£1000 RX8 sprint/track-car project
Discussion
Turns out I’m a bit crap at keeping things updated, so let’s do a quick crash-course to bring things up to date!
The latter half of 2020 did eventually provide some opportunities for track time, starting with a local jaunt over to Abingdon ( massively under-rated circuit in my view) where I had some fun chasing a well-driven E36 M3:
Then we had a couple of rounds at Three Sisters and Cadwell, both of which netted decent results and massive relief at actually being allowed out on track again!
Somewhere in there (I’m a bit hazy about timelines now, tbh!) I also managed to complete the garage, swap the Jeep for a slightly newer tow-bus and procure a trailer that fits in the garage…
The cut-short 2020 season finished with something of a first for many of us – a night sprint! This was held in mid December at Cadwell Park. The idea was you get two layouts, one in the day and one after dusk (so, about 3pm
). Throwing a car down the Gooseneck and over the Mountain in the pitch dark in the pissing rain is an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget. The second half of the video below is a true representation of that I could see. I’m not even kidding 
2021 brought the birth of my twin sons, which did hamper free time somewhat but I did manage to get the car refreshed and the wheels repainted in time to take it up to Croft for a track day and the first round of this year’s sprint series. Couldn’t have had more different weather on the two days, tbh…
Sadly, this is as far as things go for the RX8 – in my ownership at least. It’s up for sale as spares and repairs – about 3k miles on track and many hundreds of 6000rpm launches have made things a bit tired. The suspension all needs re-bushing, as do the diff mounts, engine mounts etc, and the last straw was a bout of consistent rough running at Three Sisters this weekend just gone that could be anything from a dodgy coil to a dead engine. After four years of abuse, laughs, an insatiable appetite for fuel and an astonishing number of plastic trophies, it’s time to find something else.
Not bad for a grand, really
The latter half of 2020 did eventually provide some opportunities for track time, starting with a local jaunt over to Abingdon ( massively under-rated circuit in my view) where I had some fun chasing a well-driven E36 M3:
Then we had a couple of rounds at Three Sisters and Cadwell, both of which netted decent results and massive relief at actually being allowed out on track again!
Somewhere in there (I’m a bit hazy about timelines now, tbh!) I also managed to complete the garage, swap the Jeep for a slightly newer tow-bus and procure a trailer that fits in the garage…
The cut-short 2020 season finished with something of a first for many of us – a night sprint! This was held in mid December at Cadwell Park. The idea was you get two layouts, one in the day and one after dusk (so, about 3pm
). Throwing a car down the Gooseneck and over the Mountain in the pitch dark in the pissing rain is an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget. The second half of the video below is a true representation of that I could see. I’m not even kidding 2021 brought the birth of my twin sons, which did hamper free time somewhat
but I did manage to get the car refreshed and the wheels repainted in time to take it up to Croft for a track day and the first round of this year’s sprint series. Couldn’t have had more different weather on the two days, tbh…Sadly, this is as far as things go for the RX8 – in my ownership at least. It’s up for sale as spares and repairs – about 3k miles on track and many hundreds of 6000rpm launches have made things a bit tired. The suspension all needs re-bushing, as do the diff mounts, engine mounts etc, and the last straw was a bout of consistent rough running at Three Sisters this weekend just gone that could be anything from a dodgy coil to a dead engine. After four years of abuse, laughs, an insatiable appetite for fuel and an astonishing number of plastic trophies, it’s time to find something else.
Not bad for a grand, really
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