I had intermittent power-steering assist issues earlier this year. An easy step from the FSM is to check the electric connectors. After cleaning them all, and applying some dielectric grease, the problem hasn't returned.

 

lol never mind, missed Ivan's post.

 

First event in STX this weekend. Only Konis, sways, and 17" Dunlops, but the car felt pretty good. Star Specs are great, was supprised by the level of grip. Paxed about 1sec from the fastest car out there. Real happy for a start.
Wish some people would sign up for the Progress spring group buy, only 3 so far

 

Hey George, did things ever work out with your brake pads? Are they still squeeling on the street? My stock pads are nearing the end of their life and while there are no more events until next season, I'm going to need the pads before then... so I'm on the market for them as well.

 

^Don't get Hawk HP+. See if you can pick up some Carbotech XP8's or XP10's.

 

The ET800s have been great. No cold issues so far (although Joe was the first driver that day at Bremerton when you had problems with your pads; you might ping him to find out if he noticed anything). Low dusting, excellent bite when hot, still good when cold, etc. Still have not done a track day on them, but they have an excellent reputation in that regard. I'll certainly buy them again, since they appear to have no downside and are a true multi-purpose (street/solo/track) pad. I highly reccomend them.

Most of the squeal has gone from mine, but I still have not used the disc-brake quite goop on the inside front pads like I should have, and I suspect that's why there is still a low-level squeak.

 

Makes perfect sense, especially if you plan to take the car to *SP or SM in 2011.

I have some personal things that will occupy my time over the next 4-6 weeks, but by late November/early December I hope to have the time to sit down and type out a letter to the SEB/**** on moving the RX-8 to DSP.

 

FYI: If you'd be interested in custom-valved adjustable Bilsteins, hop on over to miata.net:

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=352532

Shaikh has developed a good reputation in the Miata community w/ his shocks.

 

In theory he's moving on to RX-8's next year, no?

 

looks like he's expanding beyond NA/NB miatas.

 

Thanks for heads up Mike.

 

Yah know, it dawned on me that not everyone has seen Shaikh's spreadsheet for setting up the 8: http://fatcatmotorsports.com/FRC_RX8/FCM_MSDS_RX8.htm

 

His "est" RX-8 OE spring rate is a bit off.

 

Pretty much everything is editable. This page is actually generated from an excel spread sheet (I forget the name of the program that does that...). The point is to fill in the fields for your specific setup and use it to help drive decisions... not that I know what to do with half the fields

 

Yes, Shaikh is very open to corrections and modifications. I helped him develop his original spreadsheet for the Miata, and it was very helpful for me over the years.

I wanted to go with a set of his shocks this year but the timing just wasn't right. I'm happy with the KWs, but that doesn't mean there isn't something better out there. When Jerry Jenkins went from revalved Koni Yellows to FatCats, he got faster, and then he won the ES National Championship.

Having said that, it will take a little work to get the shocks right on the RX-8. But Shaikh knows that and is a great guy to work with.

 

My car won't be BS legal much longer...

Ordered an intake tonight and will be ordering some Racing Beat exhaust pieces in the next 2-3 weeks. I've found a tuner to do my protune, so once I get a Cobb AP that'll follow. Coilovers will go on sometime around Xmas, and I'll order wheels and tires sometime before the season begins.

 

Just make sure to keep your splash guard.

 

Thanks. That's the plan. Racing Beat Headers and Midpipe are next on my to buy list...

 

Have there been very many dyno charts posted for the various headers now available? I've been considering replacing the full exhaust over the course of the winter but between the lack of empirical data on possible setups and the possibility of incoming sound level rules, I'm not sure what to do.

 

Which midpipe are you looking at? I'm in the market for one as well.

 

I'm considering two at the moment...

-Racing Beat 3" catless midpipe (will add 100cpi cat & a resonator)
-RX7store 3" resonated midpipe (will only need to add 100cpi cat)

 

IMO, the header is the last thing you should do on the exhaust. If you compare dyno runs between my car and Mark's, we make the same torque right up to 8k, at which point my curve tapers off and Mark's stays flat, which is why he made 220 hp compared to my 210.

But, I can certianly understand wanting to do only one protune. If/when I get a header, I'll need a new tune to get that last 10 hp. Of course, there may be more out there and it will be interesting to see if Mark can best his previous setup.

I know this didn't answer your question about which header is best. Just trying to set some context.

 

Remember, if you go with the RB resonator, you will have to fabricate an arrangement like I showed earlier in this thread - it won't fit downstream of the cat after the bend. And, the fabrication was a bit tricky. I was lucky to have an excellent fabricator who got it right the first time.

But then, my arrangement does make some good power, and I'm certainly happy with the sound (pretty loud initially but has mellowed out a bit) and I know it will pass inspection at nats.

 

That's exactly my reason for wanting to get a header and an intake this Winter when they weren't originally on my shortlist of mods -- I'd like to get just one protune next year.

I ended up going with the Racing Beat intake as I got a good deal on one that was still NIB. Too many RX-8 owners have experienced problems with idling after installing the Mazdaspeed intake so I passed on that one (I was thinking about doing a custom 'legal' MS intake like the CSP MX-5). In the end, the RB intake seemed like a solid choice that would give me some performance benefit over stock...

 

Basically my exact reasoning, I only wanted to do 1 protune next year. My current mod list for the winter is something like midpipe + cat, cat back and then seats. Once I'm at that point I'm going to keep the car static for a while. I've currently talked myself out of new wheels... we'll see how long that lasts. But that leaves me with space in my budget for a few mods this winter... or knock a bunch more off my car loan... yah, gonna get the mods

I'm still shopping for a pair of seats to replace the stock seats for daily use. I'm definitely not at the point where I want to swap parts on and off the car every race weekend, there's a LOT more I can do with my own driving ability over the next year than by throwing money at the car.