£1000 RX8 sprint/track-car project
Discussion
Turn7 said:
Just OOI, whilst watching your vid, I wondered what happens when you over rev a Rotary ? especially in a downchange styleee----I know the Toyota Lotus motor used to break rockers if pushed over a certain rev ceiling for example.
Not a lot. I mean it's not a brilliant idea as various things won't like it and will wear probably far more than if you keep under the red line....but its not like a (non-desmo) piston engine where the valves can float and hit the pistons. Fastdruid said:
Turn7 said:
Just OOI, whilst watching your vid, I wondered what happens when you over rev a Rotary ? especially in a downchange styleee----I know the Toyota Lotus motor used to break rockers if pushed over a certain rev ceiling for example.
Not a lot. I mean it's not a brilliant idea as various things won't like it and will wear probably far more than if you keep under the red line....but its not like a (non-desmo) piston engine where the valves can float and hit the pistons. 
seiben said:
We’re supposed to be at Cadwell for the first round of the Japanese Sprint Series on Saturday but it’ll take a miracle for us to find something track-worthy in the next four days!
Well, we couldn’t not try, could we?!Pete had been on holiday all week and I’d been at work, but the first round of the Japanese Sprint Series was due to take place at Cadwell on Saturday. We’ve spent much of the last week prevaricating about the condition of the car, what would need replacing, how bad the impact was, what we could potentially replace it with… but always came back to getting the RX8 back together and back on track.
So, Pete cut his holiday short a day, I took Friday off work, and we started hunting for bits…
Pete managed to find a wing during the week (a snip at 15 quid!) and then a local breaker’s yard came up trumps with a bumper, headlight, rear light and full set of front undertrays for £45. We’d also got a new control arm and track-rod end on order. Pete had already jacked up the front end and replaced the control arm (check out the old one!) but it didn’t take long for us to hit our first stumbling block – we’d managed to pick up the wrong rear light (d’oh!), and the track-rod end hadn’t turned up…
A few frantic phone calls turned up one available at a breaker in Orpington, so – leaving Pete to piece the front end back together – I jumped in the M5 for a 120-mile round trip via the scrappy to collect the correct rear light and a new track-rod end.
When I left the car looked like this:
…and I returned, a couple of hours later, to this:
[
I also returned to see a DPD van dropping off the new track-rod end we’d ordered, rendering my 120-mile round trip entirely pointless. Oh well, at least we have a spare…!
Here’s the control arm that came off, by the way. Anyone spot the problem?
We felt pretty confident at this point. Pete had already popped off to Ashford to collect a van and trailer, switched two of the R888s from the dented wheels onto our green set, booked a slot for a full geo setup, and we were looking at hotels near Cadwell for the night. The only thing left to do was get it on the ground and check everything worked. It started with no issue, and we could get full lock to the right. Perfect. Now to turn the wheels the other way… and that’s where it all came apart. The front wheels would go straight, just, but no further. Further investigation showed the steering rack itself is bent.
Bugger.
With that we knew there would be no racing the following day, so we took the van & trailer back (Kenhire in Ashford were very helpful and refunded us the majority of the fee) and managed to get the RX8 round to the main driveway and up on axle stands. First up was to do some proper investigation, as an impact hard enough to bend the rack could have consequences elsewhere. We spent an hour going over everything with a fine tooth comb, taking as many cross-measurements as we could, and fortunately everything has come up millimetre-perfect. Content at least that the car isn’t twisted at all we ordered a new rack (£45 from eBay with a warranty!) and set about dropping the old one. Not too bad a job, but I’m not particularly looking forward to refitting!
So that’s where we are now. We had a few consoling beers on Saturday night and watched the live timing for Cadwell the following day, but there’s now six weeks until the next round at Three Sisters in May. With any luck we’ll manage a track-day between now and then to give it a good shake-down in advance.
As predicted, it was a b
d of a job - so much so that I completely forgot to take any 'in progress' shots 
Still, the weekend was a success, eventually. The new steering rack was kindly provided with a snapped bolt in the steering UJ, which gave us lots of fun trying to drill out. We also spent ages painstakingly working out the centre of the new rack – if you get it one tooth out you end up with light steering one way, and heavy steering the other, and a TC system that doesn't know its arse from its elbow.
The steering rack and column have been apart before it seems, and not put back together properly. We’ve always had a mildly worrying amount of side-to-side play in the steering wheel, and this seemed the best opportunity to fix it once and for all. This added a nice couple of hours to proceedings as, while I fought with hard-to-access bolts refitting the rack, Pete removed the whole steering column to see what was what…
We eventually worked out that the top part of the column had been refitted badly in the past, and hadn’t been inserted (fnar) far enough to meet the bearings. A certain amount of ‘persuasion’ later and we had everything hooked up, the new rack installed, and an equal number of turns lock to lock – the first time around!
We also took the opportunity of removing the rest of the air-con components while we were there:
We got a few funny looks as we test drove the new Limited Edition Harlequin RX8, but test it we did
Fortunately, all seems well. It starts, stops, and turns much as it did before, and the new steering rack (now play-free in any direction) is much more direct than the old one which was clearly tired even before I rearranged it with a piece of Armco. We’re getting a little of what sounds like wheel-bearing noise from the rear end, which is new and exciting, but are a little unsure exactly where it’s coming from. Either way, we’ll be trailering it to and from sprints from now in, so if it manifests itself we won’t be stranded
So, Three Sisters in three weeks! Pete will take it up for a four-wheel alignment in the meantime, but otherwise, we’re good to go
d of a job - so much so that I completely forgot to take any 'in progress' shots Still, the weekend was a success, eventually. The new steering rack was kindly provided with a snapped bolt in the steering UJ, which gave us lots of fun trying to drill out. We also spent ages painstakingly working out the centre of the new rack – if you get it one tooth out you end up with light steering one way, and heavy steering the other, and a TC system that doesn't know its arse from its elbow.
The steering rack and column have been apart before it seems, and not put back together properly. We’ve always had a mildly worrying amount of side-to-side play in the steering wheel, and this seemed the best opportunity to fix it once and for all. This added a nice couple of hours to proceedings as, while I fought with hard-to-access bolts refitting the rack, Pete removed the whole steering column to see what was what…
We eventually worked out that the top part of the column had been refitted badly in the past, and hadn’t been inserted (fnar) far enough to meet the bearings. A certain amount of ‘persuasion’ later and we had everything hooked up, the new rack installed, and an equal number of turns lock to lock – the first time around!
We also took the opportunity of removing the rest of the air-con components while we were there:
We got a few funny looks as we test drove the new Limited Edition Harlequin RX8, but test it we did
Fortunately, all seems well. It starts, stops, and turns much as it did before, and the new steering rack (now play-free in any direction) is much more direct than the old one which was clearly tired even before I rearranged it with a piece of Armco. We’re getting a little of what sounds like wheel-bearing noise from the rear end, which is new and exciting, but are a little unsure exactly where it’s coming from. Either way, we’ll be trailering it to and from sprints from now in, so if it manifests itself we won’t be stranded
So, Three Sisters in three weeks! Pete will take it up for a four-wheel alignment in the meantime, but otherwise, we’re good to go
meb90 said:
Great news! I'm glad to see her back and working again. A lot of work I'm sure.
This is my first post on this thread, but I have been following for a while, and have enjoyed it all. Keep up the good work
Thank you! Yes, it was a bit of an effort getting it back up and running, but kind of fun as well when you're doing it with a mate.This is my first post on this thread, but I have been following for a while, and have enjoyed it all. Keep up the good work
Bit late with the update but we are now, literally (!) back on track
Pete had sorted a few bits since my last visit as final preparation for our next track outing. Job number one was to finally get it up on the ramps and have the alignment checked. We were expecting things to be a bit out of kilter – Pete had commented that the rear end felt a bit wayward – and we were not disappointed. Check out that rear toe-out
A bit of jiggery-pokery had the settings looking a bit more acceptable…
Pete had also taken the opportunity to buy a suitable RX8-sized trailer. It’s almost like he doesn’t trust me not to do a repeat performance
With that, there was nothing else for it but to head up to sunny Wigan for the second (and our first) round of the Japanese Sprint Series. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from Three Sisters – not only was it to be my first track outing since meeting the barrier at Snet, but it is, effectively, ‘just’ a go-kart track. Homework options were pretty limited as well – there’s a few YouTube vids from recent trackdays, but only one video I could find of the sprint course, driven in a kit car. Slightly different kettle of fish compared to the lardy old RX8!
Even from the outset we were expecting to be very uncompetitive – misgivings that were not reduced at all watching a handful of karts go round the evening before the race. It’s really not a big track! Still, we’d come all this way, and the next morning we were greeted with bright sunshine and a dry track, which was a good start. Scrutineering and sign on was passed without issue, and then we could finally get out on track during the sighting laps. We pretty quickly worked out there would only be two gearchanges during the lap – shift to second on the first corner, do the whole lap in second (!), then up to third on the back straight. Fortunately it turned out the RX8 gearing was pretty well suited, with lots of other competitors constantly shifting 2-3-2 on the twisty circuit.
Lining up for the practice runs I was still expecting it to be disappointing, but how wrong I was. It’s incredibly technical – there’s no set line as such, as demonstrated by the array of lines used by people during the day – but it’s enormous fun. Given that most laps were over in sub-50 seconds it really is an intense track, with very little time to think forwards and set up for the next corner. Even more unbelievably, we were competitive – after the first run we were sitting 3rd and 4th in a class of 50 cars!
My other worry was that I’d psych myself out after Snet, particularly as there’s very little run-off at 3S. Fortunately this also turned out not to be the case, with Pete and I typically close and swapping places between us during the day. At one point there was a mere 2 hundredths between us! Eventually, though Pete pulled it out of the bag on the final run of the day and pipped my by two tenths. We still managed to hold onto 4th and 7th overall, which – given the relative lack of power and heavy weight of the RX8 – we were both massively impressed with.
As ever, the day was run like clockwork by the Javelin crew, so much so we had time for some fun runs in the afternoon – a good opportunity to go and passenger with other people. I had a bit of fun putting together the usual video as well – this includes Pete and my fastest runs, along with a couple of outtakes (void runs!) and some general cocking around…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_JV_KF8Ajo&t
It’s frustrating to watch back, as I can see where I’m losing time heading into the final tight right-hander. Next time…!
And a few pics by Darren at Piston Broke Photography (mostly of the bits I cocked up
)
Edited by seiben on Wednesday 30th May 09:40
Edited by seiben on Wednesday 30th May 09:41
Sorry for the thread hijack but
before i start.. this is me and ben at a recent friends wedding
FB_IMG_1523885345780 by peteandkel, on Flickr
Unfortunatly Ben could not make Blyton Park in June
So i have made my own little video of the day enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzJkursYn6k&t
couple of pictures taken by one of my mates on the day
item (9) by peteandkel, on Flickr
item (7) by peteandkel, on Flickr
item (6) by peteandkel, on Flickr
item (5) by peteandkel, on Flickr
item (4) by peteandkel, on Flickr
I ran at blyton a fresh set of r888r's which won't be used this weekend as Kendrew will kill them,
So we will be using up the last of our current set of r888r's and Ben purchased and painted another set of wheels and track r888 used tyres to kill
Also had to change the wheel breaking as it was getting increasingly noisy after its small touch with the armo.. That was a nightmare as one of the bolts for the toe arm had rusted to the bush, ended up cutting it all out and fitting a jap speed adjustable arms.
took the car up to get aligned again, slightly more camber now and a little more toe in on the rear with 0deg on the front. see how it goes
Also had an issue at the end off the day at blyton during the fun runs. I could not get the car to restart and we had to push it onto the trailer (don't worry not normal rx8 hot start issues) this was more around i could not here the fuel pump running, but as all runs of the day were completed, i took it home to inspect
FB_IMG_1530745386064 by peteandkel, on Flickr
Got home the RX8 home, guess what?? It ran perfect, Bugger!. and has been running perfect since. Until I was sat outside the alignment centre.. grr Stopped working just turning over
After stealing some tools from the garage found there was no power to the fuel pump.. so swapped and played with the relays.. got it running. We had this problem last year too!
So yesterday a trip to the local breakers and got some used ones.. swapped them all over.. and lets see what happens!!
Also the pajero tow car.. full overhaul this week.
replaced:- front diff oil, transfer box oil, rear diff oil, ATF fluid, Engine oil filter, engine oil, Air filter, All brake fluid, Radiator, Water pump, Thermostat, new coolant and diesel filter..
Now runs loverly!!!!
DSC_1806 by peteandkel, on Flickr
DSC_1808 by peteandkel, on Flickr
that is it for now, i am sure normal updates will resume as Ben is back out with me at Kendrew on sunday.. Wish us luck
before i start.. this is me and ben at a recent friends wedding
FB_IMG_1523885345780 by peteandkel, on FlickrUnfortunatly Ben could not make Blyton Park in June
So i have made my own little video of the day
enjoyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzJkursYn6k&t
couple of pictures taken by one of my mates on the day
item (9) by peteandkel, on Flickritem (7) by peteandkel, on Flickritem (6) by peteandkel, on Flickritem (5) by peteandkel, on Flickritem (4) by peteandkel, on FlickrI ran at blyton a fresh set of r888r's which won't be used this weekend as Kendrew will kill them,
So we will be using up the last of our current set of r888r's and Ben purchased and painted another set of wheels and track r888 used tyres to kill
Also had to change the wheel breaking as it was getting increasingly noisy after its small touch with the armo.. That was a nightmare as one of the bolts for the toe arm had rusted to the bush, ended up cutting it all out and fitting a jap speed adjustable arms.
took the car up to get aligned again, slightly more camber now and a little more toe in on the rear with 0deg on the front. see how it goes
Also had an issue at the end off the day at blyton during the fun runs. I could not get the car to restart and we had to push it onto the trailer (don't worry not normal rx8 hot start issues) this was more around i could not here the fuel pump running, but as all runs of the day were completed, i took it home to inspect
FB_IMG_1530745386064 by peteandkel, on FlickrGot home the RX8 home, guess what?? It ran perfect, Bugger!. and has been running perfect since. Until I was sat outside the alignment centre.. grr Stopped working just turning over
After stealing some tools from the garage found there was no power to the fuel pump.. so swapped and played with the relays.. got it running. We had this problem last year too!
So yesterday a trip to the local breakers and got some used ones.. swapped them all over.. and lets see what happens!!
Also the pajero tow car.. full overhaul this week.
replaced:- front diff oil, transfer box oil, rear diff oil, ATF fluid, Engine oil filter, engine oil, Air filter, All brake fluid, Radiator, Water pump, Thermostat, new coolant and diesel filter..
Now runs loverly!!!!
DSC_1806 by peteandkel, on FlickrDSC_1808 by peteandkel, on Flickrthat is it for now, i am sure normal updates will resume as Ben is back out with me at Kendrew on sunday.. Wish us luck
Edited by pistolpete12 on Thursday 5th July 00:13
pistolpete12 said:
I have also been doing a lot of weight stripping from the car, I want to go mx5 turbo chasing.. but will let Ben update you on that with pictures and a better way with words than me
Having recently picked up an RX8 wheel I can tell you there is a lot to be gained there, they felt like they were made of cast iron! You will struggle to get anywhere near an equally well driven/powerful MX5, when you compare the two the RX has so many heavier components on it, it seems the only place they bothered with weight saving was the bonnet.
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