Mazda RX8 Track Car, "The Kraken"
Discussion
Update time
Apologies for the lack of photos in this post, I had taken many photos, but my phones SD card corrupted and I lost the lot, gutted. A new card and cloud backup is in place now. Anyway…..
I had big plans over winter 2017 to get the car worked on, this however all stalled.
Issue 1, I bought a V8 bowrider speed boat for some reason, and then I focused too much time on maintaining that, which I then decided wasn’t for me, and put it up for sale! Stupid I know. However now the weather is improving a bit I may keep it for a while and sell it mid-summer instead, everyone loves a V8, especially me. Moving on….
Issue 2, my garage was having an in-floor sill lift installed; this required some quite significant changes to the garage. For a start, the up and over door had to go and was replaced with a roller door, this took forever to sort out, delivery late and late again, when it finally arrived it wasn’t in the best condition, the fitter had issues, once installed there were issues, but eventually it was sorted.
My garage has a false ceiling for storage, I wanted to convert this to a mezzanine giving me room to raise a car, but still plenty of storage if required, so everything up there had to come down, all wiring, piping, etc. attached to the ceiling had to be removed, false floor raised, joists cut, and the floor back down, wiring redone, and piping re done. At the time I also changed from fluorescent tubes to LED lamps.
Discovered whilst making these false ceiling changes that the actual roof is leaking, and has been for some time and ended up having the roof replaced.
Then onto the real problem of the floor, for a start I have Duratile’s down (plastic clip together floor tiles) so I had to lift most of them, then the builders turned up to cut into my 4” thick un-reinforced floor, “weekends job these groundworks” they said.
Well its 9” thick, and reinforced, it took two weekends to get past the steelwork with jack hammers, eventually through, digger in, holes dug, floor poured, shutters made, sides poured, and conduit installed. Then fitting the ramps was a logistical nightmare, they were 350kg each, I couldn’t use any engine cranes I had or could hire as they all have ‘vee’ legs, and I had to move them from one covered area into the garage, over rough ground and then somehow get them in the holes centrally. Moving them nearly cost my friend his thumb when he put his hand in the wrong place and the ramp slipped, night in A&E, but thankfully no damage. Eventually though, they were in and plumbed up.
End to end, sorting the garage and installing the ramps took the thick end of three months.
Now we are at Xmas 2017, the car has had no attention at all since getting back from Iberia, and it was feeling a bit sorry for itself, but things are on the up.
I dig it out of the car port, and move it into the freshly refurbished garage, get it on the sill lift and raise it up a bit, all good.
Concerned about higher water temperatures again I have taken Clive’s advice at Mazda Rotary Parts, who has a RX7 engine in his car and I've decided to change my radiator and water pump. At the same time, I’m replacing the thermostat, removing the air conditioning, the radiator cap, and changing the coolant.
The job list-
• Revert back to OEM pulley on the alternator
• Find the suspension knock and rectify
• Replace the suspension with Tein Monosport coil overs and Active-EDFC
• Replace the brake discs, pads and fluid.
• Go onto slicks and 17” wheels
• Get the car setup and corner weighed, probably at Centre of Gravity, I got a good vibe in Iberia from the chap.
• Ditch as much un-necessary weight as possible whilst still maintaining decent car function, no need to go major mad as the driver has a high ‘kerb weight’ LOL.
• Fuel pump replacement with a series 2 pump and head.
• Fit a Safety Devices roll cage, including front cage and door bars
• Fit a crutch strap into the seats to convert the harnesses from 4 point to 6 point
• Make a relay panel so all the electrical stuff is in one place and properly fuse protected
• Refit the RaceKeeper setup properly
• Fit Electric water pump
• Change radiator, thermostat, coolant cap, and move to FL22 coolant
• Remove the air conditioning
• Replace the grill with an OEM one, with the blanks still in behind the number plate
• Get a smaller/lighter battery if required
Off we go, car up in the air, suspension and brakes removed front and rear, and source of the knock found, the front passenger side lower arm forward mounting bolt, loose. Coupled with this, the suspension mounting bushes in the front lower arms were worn and the ball joint on one of the arms wasn’t great either. As I was also about to pay for probably quite an expensive setup and corner weighing I decided to replace the lot.
A call into Mazda provided two new, upper and lower arms; I fitted these as is and kept the rubber bushes in, seemed silly to cut out fine new rubber to put in polyurethane. That said, not a month after I fitted these items the recall came through where they would probably have been replaced FOC by Mazda, absolutely gutted, still, moving on….
Tein Monosport coil overs with Active-EDFC were also fitted at this time, with the optional GPS kit. I decided to route the control unit directly through the middle of the head unit and mount it onto the blank used for the mini disc player. Just set up in speed linear and G-linear automatic for now until I get used to it.
Front and rear brake discs and pads were fitted, EBC Ultramax this time (O.E size, plain, vented), with an upgrade to the BlueStuff pad material for more bite and feedback without the grooves that lunch through the pads as they do on John’s car. The driver’s side HEL brake line was showing evidence of failure, the ferrule which joins the flexible part to the fixed part could be rotated by hand and as I had a replacement on the shelf I changed it, but this required the hard line to the ABS modulator to be replaced also, as the collet was rounded. Brake fluid replaced again at this point too.
Then the fuel pump, I replaced the S1 Walbro uprated fuel pump with the complete assembly and pump from a S2, this is to try and combat fuel starvation on long sweeping corners. I actually haven’t had this issue yet but John has, and I can’t help but think that I’m close to having an issue. Theoretically once I’m on slicks cornering G should be higher, so I’m more likely to have an issue, so a pre-emptive change whilst the car is out of track day season.
To the front of the car, bumper off, air conditioning radiator and coolant radiator removed, battery out, ECU box out, air conditioning pump off, air conditioning pipes removed, engine bay sound deadening removed, headlight washer system removed.
Cross member relieved to give room for electric water pump, which was then mounted and plumbed into the lower radiator hose, the routing for this is not great; there is a lot to go around like the anti-roll bar. I will see how I get on with the current arrangement but a future modification would probably be to make up a metal pipe with a tight 90 degree bend in it to better match the water pump, attached to the cross member.
Water pump blanking plate fitted with a new gasket, thermostat replaced, moved to a 2-pulley belt system with OEM alternator pulley, and then the new Koyo radiator fitted with a 1.3bar radiator cap.
Following the advice in the EWP instructions I decided to run the EWP off the ignition, so it’s full flow, all the time. The instructions suggest that if you are doing this; you should drill a 5mm hole in the thermostat to aid flow.
I did this, and got a strong build-up of pressure/fluid in the header tank, went up in stages to 6x 5mm holes and still had issues, in the end I removed the thermostat altogether and the flow is spot on. However the car may now take unacceptably long to get up to temperature, time will tell. I will fit the Davies Craig EWP digital controller if required to throttle the pump in the future. One thing I have noticed is with the change to FL22 coolant (1:3 ratio) and the EWP running, the radiator low level light is on most of the time, I've unplugged it for now but will come back to it in a while and see what is going on, I've already replaced the header tank once with a new OEM item.
I managed to get all the water pipes routed, permitting the retention of the OEM battery about 1” over to the passenger side. A small standoff had to be welded up to permit this, along with a stiffening bracket to the ECU cover. Once I have some more coin I may go to a lighter battery but for now, the OEM one will do. I also had to replace the plumbing between the sohn adapter and the 2-stroke tank, to avoid the new positioning of the various pipes.
In the cabin, all the interior trim has come out, tar sound proofing removed, doors have been lightened of un-necessary parts like speakers and cross overs, but the card, glass, and footwell trim has been retained to prevent injury in case of rollover.
The electric window system has been retained for now also, along with the factory door locks. The airbag system has been removed, along with all un-needed bracketry, the alarm siren and wiring stays for now, but will slowly be removed once the engine is running again, along with the associated wiring. This is so I can confirm that each box I unplug does not interfere with the immobiliser. Stereo was retained as it controls the HVAC system, but the cd changer section was removed off the top of it to keep the weight down. All wiring for the central console, electric seats and heaters is retained for now, but unplugged and tied out the way, for the same reason that I want to check the earths and power lines in there are not used for the immobiliser in some way, once its running I’ll disconnect more things until its bare bones and still working, then I’ll remove all the wiring. Ideally I want to get down to a point where the car has working traction control if I need it, and ABS, for most of the other luxuries, and associated wiring are gone.
Roll cage fitting was an endurance, shaping the feet to fit the panels took forever, but eventually the six cage mounting feet and centre brace were welded in, painted and protected. They neglect to mention in the fitting instructions the challenges with welding 3mm steel to 0.7mm steel, which took some education. Also some of the provided bolts couldn’t be used due to clashes with the bars. However once in, it fouled on everything, mainly the door cards and the seats.
The seats thankfully were contacting on none structural parts of the seat, so a quick cleave of the plastic bolster support gave clearance.
Door cards needed the bottom half trimming off, for clearance for the door bars. I considered attempting to make door cards but the electric window switches still being retained kyboshed that idea. When I move to polycarbonate windows I’ll then move to flat cards I think. It’s not pretty at the moment but it is functional, which will do. I also got some foam padding for the roll cage bars to make things a little more comfortable, the vertical front door bar is close to your right leg when on the throttle.
Unfortunately the position of the seat doesn’t give much in the way of clearance for your helmet in the driver’s seat, so soon I will ditch the slider and mount the seat as close as possible to the deck and maybe move it even more inboard by an inch or so. I’ll also pad the roof bars.
On the whole, I think the rear cage is a good idea, but not the front and the door bars, if I went back to do it again I wouldn’t fit them.
A NRG steering wheel hub adaptor was fitted, along with a quick release boss and a Sparco steering wheel from one of Allan’s old car projects, makes getting in and out around the cage much easier with a helmet on. I didn’t bother connecting the horn, not really required on the track; maybe I’ll put it on a separate push button at some point.
The NRG hub adaptor is flawed in that the holes drilled on the back for the prongs which interface with the steering angle sensor are out by 90 degrees. Fit it as supplied and your traction control won’t work, and the indicators won’t auto cancel. Your only option, which I did, is to re-drill two new holes, irritating to do in a brand new, “bespoke” for the RX8, £110 part.
Anchors for the crutch straps were secured to the floor, giving 6-point harnesses now, 3” shoulder and lap belts, 2” crutch straps, very secure. Bracketry was then made up to permanently mount the RaceKeeper system in the back on anti-vibration mounts. OBD2 extension cable installed to extend back to the new positon for telemetry. Originally I wanted to move the RaceKeeper to the front of the car but it made more sense to keep it at the back, easier to get it level so the G-reader works properly.
Electrics then required some attention, quite a few additional circuits had/were to be added including a timed circuit to hold on the water pump and gearbox oil pump after shut down for 30 seconds, so to get them fused up properly I made a panel with a direct feed from the battery, I secured this in the rear of the car on the cross brace. Wiring to this wasn’t fun, cables had go everywhere to get the systems working in the way that I wanted it too, took ages to get it all done and neat. The EDFC system has wires all over the place, that wasn’t fun to get routed either. As part of it though I put an additional hole in the bulkhead whilst I had all the throttle pedal etc. out for access, for the inevitable plumbed in fire extinguisher line which I will fit in the future.
Following Johns light knock at Rockingham, which caused significant damage due to the tow hook, the front tow hook attachment was changed to a wire rope style, using a box section welded to two supporting plates, should be stronger than standard, and if not, I can always screw the OEM tow eye into the other side mount.
I also cut out the rear bumper lower vents at this point, removed the fog light, removed the rear bumper closing panels and removed the exhaust shrouds, all to help stop the back bumper parachuting the car a bit. BBQ’ed one of them nicely in Iberia.
Once all that was done, the car was fuelled up and then loaded onto the trailer and down to Centre of Gravity (www.centregravity.co.uk) for a full suspension setup including corner weighing. This happened to occur on the same day in which the snowmageddon returned to the UK. I got down there fairly cleanly but it was snowing when I unloaded the car from the trailer.
Really impressed with Centre of Gravity, Chris & Pete there were really welcoming and explained everything they were doing very clearly, very thorough, and nothing was too much hassle, even if a small adjustment would take an hour they got on and did it. Not to mention they bought bacon and egg butties, for the two of us who were there on the day getting work done, heroes.
By the end of the day Chris had got the car to 1501kg including the roll cage, a ¾ tank fuel load, and a pair of 85kg occupants. The corner weighing got the cross axle weights to within 3kg of each other. Geometry wise I've gone for 3 degrees negative and parallel toe at the front and 2 degrees 2 minutes negative and 04 minutes of toe at the rear. They discovered that one of the diagonal rods were not adjusted right and placed the rear on the wrong section of the camber/toe curve, so my car actually toed out with compression, when it should toe in. With lots of adjustment they got it to toe in the right way and the right amount with the adjustments available to them. All in all, I’m very happy with how the day went.
Home time though, and all the different types of weather were experienced, sun, rain, wind, snow, ice, hail, fog, some are quite entertaining with a trailer on.
Back home, all I had to do prior to Anglesey was to pad the roll cage, and to fix the inner door card on the driver’s side of the car which I had over lightened and now the window wouldn’t go up smoothly.
Anglesey comes around and the car is loaded onto the trailer and off we go. Weather was forecast to be heavy rain and wind but we managed to get there in a pocket of good weather, clear, dry and sunny all day, lovely.
Another great factor was that not a lot of people had booked on, roughly 20-25 cars in the paddock meant for lots of space on the track and lots of clean laps, excellent day all round.
The car was on another level, love its new setup, it’s so much more confidence inspiring to drive and I love the tyre feel on slicks. There are a few little bits and bobs that need sorting but nothing major, very pleased. Al and I spent most of the morning out on track back to back; car didn’t miss a beat all day. My two friends though that came along for joyrides didn’t fair up to well, one of them got out the car after a particularly long session, green in the face and worse for wear, the other one stayed in for two sessions, and lost his lunch on getting out the car, poor fellas.
The helmet clearance issue turned out not to be an issue at all, it was close to your helmet but you never knowingly contact it in normal track driving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxPiOAKsOTI
Back at base there were a few items to be addressed, the driver’s side window will not raise up smoothly, the gearbox oil pump does not run on with the electric water pump, and the rear bumper flapped free of the holders in the rear quarters.
The gearbox oil pump was an obvious one, whilst I had correctly wired the relay for the pump up to the timed side of the timer relay, what I hadn’t included in that circuit was the additional gauging. The oil temp gauge provides the earth for the gearbox oil pump relay, and hence if it isn’t also energised, the pump will not run on. A simple rewire sorted that out.
The rear bumper flapping around was a screw that had vibrated loose, the bracketry in the region of the rear bumper attachment has been trimmed back for wheel/tyre clearance and a self-tapping screw was used to secure everything. I changed this to the standard ‘drifter’ cable tie repair. Stronger in repair, and easier to snip off and remove the rear bumper.
The driver’s side window was found to be a loose nut on the attachment of the runner to the inner door card, and a dried out guide runner, simple fix.
I was also going to change the diff at this point get back to the overall ratio I had when I had the 18” wheels and the 5.350 rear diff, which I liked. However the next track day it was on is the very short and technical Three Sisters in Wigan, so I left the diff in for now and will replace it afterwards, probably with an R3 4.777 diff.
I've got a third set of wheels for it, Speedline Corse 2113 wheels this time, again from an Evo, with 235/40/R17 WR180 Nankang NS2R tyres for use on those damp days where it’s too wet for slicks but not wet enough for full wets. Only issue is that they use different wheel nuts to the ones on the Enkei’s, not that this is a big deal, I just need to remember to carry them whenever I’m carrying the wheels.
Onto Three Sisters, this is predominately a karting track and as such, is a short and narrow circuit. I had low expectations about the day, but the weather was amazing, the track was commutable in a day, really cheap, and actually really good fun.
Javelin had just starting doing events there, so I signed up. Sessioned day, 15 min sessions, 1 novice, 2 interurlte, and 1 experienced. Worked really well, not too many on track and decent runs. The track was quite challenging, they altered it at lunch to bring in some of the infield corners into the circuit, this was much more difficult. Day went really well, only one moment where I came off the track a little bit, but only a little off, if the track was 6’ wider I’d have kept it on the grey stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ9qzQW7Zzc&t=...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTJ0DCG8tNs
The oil, water, gearbox, all stayed well under control temperature wise with no issues, however the cabin temps didn’t. The rollcage blocks off the two outer vents, I still have glass windows in so I have to keep them rolled up, and the a/c has been removed. It’s a hot environment inside the car.
Coupled with that, the manifold temps appear to be under control but now the centre section is getting so hot that the heat through the tunnel is mad.
I’m planning on some additional heat shielding around the centre section, maybe Zircotec coating it, I’m going to fit a roof vent for airflow, and cut and mesh the bootlid to get the air out easier, into the area of low pressure at the back of the car. Fingers crossed that all works.
Before Castle Combe, I actually managed to get a wriggle on and get the diffs swapped over. Running an R3 diff now on the 4.777 ratio, one of the other members of our little RX8 circle has taken on the 5.350 diff, which will be a good match with his 18” wheels.
I also fitted a TRS roof scoop to get some air in the cabin, and cut out and meshed the bootlid to get the air out. Managed to retain my stripe to, conserving valuable sticker real estate.
Next job after Combe will be to make some plastic windows with sliders, because with them being glass at the moment I have to run with them up, at least with sliders and plastic glass they can be run open. I might change the mirrors to none electric ones too, then I could go to full flat door cards.
Onto Castle Combe, I was picking up a lathe at the same time so to keep the trailer light, I travelled without spare wheels, and the fuel cans were carried in the tow car.
Got out on track, and it was a decent lovely day and the car and driver was going well. Interesting dynamics though with the new vent mods. All windows up, everything works fine, roof vent and dash vents pour air in and it goes out the back fine. But any windows down at speed and in comes exhaust gas. Therefore when I fit window sliders they need to have scoops on to keep the air pressure up in the cabin.
Heat from the exhaust though was still a problem; the exhaust centre section is very hot, need to do something about the heat that radiates through the floor. I also need to do something with the oil coolers, the front of the fins are bent over a lot and I feel its impeding airflow. Some time with the needle nose pliers required to straighten them out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2gJY0Qr29k
After quite a few laps we were getting quite fast and enjoying the day, until we discovered that the cords were showing on the very outside edge of the left hand slicks. We swapped them left to right and came in after 5 laps to keep checking them, 3 more sessions later the shown cords got a little bit bigger so we packed up for the day and came home. Due to a nice combination of breakdowns and double accidents in a roadwork zone it took 8 hours to get back, awesome.
Next up was Mallory Park in August; a group of the RX8OC was attending this track day so thought we would join in. Preparation for this day was quite light, change the slicks to another set of used ones, this time Dunlop’s and 235 wide profile and that was pretty much it other than the usual fluid checks.
Track time was good, car and drivers behaved themselves all day, minor bump in the pits with another RX8, no damage to the Kraken other than a scuff which matches the other side but unfortunately the other chaps car took quite a hit.
Couldn’t quite get the stones together to attack Gerrard’s full tilt with a brakeless entry, but better than the last time I was there, a good day all round.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijhhFvZzwVM&t=...
Nothing to do with the RX8 now but after Mallory Park six of us boarded a plane and headed off to Gatebil at Rudskogen in Norway for the weekend, and what an experience that was. I've seen drifting before, but nothing like this, some proper skill on display and the cars were awesome. It was just like days of old at Santa pod when you couldn’t be sure what was powering anything, nowadays every other car is just remapped stock engine with some shiny bits.
RB26’s, 2JZ, V8’s and boost were re-occurring themes, in everything from old Volvo 240’s to Lamborghinis, awesome.
People were friendly too, if you stopped to have a look at someone’s car in the paddock, they jumped up to come and talk to you about how it’s going, problems they are having, etc., great, and their English is betterer than mine.
Expensive though, at a 10:1 NOK/GBP exchange rate, £22 for a pizza and £4 for a bottle of water gets real old real fast.
https://youtu.be/m_Xo3GDfrpA
https://youtu.be/UEbPZ_qfmbA
https://youtu.be/Z5ak1yprcAc
Once back I did a bit of work on the car, I removed the front bumper and straightened all the oil cooler fins, they were folded over and restricting airflow, keeping temps up a bit. What a rubbish job it is straightening those fins, took hours. Whilst I was all in the region of the oil coolers I removed the thermal pills and blocked up the orifices so that the coolers work all the time. I don’t suffer from issues getting the oil up to temperature so I don’t what the possible failure mode of a pill being stuck open.
I finally completed the roof vent installation by putting in the water drain, now it doesn’t dump all over the place if there is a spot of water.
I also replaced a drive shaft oil seal on the diff to cure a little leak that had started.
Oulton park next, I haven’t driven here since right at the start of the RX8 adventure, and never in the dry. It’s taken so long to update this post, that Oulton Park is tomorrow, eeek.
Thanks
Matt
Apologies for the lack of photos in this post, I had taken many photos, but my phones SD card corrupted and I lost the lot, gutted. A new card and cloud backup is in place now. Anyway…..
I had big plans over winter 2017 to get the car worked on, this however all stalled.
Issue 1, I bought a V8 bowrider speed boat for some reason, and then I focused too much time on maintaining that, which I then decided wasn’t for me, and put it up for sale! Stupid I know. However now the weather is improving a bit I may keep it for a while and sell it mid-summer instead, everyone loves a V8, especially me. Moving on….
Issue 2, my garage was having an in-floor sill lift installed; this required some quite significant changes to the garage. For a start, the up and over door had to go and was replaced with a roller door, this took forever to sort out, delivery late and late again, when it finally arrived it wasn’t in the best condition, the fitter had issues, once installed there were issues, but eventually it was sorted.
My garage has a false ceiling for storage, I wanted to convert this to a mezzanine giving me room to raise a car, but still plenty of storage if required, so everything up there had to come down, all wiring, piping, etc. attached to the ceiling had to be removed, false floor raised, joists cut, and the floor back down, wiring redone, and piping re done. At the time I also changed from fluorescent tubes to LED lamps.
Discovered whilst making these false ceiling changes that the actual roof is leaking, and has been for some time and ended up having the roof replaced.
Then onto the real problem of the floor, for a start I have Duratile’s down (plastic clip together floor tiles) so I had to lift most of them, then the builders turned up to cut into my 4” thick un-reinforced floor, “weekends job these groundworks” they said.
Well its 9” thick, and reinforced, it took two weekends to get past the steelwork with jack hammers, eventually through, digger in, holes dug, floor poured, shutters made, sides poured, and conduit installed. Then fitting the ramps was a logistical nightmare, they were 350kg each, I couldn’t use any engine cranes I had or could hire as they all have ‘vee’ legs, and I had to move them from one covered area into the garage, over rough ground and then somehow get them in the holes centrally. Moving them nearly cost my friend his thumb when he put his hand in the wrong place and the ramp slipped, night in A&E, but thankfully no damage. Eventually though, they were in and plumbed up.
End to end, sorting the garage and installing the ramps took the thick end of three months.
Now we are at Xmas 2017, the car has had no attention at all since getting back from Iberia, and it was feeling a bit sorry for itself, but things are on the up.
I dig it out of the car port, and move it into the freshly refurbished garage, get it on the sill lift and raise it up a bit, all good.
Concerned about higher water temperatures again I have taken Clive’s advice at Mazda Rotary Parts, who has a RX7 engine in his car and I've decided to change my radiator and water pump. At the same time, I’m replacing the thermostat, removing the air conditioning, the radiator cap, and changing the coolant.
The job list-
• Revert back to OEM pulley on the alternator
• Find the suspension knock and rectify
• Replace the suspension with Tein Monosport coil overs and Active-EDFC
• Replace the brake discs, pads and fluid.
• Go onto slicks and 17” wheels
• Get the car setup and corner weighed, probably at Centre of Gravity, I got a good vibe in Iberia from the chap.
• Ditch as much un-necessary weight as possible whilst still maintaining decent car function, no need to go major mad as the driver has a high ‘kerb weight’ LOL.
• Fuel pump replacement with a series 2 pump and head.
• Fit a Safety Devices roll cage, including front cage and door bars
• Fit a crutch strap into the seats to convert the harnesses from 4 point to 6 point
• Make a relay panel so all the electrical stuff is in one place and properly fuse protected
• Refit the RaceKeeper setup properly
• Fit Electric water pump
• Change radiator, thermostat, coolant cap, and move to FL22 coolant
• Remove the air conditioning
• Replace the grill with an OEM one, with the blanks still in behind the number plate
• Get a smaller/lighter battery if required
Off we go, car up in the air, suspension and brakes removed front and rear, and source of the knock found, the front passenger side lower arm forward mounting bolt, loose. Coupled with this, the suspension mounting bushes in the front lower arms were worn and the ball joint on one of the arms wasn’t great either. As I was also about to pay for probably quite an expensive setup and corner weighing I decided to replace the lot.
A call into Mazda provided two new, upper and lower arms; I fitted these as is and kept the rubber bushes in, seemed silly to cut out fine new rubber to put in polyurethane. That said, not a month after I fitted these items the recall came through where they would probably have been replaced FOC by Mazda, absolutely gutted, still, moving on….
Tein Monosport coil overs with Active-EDFC were also fitted at this time, with the optional GPS kit. I decided to route the control unit directly through the middle of the head unit and mount it onto the blank used for the mini disc player. Just set up in speed linear and G-linear automatic for now until I get used to it.
Front and rear brake discs and pads were fitted, EBC Ultramax this time (O.E size, plain, vented), with an upgrade to the BlueStuff pad material for more bite and feedback without the grooves that lunch through the pads as they do on John’s car. The driver’s side HEL brake line was showing evidence of failure, the ferrule which joins the flexible part to the fixed part could be rotated by hand and as I had a replacement on the shelf I changed it, but this required the hard line to the ABS modulator to be replaced also, as the collet was rounded. Brake fluid replaced again at this point too.
Then the fuel pump, I replaced the S1 Walbro uprated fuel pump with the complete assembly and pump from a S2, this is to try and combat fuel starvation on long sweeping corners. I actually haven’t had this issue yet but John has, and I can’t help but think that I’m close to having an issue. Theoretically once I’m on slicks cornering G should be higher, so I’m more likely to have an issue, so a pre-emptive change whilst the car is out of track day season.
To the front of the car, bumper off, air conditioning radiator and coolant radiator removed, battery out, ECU box out, air conditioning pump off, air conditioning pipes removed, engine bay sound deadening removed, headlight washer system removed.
Cross member relieved to give room for electric water pump, which was then mounted and plumbed into the lower radiator hose, the routing for this is not great; there is a lot to go around like the anti-roll bar. I will see how I get on with the current arrangement but a future modification would probably be to make up a metal pipe with a tight 90 degree bend in it to better match the water pump, attached to the cross member.
Water pump blanking plate fitted with a new gasket, thermostat replaced, moved to a 2-pulley belt system with OEM alternator pulley, and then the new Koyo radiator fitted with a 1.3bar radiator cap.
Following the advice in the EWP instructions I decided to run the EWP off the ignition, so it’s full flow, all the time. The instructions suggest that if you are doing this; you should drill a 5mm hole in the thermostat to aid flow.
I did this, and got a strong build-up of pressure/fluid in the header tank, went up in stages to 6x 5mm holes and still had issues, in the end I removed the thermostat altogether and the flow is spot on. However the car may now take unacceptably long to get up to temperature, time will tell. I will fit the Davies Craig EWP digital controller if required to throttle the pump in the future. One thing I have noticed is with the change to FL22 coolant (1:3 ratio) and the EWP running, the radiator low level light is on most of the time, I've unplugged it for now but will come back to it in a while and see what is going on, I've already replaced the header tank once with a new OEM item.
I managed to get all the water pipes routed, permitting the retention of the OEM battery about 1” over to the passenger side. A small standoff had to be welded up to permit this, along with a stiffening bracket to the ECU cover. Once I have some more coin I may go to a lighter battery but for now, the OEM one will do. I also had to replace the plumbing between the sohn adapter and the 2-stroke tank, to avoid the new positioning of the various pipes.
In the cabin, all the interior trim has come out, tar sound proofing removed, doors have been lightened of un-necessary parts like speakers and cross overs, but the card, glass, and footwell trim has been retained to prevent injury in case of rollover.
The electric window system has been retained for now also, along with the factory door locks. The airbag system has been removed, along with all un-needed bracketry, the alarm siren and wiring stays for now, but will slowly be removed once the engine is running again, along with the associated wiring. This is so I can confirm that each box I unplug does not interfere with the immobiliser. Stereo was retained as it controls the HVAC system, but the cd changer section was removed off the top of it to keep the weight down. All wiring for the central console, electric seats and heaters is retained for now, but unplugged and tied out the way, for the same reason that I want to check the earths and power lines in there are not used for the immobiliser in some way, once its running I’ll disconnect more things until its bare bones and still working, then I’ll remove all the wiring. Ideally I want to get down to a point where the car has working traction control if I need it, and ABS, for most of the other luxuries, and associated wiring are gone.
Roll cage fitting was an endurance, shaping the feet to fit the panels took forever, but eventually the six cage mounting feet and centre brace were welded in, painted and protected. They neglect to mention in the fitting instructions the challenges with welding 3mm steel to 0.7mm steel, which took some education. Also some of the provided bolts couldn’t be used due to clashes with the bars. However once in, it fouled on everything, mainly the door cards and the seats.
The seats thankfully were contacting on none structural parts of the seat, so a quick cleave of the plastic bolster support gave clearance.
Door cards needed the bottom half trimming off, for clearance for the door bars. I considered attempting to make door cards but the electric window switches still being retained kyboshed that idea. When I move to polycarbonate windows I’ll then move to flat cards I think. It’s not pretty at the moment but it is functional, which will do. I also got some foam padding for the roll cage bars to make things a little more comfortable, the vertical front door bar is close to your right leg when on the throttle.
Unfortunately the position of the seat doesn’t give much in the way of clearance for your helmet in the driver’s seat, so soon I will ditch the slider and mount the seat as close as possible to the deck and maybe move it even more inboard by an inch or so. I’ll also pad the roof bars.
On the whole, I think the rear cage is a good idea, but not the front and the door bars, if I went back to do it again I wouldn’t fit them.
A NRG steering wheel hub adaptor was fitted, along with a quick release boss and a Sparco steering wheel from one of Allan’s old car projects, makes getting in and out around the cage much easier with a helmet on. I didn’t bother connecting the horn, not really required on the track; maybe I’ll put it on a separate push button at some point.
The NRG hub adaptor is flawed in that the holes drilled on the back for the prongs which interface with the steering angle sensor are out by 90 degrees. Fit it as supplied and your traction control won’t work, and the indicators won’t auto cancel. Your only option, which I did, is to re-drill two new holes, irritating to do in a brand new, “bespoke” for the RX8, £110 part.
Anchors for the crutch straps were secured to the floor, giving 6-point harnesses now, 3” shoulder and lap belts, 2” crutch straps, very secure. Bracketry was then made up to permanently mount the RaceKeeper system in the back on anti-vibration mounts. OBD2 extension cable installed to extend back to the new positon for telemetry. Originally I wanted to move the RaceKeeper to the front of the car but it made more sense to keep it at the back, easier to get it level so the G-reader works properly.
Electrics then required some attention, quite a few additional circuits had/were to be added including a timed circuit to hold on the water pump and gearbox oil pump after shut down for 30 seconds, so to get them fused up properly I made a panel with a direct feed from the battery, I secured this in the rear of the car on the cross brace. Wiring to this wasn’t fun, cables had go everywhere to get the systems working in the way that I wanted it too, took ages to get it all done and neat. The EDFC system has wires all over the place, that wasn’t fun to get routed either. As part of it though I put an additional hole in the bulkhead whilst I had all the throttle pedal etc. out for access, for the inevitable plumbed in fire extinguisher line which I will fit in the future.
Following Johns light knock at Rockingham, which caused significant damage due to the tow hook, the front tow hook attachment was changed to a wire rope style, using a box section welded to two supporting plates, should be stronger than standard, and if not, I can always screw the OEM tow eye into the other side mount.
I also cut out the rear bumper lower vents at this point, removed the fog light, removed the rear bumper closing panels and removed the exhaust shrouds, all to help stop the back bumper parachuting the car a bit. BBQ’ed one of them nicely in Iberia.
Once all that was done, the car was fuelled up and then loaded onto the trailer and down to Centre of Gravity (www.centregravity.co.uk) for a full suspension setup including corner weighing. This happened to occur on the same day in which the snowmageddon returned to the UK. I got down there fairly cleanly but it was snowing when I unloaded the car from the trailer.
Really impressed with Centre of Gravity, Chris & Pete there were really welcoming and explained everything they were doing very clearly, very thorough, and nothing was too much hassle, even if a small adjustment would take an hour they got on and did it. Not to mention they bought bacon and egg butties, for the two of us who were there on the day getting work done, heroes.
By the end of the day Chris had got the car to 1501kg including the roll cage, a ¾ tank fuel load, and a pair of 85kg occupants. The corner weighing got the cross axle weights to within 3kg of each other. Geometry wise I've gone for 3 degrees negative and parallel toe at the front and 2 degrees 2 minutes negative and 04 minutes of toe at the rear. They discovered that one of the diagonal rods were not adjusted right and placed the rear on the wrong section of the camber/toe curve, so my car actually toed out with compression, when it should toe in. With lots of adjustment they got it to toe in the right way and the right amount with the adjustments available to them. All in all, I’m very happy with how the day went.
Home time though, and all the different types of weather were experienced, sun, rain, wind, snow, ice, hail, fog, some are quite entertaining with a trailer on.
Back home, all I had to do prior to Anglesey was to pad the roll cage, and to fix the inner door card on the driver’s side of the car which I had over lightened and now the window wouldn’t go up smoothly.
Anglesey comes around and the car is loaded onto the trailer and off we go. Weather was forecast to be heavy rain and wind but we managed to get there in a pocket of good weather, clear, dry and sunny all day, lovely.
Another great factor was that not a lot of people had booked on, roughly 20-25 cars in the paddock meant for lots of space on the track and lots of clean laps, excellent day all round.
The car was on another level, love its new setup, it’s so much more confidence inspiring to drive and I love the tyre feel on slicks. There are a few little bits and bobs that need sorting but nothing major, very pleased. Al and I spent most of the morning out on track back to back; car didn’t miss a beat all day. My two friends though that came along for joyrides didn’t fair up to well, one of them got out the car after a particularly long session, green in the face and worse for wear, the other one stayed in for two sessions, and lost his lunch on getting out the car, poor fellas.
The helmet clearance issue turned out not to be an issue at all, it was close to your helmet but you never knowingly contact it in normal track driving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxPiOAKsOTI
Back at base there were a few items to be addressed, the driver’s side window will not raise up smoothly, the gearbox oil pump does not run on with the electric water pump, and the rear bumper flapped free of the holders in the rear quarters.
The gearbox oil pump was an obvious one, whilst I had correctly wired the relay for the pump up to the timed side of the timer relay, what I hadn’t included in that circuit was the additional gauging. The oil temp gauge provides the earth for the gearbox oil pump relay, and hence if it isn’t also energised, the pump will not run on. A simple rewire sorted that out.
The rear bumper flapping around was a screw that had vibrated loose, the bracketry in the region of the rear bumper attachment has been trimmed back for wheel/tyre clearance and a self-tapping screw was used to secure everything. I changed this to the standard ‘drifter’ cable tie repair. Stronger in repair, and easier to snip off and remove the rear bumper.
The driver’s side window was found to be a loose nut on the attachment of the runner to the inner door card, and a dried out guide runner, simple fix.
I was also going to change the diff at this point get back to the overall ratio I had when I had the 18” wheels and the 5.350 rear diff, which I liked. However the next track day it was on is the very short and technical Three Sisters in Wigan, so I left the diff in for now and will replace it afterwards, probably with an R3 4.777 diff.
I've got a third set of wheels for it, Speedline Corse 2113 wheels this time, again from an Evo, with 235/40/R17 WR180 Nankang NS2R tyres for use on those damp days where it’s too wet for slicks but not wet enough for full wets. Only issue is that they use different wheel nuts to the ones on the Enkei’s, not that this is a big deal, I just need to remember to carry them whenever I’m carrying the wheels.
Onto Three Sisters, this is predominately a karting track and as such, is a short and narrow circuit. I had low expectations about the day, but the weather was amazing, the track was commutable in a day, really cheap, and actually really good fun.
Javelin had just starting doing events there, so I signed up. Sessioned day, 15 min sessions, 1 novice, 2 interurlte, and 1 experienced. Worked really well, not too many on track and decent runs. The track was quite challenging, they altered it at lunch to bring in some of the infield corners into the circuit, this was much more difficult. Day went really well, only one moment where I came off the track a little bit, but only a little off, if the track was 6’ wider I’d have kept it on the grey stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ9qzQW7Zzc&t=...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTJ0DCG8tNs
The oil, water, gearbox, all stayed well under control temperature wise with no issues, however the cabin temps didn’t. The rollcage blocks off the two outer vents, I still have glass windows in so I have to keep them rolled up, and the a/c has been removed. It’s a hot environment inside the car.
Coupled with that, the manifold temps appear to be under control but now the centre section is getting so hot that the heat through the tunnel is mad.
I’m planning on some additional heat shielding around the centre section, maybe Zircotec coating it, I’m going to fit a roof vent for airflow, and cut and mesh the bootlid to get the air out easier, into the area of low pressure at the back of the car. Fingers crossed that all works.
Before Castle Combe, I actually managed to get a wriggle on and get the diffs swapped over. Running an R3 diff now on the 4.777 ratio, one of the other members of our little RX8 circle has taken on the 5.350 diff, which will be a good match with his 18” wheels.
I also fitted a TRS roof scoop to get some air in the cabin, and cut out and meshed the bootlid to get the air out. Managed to retain my stripe to, conserving valuable sticker real estate.
Next job after Combe will be to make some plastic windows with sliders, because with them being glass at the moment I have to run with them up, at least with sliders and plastic glass they can be run open. I might change the mirrors to none electric ones too, then I could go to full flat door cards.
Onto Castle Combe, I was picking up a lathe at the same time so to keep the trailer light, I travelled without spare wheels, and the fuel cans were carried in the tow car.
Got out on track, and it was a decent lovely day and the car and driver was going well. Interesting dynamics though with the new vent mods. All windows up, everything works fine, roof vent and dash vents pour air in and it goes out the back fine. But any windows down at speed and in comes exhaust gas. Therefore when I fit window sliders they need to have scoops on to keep the air pressure up in the cabin.
Heat from the exhaust though was still a problem; the exhaust centre section is very hot, need to do something about the heat that radiates through the floor. I also need to do something with the oil coolers, the front of the fins are bent over a lot and I feel its impeding airflow. Some time with the needle nose pliers required to straighten them out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2gJY0Qr29k
After quite a few laps we were getting quite fast and enjoying the day, until we discovered that the cords were showing on the very outside edge of the left hand slicks. We swapped them left to right and came in after 5 laps to keep checking them, 3 more sessions later the shown cords got a little bit bigger so we packed up for the day and came home. Due to a nice combination of breakdowns and double accidents in a roadwork zone it took 8 hours to get back, awesome.
Next up was Mallory Park in August; a group of the RX8OC was attending this track day so thought we would join in. Preparation for this day was quite light, change the slicks to another set of used ones, this time Dunlop’s and 235 wide profile and that was pretty much it other than the usual fluid checks.
Track time was good, car and drivers behaved themselves all day, minor bump in the pits with another RX8, no damage to the Kraken other than a scuff which matches the other side but unfortunately the other chaps car took quite a hit.
Couldn’t quite get the stones together to attack Gerrard’s full tilt with a brakeless entry, but better than the last time I was there, a good day all round.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijhhFvZzwVM&t=...
Nothing to do with the RX8 now but after Mallory Park six of us boarded a plane and headed off to Gatebil at Rudskogen in Norway for the weekend, and what an experience that was. I've seen drifting before, but nothing like this, some proper skill on display and the cars were awesome. It was just like days of old at Santa pod when you couldn’t be sure what was powering anything, nowadays every other car is just remapped stock engine with some shiny bits.
RB26’s, 2JZ, V8’s and boost were re-occurring themes, in everything from old Volvo 240’s to Lamborghinis, awesome.
People were friendly too, if you stopped to have a look at someone’s car in the paddock, they jumped up to come and talk to you about how it’s going, problems they are having, etc., great, and their English is betterer than mine.
Expensive though, at a 10:1 NOK/GBP exchange rate, £22 for a pizza and £4 for a bottle of water gets real old real fast.
https://youtu.be/m_Xo3GDfrpA
https://youtu.be/UEbPZ_qfmbA
https://youtu.be/Z5ak1yprcAc
Once back I did a bit of work on the car, I removed the front bumper and straightened all the oil cooler fins, they were folded over and restricting airflow, keeping temps up a bit. What a rubbish job it is straightening those fins, took hours. Whilst I was all in the region of the oil coolers I removed the thermal pills and blocked up the orifices so that the coolers work all the time. I don’t suffer from issues getting the oil up to temperature so I don’t what the possible failure mode of a pill being stuck open.
I finally completed the roof vent installation by putting in the water drain, now it doesn’t dump all over the place if there is a spot of water.
I also replaced a drive shaft oil seal on the diff to cure a little leak that had started.
Oulton park next, I haven’t driven here since right at the start of the RX8 adventure, and never in the dry. It’s taken so long to update this post, that Oulton Park is tomorrow, eeek.
Thanks
Matt
Been a while so I think an update is due, not much to report in all honesty, the car is really reliable so it doesn't see much attention between events now.
Oulton Park was attacked, great track, car did well all day with no dramas and towards the end the slicks were getting a bit thin on the inner edges. Changed to the Nankang NS2R’s on the spare Evo wheels (white) to finish the day off. Few photos below-
After Oulton the car went on a bit of a diet, all surplus wiring and modules were removed from the car, alarm stuff, all the wiring to the doors, roof, stereo wiring etc., quite a bit came out.
Plastic (Lexan Marguard™) windows were made and installed in the front windows with sliding vents and ducts to compliment the roof vent. Turns out there weren’t much in glass vs plastic for the windows in rear doors, so I left them glass.
Surplus metal cut out of the doors to get the weight down, door cards removed etc. Replacement door cards made from two pieces of Correx™ plastic sheet, bonded together at 90 degree angles to improve the strength and rigidity.
New MRF slicks where fitted to the slicks and that’s about it
Onto Cadwell park, where the mods worked nicely, cabin cooling was good, tyre grip was good, had to block off the boot lid vent with duct tape to stop exhaust gas intrusion, the additional air into the cabin seems to have upset the pressure balance at the back which prevented exhaust gas coming in previously.
The main purpose of Cadwell Park was not for the Kraken, but to shakedown the Hadouken which had a major upgrade over winter 2018, roll cage, seats, Tein suspension, nitrous, much more gauging etc. Pleased to say that the car worked great on its initial outing, and needs little tweaking for its next adventure.
Pictures and videos from the event below-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI_uhd_fEwI
hhttps://youtu.be/x380B5NHv2M
Aintree is the next event the cars are looking to attend, no changes planned prior to that.
I've decided that I’m not going to plow much more money into the car, TBH interest in track daying is starting to wain a little as we have covered a lot of the tracks I want to drive (33 track days post Aintree) and I’m gathering interest in other hobbies, the build as well as the drive is a major interest of mine and I’m getting to the point when it needs little without massive cost. That said, I’m still interested in tracking the car, just not at the rate we have been doing, plus there are huge financial losses to be made when I eventually sell/part the car out, so there is no rush to hang up the spurs. Plus I want to get it to Italy when BookaTrack go there next.
Next jobs on the list to do a job I've been putting off, replacing the seats. Ages ago I bought a pair of Reverie Mulsanne carbon seats, which are feather weight, some 6kg for the pair. But the dramas involved in getting side mounted seats into the Hadouken have put me off the idea. As I already have them, and the side mounts, and I have done something similar before though I have no excuse not to fit them, so following Aintree that’s probably what I’m going to do.
It’ll then probably need a tweak back and centre of gravity to sort out the distribution now a lot of weight has come out of the car.
Another area I want to explore is aero, I’d like to add some items like a diffuser, splitter and wing, maybe a flat floor, but I don’t want to go to mad with the cost of it all, so we’ll see how it goes.
Thanks
Matt
Oulton Park was attacked, great track, car did well all day with no dramas and towards the end the slicks were getting a bit thin on the inner edges. Changed to the Nankang NS2R’s on the spare Evo wheels (white) to finish the day off. Few photos below-
After Oulton the car went on a bit of a diet, all surplus wiring and modules were removed from the car, alarm stuff, all the wiring to the doors, roof, stereo wiring etc., quite a bit came out.
Plastic (Lexan Marguard™) windows were made and installed in the front windows with sliding vents and ducts to compliment the roof vent. Turns out there weren’t much in glass vs plastic for the windows in rear doors, so I left them glass.
Surplus metal cut out of the doors to get the weight down, door cards removed etc. Replacement door cards made from two pieces of Correx™ plastic sheet, bonded together at 90 degree angles to improve the strength and rigidity.
New MRF slicks where fitted to the slicks and that’s about it
Onto Cadwell park, where the mods worked nicely, cabin cooling was good, tyre grip was good, had to block off the boot lid vent with duct tape to stop exhaust gas intrusion, the additional air into the cabin seems to have upset the pressure balance at the back which prevented exhaust gas coming in previously.
The main purpose of Cadwell Park was not for the Kraken, but to shakedown the Hadouken which had a major upgrade over winter 2018, roll cage, seats, Tein suspension, nitrous, much more gauging etc. Pleased to say that the car worked great on its initial outing, and needs little tweaking for its next adventure.
Pictures and videos from the event below-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI_uhd_fEwI
hhttps://youtu.be/x380B5NHv2M
Aintree is the next event the cars are looking to attend, no changes planned prior to that.
I've decided that I’m not going to plow much more money into the car, TBH interest in track daying is starting to wain a little as we have covered a lot of the tracks I want to drive (33 track days post Aintree) and I’m gathering interest in other hobbies, the build as well as the drive is a major interest of mine and I’m getting to the point when it needs little without massive cost. That said, I’m still interested in tracking the car, just not at the rate we have been doing, plus there are huge financial losses to be made when I eventually sell/part the car out, so there is no rush to hang up the spurs. Plus I want to get it to Italy when BookaTrack go there next.
Next jobs on the list to do a job I've been putting off, replacing the seats. Ages ago I bought a pair of Reverie Mulsanne carbon seats, which are feather weight, some 6kg for the pair. But the dramas involved in getting side mounted seats into the Hadouken have put me off the idea. As I already have them, and the side mounts, and I have done something similar before though I have no excuse not to fit them, so following Aintree that’s probably what I’m going to do.
It’ll then probably need a tweak back and centre of gravity to sort out the distribution now a lot of weight has come out of the car.
Another area I want to explore is aero, I’d like to add some items like a diffuser, splitter and wing, maybe a flat floor, but I don’t want to go to mad with the cost of it all, so we’ll see how it goes.
Thanks
Matt
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