£1000 RX8 sprint/track-car project
Discussion
Excellent thread so far, very inspirational! If the RX8 mill ever goes bang, have a read of this for more inspiration: http://www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?t=10969...
Of course it's going to upset the wankelites (can I say that?) on PH, but it's hybridding at its best!
Of course it's going to upset the wankelites (can I say that?) on PH, but it's hybridding at its best!
Great thread, really enjoying it.
I had a 192 and took it to Snetterton bog standard. I remember it having incredibly long gearing, but once on the twisties it held its own against a Cooper race series which were practicing for the weekends racing.
I also remember the brakes boiling themselves and that it used the same amount of fuel on the track as the sedate drive to and from the circuit!
Bled me dry on fuel, real world i was getting 13mpg!
I have said to myself that if ever I buy another it'll be a track car only. Wonderful fun and still looks fresh.
Keep it up!
I had a 192 and took it to Snetterton bog standard. I remember it having incredibly long gearing, but once on the twisties it held its own against a Cooper race series which were practicing for the weekends racing.
I also remember the brakes boiling themselves and that it used the same amount of fuel on the track as the sedate drive to and from the circuit!
Bled me dry on fuel, real world i was getting 13mpg!
I have said to myself that if ever I buy another it'll be a track car only. Wonderful fun and still looks fresh.
Keep it up!
seiben said:
Mannginger said:
Great thread this, really enjoying it and love the amount of car that can be had with £1k and a bit of spannering space and knowledge!
Thanks - I'm glad you are enjoying it! I have to say my spannering skills are average at best - Pete is definitely the more knowledgable. I'm good at holding tools though 
Konan said:
Did the track day there yesterday. Couple of RX8s out.
Not a lot of grip to be had, although it's removed a phenomenal amount of rubber from my tyres! It's ok, I removed a reasonable amount of turf in retribution
Yep, had a chat to one of the guys today. No problem with grip for us, fortunately, although we've chewed through the tyres a bit! Not a lot of grip to be had, although it's removed a phenomenal amount of rubber from my tyres! It's ok, I removed a reasonable amount of turf in retribution
rtz62 said:
Excellent project seiben, well done!
Brave? Possibly
But a great choice, that you seem to be approachinging in a sensible, and logical manner. I'm sure that with the commitment you've shown already that it will be a great success.
As an aside, where did you get the uack (above) that the RX8 is on? Could do with one myself.
And this is one of the few threads that has piqued my interest enough to follow it, so I hope to see much more on the old ricer!
The ramp belongs to Pete, so I don't know exactly what it is, but it was an eBay purchase a couple of years ago. I think this is the closest I can see that's currently available. It's a bit of a god-send, certainly.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Strongman-Tamar-2-8T-Hom...
Kendrew turned out to be rather good today. I'm just home and starting to fiddle with videos etc, so more details when I can...
This is one of those threads that will hold real interest to people like me who want to purchase, modify and run a dual-purpose car on a modest budget.
Sincerely hope it all goes well, please keep us all updated!
I purchased my RX8 231 for just over 6k when it was three years old, owned it for six years now and constantly track thrash it. They are a very good car for track days. Mine in standard, on Vredestein Ultra Sessanta (£100 each fitted) road tyres and has Mintex fast road pads. Whilst the car is never the fastest out there it holds its own well considering the lack of mods. It is reliable, the brakes should not boil if properly used, maintained well and track times are kept to sane, 20ish minute stints. The car works well on wet tracks with road tyres and the stock, softish suspension. MPG on track is 10mpg, 23mpg on the road.
It is a nice road car but tax, fuel and mundane real world driving conspire against it. I would advise a budget of 2k and avoid a shed. Get a low mileage, mint, well maintained car and don't spend a fortune on mods. If you can't make the RX8 go well on track, invest in instruction. If you have a trailer, SORN it, don't crash it and you'll probably get your money back when the supply of these cars runs thin.
It is a nice road car but tax, fuel and mundane real world driving conspire against it. I would advise a budget of 2k and avoid a shed. Get a low mileage, mint, well maintained car and don't spend a fortune on mods. If you can't make the RX8 go well on track, invest in instruction. If you have a trailer, SORN it, don't crash it and you'll probably get your money back when the supply of these cars runs thin.
Without wanting to hi jack a very good thread, has anyone else any experience of these lifts, reliability, strength, ease of moving around etc Wondering about cheaper easier to store than installing a 2 post lift
In the mean time there's this company: http://sm-t.co.uk/product-category/vehicle-lifts/s... that does very similar products
The ramp It's a bit of a god-send, certainly.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Strongman-Tamar-2-8T-Hom...
Right, sorry for the slow update. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by all the comments, it’s good to know there’s some love out there for the old bus. Not that you’d believe it reading the Facebook comments
Sunday was my first time at Kendrew Barracks (aka RAF Cottesmore) and as such the only true airfield round of the series I’d be able to make. My very first experience of sprinting was at Woodbridge airfield a couple of years back, and it was so much fun I’ve been doing it ever since. It’s a bit less glamorous than some of the circuits we visit, and tales of an abrasive surface seem to have put a few people off so we were left with a mere 36 competitors. This turned out to be a Very Good Thing – not only did it mean we could rattle through all of the timed runs before the rain set in early afternoon, it also meant more championship points available for those who attended
One of the areas we struggled with at Anglesey (over and above the s
t Tein coilovers) was heavy shoulder wear on the outside front tyre. To combat this (and also because Pete had just fitted the new BC coilovers) Pete sorted a geo setting with a bit more camber…
2017-09-12_04-34-31
We arrived early and got through scrutineering before swapping over to the track wheels and generally setting up for the day. Note the ever trusty Subaru support car in the background
2017-09-12_04-24-23
The layout was very well thought out, with a good mix of technical corners, fast sweeping corners and a nice stretch down the main runway (we were seeing 122mph on the speedo, which I was pretty pleased with!) followed by a heavy braking zone into a tight right-left and some nice sweeping turns to the finish. I drew the short straw and didn’t drive the sighting lap (we’re now sans passenger seat, so I jumped in with a fellow competitor in his Civic Type R), so my first drive was the initial practice run. It was a great track, with varying grip levels as the surfaces changed, but it takes me a while to learn new layouots so I was on the backfoot most of the morning. This was compounded on my third run when I overcooked and spun out, stalling and setting off the EML at the same time! Fortunately we were able to borrow an OBD reader and clear the fault (cam position sensor, I think from the stall) and the car felt OK again afterwards.
Pete was also experiencing his fair share of frustrations, with wo void runs for eating cones and a stoppage to move some additional crumple-zone in front of a concrete platform which by rights shouldn’t have been anywhere the racing line
Still, we were dialling into the new suspension setup and the times were generally creeping down. A few track-side pics show how much flatter the cornering is compared to before – this was still on a fairly soft setting for a bumpy track, and still on stock ARBs:
2017-09-12_04-23-25
2017-09-12_04-23-35
By run four I was 0.3s behind Pete, and unbelievably we were running 1st and 2nd in class. Much to his frustration I managed to edge another .4s off his time on run 5, and come the final run we both agreed not to tell each other our final times. In the end we both pushed too hard – Pete with a void run (cones!) and me with a messy lap that was a second off the pace. Still, we were both absolutely made up to be awarded 1st and 2nd in class, a first win for the bargain bucket RX8.
Cheesy photo time!
2017-09-12_04-24-49
As expected we wore a good mm or two off the R888Rs, but more importantly the wear was even across all four tyres so we’re happy we’ve got the alignment right. The RX8 felt a lot more balanced and playful with the new setup – hopefully it’ll translate well to Cadwell, which (given it’s late October) will probably be wet…
I managed to get a couple of videos edited down as well. This is my fastest run, followed by my void run (with the spin). This was pretty terrible all the way through really – I forgot to turn off the traction control at the start which had me out of sorts for the rest of the lap, and when the back end came around on me later on I completely failed to react properly and ended up tankslapping the other way with my foot jammed on the brakes. Yeah, I have no idea what I was thinking either…!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOtp4u63YtE&t=...
And here’s Pete’s second best run (don't ask - camera issues), with his two cone-eating void runs afterwards. Suffice to say, we had a lot of fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UvJHCkYlBk&t=...
Next up is Cadwell Park, the last event of the season, followed by a winter of tinkering while we decide where to go next. We already have a roll-cage lined up which is pretty high on the list to be sorted, along with a front splitter of some description to offset the BGW a little. Otherwise, who knows!
Sunday was my first time at Kendrew Barracks (aka RAF Cottesmore) and as such the only true airfield round of the series I’d be able to make. My very first experience of sprinting was at Woodbridge airfield a couple of years back, and it was so much fun I’ve been doing it ever since. It’s a bit less glamorous than some of the circuits we visit, and tales of an abrasive surface seem to have put a few people off so we were left with a mere 36 competitors. This turned out to be a Very Good Thing – not only did it mean we could rattle through all of the timed runs before the rain set in early afternoon, it also meant more championship points available for those who attended
One of the areas we struggled with at Anglesey (over and above the s
t Tein coilovers) was heavy shoulder wear on the outside front tyre. To combat this (and also because Pete had just fitted the new BC coilovers) Pete sorted a geo setting with a bit more camber…2017-09-12_04-34-31We arrived early and got through scrutineering before swapping over to the track wheels and generally setting up for the day. Note the ever trusty Subaru support car in the background
2017-09-12_04-24-23The layout was very well thought out, with a good mix of technical corners, fast sweeping corners and a nice stretch down the main runway (we were seeing 122mph on the speedo, which I was pretty pleased with!) followed by a heavy braking zone into a tight right-left and some nice sweeping turns to the finish. I drew the short straw and didn’t drive the sighting lap (we’re now sans passenger seat, so I jumped in with a fellow competitor in his Civic Type R), so my first drive was the initial practice run. It was a great track, with varying grip levels as the surfaces changed, but it takes me a while to learn new layouots so I was on the backfoot most of the morning. This was compounded on my third run when I overcooked and spun out, stalling and setting off the EML at the same time! Fortunately we were able to borrow an OBD reader and clear the fault (cam position sensor, I think from the stall) and the car felt OK again afterwards.
Pete was also experiencing his fair share of frustrations, with wo void runs for eating cones and a stoppage to move some additional crumple-zone in front of a concrete platform which by rights shouldn’t have been anywhere the racing line
Still, we were dialling into the new suspension setup and the times were generally creeping down. A few track-side pics show how much flatter the cornering is compared to before – this was still on a fairly soft setting for a bumpy track, and still on stock ARBs:
2017-09-12_04-23-252017-09-12_04-23-35By run four I was 0.3s behind Pete, and unbelievably we were running 1st and 2nd in class. Much to his frustration I managed to edge another .4s off his time on run 5, and come the final run we both agreed not to tell each other our final times. In the end we both pushed too hard – Pete with a void run (cones!) and me with a messy lap that was a second off the pace. Still, we were both absolutely made up to be awarded 1st and 2nd in class, a first win for the bargain bucket RX8.
Cheesy photo time!
2017-09-12_04-24-49As expected we wore a good mm or two off the R888Rs, but more importantly the wear was even across all four tyres so we’re happy we’ve got the alignment right. The RX8 felt a lot more balanced and playful with the new setup – hopefully it’ll translate well to Cadwell, which (given it’s late October) will probably be wet…
I managed to get a couple of videos edited down as well. This is my fastest run, followed by my void run (with the spin). This was pretty terrible all the way through really – I forgot to turn off the traction control at the start which had me out of sorts for the rest of the lap, and when the back end came around on me later on I completely failed to react properly and ended up tankslapping the other way with my foot jammed on the brakes. Yeah, I have no idea what I was thinking either…!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOtp4u63YtE&t=...
And here’s Pete’s second best run (don't ask - camera issues), with his two cone-eating void runs afterwards. Suffice to say, we had a lot of fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UvJHCkYlBk&t=...
Next up is Cadwell Park, the last event of the season, followed by a winter of tinkering while we decide where to go next. We already have a roll-cage lined up which is pretty high on the list to be sorted, along with a front splitter of some description to offset the BGW a little. Otherwise, who knows!
samoht said:
Great stuff, must feel good to find yourselves fastest! What kind of cars did you beat?
Thanks - yeah, we were a bit pleased with ourselves Our class is forced induction up to 1600cc, and naturally aspirated up to 2000cc (there's a 1.5x multiplier on the rotary engine). We were against a brace of Clios in 172/182 variety, a Punto Evo Abarth, a supercharged MX5, a Puma-swapped Fiesta (who was very, very close to us at the end of the day) and an Escort GTi.
We'll have our work cut out for us at Cadwell - the SC'd MX5, another couple of Clios and a 190 Exige are all attending, and have all beaten us at other rounds, so I'm not expecting any silverware.
seiben said:
Thanks - yeah, we were a bit pleased with ourselves
Our class is forced induction up to 1600cc, and naturally aspirated up to 2000cc (there's a 1.5x multiplier on the rotary engine). We were against a brace of Clios in 172/182 variety, a Punto Evo Abarth, a supercharged MX5, a Puma-swapped Fiesta (who was very, very close to us at the end of the day) and an Escort GTi.
We'll have our work cut out for us at Cadwell - the SC'd MX5, another couple of Clios and a 190 Exige are all attending, and have all beaten us at other rounds, so I'm not expecting any silverware.
Good luck, really enjoyed the thread so far. Our class is forced induction up to 1600cc, and naturally aspirated up to 2000cc (there's a 1.5x multiplier on the rotary engine). We were against a brace of Clios in 172/182 variety, a Punto Evo Abarth, a supercharged MX5, a Puma-swapped Fiesta (who was very, very close to us at the end of the day) and an Escort GTi.
We'll have our work cut out for us at Cadwell - the SC'd MX5, another couple of Clios and a 190 Exige are all attending, and have all beaten us at other rounds, so I'm not expecting any silverware.
Been mooting at Z4 / 350z, a £1000 RX8 has thrown a spanner in the works. Hard to ignore these at the current prices!
Fastdruid said:
seiben said:
There's 2 flavours - 192 and 231.
They're essentially identical, aside from the following:
192 - 192bhp (supposedly), 5 speed box, open diff, Halogen headlights
231 - 231bhp (supposedly), 6 speed box, LSD, Xenons
Ours is a 231. Can confirm the LSD works
192 has a 7.5k redline rather than the 9k of the 231 and is meant to be torquier. Plus the interior spec is a bit higher on the 231.They're essentially identical, aside from the following:
192 - 192bhp (supposedly), 5 speed box, open diff, Halogen headlights
231 - 231bhp (supposedly), 6 speed box, LSD, Xenons
Ours is a 231. Can confirm the LSD works
There is also the R3 which has different gearing and is heavier. Plus there are a few special editions.
Very much enjoyed our time with one and if we had the room to park it and the chance to use it would get another.
The R3 is 1354kg and the S1 is 1379kg. The difference is due to lower mass of the seats. The R3 data is often quoted with a 75kg driver and so it can get confusing when comparing to the S1.
Edited by delta0 on Friday 15th September 08:07
I'm a big fan of the RX8. First one was a Prodrive I bought new and kept for a year (ouch). Now I'm running a 2009 R3. Both have been incredibly reliable with no hot and cold start problems. I've used both on trackdays and are incredibly good fun for the money.
I was thinking about starting a race series for RX8's and wondered how many of you would be interested in taking part. This would surely be the cheapest competitive form of motor sport but with max rear wheel drive fun. At 1 to 2k for a half decent car if you prang it its not the end of the world and you could buy a replacement car to put the good engine into for a couple of hundred quid. If we keep the specs as standard as possible and keep the noise quiet we could work with tracks and take advantage of this to get the tracks cheaper and keep are race series costs as low as possible. I'm interested to get feedback and if I get enough interest I'll take it to the next stage.
I was thinking about starting a race series for RX8's and wondered how many of you would be interested in taking part. This would surely be the cheapest competitive form of motor sport but with max rear wheel drive fun. At 1 to 2k for a half decent car if you prang it its not the end of the world and you could buy a replacement car to put the good engine into for a couple of hundred quid. If we keep the specs as standard as possible and keep the noise quiet we could work with tracks and take advantage of this to get the tracks cheaper and keep are race series costs as low as possible. I'm interested to get feedback and if I get enough interest I'll take it to the next stage.
Well, we’re a bit behind with the updates and the season’s over, so time to bring everything up to present.
We had a good 6-7 weeks between the penultimate (Kendrew) and final (Cadwell) rounds of the series – plenty of time to do the last few necessary jobs and make sure everything was in tip top condition for the last sprint of the season. Naturally, we ended up just doing other stuff for the majority of the time – in approximate order:
I bought a thoroughly foolish, high-mileage bahnstormer:
2017-11-06_12-24-47
Pete bought the trusty Subaru from me:
2017-11-06_12-25-05
I spent a week driving this little treasure around an island in the Med - a 1.3S with 35,000km on the clock from new. Owned by my grandfather for the last 25 years, it’s totally original and remarkably un-rusty – I’m seriously considering importing it if it’s ever sold!
2017-11-06_12-25-29
The ever-trusty Subaru spat out its head gasket a few weeks later. Yes, we’re still friends…
So, what actually needed doing? First up was to rip out the Sparco Sprint seat we’d fitted before Kendrew – it was a cheap steel-framed seat with no lumbar support, and as a result was cripplingly uncomfortable for Pete during the long drive up from Kent. I had taken over possession of the RX8 in the meantime, and managed to find another Sparco to go in (seeing as we already had the base and sliders) – this time an earlier fibreglass unit which was much more comfortable. So far so good.
We also had a get together weekend with a couple of other friends who had been itching to get their hands on it in an attempt to strip some additional weight. We only had two rules:
1) Nothing sharp near the driver
2) Everything that currently works, has to keep working
2017-11-06_01-39-32
You can see where this is going, right?
Fettling done we took the car out for a quick run to check all was in order. Cue the check engine light! Now this has come on before (you may remember my spin at Kendrew? I think I spun the engine backwards which kicked up a cam position sensor error which we were able to clear). We didn’t think too much of it at the time – it was broad daylight, nothing else seemed broken so we threw it in the garage (unlocked and with a window open to keep some air circulating), everyone went home and I ordered an OBD reader from Amazon. Without thinking too much of it, we also booked a trackday at Bedford for the day after the sprint, as a ‘last hurrah’ before winter set in.
A couple of days before race day I decided to drive it to work to give it a decent (50 mile) run and make sure all was well. Pulling it out of the garage is always a bit of a rigmarole with my driveway – there’s always at least one car that needs shuffling around to make room. While I had the RX8 out I plugged in the new OBD11 reader to see what the engine code was, and…. nothing. Not just no codes, the reader didn’t even register the car! I tried it in another car, and all was good, so the OBD11 port was mysteriously dead. Hmm. I locked the car and went back inside.
…except I didn’t, because the remote locking didn’t work either. And (it was dark, so I noticed these things) neither did the few remaining interior lights, nor did the dash light which registers an open door. Curious.
Still, on the basis that it still started, ran and stopped I drove it to work the following morning, where some more curious faults manifested themselves. The radio wouldn’t turn on – neither would the centre console screen which shows temp, fan speed etc. Trying to work out which was the demister took a while! On top of that, the trip-meter would reset every time the ignition was turned on. Really weird.
With two days to go before Cadwell, I gave Pete a call and ran him through the ever growing list of faults I’d found. The following conversation went pretty much like this:
“Does it start?”
“Yes”
“Does it stop?”
“Yes”
“Do the lights work?”
“Yes”
“Excellent. We’re going racing.”
He’s very wise, is Pete.
So we drove to Cadwell, where it rained.
IMG_6488
Now I’m not very good at Cadwell – I’ve driven it once, two years ago, in the rain, in a Westfield on semi slicks. So when it rained overnight, and continued to rain most of the morning, I wasn’t too impressed. You may be thinking this sounds like a long list of excuses, and you’d be exactly right
The morning was pretty eventful, with a packed paddock, a couple of dozen new competitors and plenty of slippery leaves through the woodland meaning several competitors had spun and a few had bounced off the barriers. Now if you’ve been paying attention (here comes another of those excuses) you’ll know that I’ve managed to spin the RX8 at least once at every round. It’s safe to say I was a little nervous! Still the times were coming down as the track conditions stabilised, Pete and I were running 3rd and 4th respectively in our class of 14, with a couple of tenths separating us. Despite our initial nervousness the car was running well, bar a hastily replaced coil and HT lead which had come unseated and disintegrated.
Then, as is the way with motorsport, things were shaken up a tad. It stopped raining at lunch, so the track started to dry, and – due to the frequent stoppages – it was announced that we’d only be running 5 runs instead of six. The first run after lunch saw me a whole five seconds quicker (and 3 secs in front of Pete), and I was starting to feel pretty confident. The track was still pretty damp but definitely getting faster, and I was confident I could improve on the last run.
Then something else happened – one of the high-powered Evos running in the top class managed to throw a rod through its block (and rad!) crossing the finish line, and during the 40 minutes it took to recover the car and clear up the resulting oil slick, the track dried more. A lot more, in fact.
IMG_4208
So, the deciding run was to be my first ever dry run at Cadwell. I managed to improve my time by another three seconds, but could immediately tell that I could have done much better. Pete, a veteran of Project Cars, knew the track better than me and drove an absolute blinder – so much so, he caught up with a previous runner and was awarded a re-run. So, basically, he had a free practice run in the dry
Still, his final lap was just fantastic – knocking almost nine (nine!) seconds off his time, finishing first in a class of 14 (including a well-driven Exige which is usually considerably faster), and knocking my sorry effort down into fifth place. I think he was pretty pleased with this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5-dttmaKtw&t=
2017-11-06_12-26-23
Still, I managed my own little piece of glassware for 3rd overall in a much faster class championship – don’t forget I started the year in the Westfield, so all my points counted towards that class.
With that done, we headed back down South to Bedford, to give the car a last hurrah before winter. It was actually pretty interesting being on track with other cars, and being able to see each other’s driving first hand over a few laps. As expected the little RX8 didn’t have a lot of pace down the straights (particularly noticeable with a couple of McLarens tearing round!) but certainly held its own in the corners. Of particular note (and quite satisfying after my previous day’s efforts) was pushing a GT3RS round for a couple of laps, before bailing when it became clear he had no intention of moving over for us…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06-5eBVxz5k
The car ran very well all morning, although our brakes were limiting us to three lap stints (no warm up laps for the sprint car though!!). We started suffering with heat issues in the afternoon so called it a day early, but still managed to chew through an entire tank of fuel and had a lot of fun haring around with each other, and giving a few passenger rides too.
So, that’s it for now. First job is to move the car back down to Pete next week – we’re going to scratch our heads with the weird electrical problems, although a bit a investigation at Cadwell showed a couple of cut wires in the boot which looked to have shorted against the bodywork… It looked like someone wasn’t paying attention to the rules! Suffice to say, all touching rights have been revoked Our initial thoughts are that the CAN BUS system has taken a whack, or the immobiliser side of the ECU has blown, but who knows. Job for winter! We’re also planning a few other constructive additions, in particular a roll-cage and harnesses, along with some stiffer ARBs and a complete brake refresh. More on that little lot as it happens
2017-11-06_12-26-46
IMG_0308
We had a good 6-7 weeks between the penultimate (Kendrew) and final (Cadwell) rounds of the series – plenty of time to do the last few necessary jobs and make sure everything was in tip top condition for the last sprint of the season. Naturally, we ended up just doing other stuff for the majority of the time – in approximate order:
I bought a thoroughly foolish, high-mileage bahnstormer:
2017-11-06_12-24-47Pete bought the trusty Subaru from me:
2017-11-06_12-25-05I spent a week driving this little treasure around an island in the Med - a 1.3S with 35,000km on the clock from new. Owned by my grandfather for the last 25 years, it’s totally original and remarkably un-rusty – I’m seriously considering importing it if it’s ever sold!
2017-11-06_12-25-29The ever-trusty Subaru spat out its head gasket a few weeks later. Yes, we’re still friends…
So, what actually needed doing? First up was to rip out the Sparco Sprint seat we’d fitted before Kendrew – it was a cheap steel-framed seat with no lumbar support, and as a result was cripplingly uncomfortable for Pete during the long drive up from Kent. I had taken over possession of the RX8 in the meantime, and managed to find another Sparco to go in (seeing as we already had the base and sliders) – this time an earlier fibreglass unit which was much more comfortable. So far so good.
We also had a get together weekend with a couple of other friends who had been itching to get their hands on it in an attempt to strip some additional weight. We only had two rules:
1) Nothing sharp near the driver
2) Everything that currently works, has to keep working
2017-11-06_01-39-32You can see where this is going, right?
Fettling done we took the car out for a quick run to check all was in order. Cue the check engine light! Now this has come on before (you may remember my spin at Kendrew? I think I spun the engine backwards which kicked up a cam position sensor error which we were able to clear). We didn’t think too much of it at the time – it was broad daylight, nothing else seemed broken so we threw it in the garage (unlocked and with a window open to keep some air circulating), everyone went home and I ordered an OBD reader from Amazon. Without thinking too much of it, we also booked a trackday at Bedford for the day after the sprint, as a ‘last hurrah’ before winter set in.
A couple of days before race day I decided to drive it to work to give it a decent (50 mile) run and make sure all was well. Pulling it out of the garage is always a bit of a rigmarole with my driveway – there’s always at least one car that needs shuffling around to make room. While I had the RX8 out I plugged in the new OBD11 reader to see what the engine code was, and…. nothing. Not just no codes, the reader didn’t even register the car! I tried it in another car, and all was good, so the OBD11 port was mysteriously dead. Hmm. I locked the car and went back inside.
…except I didn’t, because the remote locking didn’t work either. And (it was dark, so I noticed these things) neither did the few remaining interior lights, nor did the dash light which registers an open door. Curious.
Still, on the basis that it still started, ran and stopped I drove it to work the following morning, where some more curious faults manifested themselves. The radio wouldn’t turn on – neither would the centre console screen which shows temp, fan speed etc. Trying to work out which was the demister took a while! On top of that, the trip-meter would reset every time the ignition was turned on. Really weird.
With two days to go before Cadwell, I gave Pete a call and ran him through the ever growing list of faults I’d found. The following conversation went pretty much like this:
“Does it start?”
“Yes”
“Does it stop?”
“Yes”
“Do the lights work?”
“Yes”
“Excellent. We’re going racing.”
He’s very wise, is Pete.
So we drove to Cadwell, where it rained.
IMG_6488Now I’m not very good at Cadwell – I’ve driven it once, two years ago, in the rain, in a Westfield on semi slicks. So when it rained overnight, and continued to rain most of the morning, I wasn’t too impressed. You may be thinking this sounds like a long list of excuses, and you’d be exactly right
The morning was pretty eventful, with a packed paddock, a couple of dozen new competitors and plenty of slippery leaves through the woodland meaning several competitors had spun and a few had bounced off the barriers. Now if you’ve been paying attention (here comes another of those excuses) you’ll know that I’ve managed to spin the RX8 at least once at every round. It’s safe to say I was a little nervous! Still the times were coming down as the track conditions stabilised, Pete and I were running 3rd and 4th respectively in our class of 14, with a couple of tenths separating us. Despite our initial nervousness the car was running well, bar a hastily replaced coil and HT lead which had come unseated and disintegrated.
Then, as is the way with motorsport, things were shaken up a tad. It stopped raining at lunch, so the track started to dry, and – due to the frequent stoppages – it was announced that we’d only be running 5 runs instead of six. The first run after lunch saw me a whole five seconds quicker (and 3 secs in front of Pete), and I was starting to feel pretty confident. The track was still pretty damp but definitely getting faster, and I was confident I could improve on the last run.
Then something else happened – one of the high-powered Evos running in the top class managed to throw a rod through its block (and rad!) crossing the finish line, and during the 40 minutes it took to recover the car and clear up the resulting oil slick, the track dried more. A lot more, in fact.
IMG_4208So, the deciding run was to be my first ever dry run at Cadwell. I managed to improve my time by another three seconds, but could immediately tell that I could have done much better. Pete, a veteran of Project Cars, knew the track better than me and drove an absolute blinder – so much so, he caught up with a previous runner and was awarded a re-run. So, basically, he had a free practice run in the dry
Still, his final lap was just fantastic – knocking almost nine (nine!) seconds off his time, finishing first in a class of 14 (including a well-driven Exige which is usually considerably faster), and knocking my sorry effort down into fifth place. I think he was pretty pleased with this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5-dttmaKtw&t=
2017-11-06_12-26-23Still, I managed my own little piece of glassware for 3rd overall in a much faster class championship – don’t forget I started the year in the Westfield, so all my points counted towards that class.
With that done, we headed back down South to Bedford, to give the car a last hurrah before winter. It was actually pretty interesting being on track with other cars, and being able to see each other’s driving first hand over a few laps. As expected the little RX8 didn’t have a lot of pace down the straights (particularly noticeable with a couple of McLarens tearing round!) but certainly held its own in the corners. Of particular note (and quite satisfying after my previous day’s efforts) was pushing a GT3RS round for a couple of laps, before bailing when it became clear he had no intention of moving over for us…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06-5eBVxz5k
The car ran very well all morning, although our brakes were limiting us to three lap stints (no warm up laps for the sprint car though!!). We started suffering with heat issues in the afternoon so called it a day early, but still managed to chew through an entire tank of fuel and had a lot of fun haring around with each other, and giving a few passenger rides too.
So, that’s it for now. First job is to move the car back down to Pete next week – we’re going to scratch our heads with the weird electrical problems, although a bit a investigation at Cadwell showed a couple of cut wires in the boot which looked to have shorted against the bodywork… It looked like someone wasn’t paying attention to the rules! Suffice to say, all touching rights have been revoked
Our initial thoughts are that the CAN BUS system has taken a whack, or the immobiliser side of the ECU has blown, but who knows. Job for winter! We’re also planning a few other constructive additions, in particular a roll-cage and harnesses, along with some stiffer ARBs and a complete brake refresh. More on that little lot as it happens 2017-11-06_12-26-46IMG_0308Kringle said:
Great thread, really enjoying it.
I had a 192 and took it to Snetterton bog standard. I remember it having incredibly long gearing, but once on the twisties it held its own against a Cooper race series which were practicing for the weekends racing.
I also remember the brakes boiling themselves and that it used the same amount of fuel on the track as the sedate drive to and from the circuit!
Bled me dry on fuel, real world i was getting 13mpg!
I have said to myself that if ever I buy another it'll be a track car only. Wonderful fun and still looks fresh.
Keep it up!
At 13 mpg you would have had a coil pack going down. Mine dropped to that and that's what it was. Replaced and back up to 23mpg I had a 192 and took it to Snetterton bog standard. I remember it having incredibly long gearing, but once on the twisties it held its own against a Cooper race series which were practicing for the weekends racing.
I also remember the brakes boiling themselves and that it used the same amount of fuel on the track as the sedate drive to and from the circuit!
Bled me dry on fuel, real world i was getting 13mpg!
I have said to myself that if ever I buy another it'll be a track car only. Wonderful fun and still looks fresh.
Keep it up!
Odd car that actually uses slightly less fuel when thrashed
Scalino said:
Great write up every time OP, really enjoying your adventures!
Mannginger said:
Yup really enjoy these and bravo to both drivers!
Thank you Well, in an effort to avoid having to get the train home on Sunday (and also because I sort of wanted a cheap winter hack to keep the salt off the M5), I've just won this on eBay for less than £500 - 2.4 non-turbo petrol, manual box, FSH (apparently), and 8 months ticket. At least the drive home should be a bit more comfortable
volvo by Ben Edwards, on FlickrNot sure if it's worth its own thread. I'll see if it gets me home first...
The winter lull is well and truly upon us, but things have been happening slowly. The most important of these is that we’ve organised a cage to go in, which should be fitted late December/early Jan. There’ll be more on that as it happens, but of course there’s a certain amount of prep that’ll need to be done first.
I managed to get a free weekend before Christmas to head daahn saahf and get cracking. I’d like to say we focussed on the important things and got loads done, but – well, it was bloody freezing this weekend!
We did manage to get a couple of bits done before we so bravely gave up – the RX8 is now residing on its ramp, we’ve drained the fuel tank (which will have to come out before the cage goes in) and removed the aircon pulley in preparation for the aircon condenser and rad coming out. Then (because it was still really bloody cold, as demonstrated by the frost on the Volvo of Doom below) I decided to take on something I could do in the semi-heated shed instead
So, what was this critical piece of race-car prep to be? Yep, that’s it – paint the other set of wheels a garish colour
In truth, I did have an ulterior motive for this – the wheels on my M5 need doing and I’m loathe to spend a small fortune paying someone to refurbish them if I can do a half decent job myself, but if it’s going to turn out st I’d much rather find out on the RX8 first
Anyway, here are my efforts – this is after a light sanding, two coats of primer, 6 or seven (I lost count) coats if finest Amazon-supplied green, and three coats of lacquer. It’s a pretty quick and dirty job – the inside of the shed was somewhere below 5*C most of the time, and I didn’t do any of that wet’n’dry sanding between coats I read about, but for a first effort I thought they turned out pretty well…
One thing’s for sure, we won’t lose them!
It sounds like sprint season will start up again at the end of March, so we’ve got a while to get the rest of the car sorted out (service, cage, harnesses, another driver’s seat as we’re still not happy with the current Sparco unit, new brakes, etc etc) but I suspect it’ll creep up on us a tad. The car will likely come up to mine once the cage is in so we can work on it indoors.
I’ll update this again as soon as anything remotely interesting happens. In the meantime, thank you all for reading/commenting on my small corner of the internet – I hope you all have a lovely Christmas
I managed to get a free weekend before Christmas to head daahn saahf and get cracking. I’d like to say we focussed on the important things and got loads done, but – well, it was bloody freezing this weekend!
We did manage to get a couple of bits done before we so bravely gave up – the RX8 is now residing on its ramp, we’ve drained the fuel tank (which will have to come out before the cage goes in) and removed the aircon pulley in preparation for the aircon condenser and rad coming out. Then (because it was still really bloody cold, as demonstrated by the frost on the Volvo of Doom below) I decided to take on something I could do in the semi-heated shed instead
So, what was this critical piece of race-car prep to be? Yep, that’s it – paint the other set of wheels a garish colour
In truth, I did have an ulterior motive for this – the wheels on my M5 need doing and I’m loathe to spend a small fortune paying someone to refurbish them if I can do a half decent job myself, but if it’s going to turn out s
t I’d much rather find out on the RX8 first Anyway, here are my efforts – this is after a light sanding, two coats of primer, 6 or seven (I lost count) coats if finest Amazon-supplied green, and three coats of lacquer. It’s a pretty quick and dirty job – the inside of the shed was somewhere below 5*C most of the time, and I didn’t do any of that wet’n’dry sanding between coats I read about, but for a first effort I thought they turned out pretty well…
One thing’s for sure, we won’t lose them!
It sounds like sprint season will start up again at the end of March, so we’ve got a while to get the rest of the car sorted out (service, cage, harnesses, another driver’s seat as we’re still not happy with the current Sparco unit, new brakes, etc etc) but I suspect it’ll creep up on us a tad. The car will likely come up to mine once the cage is in so we can work on it indoors.
I’ll update this again as soon as anything remotely interesting happens. In the meantime, thank you all for reading/commenting on my small corner of the internet – I hope you all have a lovely Christmas
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