VIRginia International Raceway (VIR)
Best time - 2:16:76
Device: AMB Transponder

Car mods in video description.

Nice, that's a quick time at Thunderhill. (I'm not as familiar with BW lap times).

Willow Springs - 1:42.377 - 10/22/2016 - 2004, Hawk HPS, Eibach Springs, Progress Sways, 245/45/18 Potenza re070

Spring Mountain - East/West Track w/Bowl 2.8 CW - 2:24.696 - 5/17/2014 - 2004, Hawk HPS, bad fuel pump

Spring Mountain - Mansell Course (CW) - 3:00.135 - 4/24/2016 - 2004, Hawk HPS, Eibach Springs, 245/45/18 Potenza re070

Auto Club Speedway (Fontana) - Pro Course - "Roval" - 2:09.070 -11/17/2015 - 2004, Hawk HPS, Eibach Springs, 245/45/18 Potenza re070

RX8 2004 Base. Rear interior removed. RB header+midpipe+race muffler. 17x9 rpf1, 245square. AEM intake, PC680 battery. Bride driver seat, roll bar, blown Stance Coilovers, porterfield R4-1 pads.

Buttonwillow CW#13 2:06.03 on Hankook RS3 :)

Nice time.
Blown coilovers?

We need a west coast RX-8 track date with all the cars on here now :-)

Thanks! I watched a few of your videos before my day at thunderhill to get an idea of the lines.

Here's a link to my fastest lap of session 3

VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) Grand West Configuration (same as Car & Driver annual Lightning Lap)
Best time - 3:06:09
Device: Android, Racechrono, Garmin GLO


This laptime is some 10 seconds better than what the pro driver did in the 2009 RX-8 R3.

Dominion Raceway NASA TTD Lap Record
Best time - 1:35:175
Device: AMB Transponder

Mods in video description.

I think I recall from that article that they were fighting brake fade. Abused press car I'm guessing, I could get by on 100% stock brakes with mine. The OEM tires are also very much not great tires.

For sure. I thought people might be interested in knowing how a lightly modified example would compare to a stock R3.

Nice job! Tires/conditions/other mods obviously come into play, but you are clearly on it to be that much quicker :-)

Keep the videos coming - I need more coercion to start racing my RX8

Very impressive. I assume (as a track newbie) that you ran without traction control or stability on. Just watching impresses me at how the RX8 handles relative to other cars.

Hufflepuff was my instructor at VIR full course Nov 3rd. I was in the beginner group. We never really had what I would call a flying lap, but just going off elapsed times on the video my quickest lap was in my first session, a 2:28 with just a little traffic


I looked at a couple of split laps where I took the "no traffic" parts of two laps and spliced them together and got a best of ~2:25 for both of them.


I don't have really any heel toe downshifting skills and I overheated and delaminated my clutch disc and need to replace it. I was not able to participate the second day in my own car but Hufflepuff let me take his car out for a go on the grand course which was awesome!


Now I know what to work on over the winter :-)


I'll post video whenever I get it uploaded.

Nice work! I need to get back down there too. Maybe we can form a gang and beat-up on some p-cars and BMW's there next Summer. :ylsuper:

Don't waste your time with heel-toe on the track. Not needed on any synchro transmission make since the 1960's if you down shift right and at the right time. I only heel-toe on the street and only for fun.

Since you burned up your clutch, your shifting technique must change. If you do it right, the clutch should last the life of the car (unless you drag race). Nearly 80k miles on mine including something like 5000 on-track, none of it using heel-toe. Still works just fine.

uhh, I think you're confusing heel-toe and double clutching.

Heel and Toe is absolutely a skill to work on, lest you want to upset the car drastically under braking. Matching the revs with the blip of the throttle just before letting the clutch out in the lower gear kills the sudden engine braking effect you'll get otherwise from the big mis-match of speeds. I've had it upset cars before, it's not the most fun thing in the world. Some ABS systems can sort it out, but it's still not nice to parts (like the clutch...).

Double clutching is the skill where you're basically shifting to neutral (w clutch out) in between the actual shifts between gears. That's something you'd need for an unsynchronized gearbox which are exceedingly rare these days.

- KB, (former) instructor, approx 200-250 track hours, 10 seasons racing, yadda yadda.

I have the base model without DSC or TCS. So you are correct.

our rx8 at charlotte for 14hr event in august

Nope.

- WB, current instructor, over 500 track hours, 10+ seasons racing, etc. :D:

Lol, do you guys need some gloves? :-)

My own humble opinion:

• double clutching - not needed.
• heel and toe - useful and even required to extract maximum speed in certain turns, but not required when starting out.

- BD, current instructor, racer, student, etc :-D

Awesome stuff.

Seconded. Especially without ABS. If you're just hucking a stockish RX8 around sure go with the hamfisted downsifts if you like :)

It's been my experience in prior and current cars that not upsetting the chassis under braking and especially at or near turn in improved pure single lap times, total race pace, and increased mechanical sympathy. None of those things are negative.

Never claimed to know everything, so school me/us.
WHY
HOW

Drop some tech/knowledge. I'm impress-able :)

That's my point: If you shift correctly, with finesse, at the correct time, I think there is no need to heel-toe in most cars.

If you are hamfisted with no finesse, then yes, you may need to heel-toe to keep from swapping ends.

Does an RX-8 with a horrifying alignment resulting in toe-out on the rear wheels count? That was fun. :yelrotflm

And that correct time would be when exactly?
Clutch in coasting from initial braking application through after turn in perhaps?

Just trying to understand what "not necessary" means for you here is all

Cheers.

Loki - can you update my laguna time? From 1:55.012 above to 1:52.14 this past weekend, same setup on the PSS. wheeeeee

I'm game - sometime in 2017?

So apparently it's been almost a year since I updated the original post. It should be all caught up now. In some cases I just replaced some peoples older times with their new best (blu3dragon), especially when there were no major changes in the car configuration. Please review, if you feel something's out of place, let me know.

Also, I don't know all the tracks (like is Road Atlanta = Atlanta Motorsport Park?), so if a track or configuration is mislabeled, do let me know.

Man, I have to come visit to all these west coast tracks. Winter sucks lol.

Since racing season is over, I thought maybe folks would appreciate watching an RX-8 chasing a Ferrari. :Peace:

Streets of Willow CCW 1.28.4
Big Willow/WillowSprings 1:37.3
Chuckwalla 2:09
Buttonwillow 2:07.3

2005 Stock Engine, NT01 235/40/17, RacingBeat V2 tune, BHR Midpipe, RB Exhaust, JIC suspension, Hawks HP+.

went back to BW this weekend and posted a personal best of 2:07.23 - beating my previous time of 2:07.30 set in R-compounds... but without R-Comps!

Buttonwillow #13CW 2:07.23 - R3, stock suspension, intake, DR midpipe & catback, hawk HP+, 255/40/17 Maxxis VR1

VIR Full: 2:11.068 - EP car, stock motor, 245/40-17 Hoosiers

This thread is doing a better job of keeping my lap times than my own logs (I'm barely starting to log my data, haha).

Went back this weekend, no other changes, did a 2:06.45

Oooo...haven't posted any of my recent track times on here

02/04/17 Thunderhill Raceway East Bypass - 2:09.6
04/01/17 Buttonwillow Raceway CW13 - 2:06.43



2009 Mazda RX-8 R3
Ohlins Road and Track Coilovers
Hotchkis Front and Rear Sway Bar
Racing Beat Dual Resonated Midpipe
Racing Beat Catback Exhaust
Mazdaspeed Cold Air Intake
ACT Streetlite Flywheel
ACT Street Clutch
17x9 +45 Enkei RPF1
Maaxis VR-1 255/40/17
Cobalt Friction XR2/XR3
Custom Hood Vents

Summit Point Main 1:25.8
Pittsburgh Full 2:00.2

Car - 2004 Rx8 SCCA T4. Full cage, Mazdaspeed springs, Non adjustable Bilstein Shocks, Hoosier R7 tires, Mazdaspeed sway bar. Open exhaust, stock airbox with K&N filter.

Summit Point Main Circuit
Best lap 1:26:37.

My lap timer is within a hundredth of my NASA transponder. Mods and data acquisition setup in my video description. Basically full interior street car.

Nicely done! Have you modified your gears? Looks like you are in 3rd and 4th, never 2nd, even in T5. You are shifting to fourth way before I do in T8.

My gears are stock. The pineapple racing engine is strong; i have a lot of torque (for an RX8!). I don't feel like i need 2nd gear in T5 because i can powerslide the rear in 3rd- so i have enough power. Coming out of T1-2, i think any more power would either push me wide or cause power oversteer; i'm at the grip limit and barely able to keep it on track. For T3 and T10, i'm focusing on carrying enough speed that a downshift into 3rd isn't required.

My shift in T8? I'm short shifting a little bit (probably right at the buzzer, about 8500 rpms). I'm trying to get that shift done when the load on the car is minimum (transition between T8 and T9) to not upset the car. If i hold 3rd through T9, i'm coming out screaming over 9000 rpms and risk hitting my limiter. A raised rev limit and holding 3rd through T9 could be faster though, although i'm running out of track at the exit of T9 (at the grip limit...)

I think with a spring rate change from 8k front 6k rear to 10k front 7k rear and an optimized alignment, 1:25s should be easily achievable on my 235 R888. It was also very hot that weekend.

After years of driving the course in racing games, I was able to finally make my way down to Laguna and have a go at it. I was aiming for a sub 1:50, but was just short with a 1:50.1.

I'm sure I'll reach that goal my next time I am out there




2009 Mazda RX-8 R3
Ohlins Road and Track Coilovers
Hotchkis Front and Rear Sway Bar
Racing Beat Dual Resonated Midpipe
Racing Beat Catback Exhaust
Mazdaspeed Cold Air Intake
ACT Streetlite Flywheel
ACT Street Clutch
17x9 +45 Enkei RPF1
Maaxis VR-1 255/40/17
Cobalt Friction XR2/XR3
Custom Hood Vents

GridLife Time Attack
Gingerman Raceway Ambient Temp 82F
1:53.886

2004 Mazda RX8 68k Miles
Black Halo Racing Ignition Coil Kit
245/40/18 Riken Raptor Tires on OEM Wheels ($240/set)

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...ccc6780f4b.png

Nice driving. That's a good time with 200TW tires.
I'm hoping to be back there next month...

^that should be 1:49.49. Anything I did within the 1:46 range will have been on NT-01.

Gingerman Raceway, South Haven, MI -2.21 mile track
2:02.45 - 2004 6 Speed Manual Rx8
Hawk HP Plus on the front.
Rest stock.
Kumho Ecsta 4x II's, all season tires

Reviewing my 1:28 with a dead engine on street tires and 3.7k/2.6k springs, I agree with you on most of those points. Stickies vs street may explain the other points. I am actually in third through T1/2 and T5. I find 3rd in T3 helps climb that little hill, maybe because of the tired engine (or maybe because a goddamn Corvette made me over-brake! :mad:). Again maybe again because of the lack of torque, 3rd in T10 helps me get full-throttle early, tuck the nose in, hit that apex, and carry the speed out.

The one point where I have a different opinion is T8. You can hear your RPM doesn't change from basically your shift point at the entry until the exit of T8. I think you could be accelerating from the apex if you stay in third. Shifting after the T8 apex doesn't upset the car. I think you are running out of track on exit because you are early-apexing that turn just a bit. It's a later apex than you think. I'm pretty sure you have 1:25's in that car as it sits, and getting up that hill a bit quicker could help you get there. I'm going to try it your way next time I'm there (FATT) because I could be wrong, but I don't think it will be faster for me.

It's funny, you can always tell the guys who know how to drive, i.e. use momentum instead of relying on horsepower: The guys doing it right always run over the access road border line between T1 and T2 and nearly drop a wheel in the dirt. :smoker:

Thank you! I was actually comparing my videos to yours to see where I could improve. I'm hoping to be out there again next month as well. I will probably be going on the 31st with NCRC.

That's a start, maybe one of these times we can meet up at an event and see where we can gain you some time. When were you out at Gingerman last?

Hey thats not a bad idea, I was at gingerman April 14-15 this year. I'll be at Grattan on July 8th this year. Bought some new dedicated track wheels, 17" Enkeis with Yokohama Advan Neova AD08 R's on em, so hopefully that'll be a nice edge over the stock wheels with all seasons.

Yeah, I have been wondering what a better wheel and tire setup would do on my stock RX8. Right now I am running the factory 18s with some 245/40/18 Riken Raptor tires. Still managed to clock a 1:53 at Gingerman.

10 seconds slower than my Honda Challenge Race Car, but still fun.

Yeah, I will be home later tonight and would be happy to send you pics of my 8's and the wheels/tires I have for the track if you'd likd. Have done some minor weight reduction on the track one along with the new wheel setup.

Jake, What are you running for your line? You must be running a great line to turn 1:53 on a stock RX8 at Gingerman.

I average 1:53/1:54 on NT01s, Ohlin coilovers, and Hawk StreetRace pads; ...and I carried passengers all weekend. Personal best is 1:50, but not consistently (traffic during HPDEs plays a factor, lol). I should be able to dip into the 1:4x territory but you must be killing the line!