congrat’s to Amy.
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Pain in the butt thanks to UPS losing the package and me having the brilliant idea to work outside... but camber bushings in the knuckle are done and got us another degree of front camber. I backed it down to about -4.5 degrees. ARP studs as well, so now we also have 10mm of spacer on each side. Testing tomorrow at NNJR

 

Yeah, she was pretty bummed but happy she found time on Sunday and then the challenge win obviously perked her right up! I hadn't realized it, but Amy had literally never won anything at autocross before, not even a class at a local event. Sheesh.

Thanks dude! That was wild. Even on Sunday I was leading at one point and I was so confused about what was even happening. Jon really laid it down to take the win though.

Considering where the two national champions ended up in STX results... I think we did alright haha.

 

Wow impressive camber numbers, that will feel great

 

*huge* front grip gains from the camber and spacers, haha. Struggled a bit with getting the setup where it needed to be now, but had great pace when I wasn't sideways murdering cones lol

 

I've been lurking the past several weeks and also bugging DocWalt . Picked up this 05 last week! 95k on it and well taken care of overall.



It's got a few bits and pieces to make it a better STX car. Racing Beat Renv2 tune, RB header, midpipe, and exhaust. OTS BC racing coilovers 8k/6k. Some Konig 18x9 Ampliforms with 245/40/18(too tall) Conti ECFs. SOHN adapter, BHR coils w/ Magnacor wires.

I wanted to do a build thread, but I think I need more posts lol. If this engine can last me another ~15k I'll be happy.

My build on this will be slow, but I'd like to do a Progressive 32mm front bar and the off-set knuckle bushings in the near future. Might be able to get out to an autox in July.

 

Welp, Amy & I both ended up second at the Brunswick Pro. Heavily weather affected after first heat (which was in itself a big mess due to the dust/pollen/grit on course). At least Amy and I can take away that we had awesome pace in the wet on Sunday AM and the car is working well! Too bad we both sorta messed things up on Saturday AM







Amy's fastest runs:



My fastest runs:



Matt's fastest runs:




and for fun, my fastest wet runs, absolutely stomping the STX field haha:

 

Nice driving, I'm surprised how short that course is though!

How is the grip levels on concrete in the wet with the yokes? Seems pretty planted

 

Pro Solos always have fairly short courses due to the nature of the event. For better or worse

The grip was great, when it wasn't puddled. We were on fairly old tires too, into the wear bars, haha

 

They have to fit in two mirror-image courses, so unless it’s a really huge site then low - mid 30ish seconds is typical. They’re also heavily attended. If there are weather, timing, etc. issues on Sat it can run into near sundown conditions or have to finish on Sun, plus still fit in Sun and Challenge runs. A Pro Solo weekend can beat you down. Not so common now, but a few went into Monday to be completed. I want to say there was an event in Topeka that was shutdown due to unexpected snow showers and finished on a Monday back in the late 1990s - early 2000 period.
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Pulled off 2nd in STX and 3rd in PAX at the Finger Lakes/Romulus tour this past weekend. My day 1 was kind of a mess, but day 2 was pretty on point. Amy did well in STXL/LS, finishing 2nd behind Shelly Monfort.



My final run that I coned could have pulled off the win, even with the disaster entering the far 180* corner where I decided to bury the brake pedal and hammer ABS. Whoops. Then I proceeded to hit a cone in the next right hander which upset the car.

 

Great job! It was nice to indirectly meet you through John (kirby pikachu 69nice csx miata) lol. The New England region has some fast people and you put up a hell of a fight against Evan. I think I am going to start running some scca events now, either STX or XA.

 

Thanks! Nice to meet you indirectly as well! I heard you picked up another RX-8 from John, haha

 

Went to NNJR and took top PAX


Amy did great too, sadly a +1 (on a cone that was already half out of the box)

 

best tasting crow I ever ate , congrat’s Ken



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Thank you!

Didn't put together runs worth a damn for nats, but considering where we're at prep wise we're thrilled. We've got ~100 pounds to take out of the car and some power to chase (stock header and we had to throw a super crappy mid-pipe on the car a few weeks ago to be legal for Finger Lakes Tour) and a few set up things.

Here are my finale runs though, that was... not the margin I expected over those guys, to say the least.

Left side:


Right side:

 

200TW Hoosier? 🤔


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Thankfully it's 5/32" tread depth so not legal for SCCA stuff. I say thankfully because if it couldn't last long enough at 7/32" to meet Continental's requirements to be sold... I'm glad we don't need to buy them and immediately shave them.

 

It wasn't a national-level event, but Cody Hunt (STX national champ in FRS) came down last weekend to compete in WDCR. I was actually ahead for two runs and only finished 0.079 seconds down. i was pretty proud of the result considering my rx8 is on the lighter prep side of things.

 

Working on off season upgrades for Amy's car!

We're finally getting a proper OS Giken LSD (the stock one had pieces fall out before Finger Lakes so we ran nats that way) thanks to Shaftworks USA and getting the shocks refreshed (we were borrowing shocks much of the year, still Shaftworks Bilanx singles but with custom valving that we're switching to) and working on adding power...

I found a CHEAP header that happens to have 1-7/8" runners (literally only bought it to 3D scan and get a reference of where I could run tubes) and designed a 3d printed stainless collector to fit and replace the garbage collector it has. The eventual goal is a nice header with 2" runners and a really long low angle merge, but this is a decent test just swapping this in place of the stock header and seeing what it does on a dyno.

 

Do you intend on running the O2 sensor in that location? Looks like it would favor air from a single runner...

 

Yes, that is the central runner, so it would get both rotors.

 

A nice Christmas gift from Shaftworks USA for the RX-8

 

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Santa came through big time! You'll be very satisfied with how it puts down power over the oem unit imo, Did you get it tuned? I highly recommend having that done and running OS-G oil. Also might be worth looking into wpc treatment and installing the 5.12 r&p to get the most out of your efforts. Looking forward to some new runs, keep it up!