ago to 3D print some adapters to the fog lights. At the time it made a lot of sense since there wasn't much in the way, and from my Impreza experience.. I just assumed every brake combo sucked ass at getting cooled off at the track. After actually doing some racing in the Mazda, I realized it wasn't that big of an issue with the RX-8, but I definitely knew that as speed was added in it would become more and more of a hot topic. I shelved the idea for a while until towards the end of the TA season last year I definitely could feel a bit of hottness in the brakes. The car was going to be down for the winter, so may as well spend some time thinking about this.

Well. I thought about it. And nothing worked. So here's this nightmare of a situation.

My original plan was to weld some 3in steel tubing on to the stock backing plates, but these AWR guys made some backing plates that seemed to fit the bill nicely and would sit behind the rotors nicely so.. what the heck. I'll give em a try. The first deviation from my original plan.

Got them in I was pretty happy with how they looked. I also needed to jump down to a 2.5in ducting.. which probably made more sense considering the space constraints I didn't know I was about to run into. I got out to pulling the old hubs off.. and immediately I'm not sure why I thought the OG hubs on this car would come off cleanly. After much whacking, some heat, and giving the hub equal amounts of runout as there is distance between my house and China the hubs were off and I had access to the shields.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f65854f18b.jpg

At this point I did stop and ordered 2 new front hubs, because I knew how the other side was going to go.. and a couple hundred bucks for new Timken units felt like a safe bet.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2fccc9def2.jpg

Fitment was good enough for an aftermarket part. The powdercoat did need to be sanded down to get the shield ID large enough to go over the hub, and I did have to hammer down the shrouding a bit on the bottom.. but nothing I was super unhappy about.

At this point I tried routing my ducting to the bumper only to see that it was very much so going to hit my splitter mounting... damn it. I felt like now I most definitely wasted LOTS of time trying to make something work without considering another part of the car that got developed faster. Sort of annoyed, I looked at some other options to feed SOME air to the brakes. They weren't in dire need of more cooling, so I was willing to compromise a bit on effective for sake of getting this shit done... not the best attitude, but it's the one I was given.

So I sort of looked around at what was close... the fenders.. nah too much tire in the way to put ducting in there.. maybe the front of the air undertray under the coolers?? I had seen a lot of people use that for brake ducting.. but my splitter hardware was still in the way...

And that's when I was like.. MEH.. NACA DUCTS! I decided to throw some Naca ducts in the ducting to the radiator. Not the best idea... not a very clean way to do it... definitely taking some cooling ability away from the rad.. but... let's see if it works. So back I went to Pegasus Racing and spent more money on a project that was supposed to be ~$150 (hah).

A couple days later and this is what I managed to come up with.. like I said at the start, I think this is the most effort and planning to actual ghetto implementation I've ever done. If there's anything trying to put this car together has taught me though, at a certain point a race car is just one minor design flaw away from saying "fuck it, get the zipties and gaffer tape".

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...5a91bf3f65.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...2b428bcc75.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f29201da1c.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ab20f8ed96.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...9b929dc73b.jpg

I still need to get some clamps on the naca side of things.. but nothing rubs on the wheels (i did try with the Enkeis, just not pictured). I also did a REALLY SCIENTIFIC TEST to see if they would suck in some air..

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...afbffbdf4b.jpg

I could feel some airflow on the topside/bottom side of each rotor which is good.. but I am skeptical of their effectiveness. More so on the right side of the car where the ECU electronics air scoops are RIGHT in the way of the ducting.

Oh well.. guess we will see... I don't think I could have made anything much worse, except for the sound the silicone tubing will make when it yeets itself from the plastic from getting tangled up in something. I will make sure to also monitor the coolant temp for any air taken away from cooling that.. but I expect to be fairly minimal.

Blegh.. what a ghetto end to an attempted well planned out situation. Excited to see how well they hold up though. I definitely don't expect much, so the bar is low to be impressed.

Bonus under car shot, because I have a lift now.. and why not!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7bfbceb0fd.jpg


TeamRX8 03-04-2022 10:53 PM


At this point I did stop and ordered 2 new front hubs, because I knew how the other side was going to go.. and a couple hundred bucks for new Timken units felt like a safe bet.

I guess you didn't research that, but you'll likely find out the OE Mazda hubs are the best and longest lasting ...

.

equinox92 03-04-2022 11:01 PM


Originally Posted by TeamRX8 (Post 4962727)
I guess you didn't research that, but you'll likely find out the OE Mazda hubs are the best and longest lasting ...

.

Bias aside (I've had many a beers with the Timken folks, I like them quite a lot), at half the cost of the OE bearings, I'll accept half the longevity. And if that's the one thing about this you can nitpick... I am guessing everything else will hold up just fine ;)

TeamRX8 03-04-2022 11:24 PM


Originally Posted by TeamRX8 (Post 4962727)
... you'll likely find out ...

.

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-racing-...ession-265330/

.

equinox92 03-04-2022 11:45 PM

That thread shows OEM ones failing more catastrophically as opposed to just some play after tracking???

:shrug:

As always, I am sorry my racecar isn't up to snuff to your standards.

dallasreed 03-05-2022 12:37 AM

I strongly suggest you pick up a pair of Mazda hubs and keep them as spares at the least. I have also tried about every aftermarket hub including timken, Moog, etc and none of them hold up very well except for the Mazda. Really I would probably rather run used Mazda than new not Mazda. I would not be surprised by any non Mazda hub needing replaced due to excessive play in a weekend or less. With everything other than the Mazdas the bearings get play in them quickly. The Mazda hubs in my experience -- the bearings hold up but end up shearing where the hub face is still attached to the wheel but not to anything else if you run them long enough (multiple seasons). I've had it happen twice and been lucky that the wheel didn't fly off. If I were smarter I'd change out the hubs every year over winter. Which is less annoying then changing them out every weekend or sooner.

In my stock motor time attack car I run rear rotors with small wilwood calipers in the front, and NC calipers and NC solid rotors in the back (both substantially smaller than stock rx8) and no brake ducts. Castrol srf for fluid. I have no issues with brake heat using wilwood h front pads and whatever cheap track pads typically HP+ rears.

In the high power car I am not running brake ducts either. Stock size rotors. Big Wilwood front caliper. St43 pads all corners. I've tried a few pads and the st43 would not fade while I ran into fade with bp30s, dtc60s and some others. Last season I was running out of fuel or boiling the diff before brakes were a problem with the srf/st43s. Actually the bigger brake issue was cracking rotors frequently but I figured that out also without going to ducts. Nothing against them but if I can avoid them then I would just as soon as they're weight and drag.

Personally I think the trick is using srf and as long as your running HP+ or better for pads you'll have a difficult time cooking the brakes in a stock power rx8 in a 20 minute ta session. Either way the ducts certainly won't make it worse as far as heat goes.

Just some friendly info.

equinox92 03-07-2022 12:15 PM

Compared to what was pulled off, the Timken bearings had the same markings.. so either they are the OEM supplier, or the bearings that were already on the car were replaced with Timken ones which were kicking ass on the track. Quality could have declined, or some units may just be good while others are trash (a sign that quality was never good) so I guess I'll just see what we get. I've seen Subaru OEM bearings explode after one session before too, and I am definitely a "use the OEM stuff" guy there. I'll be observant, but not expecting failure with these units.

For the ducting.. yeah.. like i mentioned never really ran into fade issues with the XP12s, but they definitely got a bit hotter towards the end of the season with fresh fluid and more pace. Not expecting a life changing amount of cooling from the jank setup, but yeah. Shall see.

Working on some S2 fuel unit upgrades now.. will post more about those when I sorted it out... but I did need to all of a sudden yoink my STis engine out yesterday because the throw out bearing retainer cracked so I should focus on getting that back in and sorted before the Mazda haha.

equinox92 03-18-2022 08:14 PM

S2 Fuel Sender

Don't entirely understand why this mod works, but I suppose the S2 unit looks like it has the ability to have a better siphoning method just based on looks alone. If it works, I am happy.

EDIT 7/14/23: It does not work to help starvation.

Simple swap, found a cheap unit on ebay and bought the cheapest fuel ring tool on Amazon for $15. I don't know if I'd recommend the tool since it's was abysmally trash, but at the end of the day it did work. After comparing the two units, I did go back and forth as to buying the proper S2 parts for the siphon hose and fuel send line so that the unit would be properly sorted with the right clocking when installed, and the right quick connect fittings in tank.. but I couldn't stomach the $200+ for the OEM lines from the dealership to still have a factory fueling system.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...45951c92ca.jpg

To make my life just a little bit easier, I did end up picking up a Mazda3 sender to harvest the plug from. Repinned the S1 connector and as everyone else may know, the float unit plugged right on in. I made sure to pour fuel all over everything here when tipping the old sender over to undo the old connector. I figured that was a crucial step to ensure proper operation of the next unit.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a688de834d.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...14ea302d93.jpg

Next step was to chop the OEM plastic line and quick connect, and toss on some 3/8 or 5/8 or whatever /8s submersible fuel line and some screw clamps.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...4d29d8a197.jpg

Clocked the sender a bit on the piss to get the quick connect lined up, and screwed down the ring. I probably should have swapped a gasket because the car still has an open recall for it.. but.... ehh. Plugged in the connector and test started her up. Works like a charm while sitting 6 feet off the ground on the left still. Will have to report later to see if I can run the tank lower than before without an issue.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e406e372a7.jpg

Check it off the list!

equinox92 03-18-2022 08:22 PM

Probably inconsequential, but worth throwing in the mix. Grabbed a new upper rad ducting piece. I had cut the old one to use the AEM intake, and I feel like air through the rad would appreciate a bit less of a hole in this area. So. $20 at the dealer later (couldn't find any junkyard finds) here we are.

Looking at this made me want to start figuring out a useful way to chop the front bumper beam out a bit too.. hmm..

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...55b8bc9303.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...394a512884.jpg


Snox801 03-19-2022 10:23 PM

Man can’t wait to see all your changes in action.
Hoping. To bump into you again. Crazy how much you ha e accomplished with this car. Keep up the Awsome work.

TeamRX8 03-20-2022 02:50 PM

never go full blockhead, just take the entire plastic piece off

just like anyone who ever ran the full AEM/Mazdaspeed kit did

that plus roll some aluminum sheet metal, add some sides to it, and have it positioned similar to the Racing Beat CAI duct but instead directing air from the behind the grill opening right to the that full opening/air filter … 💡
​​​​​​.
.

equinox92 04-06-2022 10:11 PM

CAE Ultimate Shifter

OOOOOOO baby Garrett's playing the "let's buy the car 3x over and still go the same speed" again..

Had been talking to CAE a bit over the winter, and they said they were going to have a shifter around the March timeframe, and they weren't lying. I saw them say they had it on April 4th. They had it at my door from Deutchland on April 6th, and I had it in the car that same day.

Adjust the gear selection was a bit finicky at first, but it's dead nuts on after adjust the screws for about 10 minutes. I've never had a shifter that felt so nice from a standstill, and with my shorter rear end and higher shift lever... I'm stoked.

Install was simple. Would have liked to see some non Allen head bolts since there was plenty of clearance, but I guess that's all the rage with these fancy parts. The green RTV was weird, but instructions were clear and everything fit perfectly and operated exactly as said. The alignment pins for the two CNC'd pieces really shows they care about getting fitment perfect, and it definitely helped install. Not typical of aftermarket parts. Well done guys, my only complaint is the packing peanuts you guys use for shipping.

Weight difference was negligible between the two, and the OEM (or in my case aftermarket) shifter cup isn't used. Will give some more opinions once the car is back on the road.

Did have to cut the OEM shift boot to fit it over everything, but not a big deal at all especially for a race car. I should just pull it out, to be honest.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...df67b8f247.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c4bf108374.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ad3c6a8f94.jpg


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...868cf8f110.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...6ccc72d1eb.jpg

And maybe to give some people an idea of throw, here's me doing my best Jackie Chain in Thunderbolt impression:


TeamRX8 04-06-2022 10:29 PM

Interesting, but no, you don’t want to pull that rubber boot out even on a race car. You want to figure out how to seal it as best you can. Overly hot, fatigued, and out of breath works against driving at your best.
.

equinox92 04-06-2022 10:39 PM

Sunroof Delete

Remember that one time I said I was gonna do a carbon fiber insert and then never said anything else.

Well.

Life is hard. Also cold. I got a coat of gelcoat over the factory glass and it's literally been below 30 ever since. Fearing my mold would be mechanically locked even if I got some fiber over it when it warmed up (this week), I didn't want to be without any sort of shelter over my idiot head when I'm trying to go racing. Events are already starting here in Michigan, and I don't have anything signed up until June. I want to change that, but the car has to bet ready. I figured I needed to build mounts anyways, so why not just go and build one from lexan as a temperately permanent solution. I found some tinted pieces on amazon and bought 2 of em. Word of the wise.. always buy two, that way you only ever need one.

Got to measuring, and got to cutting. I taped it down pretty hard in an effort to try to get the full, slightly weird contour of the RX-8's roofline. Might as well try to make it fit right.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a65acce46e.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...008cc1bb3b.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...b0a9e6fa97.jpg

You can see the covered up (in shame) gelcoated OEM glass in the above photo on the ground :(

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1b05b0bbc6.jpg

A jigsaw with a wooden blade cut the lexan quite nicely, and fitment was sweet. I did have to trim the corners down a bit as I got it fitted up, but nothing I wouldn't expect.

For brackets, I just went to Lowe's and bought some aluminum L brackets and cut to size. I used some vice grips to hold everything up and bump it around until the panel fit as best as I could.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...af29bf2dc4.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ffe0a97ddd.jpg

For the back piece that wasn't a vertical attachment point, I used some 3/8 thick extrusion and drilled/tapped some M6x1.0 holes so I could fasten the spacer in. I also bent it quite nicely to the shape of the OEM lines.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7e8f443ca0.jpg

I didn't end up using the front to rear support, but once everything was in place, I drilled through holes in place so I knew it would all line back up.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...429076dc0a.jpg

In the font I used some real think L bracket as opposed to the 1/8in stuff on the sides since I wanted to try to bend it to the roofline a bit more. That didn't work super well, and I should have just went with the thicker stuff. Oh well, worked fine enough. I also didn't tarp up the interior during the first cutting.. which was a pretty huge fuck up. Do not recommend. I removed the seat and threw a tarp in the car for the rest of the cutting. Don't be like me and think a vacuum will quickly grab it all up. Can't wait to get metal splinters as time goes on in the car.. -_-

Also, get a good cobalt/carbide bit. The Dewalt Titanium sucked shit after like 3 holes. Probably don't need to tell anyone this, but... ya know.

After the brackets were in I started to lay in the lexan once more and make the cuts into the horizontal brackets. My original plan was to drill some holes for M6 fasteners and use countersuck holes in the lexan to hold everything flush, but after doing some test cuts with my 90 degree countersink bit, I realized that in order to get it flush there would NOT be much material and I was worried it would break and fly into traffic.

Also another reason to buy two sheets.. but don't tell any insurance company I said that..

So I kinda asked some buddies for some advice as to what to do. I write software, drilling holes and mounting stuff isn't my strong-suit... so please be patient with me you mechanically inclined kings/queens. Apparently countersunk washers are a thing, and I was happy having a 3mm head and a smooth enough top piece for everything. Makes air all slippery and the like. So another McMaster order in, and we were in business. They even had em in aluminum, for weight savings. Never mind that as I weighed things out I gained about a pound in beer on the scale...

Got my stuff in, added some bolts in and was pleased.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f67d2e8793.jpg

Ended up using a middle support bar that actually pressed up pretty hard on the lexan to give it some good resilience to being wobbly, and am really happy with it.. even if it is a bit wavy. I really don't want to deal with something like vibrates to hell, or buffets with windows down... I guess we will still see if it does as we start to drive.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...cc9adb0abb.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...a2f340858a.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...04d3be4017.jpg

Weighing in at 4.8lbs, I am pretty happy with it. 10x less weight above my head sounds good to me, and it even almost fits good!

EDIT:

Urethane'd it up, and cut some bolts down...and I wasn't really planning to run a headliner... but the class rules sort of say I have to. My first thought was to just claim the headliner hits the roll bar (and it did, which is why the dome light was pulled out) and use that as a way to cheese the rules a bit. A lot of other people have done that in the class, and street/street mod classes to not use one. But, a local guy had a non sunroof headliner he didn't want.. so I figured I'd abide by class rules as much as possible.. if not for anything else except for completeness. Plus, if a headliner is the differentiating factor between me winning or not... whelp.. I should have gone faster.

I did pull out all of the mounting/sound deadening though. Left the wiring harness on top though.. which I shouldn't have. Ah well, when the lexan leaks (because I didn't check before putting in the headliner), it will be a good reason to pull everything and get rid of it.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...5de4c89c3f.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...283a141b3a.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...e7db4ca560.jpg

Last step was to CAD up some sun visor delete plates so that I could get rid of the visors. They fit JUST okay, but not bad for just tracing an outline of the visor mount and getting it right enough first go. The screw holes line up and it holds the headliner up so it's good enough for me. Maybe could have added an aligning dowel in the center to match up to the OEM hole in the center but someone else can do that. The 15 minutes spent on this was worth it.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7b55b476b5.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...56e3ae0e33.jpg

Final version has some counter sinks for the screws.. I guess I just never took a photo. Woopsies!

equinox92 04-06-2022 10:48 PM


Originally Posted by TeamRX8 (Post 4964177)
Interesting, but no, you don’t want to pull that rubber boot out even on a race car. You want to figure out how to seal it as best you can. Overly hot, fatigued, and out of breath works against driving at your best.
.

Valid point. So much heat comes through that thing. They did have their own plate and boot for the outer to inside car that fits quite nice (and weighs less than the factory one), but I guess I was more talking about just the one that covers up all the interior bits. Either way, I guess anything to keep the heat out from that area is better. It's gonna get HOT.

equinox92 04-06-2022 10:48 PM

OOO and I did get the logger in the car and have a path for super rad operation.. gotta do some wiring.. coming soon :)

TeamRX8 04-07-2022 12:05 AM

The summer-time greenhouse effect from the lexan sunroof pane likely won’t help that any either. :suspect:
.

equinox92 04-10-2022 07:40 PM

Updated the sunroof delete post with a bit more completeness

equinox92 04-10-2022 07:52 PM

G-ROM Data Logger

So, this is still a bit of a work in progress since nothing is totally sorted, and I even changed some software last night to get everything happier.. but it's in the car and in a spot now where I can talk about it. I'll call it the G-ROM Data Logger even though it's not really a product my 'not really a business but still sort of a business' sells.

Setup:

Raspberry Pi 4 running whatever the latest release of Rasbian was at the time
Overclocked processor... not sure if this is needed but it doesn't hurt
Tactrix Cable
64GB SD card
J2534 library I pimped from someone on GitHub
Self modified J2534 Tactrix driver for Linux, though I think the latest driver release ports in all the changed I made and posted over on the romraider forums
Custom software to handle startup/shutdown/logging events/indicators

tl;dr ~$200 in hardware with a VERY powerful automatic CAN logger for the vehicle. This includes lat/long sensors, my own oil temp and pressure sensors + OEM water temp. Steering angle, brake pressure, wheelspeeds, vehicle speed, engine speed, etc

I wired it up to a key on power switch using the factory seat heater switch with a cheapy 5V regulator, and it has a boot checked throw switch that indicates "start logging on startup" or "don't start logging on startup". I am able to SSH into the device wirelessly, or start a shell via serial if I need to without an internet connection to control it and move files over, and it logs data in a .asc format which works well with out automotive industry standard logging tools, as well as some open source tools.

The bads:

Currently it's wired to key on power, which means no matter what the switch status is.. it will turn off when the cars turns off, thus losing some data in the log file as it would be still writing data when it's shut down. I may end up wiring this to battery and just hope I remember to shut it off. It does have the software setup such that if it has a CAN data timeout (no more CAN transmitting.. meaning the car is off) then it will cleanup it's files and then shut down, but it still does draw a decent amount of power in this mode. We will see how it goes.

I've got it tucked away in the "secret" pouch of the center console, and power/USB cables running up to the front of the car. I wanted to keep the tactrix able to be removeable as I use it in other cars, but didn't want to have it plugged into the stock OBD port where I can smash it with my legs. I ended up buying an OBD jumper harness that basically Ts off the OEM one so I can tuck it under the dash and still have a proper connection. I need to tidy up the routing of the USB cable, but it's mostly hidden and out of harms way for now. Done some tests and it works SUPER well on startup.. and only PRETTY well on shutdown. Software can always be changed, for better or worse, so I'm sure I'll play with it more as time goes on.

I'll probably also end up posting up a lot of the software for the thing, since it's comically cheap for how well it logs information.

Couple photos:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...64c867f678.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0170913842.jpg

Laminar 04-11-2022 09:09 AM

How hard would it be to wire it up like a stereo head unit with an always-hot wire and an ignition wire. It would get power off the always-hot wire, and the ignition wire signals it to boot and shut down? No battery needed.

equinox92 04-11-2022 09:50 AM

If the hardware was setup to do that, I would. Unfortunately the RPi is more like a computer than an embedded device, so it's really just meant to operate as an always on device. Limitation of the cheapness of the setup.

equinox92 05-02-2022 08:05 PM

Few small things. Got the alignment dialed in with the new control arm, swapped the rear calipers for some (used) OEM ones in hopes the boot stay booty. Change the oil, and ran into a small issue that I am dumb for not seeing.. apparently the case of Idemitsu 10w30 I ordered in October was actually Idemitsu Premix.. grr.. I put 2 quarts in before realizing that it was really thin, and really clear.. so.. drained er out and got a case of the right stuff on the way and in the car. Only sat on the lift empty for like 3 days. Thanks to Rotary Performance for refunding me the cost difference on premix vs 10w30 MONTHS after I placed the order. Worked out alright.

Then I drove the car with all the changes from the winter. It rips! The shifter is great, but definitely takes some getting used to. Can't wait to get it on track. Looking like I've got a busy May (non racing related commitments), but am scheduled to get to Gingerman for the Midwest fest!


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...0cbb00200f.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...9afbcf9160.jpg

equinox92 05-02-2022 08:33 PM

Recaro SR-7F Passenger Seat + Schroth Belts

Alright.. I'll admit.. bit of a fanboy, and I really just wanted this seat for my Mini but didn't want to spend money it. Sorta hooked now.. so.. here we are. As usual, Recaro stuff just fits and bolts right in. 30 minute install and 10 minutes of that was me trying to find where the left side lap belt got off to in my basement. Rail bolted straight on bottom of the seat, so LOTS of room. I tried 3 other seats (the Cobra Suzuka I still have, a Sparco Pro 2000, and a Sparco Corsa (I think) ) and they all had height issues and hit the rear door card just a bit.

Fitment is clean, only issue I ran into was looping the lap belt into the "stock" seatbelt bolt area on the slider. Hit the trans tunnel a bit, so I had to pull it apart and sorta jam in a weird way. It's safe, but definitely TIGHT and could use a bit more clearancing for someone who cared more.

One thing I didn't think about was the fact that the SR-7 doesn't have a crotch hole.. so no "party straps". I think I'll be looking into an appropriate 4 point for the passenger side since I'm not sure how safe running just the 4 points of the 6 will be. It would seem super easy to submarine when I've got just the 4 belts on.

Also pulled out the OEM bar and belt, and used the same loops I did on the driver's side. Saved a total of 8 lbs! Boy howdy, what a cost to weight savings ratio.. Either way. I dig it.. and like I said, it's really just for the Mini :)


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