4 more days until i take my 8 on the track for the first time!

 

Good luck. I head to my second DE in two weeks.

 

Mach what tires do you have on your 8?

 

You know, they call this the "Go-fast-crack-pipe" for a reason. :p

I'm looking forward to my next track day (actually, the whole weekend) in two weeks, in Spokane, a track I've only been on once, and in the pouring rain on Easter weekend. It should be warm and dry at the end of June. I hope.

 

I have the stock Bridgestones. Potenza RE???? something...

 

might as well wear those tires out faster so you can get better stickier tires soon :D

 

Continuing my thoughts on the addictive aspects of tracking your car.... A year ago, I had a nice car that was fun to drive. In August, I did my first track day. In August, I did my first autocross. In December, I bought an extra set of stock wheels, and put track tires on them. In April, after too many wet track days on almost slick track tires, I bought another set of wheels, and put wet-day track tires on them. I also have winter tires on another set of wheels (fortunately, used, good condition stock wheels are easy to come by, at a very good price!). And so it goes....

Stop while you can! :D

 

LOL Spider, thats awesome! Just curious why you stuck with the stock wheels for the track ones? I would have figured you would have went to a lightweight wheel like the SSR Comp or something like that....

 

For two reasons--The stock wheels are much, much cheaper (the going rate for stock 04/05 S2000 wheels in perfect condition, with brand new stock tires on them, is $1350), and I have to keep stock wheels to be in stock class in autocross. Since I really suck at autocross, I don't need to handicap myself further by knocking myself into a non-stock class!

Of course, as the addiction grows further, I'll probably get tires exclusively for autocross, in which case my track tires can go on something lighter. :p

You should see my garage; added to my three extra sets of wheels and tires, we have an extra set for the RX-8 (winter tires).

And so it goes....

 

I guess. Hey Machan are you planning on being at the track day at the Autobahn on the 7th of next month? It would be nice to run with another RX-8 at the track

 

Weren't you the guy who almost hit my bimmer on the track :p

I'm not doing the Autobahn thing. I was seriously thinking about it but instead I'm doing a 2 day school at Grattan with the Windy City BMW club.

Between the 2 days at RA and the 2 days at Gingerman (in two weeks) and 2 days at Grattan (in Sept.) that blows my wifey track day allowance for the year. Of course, I'll slip in some afternoon sessions at Gingerman during the summer.

I know the guy who is setting up the thing at Autobahn and some of my BMW friends attended the last one and said it was great and they had lots of track time.

If I'm going to Gingerman for some afternoons during the week, I'll let you know.

 

I would love to go to Gingerman, but isnt that somewhere in Michigan?

Hey, I didn't almost hit you!
But seriously it would be nice to run with someone who has a very similar setup to mine to see what you are doing different are possibly better than me. I'm always down to learn.

 

Yep, Gingerman is near South Haven Michigan. About 2 hours from Chicago.

You can pay $60 from Tuesday-Thursday and drive 5pm or so until dark so you get 3 hours for $60.

They also have camping for $5 per night with free hot showers.

As for schools, I'll probably continue running 3 schools per year with the Windy City BMW Club. They are well organized, have great instructors and I have lots of friends in the club. You might consider joining next year because then you could do their Road America school next spring. You could also do a joint membership with Badger Bimmers who also does a school at Road America. A single club membership is $40 per year and the joing membership is an extra $15. You get a subscription to Roundel magazine.

 

I'll go ahead and join those clubs then. I'm assuming that I don't have to rock a Bimmer to join? A lot of clubs are like that.

 

No bimmer is needed. Just an interest in bimmers. And it helps if you say bimmer instead of "beemer" but you don't have that problem. :D


I think the Porsche club requires you to own a Porsche. Bunch of snobs :p .

 

I hate when clubs do that. I am pretty exciting to check out the Autobahn tho, been a while since I whacked out the rear end

 

The Porsche club does require you own a Porsche. Funny thing, there was a guy who joined, showed up for an 'open' track instructor clinic, and the club found out his Porsche towed his race prepped Z06. You should have seen their faces......Priceless.

 

so how many set of wheels do you have in total? I lost the count! I mean the ones sitting in your garage :p

 

lol Stop&Turn, they got pwn3d!

 

sunburn!

 

Fewer and fewer miles per tank of gas. ... No really, as your conering speeds go up with Rx8, you tank capacity will go down. Consider yourself doing really well, when you can manage run out of gas at the half tank mark.

 

yeah, a 20 min session normally eats up about a quarter tank of gas for me

 

i was recently corrected for this... It is 'fuel starvation' not running out of gas :D

 

My first track day experience:

I ran (4) 20 minute sessions at Portland International Raceway last Friday, and used 1/2 tank of gas. Temps were hovering around 68 degrees on the track.

Maybe I could of driven the car harder, but I was passing all the BMW's and Porsche owners there as it was. I even ran down a race prepped Datsun that had way more HP than me. The S2000 spun in turn 4 and went off the track, so that was not a problem. I left an EVO behind in the turns, but he caught me on the straights.

 

wow, u only went thru a half tank of gas? thats pretty impressive in and of itself! Not to mention the fact that you were passing people!