£1000 RX8 sprint/track-car project
Discussion
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!
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!
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
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
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…
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…
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 d
headery 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!
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 d
headery 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!
<sidles in quietly>
<coughs>
Erm. Hi everyone. Remember me? It’s been a while…
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
<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 b
d 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
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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