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Hi all, I am going to use this thread to post pictures and videos of my autocross/track day events.
Track days will be coming next year, but for now I am running autocross events at Devens Airfield in Ayer Massachusetts. These are local autocross groups only, I do not run with SCCA nor do I plan to. The SCCA groups here will do about 5-6 runs per event, where ours do 14-18. My times can be found here, https://ne-svt.org/#/results name Ryan Paradis in Intermediate class, and yes my friend who runs the events changed my car name on motorsportreg to a 2006 Wannabe-Miat . This link will show the latest events results until about 7/23 when the next event posts its results, I have the raw data but its in spreadsheet form.
The classes are essentially experienced race (140tw or lower) and everything else grouped into 200tw or higher, sometimes they will be custom groups just to be funny. While some may think this is unfair, it is actually far more fun as you are directly competing against some incredible cars and not racing against the same class and people every single event, and it makes the wins that much better. It's all for fun and we have some incredibly fast people and cars that go through our groups, a lot of the SCCA members will come to our events as well.
Car is setup with Sakebomb FPSpec Long-Stroke Ohlins DFV coilovers 14kg/8kg, Mazdaspeed Strut Bar (brake brace), stock sways for now (have progress tech front/rear, just haven't installed yet), BHR Catless midpipe, Sakebomb IGN1A coils, aluminum Koyo radiator, stock wheels wrapped with Hankook Ventus V12, and 17x9 RPF1s with Falken RT660's (almost heat cycled out, claimed to only have two events left, I have actually not driven an RX8 with 200tw tires yet), working with a local member here @MincVinyl to implement the JDM spec tune through Mazdaedit, currently only have the fuel enrichment done/throttle remap/lower fan on temps and longer run time/more oil injected, will work on ignition later on.
I will be going up to Loring Megacross up in northern Maine by the Canadian border August 5-7 for a three day autocross event, and I will use the sticky tires there and run them out. The plan is to have two wheelsets for track and autocross duty, Kumho 730s for track days and one of set of these for the other wheelset for autocross days, RE71rs/A052/RT660.
This is roughly my 7th event so far, first season ever autocrossing, and I officially graduated from intermediate at the 7/2 event in the video below!
As you can see it was absolutely pouring rain, my run group (2nd) easily had the most rain, where the 1st run groups had it mostly dry out in the beginning of the day.
Video was not taken by me, was taken from the starting line tent. Eventually I will get a gopro and start doing onboard, for now I am just looking to have fun and punch above my weight class.
Enjoy!
Last edited by SparklingFresca; 07-07-2023 at 08:06 PM.
These pictures are from the 5/14 event. The guy riding along with me got me into autocross, he used to drive an 8, whom I picked up all of his race parts from, and now he drives a new GR Supra 6MT in the beautiful blue color. He always gets at least one ride with me, and I let him drive whenever he wants. The RX8 truly is a special car that makes people want to come back to it!
So I have had quite the summer, autocrossing nearly every other weekend at Devens with my three local clubs. I never planned on doing any SCCA events this year but someone special showed up to Devens so I had to meet her! Tamra is no longer driving the DSP RX8 and was letting her two good friends drive the car this year, of which I got to take a ride in, and wow, what an awesome car. They just recently put the car up for sale and I had a chance to buy it, but the timing wasn't right for me as we just moved into my new house we built and didn't have much funds for a full scca prepped car at this point. Had the timing been different I would've jumped at the chance to own this rx8.
The opportunity arose where I got invited to attend the Loring Mega Autocross up in Caribou Maine, which is about a 7hr drive for me. This was my first event using my very very very used falken rt660s, which ended up opening my eyes to actual speed and grip. It took me a couple runs to really learn how far into these tires I can lean before I found that limit of grip. Unfortunately by the time I was feeling fast on day 2 we had an incident on course involving a vehicle and two course workers. Everyone is okay now, but it truly was a somber day in remembering that motorsports are inherently dangerous and you cannot remove all risk from the equation.
Day 1 on friday was the test and tune, in which the local news came out and did a story on those who showed up. It was absolutely pouring out there, I made about 30-40 runs on that day since there were only a couple people using the course, my buddy in the prelude and myself were absolutely not "testing and tuning," just having tons of fun. The background commentary is from our friends group waiting for hours to see and record this clip on the local news.
All in all I had a great time with my friends, we came to race and put down fast times, but left with stronger friendships than before, which truly made the trip special.
The porsche edged me out on day 1, but for the few runs we had on day 2 I was ahead of him by a significant margin. Yes your eyes do not deceive you, that is a supra! It's a surprisingly easy car to drive, the power delivery is very progressive and never feels overwhelming. The oven didn't work so I cooked pizza on the grill with my iron pizza stone, turned out amazing!
Well this season has been off to a great start. The car currently has the NC progress tech swaybars mounted now which I finally got around to installing, and also added the lower temp oil cooler thermostats, and a slight tune with the help of Minc. Biggest change has by far been running Bridgestone RE71RS, these tires are way better than the slick Falken 660's I got as hand me downs with over 200+ runs on them. First two events went great this year, couldn't of asked for a better start to my season! Again my friends like to troll my MSR account, I am Ryan Paradis driving the "2006 Mazda needs new apex seals in Hockenheim White."
Saturday was a great day for me, hit top 10 at our local club with some seriously fast SCCA drivers that day. It was my first day on the Bridgestones, which was my first true experience with what actual grippy tires feel like. I was playing around with pressures a little, and found that 30fr/29rear hot was the sweetspot to get the sidewalls wearing down to the sidewall pointer indicator, any lower and the sidewalls would start to roll over.
Sunday was even better for me as I placed top 5! This was my 17th or 18th autocross event ever and I feel I did very well, the tires are so confidence inspiring, it really is the best change I have made to the car. I think in an event or two I will start reeling in that NSX, or at least reel in Steve driving it. My current rival Eric Sholz is seriously fast for what he is driving, him and all the organizers want me to attend the SCCA events, which I will attend a couple eventually. The back to back days for 4/20-4/21 was a lot of driving and it was nice to have a break this weekend so I skipped the 4/28 NER Solo event to get some stuff done around the house.
07-07-2023, 07:48 PM
. This link will show the latest events results until about 7/23 when the next event posts its results, I have the raw data but its in spreadsheet form.
