So has anyone autocrossed it yet?
 

While we're waiting for Vince to post details about how his car did in the school in Seattle, I'm wondering if anyone's competed in an auto-x with the Rx-8 yet. I'll be running mine in an event on August 9 in Raleigh NC.

I will be autocrossing at a two day event this weekend ( 7/26 - 7/27 ).

Okay, let us know how it goes.

get pictures!! :D

...oh, and don't forget to win ;)

Unfortunately I will be on the stock tires. Everyone worth beating will be on R compounds. I think a 350Z started comming, they might be on street tires too, but I'm sure this will be an easy victory. :D

I'll see about pictures. My wife will not be going, and all my freinds are pretty heavily involved in the event itself. I will try to find someone though.

Pictures:
http://www.compaddict.com/RX-8/
MP4 (6MB) movie (right click then save target as, then change the extension to .mp4, converted by Apple Quicktime):
http://www.compaddict.com/RX-8/DSCF0032.mp4
Vince

This is a fun car to drive! To me the car is very balanced. Good throttle response in second gear at ~25mph. Very predictable. Breaks are excellent.

I had 6 other people do one run each on Saturday. I wanted to get there opinions and see what they could do with the car. ( They all have way more experience than me. ) All were impressed, especially with the braking ( better that a Miata and a MR2 with autocross pads ). I wish there was a camera taking pictures of everyone stepping out of the car, because of the huge grins everyone had.

On Sunday I overheard several of these people talking enthusiastically about it. Three of them would buy the car if they were in the right financial position.

A few mentioned that it needed shocks, but then there are not too many stock cars that do not need shock upgrades for better performance.

I overdrove the car like crazy on Saturday, so it push through the four big turns in our course, but on Sunday once I got my head on straight the car was wonderful.

I wish I could give a better technical description, but since this is my first time out in this car, I am still fuzzy on the line between my errors and the cars limits.

I completely agree with them:

"Got to put 15km in a test drive. Here's the summary. By far, besides it's beauty, the best feature are the brakes. Man, they are wicked!" - from my first drive report in the Canadian - Ottawa Update thread.

Re: So has anyone autocrossed it yet?
 

Spindoc, are you preregistered for the Tar Heel event?

My wife and I will be driving our 240sx. We test drove an RX8 at Capitol Mazda last night. They don't have any that are broken in yet, so we couldn't drive the car very spiritedly, so we really couldn't tell how much we liked it.

Jason

Yeah, Jason, I'm pre-registered. My son Max gets to drive the Mini while I see how the RX-8 does. See you there.

Not yet. My first event will be on the 24th here in Austin, followed by a practice event on the concrete at A&M on the 31st, then Nationals the second week of September.

Well Spindoc, how did it go?

Ike

Fun as crap! My first run I thought the wheelbase was about twice as long as it needed to be, since my track car is a Mini Cooper S. By the third and fourth runs I was having a blast, as I realized how damn neutral the car really is.

You can really steer it with the throttle, swinging the back end around at will. Remember that video they showed on Car & Driver TV (or one of those shows) showing the car drifting around an autocross-type course at Laguna Seca? That's what it's like.

For fun runs, we usually had four people piled in the car. My buddy in the passenger seat was "co-driving" by pulling the handbrake around turns. I've never laughed so much while going through an autocross course; in fact, I've never laughed so much while driving, period.

(By the way, Jason, what happened to you for the fun runs? I kept looking around for you to give you a ride but didn't see you. Did you leave after your last run?)

autocross picture link