£1000 RX8 sprint/track-car project

[seiben]

It’s safe to say we’re well and truly out of the winter doldrums now – and the Racecat’s last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic! We had a few bits to repair after Brands (not least giving the vomit-stained passenger seat a good clean!) and Pete got stuck in straight away in swapping over the faulty clutch slave cylinder and fitting a new set of EBC Yellows. We had a pretty special treat lined up for our plucky little car – and for once it didn’t involve Pete (who lives in the arse end of Kent) traipsing round the M25 to get to a circuit.

Yep, we were off to Spa! Oh yes, and it was 5 days before sprinting season starts. What could possibly go wrong…?

We loaded the Shogun up with as many parts, spares, tools as we could possibly think of, gave the RX8 a quick start and run up to temp to make sure it still worked, and trundled off to the tunnel. The whole journey was pretty perfect actually – the train was on time, the roads were clear and (being a Sunday) there were minimal lorries on the autoroute. Shunning the overpriced hotels we’d booked into an AirBNB in a local village – with space for the trailer – so we parked up, unhitched and went in search of the nearest Carrefour and some lovely Belgian beer

2019-04-08_01-44-52 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

I know you all want to hear about the track day, but humour me for a minute – Spa itself really is rather charming (and there was some nice metal hanging around as well!). Well worth a visit.

2019-04-08_01-45-15 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-45-23 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-45-29 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-45-35 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-45-51 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-46-28 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Suitably stocked with steak and beer (not to mention 80 litres in jerry cans full of the finest Belgian 98 RON) we headed back to our rented house, fed and watered ourselves and got an early night ready for the big day.

And what a day it was! Bright, sunny, dry and with temperatures in the teens we really couldn’t have hoped for a better day. Our first job was to swap the Rainsports out for the R888s! I was expecting Spa to be a great track, but nothing really prepared me for what a phenomenal place it really is. There was some really very serious machinery there on the day, and we were woefully out-gunned in a straight line, but overall we held our own remarkably well. The faithful old thing really does cling on in the corners, and we often found ourselves catching stuff up in the corners that had come rocketing past on the never-ending back straight a minute before.

Driving standards were very good overall, though, with particular kudos to the chap in an R35 GTR who let me pass after Pouhon, then sat behind me all the way up Eau Rouge and along the back straight so he wouldn’t have to let me passed again the next lap.

Both Pete and I had loads of fun, as evidenced by the fact we managed 240 miles on track and got through 150l of fuel The car ran like a top all day despite getting full enthusiastic use and never really being given the chance to cool down. We both – after many laps of psyching ourselves up – managed on the last runs of the day to take both Eau Rouge and Blanchimont corners flat out at the top of 4th gear – an experience that will really stay with me.

Sadly the cameras were only running for the first few runs of the day, but here’s a few laps of mine from mid-morning. Skip the first 6-7 minutes once I’ve cleared the yellow flags and traffic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXJufojBP80&t=...

And a few pics from the track itself:

2019-04-08_01-46-55 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-47-00 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-47-15 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-47-26 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-47-35 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-47-48 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

These held up remarkably well:
2019-04-08_01-47-57 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-48-08 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-48-34 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-48-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-49-05 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-49-29 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-08_01-46-17 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr


And done. What an experience. Four days later, we were off to Cadwell Park for the first sprint of the 2019 season. Stay tuned…

[seiben]

From European exotica to the cold, damp greyness of the North East – that’s right, sprinting season is back!

Pete didn’t even bother unloading the towcar and trailer after Spa – after arriving home on Tuesday afternoon he was heading off again Friday morning. Good thing we didn’t break anything in Belgium

Ever since I’ve started doing this I have never, ever got my head around Cadwell Park. It’s Pete’s favourite circuit, he’s always beaten me here, but I was hoping that the track day we did in November would stand me in good stead now I’d managed to get a decent number of laps under my belt. I should also note I have never, ever driven Cadwell in the dry, so we dutifully swapped onto the Rainsports before loading up to come home from Spa.

We also had that new 6-paddle clutch and lightweight flywheel to think about. It had been perfectly well behaved the week before, but neither of us had an opportunity to properly launch the car and only had one practice run each to get to grips!

2019-04-11_10-48-22 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

The morning of the sprint was – unbelievably – dry, but very cold, grey and windy. It made the conditions a little unpredictable from the outset, which unfortunately led to a couple of big offs from other competitors (no injuries, fortunately). Our new clutch took a bit of getting used to, but we soon settled on a far-more-sensible 4k rpm launch which gave the best results. Pete and I both had pretty good runs first thing, before Pete (the swine!) took a solid second off me on run two. The weather started playing silly buggers with us at this point – while it never really rained, the temps dropped and there was a lot of very fine moisture in the air that made the track decidedly greasy. My third run was 6 seconds down, and the next run ended up with me going backwards through the Gooseneck at over 80mph (an experience that certainly wakes you up! ).

Fifth run started out well, and felt really good…. Right until the point I caught up with the competitor in front of me before the end of the lap . This gave me a re-run, but sadly no advantage from warm tyres – someone had dropped coolant all around Park which took half an hour or so to clear up. Still, I managed to knock .8 of a second off which was enough to better Pete’s best run so far, which I was pretty happy about

The final run was pretty identical for me and – sadly – slower for Pete as the threatened rain closed in. So that was it – I’d finally broken my Cadwell Park curse and started the season off with a class win, and fastest naturally aspirated car of the day!

2019-04-11_10-48-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2019-04-11_10-48-53 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

We’ve got a few weeks to wait until Three Sisters, followed fairly quickly by Anglesey. The car seems to be largely behaving (if I’m honest, none of us ever expected it to last this long!) but the clutch bite point was getting quite high by the end of the day. We were also struggling a bit with brakes all day, which we’ve put down to cooking and glazing the pads at Spa. They’ll get a bit of a fettle soon with any luck.

2019-04-11_12-00-23 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Vids to follow once Pete is back from a much needed holiday. In the meantime, here’s his run around Spa to keep you entertained:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a0rNkaPkZ0&t=...

[pistolpete12]

Awesome write up as always buddy!! race cat looking goooood.

Ill get the videos sorted tomorrow from Cadwell, and hopefully check the brakes and clutch before 3sisters

[seiben]

And here's the vid. Again, considering how close we are we have pretty different driving styles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8T-eL7cMFY

[Gary C]

Fantastic

Well done

And I take it the rotary is just soaking up the punishment ?

Almost makes me wish I still had mine.

[seiben]

Gary C said:

Fantastic

Well done

And I take it the rotary is just soaking up the punishment ?

Almost makes me wish I still had mine.

Thanks Gary. Yep, none of us quite expected it to last this long but it's still spinning away merrily

[seiben]

…and we’re back! It was a pretty quick turnaround from Cadwell, but Pete still managed to fit a new clutch master cylinder and bleed the system through after our worries at the previous round. Fortunately is seems to have done the trick, as neither of us really fancy pulling the gearbox off again.

Three Sisters is a pretty different track to Cadwell – it’s basically a kart circuit, so even with a double-lap sprint layout it’s only just over a mile. It’s short, twisty, narrow, frantic and there’s very little run-off if you do get something wrong (as a couple of competitors unfortunately found out). There’s very little semblance of a racing line, so most corners are approached by standing on the brakes, throwing it in, nailing the throttle and hoping for the best

The little MX5s should have been in their element here, but for such a lardy car I was really impressed with our results. Pete and I managed 9th and 10th overall, fasted naturally-aspirated car of the day, and P1 and P2 of the Mazda Sprint Series. Not bad going really!

Couple of pics of the day:





And a drive-by and in-car video. Hitting the limiter at 10k rpm is all part of the fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3-ofipZRng

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSXZfVxeSDA

Next weekend is a biggy – Javelin are Anglesey, running the Javelin Sprint Series on Saturday, and the Japanese Sprint Series on Sunday. We’re, unusually, in a big class for the former event, so it’ll be interesting to see if we can keep the hot hatch boys and girls at bay!

[seiben]

Blimey, plenty to catch up on! Anglesey, aside from being a real bloody trek from anywhere sensible, is always a great event. Making it a double-header (Javelin and Japanese series) means we could make the most of the weekend, including a nice little AirBNB out in the middle of nowhere to keep costs down!

Typically both days started off wet, drying towards the end of the day, so for two consecutive events the end result came down to the last run. We had fun getting there though, with spins from both of us and a couple of entertaining trips across the grass

Whilst clearing a nice chunk of grass out for the underside of the car we also discovered that the front ARB mount had managed to detach itself. Now I’m not saying this is why I fell off the circuit…

Day 1 went to me, and day 2 to Pete after I put too much pressure on myself and stuffed up my last run! Still, it was nice playing in a bigger class for a change during the Javelin event, during which we managed a respectable 2nd and 4th out of six, followed by 13th and 14th overall the next day out of the usual Japanese SS runners. Seems to be pretty consistently where we sit here!





After a month’s hiatus we then headed up to RAF Cottesmore (AKA Kendrew Barracks) for a very different sort of event. Kendrew is always a lot of fun, using the airfield support roads and main runway on a coned out course feels almost like a rally stage. Most competitors (me included!) were still learning the track by mid afternoon, and the long grass surrounding the track made navigating even trickier. This also meant that any expedition off-track was a messy affair – as I found out after putting two wheels off ended up with a hay-bale’s worth of fodder attached to the bottom of the car which caught fire briefly
The surface at Kendrew is also very abrasive, so we opted to use our old R888 track-day tyres for the first couple of runs. It turns out this was less than ideal, so we switched to the newer R888Rs and immediately went 3 seconds quicker



Sadly – for the first time ever – we didn’t get all of our runs in. Last year we had to replace a rear suspension arm after I sort of crashed the car a bit, and we took the opportunity to swap in an adjustable Japspeed unit with some fancy rose joints. Naturally this is the bit that failed as I came through the last (very tight!) chicane, banged down into first and floored it over the finish line. Poor Pete only managed one run on the R888Rs as a result, but we still managed a top 15 placing on what is very much a power-orientated circuit!

Interestingly, as a neat demonstration of our power disadvantage, there was a speed trap rigged just before the braking point on the main runway. Our top speed along here was a dizzying 113mph, compared to 174mph (!) for the leading Fensport GT86R, 132mph for the MX5 turbo that’s trouncing us in the Mazda series, and 130mph by the Civic Type R that we somehow managed to beat

Blyton next up. Should be interesting, I’ve not driven there for two years! We’ve also picked up a new set of tyres, and are trying something different this time:



A new set of Yoko A052s. Looking forward to trying them out…

[5harp3y]

great write up

[seiben]

Turns out I haven't actually driven the outer circuit at Blyton since 2016 (which was in the Westfield, so this was to be my first go at it in the RX8. I didn't really have any point of reference aside from Pete's time last year (1:14.7) and my time in the Westfield (1:13.8), but we had snazzy new tyres and a few helpful tips from people who had done many more laps of the diminutive circuit than us!

The day went really well on the whole - the rain that seemed to be lashing the rest of the country held off, the new tyres proved to be excellent, the replaced rear suspension arm stayed put and for once Pete put the car into a field instead of me





Times fell pretty consistently through the day, and at the end of it we were both delighted to have beaten our previous with a 1:12.8 and 1:13.2 respectively. I was certainly surprised to have beaten the 600kg kit car!

The new A052s were really very impressive. Grip levels stayed consistent throughout the day whether on a cold or warm lap, and they're much more progressive and predictable than the old R888Rs. I'd never really thought about the soft sidewalls of the Toyos before, but the Yokos (at similar pressures) were so much more stable.

To top it all off, at the end of the day we got some un-timed 'fun' runs while the track was still open - an ideal opportunity for cocking about and doing some cool skidz. Except I couldn't do any cool skidz, because I couldn't unstick the blimmin thing!

Here's the usual vid - both of our runs, plus pete launching it off a kerb and into a field

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6iFAlX3DDE

Next up: Croft!

[therealsamdailly]

Cool write ups, I love reading these. Keep it coming

[seiben]

So many threads to update, so little time!

It’s been a few weeks since Croft and the next round (back at Blyton) is looming again, so let’s get this back up to date.

The most important thing first – we have actual photographic evidence of FLAMES!



The day itself was pretty frustrating, in many ways. The primary source of this was the weather – we seemed to go through the same cycle of blazing sunshine, sudden drop in temperature, increase in wind speed, big dark clouds, deluge of rain, and back to blazing sunshine (and rinse and repeat) every hour through the day. At any point the track could be bone dry, a bit greasy, soaking wet or an actual river, and you wouldn’t know which combination of these you would be presented with until you started the lap. Some runners managed to get dry runs all morning, others were constantly thwarted by rain, and we had a higher than usual number of red flags so the day didn’t run in its usual smooth manner.

Pete somehow managed to get two dry runs in the morning, while mine were soaking wet – so come lunch I was already 3 seconds off the pace despite matching my dry lap time from last year! I was lucky to get a bone dry lap straight after lunch which saw me 4 seconds quicker and – somehow – that’s where I managed to stay. Run 4 started off dry but then I was met with a river coming into Tower (not where you want to suddenly find water!) and run 5 would have been quicker had I not gone through the last couple of corners sideways. No run six, due to the delays we’d had all day.

Pete and I ended on 1:37.06 and 1:36.59 respectively, so typically close despite a tricky day! We both blitzed our times from the previous year by around 4 seconds, which I’m very pleased with, and even knocked a couple of secs off my old Westfield time. We were also a full 15 seconds quicker than the poor old Fiesta we ran a couple of years back that started this whole thing off

If you are exceedingly bored, here are both of our sets of runs in full. From memory mine go: wet, wet, dry, dry-then-wet-then-dry, dry-but-too-much-right-foot:

https://youtu.be/n44qGXiHo6g

https://youtu.be/Qer4X_HIksA

[seiben]

It seems my various threads are al due an update, so let’s start with this one! The sprint season is finally over, and we’ve got a couple of rounds to catch up on.

First up, Blyton (again) – this time the eastern layout. It was a bit wet.



It was pretty much like this all day, bar a brief respite before lunch where the ran held off long enough for the worst of the standing water to disperse! Needless to say we were on the Rainsports all day

An emotional day for Pete – his last round in the RX8 before swapping over to his 2ZZ-powered MR2 Roadster. Naturally I had to let him win

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioY7QGZeQnU

So the RX8 has now come to live with me (or more accurately, a lock-up a few miles away while I go about building a garage to put it in). What ground-breaking mods do I have planned, I hear you ask? New stickers, obviously. Something nice and classy. Subtle, like…



And all of a sudden, we were off to Snetterton for the final round! As seems to be a theme this year, the track was cold and wet all day. Pete was having a job getting his head back into a mid-engined car, and I was desperately trying not to think about the last time I was here, where I ended up rearranging several of the car’s body panels in similar conditions. Gulp.

So it’s no surprise really that I was quite cautions all day, but my fastest (uncharacteristically smooth) run was still good enough for second in class and 18th overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3RKCmvmW0

Rather more pleasingly, I was able to take home the championship win for my class (J8) in the Japanese Sprint Series, and the overall championship win for the Mazda Sprint series

The old girl tucked up again, with a bit of glassware!



And with her new racing buddy…

[seiben]

Flames!

[seiben]

More flames!



It didn’t take much persuasion to join in for a last hurrah of 2019 at Silverstone. I’ve only ever driven the little National circuit at a PHSS a few years ago, so I was looking forward to getting stuck into the full GP track. The day was incredibly quiet as well – fewer than 40 cars signed on and not a single red flag all day!

Admittedly I did feel like I’d brought a knife to a gun-fight when I pulled up…





The garage next door was definitely jealous



The day before was beautifully clear but, in true 2019 style, it pissed with rain first thing on the day. A sudden attack of laziness led me to go out on the (already fitted) Yokohama A052 semi-slicks rather than change to the Rainsports everyone else seemed to be running – and I’m glad it did, as I was greeted by the grippiest wet track I’ve ever encountered!

The day was superb really, with a remarkable lack of dheadery and a slowly drying track meaning I could lean on the car more and more. It’s really the first time I’ve been able to properly lean on these tyres and they are simply superb – head and shoulders above the R888Rs we were using before.

Quick vid for posterity (managed to keep a couple of race cars honest, but keep an eye out for the ballistic Bentley that disappears off into the distance at an astonishing rate!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxE0jOzuyDI

That’s it for 2019 now. Thanks to all of you for sticking with it so far, for your comments, support and being along for the ride

Sprint season doesn’t start until May (May!!) next year, and it’s still parked in a lockup a few miles from my house, but I’ll get down there at some point to throw some new brakes on and give it a service. Or something. Probably.

Happy Christmas everyone!

[V-Rod]

Great to see its all still going OK, have a good one

[pistolpete12]

Flames!!!!!
Was a good day . still defo not one of my fav tracks.. but a good day with no red flags and very quiet.

Felt like had the whole track to myself a lot of the time

[seiben]

<sidles in quietly>

<coughs>

Erm. Hi everyone. Remember me? It’s been a while…

seiben said:

Sprint season doesn’t start until May (May!!) next year, and it’s still parked in a lockup a few miles from my house, but I’ll get down there at some point to throw some new brakes on and give it a service. Or something. Probably.

Yeah, that was a bit optimistic, huh? The poor old RX8 has been more than a little neglected these last six months while I negotiated some time off, ongoing house renovation, a delayed garage build, a leggy old M5 that also requires a certain amount of attention, and of course this blasted virus that’s turned everything doolally! Still, some things have happened, so let’s bring things up to date a bit…

With Christmas and NY out of the way I headed over to the unit in early Jan to give it a quick service and change the plugs. Turns out working in an old train yard in January wasn’t much fun, an experience exacerbated when it turned out the battery had got too low and it promptly flooded when we tried to start it up…

Pete had come over to help out, which was bloody useful as it meant we could drag the bd thing round the yard behind his landy to bump-start it





A bit later I popped back to fit some fresh brakes, refit the driver’s seat without the runners (so it would sit a bit lower) and generally give it a check-over. Despite The Internetz being determined that I will DIE IN A FIREY BALL OF FLAME11!!1!!! I’ve gone for EBC Yellows and EBC discs all round. I like them, they’re well-suited to the car and have put up with a lot of abuse since we started using them. So there.



….and that was basically it for six months. I popped over periodically to give it a run and keep the battery charged (no power at the unit meant no battery-charger) and watched with grim inevitability as the planned sprint rounds in May, June and July got cancelled one-by-one.

Still, there was one tiny glimmer of light – Pete and I had booked an evening session at Brands Hatch to give both cars a shakedown (mine after being ignored in a big steel box for half a year, his after being almost entirely rebuilt since the last outing at Silverstone!), and it seemed, maybe, like this one might be going ahead…

And it did! First job was to grab a trailer, bring the old girl home and give her a good clean. A good opportunity to check how easily a trailer would fit on the new garage base, too Then, off to Brands!

Social distancing: track-day style:



There were many things to be worried about going into this. Would the car still work? How would the Jeep cope towing for the first time in months? Would Pete’s changes to his MR2 work? Fortunately all was good, we had an awesome time and no red flags for the whole session! Pete’s build is particularly impressive – he basically built an entire polybush kit for the MR2 himself from scratch, something I’m in complete awe of, and that little MR2 of his is going to be a little weapon when he learns to drive it properly and fixes the tyre scrub

A couple of track shots, for posterity!








No vid from me, but we did get a bit of a trafficky session where I followed Pete around for a bit and he followed me. Keeping up with that MR2 is going to be pretty challenging I think

Edited by seiben on Monday 22 June 13:48

[crofty1984]

Justinas said:

So why are RX8s so cheap?
They look good and drive well. Yes, they drink petrol/oil and engine issues are well known, but 1k for an RX8 (+rebuilt engine) is a very good price.

If you're at the £1000 end of the market, the £500 road tax every year is a bit off-putting

[seiben]

crofty1984 said:

If you're at the £1000 end of the market, the £500 road tax every year is a bit off-putting

The cheap end of the market will likely be a pre-2006 car.

This one's not seen a public highway for quite some time though