especially considering the dry grip, would love to put a set on my street Civic Si, but $$$$


good job!!!
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Hi!
What ride height would you suggest for best performance / best handling?
I have bought KW V3 coilovers and i don't want to lose the good geometry / roll centers Mazda has developed.
Are there any experiences about what a good ride height would be?
Thank you!
Daniel

 

does the lower bodywork make a difference in STX?

 

start around 13.5” (center of hub to fender) and make adjustments from there.

 

just started doing autocross in my daily rx8. car did great but needs better tires and i need a lot more practice driving it. i got put in stx because of my coilovers which sucks because the only mods i have are the street basis z coilovers and a header back exhaust with gutted cat. im gonna get a separate set of good tires next. what do yall suggest for decent tires that arent super expensive.

 

Falken RT660 for a competitive but not too expensive tire. Yokohama A052 or Bridgestone RE71RS if you want to win and you're willing to spend the money to do it.

 

did gutting the cat make it louder?

 

yes, by quite a bit. for a while i just ran it gutted cat, stock muffler and it was still a good bit louder

 

a gutted cat converter isn’t SCCA STX legal, just making sure that somebody not aware of this doesn’t misunderstand the conversation.
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true, meant to mention that in my original reply

 

I'm not new at all to autocrossing but I'm new to racing the RX-8 chassis, what's THE coilover setup to have for Nationals competitiveness? Maybe the better question is, does the RX-8 have a specific coilover that seems heads above the rest? Coming out of an STS Miata where is was Whitners or nothing and I'm not really seeing a specific coilover the STX guys are using.

I had someone suggest to me this weekend at our event to get a custom set of shocks made by Shaftworks USA and wrap them with Swift springs. Hoping some of you can point me in a good direction.

 

i don't think the RX-8 is the car to have in STX to be nationally competitive, so wouldn't nationally competitive coilovers be a moot point? i love the RX-8 and wouldn't choose to race another car. but i do so knowing it's not competitive in most of the classes i run. i simply have fun pushing the car and myself to their limits.

 

In the 2022 Nationals results, RX-8s placed 33rd, 34th, and 46th out of 48 in STX. I think it's safe to say you couldn't spend enough to trophy in STX.

That being said, Ohlins are probably the top street/race setup and all of the top DSP cars are on Penskes.

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-racing-...0/#post4952421

 

The car can win no one is building the cars and driving them right. The class has been twin heavy since 2014 and an rx8 has done extremely well against them several times (2nd in 2018)

 

What do you think a reasonable budget would be to build an trophy-capable STX twin vs. an RX-8? Could it be done without a fresh engine build?

 

Fresh motor is a requirement I think, other than that it shouldn't be more expensive than a twin build.

 

I would expect the rx8 to also need all new suspensions & drivetrain bushings, whereas the twins shouldn’t need those.

of course, the buy-in price of a rx8 is going to be lower than a twin.

 

Back into the STX fold... sort of. My wife bought my RX-8 back and she's campaigning it in STX again! I'll be in STX at a few national events but otherwise mostly just tooling around in my XA car.

I'm fairly convinced the RX-8 can get it done at nationals, I hope to prove that this year. We're going to work on having the car be better than it was in 2021, setup wise it's MUCH better since then, sadly I figured out the setup issues *after* nats that year, I was too busy focusing on STR until I sold my ND right after nats. Engine is still strong and car feels great in the little bit of street driving I've gotten to do so far.

 

Can't imagine it does.

 

I couldn’t decide which was the more appropriate choice …



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hoping you’ll prove me wrong tho’ …
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Haha. If I trophy I'll be happy. I haven't *not* trophied at nats before so that would be awfully disappointing!

If it turns out that we're getting our *** handed to us at the first few national events maybe I'll just run XA for nats in my wildly underprepped BRZ

 

Charlotte Tour would be a good place to find out. Enough fast people in STX will be there. Looking at the STX field, I'm already preparing to be hoping to break into the top 7 or 8 in class.

 

I know, haha. My wife and her codriver are running STX open so I'm off in XA. Should be fun to watch!

 

I was over at David Whitener’s shop the other day just before he left for Las Vegas. I think an RX8 will have a very hard time keeping up with him, along with the other top twin drivers.

He laid down strong times in Beeville with 3rd in the Challenge, and appears to have just finished on top today out at LV. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, but my expectation is for him to motor on for the win and top of the index finish.

edit: eating my own words with a side helping of crow, congrats to Manfred Reysser for taking the STX win at the 2024 LV Pro Solo event. Good job!
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As the shameful RX8 driver the excuse I have is that this is the first time the car has been sorted out and problem free in years - as a result I way, way, waaaay underdrove the car. We'll see how next week works out.