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