£1000 RX8 sprint/track-car project
Discussion
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_0308Scalino 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 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
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
Mr Tidy said:
Thanks for the updates OP - fantastic thread and well written! 
I love your random purchases - like an M5, and a cheap Volvo to avoid having to get a train.
I'm looking forward to next season already!
Thanks I love your random purchases - like an M5, and a cheap Volvo to avoid having to get a train.
I'm looking forward to next season already!
The M5 was less of a random purchase and more an attempt to get one before the prices move out of my reach. It's pretty rough around the edges really but I'm enjoying it a lot. It's probably going to need a bit of money throwing at it this year...
Volvo was definitely a random purchase (I spotted the eBay ad when there were 14 mins remaining!) but has been pretty awesome so far. Aside from shifting all sorts of crap around it got us over the Peak district in fresh snow a few days ago. Feeling pretty smug about the winter tyres
Stephen-hn2m6 said:
Such a great thread. @op, this pushed me over the edge in buying an 07 red 231 RX8. I had several jap cars 10 years ago. 2 Skylines then a pretty quick Evo 7. Every single car I have intended on doing a track day or other event, but something always got in the way - weddings, houses, kids, businesses etc etc etc. Been on a Panigale for last 3 years but recently got rid. Now though I am determined to do my first ever track day. Really interested in the Javelin Sprint series.
Going to hit the first event with a completely bog standard car. Will have a good service and check over at Rotary Motion first. But other than that, it’s as Mazda intended for better or worse. But really excited to finally be getting involved.
The RX8 was a good buy (so far as I can tell). 39000 miles. Has FSH with Mazda then Hayward rotary. Had coils, plugs and all new discs and pads. Not a single bit of rust underneath and has been under sealed.
Cost me £2k so a bit more than the op but will be using this as my daily too so I’ll see how long it lasts! A serious car for the money.
Thanks to this thread, I decided to take the plunge. So thank you!
Again, thanks for the kind words - I'm glad you enjoyed reading and I hope you enjoy the rex! Get a picture up Going to hit the first event with a completely bog standard car. Will have a good service and check over at Rotary Motion first. But other than that, it’s as Mazda intended for better or worse. But really excited to finally be getting involved.
The RX8 was a good buy (so far as I can tell). 39000 miles. Has FSH with Mazda then Hayward rotary. Had coils, plugs and all new discs and pads. Not a single bit of rust underneath and has been under sealed.
Cost me £2k so a bit more than the op but will be using this as my daily too so I’ll see how long it lasts! A serious car for the money.
Thanks to this thread, I decided to take the plunge. So thank you!
I'd highly recommend heading over to the RX8 owners club - I don't post on there that much but they're a really helpful bunch and there are a couple of (much higher) quality track car builds over there.
It looks like Javelin have also launched a Japanese Sprint Series for next year - I think we're going to do the first round of each (Snetterton 300 and Cadwell, respectively) and then decide which series we'll go for. I imagine in reality we'll do a bit of both, so it'd be great to see another RX8 competing. I know of one other that will be joining us next year, certainly.
Not much has happened over Xmas and new year, but we have at least managed to track down the electrical gremlins. Turned out to be a fuse that blew when the boot light wires were cut...
Happy new year to everyone reading - I'll be back with a better update as soon as we get off our backsides and actually do anything with it :lol:
It feels like it’s been a quiet in bargain RX8 world, but things have slowly been coming together over the winter break. First up was a trip to Autosport at the NEC – we had a very nice chat with the chaps from Corbeau seats, who managed to sort us out with an ex-demo bucket seat and two sets of brand new Luke harnesses for a very healthy discount.
2018-02-09_10-12-55 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2018-02-09_10-12-45 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
More to the point, and to make best use of these lovely shiny new things, we needed some sort of rollover protection (I'm not a big fan of running harnesses without!). Options for RX8s seem remarkably thin on the ground without spending comfortably in excess of the car's value, but we finally came up trumps through the RX8 owners club. So, a couple of weeks ago, I headed down to the Valleys with a fellow 8 owner to pick this up:
2018-02-09_10-11-03 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
I would have preferred a full cage in all honesty, but this is a beautifully made thing and will at least give us the protection we were previously lacking if we manage to tip it over. Plus, we can run the new harnesses. It's been living in the back of the Volvo for the last fortnight, which has earnt me one or two funny looks!
2018-02-09_10-13-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
Meanwhile, Pete's been doing some actual useful stuff and manages to get the braided lines we've had kicking around for months fitted
2018-02-09_10-11-54 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2018-02-09_10-12-08 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2018-02-09_10-11-45 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
Only a small update for now, but I'm heading back down to Kent this weekend to get as much as we can done. Watch this space...
2018-02-09_10-12-55 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2018-02-09_10-12-45 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrMore to the point, and to make best use of these lovely shiny new things, we needed some sort of rollover protection (I'm not a big fan of running harnesses without!). Options for RX8s seem remarkably thin on the ground without spending comfortably in excess of the car's value, but we finally came up trumps through the RX8 owners club. So, a couple of weeks ago, I headed down to the Valleys with a fellow 8 owner to pick this up:
2018-02-09_10-11-03 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrI would have preferred a full cage in all honesty, but this is a beautifully made thing and will at least give us the protection we were previously lacking if we manage to tip it over. Plus, we can run the new harnesses. It's been living in the back of the Volvo for the last fortnight, which has earnt me one or two funny looks!
2018-02-09_10-13-44 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrMeanwhile, Pete's been doing some actual useful stuff and manages to get the braided lines we've had kicking around for months fitted
2018-02-09_10-11-54 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2018-02-09_10-12-08 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2018-02-09_10-11-45 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrOnly a small update for now, but I'm heading back down to Kent this weekend to get as much as we can done. Watch this space...
We’ve finally managed to have a productive weekend on the RX8 – now known as the ‘Racecat’ after bowing to the superior being that is autocorrect.
2018-02-14_10-38-30 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
We’ve had a bit of a list to get through, and it didn’t help that Saturday started off freezing, and then ended up blimmin horrible and rainy. Still, needs must, and we at least managed to get the new EBC discs and Yellowstuff pads fitted all round. We also ran some fresh 5.1 fluid through and gave the new braided lines a good check over for leaks. The discs have an anti-corrosion coating – aside from being useful on a car that won’t move for another few weeks, they look pretty badass as well
2018-02-14_10-38-41 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
Fortunately Sunday turned out to be lovely and sunny, so we made an early start and got cracking. Prior to my arrival, Pete had spent some time prepping to drop the fuel tank ready for the cage to go in. It’s safe to say this isn’t a fun job (particularly due to the awkwardly-placed cross-braces on the ramp), but before we got too far we went for a test-fit of the cage. Fortunately it slid in fairly easily (fnar), and sat in situ it’s clear that the welding won’t be taking place anywhere near the tank. So that saves us a job!
Other things ticked off the list:
- Engine oil
- Gearbox oil
- Diff oil
- Removal of a few more odds and sods
- Get it back on the floor!
2018-02-14_10-40-03 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2018-02-14_10-39-32 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2018-02-14_10-39-50 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
2018-02-14_10-39-06 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr
For a bit of fun we also set up the Go Pro on timelapse mode. If you’ve 3 and a half minutes to kill you can watch us variously faffing around with things, scratching our heads, drinking tea, arguing about where the camera goes and driving the ever-faithful old Volvo to the tip to get rid of all the crap we’d accumulated during the weekend. Oh, and occasionally working on the car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMQ27OyCfYc
Not much left to go now. I’ve ordered a new set of coils and leads which didn’t turn up in time, and we need to get the cage mounts welded so we can get it bolted in and add the new seats and harnesses. With any luck it’ll still work afterwards!
2018-02-14_10-38-30 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrWe’ve had a bit of a list to get through, and it didn’t help that Saturday started off freezing, and then ended up blimmin horrible and rainy. Still, needs must, and we at least managed to get the new EBC discs and Yellowstuff pads fitted all round. We also ran some fresh 5.1 fluid through and gave the new braided lines a good check over for leaks. The discs have an anti-corrosion coating – aside from being useful on a car that won’t move for another few weeks, they look pretty badass as well
2018-02-14_10-38-41 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrFortunately Sunday turned out to be lovely and sunny, so we made an early start and got cracking. Prior to my arrival, Pete had spent some time prepping to drop the fuel tank ready for the cage to go in. It’s safe to say this isn’t a fun job (particularly due to the awkwardly-placed cross-braces on the ramp), but before we got too far we went for a test-fit of the cage. Fortunately it slid in fairly easily (fnar), and sat in situ it’s clear that the welding won’t be taking place anywhere near the tank. So that saves us a job!
Other things ticked off the list:
- Engine oil
- Gearbox oil
- Diff oil
- Removal of a few more odds and sods
- Get it back on the floor!
2018-02-14_10-40-03 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2018-02-14_10-39-32 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2018-02-14_10-39-50 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr2018-02-14_10-39-06 by Ben Edwards, on FlickrFor a bit of fun we also set up the Go Pro on timelapse mode. If you’ve 3 and a half minutes to kill you can watch us variously faffing around with things, scratching our heads, drinking tea, arguing about where the camera goes and driving the ever-faithful old Volvo to the tip to get rid of all the crap we’d accumulated during the weekend. Oh, and occasionally working on the car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMQ27OyCfYc
Not much left to go now. I’ve ordered a new set of coils and leads which didn’t turn up in time, and we need to get the cage mounts welded so we can get it bolted in and add the new seats and harnesses. With any luck it’ll still work afterwards!
With race day fast approaching it still felt like we had a lot to do. Aside from anything else, we had to get the track wheels from mine down to Pete (he’s going to be support car for the first few rounds) and the RX8 back up to me once it was back together. Pete’s been a busy boy over the last couple of weeks while I was off on holiday!
His main task was to get the new Corbeau driver’s seat fitted so the car could be driven up to get the cage welded in. I was a little nervous, I have to say, given that the RX8 hasn’t run since it was deposited down in Kent several months ago, but I needn’t have worried. It started first flick of the key
That done, he got bored and started hitting things with an axe
There goes the rest of the sound deadening . It’s pretty hefty stuff all told!
Now it was time to get the car back together, running, and up to mine. There was no easy way to do this, so Pete gamely made a 250-mile round trip to collect me and the wheels (turns out you can get 4 18” wheels in a Mini Clubman – just!), and come Saturday morning we cued the music…
First up, back on the ramp so we could give it a final spanner check, refit the arch liners and get the sexy new Ryan Rotary Performance coil packs installed! Out with the old…
…and in with the new! We also managed to remove the (dead) aircon compressor while we were there. It’s a hefty old thing!
We have to run with a passenger seat in this year’s sprint series, so we re-purposed the original Sparco Sprint and bolted it straight to a base. Passengers don’t get the luxury of being able to move
That sorted we were able to fit the new Luke harnesses and spend a bit of time faffing around getting a fitting we were both happy with.
We got to experience a pretty weird feeling at this point – I believe it’s called ‘being finished’
. We took it out for a drive, just to make sure…
Yep, it works!
We celebrated that evening with beer, and spent the next day mooching around the car, scratching our heads, seeing what else might need attention. I’m sure there will be plenty to keep us busy this year, but failing to come up with anything tangible it was time to hit the road home. Two hours in a car with no interior, no sound deadening and in a four-point harness was actually less unpleasant than I was expecting, but I was still pleased to be back. The car was pleased to have a run, too – it felt great through the back roads after a hundred miles or so
And here we go. The first round of the Javelin Sprint Series is on the 1st April (less than three weeks away!) at Snetterton, and the following weekend we have round 1 of the sister series, the Japanese Sprint Series, at Cadwell Park. I’m nervous about both of these actually – Snet has historically been my best circuit, so I feel I’m due a fall, and Cadwell is my weakest! It’s likely we’ll do the full JapSS championship this year and dip into the Javelin events as and when diaries allow. Who knows what the year will bring, though…!
Thanks must go here to the guys at Corbeau, who – after sorting out an ex-demo seat for a decent price – not only made us a custom seat base but happily handed over a handful of spreader plates so we could get the harnesses fitted in time.
His main task was to get the new Corbeau driver’s seat fitted so the car could be driven up to get the cage welded in. I was a little nervous, I have to say, given that the RX8 hasn’t run since it was deposited down in Kent several months ago, but I needn’t have worried. It started first flick of the key
That done, he got bored and started hitting things with an axe
There goes the rest of the sound deadening
. It’s pretty hefty stuff all told!Now it was time to get the car back together, running, and up to mine. There was no easy way to do this, so Pete gamely made a 250-mile round trip to collect me and the wheels (turns out you can get 4 18” wheels in a Mini Clubman – just!), and come Saturday morning we cued the music…
First up, back on the ramp so we could give it a final spanner check, refit the arch liners and get the sexy new Ryan Rotary Performance coil packs installed! Out with the old…
…and in with the new! We also managed to remove the (dead) aircon compressor while we were there. It’s a hefty old thing!
We have to run with a passenger seat in this year’s sprint series, so we re-purposed the original Sparco Sprint and bolted it straight to a base. Passengers don’t get the luxury of being able to move
That sorted we were able to fit the new Luke harnesses and spend a bit of time faffing around getting a fitting we were both happy with.
We got to experience a pretty weird feeling at this point – I believe it’s called ‘being finished’
. We took it out for a drive, just to make sure…Yep, it works!
We celebrated that evening with beer, and spent the next day mooching around the car, scratching our heads, seeing what else might need attention. I’m sure there will be plenty to keep us busy this year, but failing to come up with anything tangible it was time to hit the road home. Two hours in a car with no interior, no sound deadening and in a four-point harness was actually less unpleasant than I was expecting, but I was still pleased to be back. The car was pleased to have a run, too – it felt great through the back roads after a hundred miles or so
And here we go. The first round of the Javelin Sprint Series is on the 1st April (less than three weeks away!) at Snetterton, and the following weekend we have round 1 of the sister series, the Japanese Sprint Series, at Cadwell Park. I’m nervous about both of these actually – Snet has historically been my best circuit, so I feel I’m due a fall, and Cadwell is my weakest! It’s likely we’ll do the full JapSS championship this year and dip into the Javelin events as and when diaries allow. Who knows what the year will bring, though…!
Thanks must go here to the guys at Corbeau, who – after sorting out an ex-demo seat for a decent price – not only made us a custom seat base but happily handed over a handful of spreader plates so we could get the harnesses fitted in time.
If anyone wants to see what Pete (who, let's be honest, is the mechanical and sensible brain behind pretty much everything we do to the RX8) gets up to when he doesn't have a shouty track car on the driveway to play with, he's started cracking on with an old Mini he had lying around...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Less than two weeks til Snet. Will we make it? Will we break it? Will it snow?! Place your bets now!
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Less than two weeks til Snet. Will we make it? Will we break it? Will it snow?! Place your bets now!
Well now, that didn’t go to plan!
Having put the car through scrutineering the evening before, we had ample time the morning of the sprint to set up cameras, check the car over etc. as well as spend a bit of time catching up with friends we’d made last year. The track day the previous day was very wet, and this morning was no exception – the practice runs were spent mostly sideways, and any attempt to put power down ended up requiring armfuls of opposite lock to keep things facing the right way! Added to this, a VX220 suffered a bout of incontinence and managed to drop oil all the way round the track which caused a bit of a delay, so by the time lunch rolled around we’d only managed one timed run each. Bearing in mind I’d managed a 2:13 lap last year in the Westfield, a 2:56.48 was pretty disappointing even if it did put me third in class at the time!
The rain finally stopped at lunch, but a lack of wind or sun meant the track was drying out very slowly. Conditions were tricky and a fair few competitors had offs of some description – often you’d find yourself heading into an apex on a bone dry track, only to find the exit was still soaking wet
Run two was better for me – 9 seconds quicker at 2:47.8 and up to second in class. Run three was void after I spun off over the grass before Coram, and then we were told that run 4 would be the last run of the day.
The sun came out, the wind picked up, and we’d had a couple more stoppages giving the track more time to dry out. Pete, all credit to him, pulled a blinder and managed to get down to a 2:31.9, before handing me the car.
My last lap started well – I like Snetterton a lot (and still do!), I was finding grip where I needed and it felt like I had a quick time coming up. Unfortunately not all of the track had dried still, and as I braked from ~120mph before the left-hander Brundle, and then transitioned right to Nelson, the back came round on me and I was a passenger from there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-d19kqiNA
(Skip to about 1:45 if you’re impatient. Also NSFW with the volume up – I got a bit sweary)
Gutted is an understatement – the first impact pulled off the front bumper and undertray, destroyed the front wing and headlight, and bent the track-rod end almost in half. When the rear hit it took out the rear light, subjected the wing to some nasty barrier rash and pushed the corner of the bumper in far enough to put the bootlid out of kilter and leave a nice crease in the boot floor. I was mightily pissed off but fortunately unhurt – the new Corbeau seats, harnesses and my HANS device were extremely welcome and, bar a bit of aching that afternoon, I’ve been otherwise fine. Pete has mostly recovered from the heart-attack I gave him when two recovery trucks and an ambulance went tearing off down the track
The RX8 has been recovered down to Pete’s (getting it off a recovery truck at 1.30am was an experience I’d like to not repeat) where it’ll stay for the foreseeable. At present we’re unsure to what extent the car is damaged – job number one will be to fit a new track-rod end so we can move it around, and take some measurements of the important bits to see if the chassis is twisted or if there’s anything else sinister lurking. While the boot-lid is a bit on the piss, the door and bonnet shut lines seem fine, so there’s hope still. If the worst comes to the worst we’ll either re-shell or break it and get something different. 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!
After that, we have 6-7 weeks until the next planned round at Three Sisters. I’m hopeful that’s enough time to get something together and sorted
So, not the update I’d hoped to give. Kudos must go to the marshalling team, circuit staff, recovery guys and the Javelin team for getting the car recovered quickly and making sure I was ok. It was a tricky recovery, and finding myself wandering the grass picking up bits of my own car was pretty surreal. Pete, also, was bloody brilliant - I was quickly dispatched to have a cup of tea and a sit down while he packed up the tools, got the car jacked up and basically organised my entire life until he dropped me home the next morning.
Few more quick snaps of the damage…
Having put the car through scrutineering the evening before, we had ample time the morning of the sprint to set up cameras, check the car over etc. as well as spend a bit of time catching up with friends we’d made last year. The track day the previous day was very wet, and this morning was no exception – the practice runs were spent mostly sideways, and any attempt to put power down ended up requiring armfuls of opposite lock to keep things facing the right way! Added to this, a VX220 suffered a bout of incontinence and managed to drop oil all the way round the track which caused a bit of a delay, so by the time lunch rolled around we’d only managed one timed run each. Bearing in mind I’d managed a 2:13 lap last year in the Westfield, a 2:56.48 was pretty disappointing even if it did put me third in class at the time!
The rain finally stopped at lunch, but a lack of wind or sun meant the track was drying out very slowly. Conditions were tricky and a fair few competitors had offs of some description – often you’d find yourself heading into an apex on a bone dry track, only to find the exit was still soaking wet
Run two was better for me – 9 seconds quicker at 2:47.8 and up to second in class. Run three was void after I spun off over the grass before Coram, and then we were told that run 4 would be the last run of the day.
The sun came out, the wind picked up, and we’d had a couple more stoppages giving the track more time to dry out. Pete, all credit to him, pulled a blinder and managed to get down to a 2:31.9, before handing me the car.
My last lap started well – I like Snetterton a lot (and still do!), I was finding grip where I needed and it felt like I had a quick time coming up. Unfortunately not all of the track had dried still, and as I braked from ~120mph before the left-hander Brundle, and then transitioned right to Nelson, the back came round on me and I was a passenger from there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-d19kqiNA
(Skip to about 1:45 if you’re impatient. Also NSFW with the volume up – I got a bit sweary)
Gutted is an understatement – the first impact pulled off the front bumper and undertray, destroyed the front wing and headlight, and bent the track-rod end almost in half. When the rear hit it took out the rear light, subjected the wing to some nasty barrier rash and pushed the corner of the bumper in far enough to put the bootlid out of kilter and leave a nice crease in the boot floor. I was mightily pissed off but fortunately unhurt – the new Corbeau seats, harnesses and my HANS device were extremely welcome and, bar a bit of aching that afternoon, I’ve been otherwise fine. Pete has mostly recovered from the heart-attack I gave him when two recovery trucks and an ambulance went tearing off down the track
The RX8 has been recovered down to Pete’s (getting it off a recovery truck at 1.30am was an experience I’d like to not repeat) where it’ll stay for the foreseeable. At present we’re unsure to what extent the car is damaged – job number one will be to fit a new track-rod end so we can move it around, and take some measurements of the important bits to see if the chassis is twisted or if there’s anything else sinister lurking. While the boot-lid is a bit on the piss, the door and bonnet shut lines seem fine, so there’s hope still. If the worst comes to the worst we’ll either re-shell or break it and get something different. 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!
After that, we have 6-7 weeks until the next planned round at Three Sisters. I’m hopeful that’s enough time to get something together and sorted
So, not the update I’d hoped to give. Kudos must go to the marshalling team, circuit staff, recovery guys and the Javelin team for getting the car recovered quickly and making sure I was ok. It was a tricky recovery, and finding myself wandering the grass picking up bits of my own car was pretty surreal. Pete, also, was bloody brilliant - I was quickly dispatched to have a cup of tea and a sit down while he packed up the tools, got the car jacked up and basically organised my entire life until he dropped me home the next morning.
Few more quick snaps of the damage…
Edited by seiben on Tuesday 3rd April 11:32
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 bd 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
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