RX-8 For Sale

No - not Roxy. Not yet anyway. But my good mate and fellow track addict John is selling his RX-8. If you know anyone who is interested, please let them know. Its basically a new car and has some nice modifications.

RX-8 For Sale. I'll be sorry to see John let go of his car. He's provided me with lots of healthy competition over the last year and a bit.

Tsukuba TC2000 07/12/22 (wet)

I checked the weather in the morning for Tsukuba. Cloudy. Great - I thought. The weather is perfect for few fast laps. It started raining around 9am though. We had three sessions. I asked one of the RX-7 guys what he got after he came back from his laps. A 1'15. Damn. That's at least 10 seconds off his normal pace and he said it was slippy out there.

First session arrived, Still raining. DSC all off, I headed out. A 7 spun on the first corner (on the yellow flag lap!). I floored the accelerator to see how much the wheels would spin. Nice. Down into the first hairpin and a little counter steer was required. Dunlop, the post was waving 2 yellow flags. Another 7 spun out. 2nd hair pin, back straight and into the last corner. Nice and cautious. Coming out of the last corner, the back went out and a quick counter got it back. Whew... This is slippy! That was the first lap and the remaining 9 laps were much the same. The track side was littered with 7s who found the going pretty hairy. Not a lap passed with out a yellow flag somwhere.

Second session. The rain had stopped but the track was still very wet. I started to speed up a little in the corners as the track was more clear. Back went out again past Dunlop but I managed to keep it straight. Still tippy-toeing around.

Last session, the line was drying up but on the second lap a car spun out past Dunlop. Hmmm. Still slippy so I played it cautious and just upped the speed gradually lap after lap feeling around slowly for more grip. Turns out though 2 of the boys were right back on pace and they both scored 1'08s! I was still lapping 1'11s.

One thing I learned from Saturday was you can still take a corner pretty fast in the wet although I'm not sure how fast yet. Most of the issues seem to be accelerating too aggressively out of a corner. The rain definitely makes all your senses tingle in excitement as you try to anticipate everything including your own mistakes.

My tire pressure for the first 2 sessions was 275. I let some air out for the third session but forgot to check the pressure afterwards. I was aiming for 260 hot. I think 250 is pretty decent in the dry though. Still not sure what to do in the wet regarding pressures.

Japanese A Licence

I attended the A licence exam at Fuji Speedway this Sunday. Its a full day process. To get the A licence you have to first hold a B licence and must have competed in (and completed) one speed event (Rally, Gymkhana or circuit trial). My attendance in the Mazda Speed Cup Circuit Trial qualified for this. Next step is a racing license - the A licence.

Its a full day course at Fuji run at certain times of the year. You can also do your licence elsewhere but I thought it best to combine this also with getting a FISCO (Fuji) licence on the same day.

To get the A licence you must sit and pass a 30 question test. Passing means getting more than 80%. They were true/false questions, 10 each on 3 different sections which I'll mention in a bit. You then also had a pass a driving test. The driving test consists of driving around Fuji, doing a standing start, flying start and finally obeying all of the different flags you come across. You get 100 points to start with and must complete a minimum of 20 minutes track time with 70 points or more. Break a yellow flag and you lose 20 points for example. One thing of note is that the flag posts are quite far from the edge of the circuit at Fuji so you really have to look around. It's a good lesson though. Makes me wonder how the F1 drivers did it in the rain, but then again they had the help of radio I guess.

As well as these two exams, you must attend different lectures aimed at helping you to understand and pass the exam. Various pages are called out and points are read out so it would be hard not to pass if you speak/read fluent Japanese (which I don't), I speak - "get-by Japanese". The three sections covered by the exam are: General regulations and rules, track rules such as flags, safety car etc and car/driver technical requirements such as clothing, modifications, types of windshields allowed etc. Other lectures covered basic knowledge like driver position, under/over steer etc as well as what they look for when they examine your car before/after a race. Basically, basic stuff you should know before heading out there.

Unbelievably I passed. Actually, I had lots of help for the Japanese exam as I couldn't read the Japanese. They were kind enough to let me sit the exam in a separate room where an examiner read the questions out to me, and read out the section in the book where the answers were. Then I answered true or false. The basic thing they are looking for is that you understand what is being asked and or course the answer. There is no real tricky questions in there if you could speak Japanese. The exam is an hour long and if you could actually understand and read everything it would probably take about 30 mins or less to complete it.

Apparently, I jumped the start on the standing start. I'm pretty sure I didn't but perhaps my handbrake didn't hold up quite as much as I thought it would. Once the lights went out I popped the remaining part of the clutch to let fly but the car infront hadn't started moving. As it was all practice, I stuck the clutch back in. I don't know if that is what they thought was me jumping the start but I'm 100% positive I didn't move until the lights went out. I think I was probably the first to react though so maybe me backing off was what caused the issue. I'm sure on video replay it would be fine.

The flying start was also quite tricky, the guy in front of me braked before the green light line so I had to brake too to avoid passing him. I decided to take it easy for the 30 minutes and not miss any flags due to trying to hard to get a lap time. After about 3 laps though, I got a bit bored and stuck the foot down thinking that in a race you ain't going slow so get some faster laps in while keeping a watchful eye on the posts. I passed nearly everyone at least once as most of them were keeping to my original plan. Had one near incident, where there was a yellow flag just before the hairpin and I was coming up fast on this mini. When he saw me he took over major speed to let me pass cleanly before the hairpin. Only problem was that was before the green flag so I had to hit the brakes again in a hurry to avoid passing him and then proceed to wave at him to move on with lots of arm swinging motions as he was going about 5kmph. A good lesson though and I kept my 100 points.

So now I have an A licence, I have to figure out how to utilize it :-)

Fuji SpeedwayVideo

Some random footage from Fuji Speedway. My 1'14 lap is in there if you can find it :) Can't wait to get back on this circuit. Oh wait. - I'm taking my A licence there this weekend but I'm not sure what kind of driving is involved in that. Wish me luck!

Fuji Speedway 07/12/09

Finally returned to Fuji Speedway. I hadn't had any time to re-learn the track on the playstation since I was last there but its a pretty memorable track so shouldn't be a problem. Out on the track for the first couple of laps, it really surprised me how tight some of its corners where. The first corner for example, it would be all to easy to misjudge your speed and head off on that one.

There were 90 cars split over 2 groups each with 2 x 30 minute sessions. A fair amount of cars but then again Fuji is fairly big so 45 cars shouldn't really be that big a deal. That is until you bring in fast/slow cars/drivers. A red flag distroyed 10 good minutes of the final session but you can't feel too bad about that as some guy lost his car.

Last time I was at Fuji I strung off quite a few empty laps to myself. This time, it was too hard to find space unfortunately. I did manage to get one decent enough lap though and got a 2'14.81. That was nice as its a new lap record for me. Most of the other laps were 2'17s and 2'19s depending on the traffic.

Lap times aside, it was great fun out there. I got to pass lots of cars which is good experience and also got passed by much faster cars. The GT3's were amazing to watch as they took off like I was stopped. Fuji is a completely differennt course to Tsukuba. Tsukuba is small and easy to get many laps in practicing the same thing. Speeds are also lower so there are less variables. Tsukuba is also fairly flat where as Fuji throws hills into the equation which affects the balance of the car in the corners. Fuji also has some amazing corners. I think I'll have to do Fuji more next year to continue to push my skills higher. I feel there is so much to learn there.

I'm also tempted to get a speed limit cutter so that I can go above 180 and finally get out of 4th. I hit the limiter pretty way before the finish line and also on the back before the chicane as it is so there are seconds to be gained there. Still as is, I think there are at least 5 seconds still hiding on this track, perhaps more if I could drive it as aggressively as I do Tsukuba these days and get a clear run.

Anyway, I'll see if I can upload some video later.

Saurus winter TC2000 run.

Back at Tsukuba TC2000. I spun out twice again today trying my new cornering technique. Both spins were similar to the ones I had during the Mazda Speed Circuit Trial. The good thing is that I kept at it and I believe I know why I get that particular spin now. It happens due to over trail braking and then letting off the remaining brakes too quickly. Normally happens only when I'm carrying a fair amount of speed in the corner. Anyway, I think I should be able to avoid this in the future and it seems that re-applying a touch of brake helps recovery if you get it early enough.

Today it was difficult to find space to get a couple of clean runs together as most of the cars were pretty fast on the straights but slow on the corners. The opposite of me. Its hard to get away from such people and get your own space as I keep catching them on the bends. Still it was fun to fight with some of them and it slowed me down on some laps which let me examine my driving a little. I got 4th best time in B group.

Anyway, here comes a new personal best :-)

Including all sessions, top 5 times for the record were:
1. 1'09.349 - 28.276 28.520 12.553 - 154.817 km/h
2. 1'09.377 - 28.894 28.142 12.341 - 155.709 km/h
2. 1'09.377 - 28.474 28.427 12.476 - 156.069 km/h
4. 1'09.512 - 28.894 28.142 12.341 - 153.934 km/h
5. 1'09.523 - 28.297 28.671 12.555 - 154.750 km/h

I also had a ballistic first sector of 28.084 on my last lap but I had a slow 2nd sector. Still, that gives me a virtual lap of 1'08.512. That's almost a second waiting if I can tie my sectors together! That's my first virtual 1'08 lap time. So I know I'll get there!

More on gear oil

I'm currently using this gear oil "Motul Gear Competition MT Oil 75W-140". Was out in the car tonight meeting Richard in Autobacs in Odaiba and for the first part of the drive I had to really work at slotting the car slowly into gear. The first shift was surprisingly hard to do. I don't usually rev the engine until the oil comes up to temp so it also takes quite some time before the gear oil heats up too. But when it did, the shifts were back to silky smooth. I guess this winter I can expect more of the same thing regarding this particular oil. It definitely works differently to the other oil where even when you first hop into the car, the shifts were pretty good. Still, I'd much rather smooth shifts when its heated up on the race track.

Got front/rear brake pads on the ready also. I was looking at my remaining pads tonight and I think after my next run on Tsukuba they will be spent. I'm going to install the new pads myself and will have to do so before Fuji. Should be fun. I think I have all the tools I need now. Going to go with Project Mu HC+ pads again as they are serving me well.

Also a mate gave me a lend of his "Driftbox" so I'm looking forward to getting some data out of that from my run on Tsukuba. I'm quite curious about my corner entry speeds and how consistent I am.

More Mazda Speed Cup Trial Footage

I finally pulled my lap times out of my lap timer. No segment times unfortunately. Pretty happy with the times though. I got 5 x 1'09 times and 5 x 1'10 times with a mix of other laps in between. I'm pretty sure I should have got a 1'08 on the second lap in this video as I had to slow down going through Dunlop and just after it as another car was in my line. Oh well. that happens :-) Next time I'll try leave a little more space to play with. The lap times shown in this video are 1'09.425, 1'09.96 and 1'10.46.

Lucky Number 13!

This is footage from the 2nd session of the Mazda Speed Cup Circuit Trial at TC2000. I made a mistake by coming on the power too heavy too early into the first corner and ended up heading for the barrier. Lucky I stopped just in time and headed right back out into the action. If you don't spin - you're not trying!

Mazda Speed Circuit Trial

Woke up at 3:35, showered, shoved 2 contacts into 2 sleepy eyes and hit the road at 4am. Arrived at Tsukuba at around 5:30 and began my preparations in the still darkness with a torch. By 6:20 I had eaten some breakfast and was ready to register. Got the numbers and official lap timer, stuck them on and headed to my parking allocation inside the track. Ran over to the control tower and got a form signed off to say that I could capture my run on video. Back to the car by 7am so that the officials could review my car and mark it as track ready. The only uncertainty was what pressure to start out with on my tires. I chose 200 except the front left which I set to 195. It was bitterly cold so good times were expected. Drivers meeting from 7:50, out on the track at 8:35 for first run. What a schedule!

Someone spun on the first lap on the last corner into the pit lane wall. Not a good place to spin. Luckily he stopped so that he only tapped the wall head on leaving a big dent in his bumper but not much other damage. Red flag was out so back to the pit lane. Not nervous at all. I just wanted to go faster and I felt the time was right. Green light so back out on the track. A blue car passed by on the straight on the out lap - the nerve! I took him on the first corner and continued going to set a blazing 1'09.425 on my first lap. I was flying. I wanted to go faster. I was chasing that 1'08 I wanted so badly. A couple more 1'09s mixed in with some traffic laps I could do no better as the grip got less and I started sliding more. Still - not one to give up, I battled on and sadly missed seeing the checked flag as I was distracted looking at where I could pass the next car in front of me into the first corner. I noticed all the cars had slowed down and it dawned on me that the session was over. So cooled the car down back to the car park.

"Number 13" was wanted by the control tower... Drat. I knew exactly why too which is good, I guess. So off I headed for my telling off. It was my first event so it was all new. Its good to get called in sooner than later as its tells you were you stand. Sure enough, they'd spotted that I'd ignored the checkered flag and I assured them I wouldn't do it again. They didn't make a big deal out of it so off I went smiling at my good fortune that I didn't have my quickest lap taken from me as some sort of penalty. Whew! I'll try harder from now on! Honest!

We had some time until the second session so I put in some petrol to bring me back up to half a tank. That 20 litre gas tank I bought is too big! Oh well, at least I have spare gas now at reasonable Tsukuba prices (about 10 difference from Tokyo). They didn't do a car exam (shaken) before the second run. We had a drivers meeting and then was back on the track again at 12:40.

The temperature had risen since the morning. I'd left my tires as is. They probably could have done with more pressure as they'd been 240 when I checked them after the first session. Oh well. In the second session I didn't seem to have as much grip as the first session although I was still trying to go in with more speed into all the corners. Finally after only a few laps, I unbalanced the car by throttling too hard mid corner and headed for the inside of the first corner. First thing I noticed was there was no padding where I was headed. I was pretty sure I could stop initially but the brakes just didn't work once I hit the grass and I kept sliding inwards. Here comes the wall. I stopped. Whew! Only inches away but that is far enough for me. An inch is a mile when you didn't hit something. Game on! Lets get back out there. I still haven't got a 1'08!

About 2 or 3 laps later, I unbalanced the car again mid corner on the 2nd hairpin and spun inwards. Damn. After considering reversing out for a bit, I decided to just try going across the grass and driving out the exit instead as it seemed safer for all parties. All I could think of was what a waste of time that was and how I only had perhaps 1 lap left to try something special so I got back up to speed. The rest was uneventful though as there was a car in front of me and some others going slow on the outside of corners etc. Best I managed manage was a 1'09.625 on the 2nd session. As it turned out though everyone was about 0.200 or so slower on the second session so it wasn't just me.

So, 1'09.425 is my best time at TC2000. I was really happy with that. I'd gone all out to get it. Unfortunately, everyone else was spectacular also and that time was only good enough for 9th place out of the 17 entrants in the RX-8 More Class. Half way up the field is not bad I guess. Everyone a head of my was a member of RTE! Such domination!

I think I need a new tactic now to go faster. I need to ignore fast laps for a while and try improve on sections by trying different things and concentrating on single corners every lap. To avoid boredom, I think I'll still try 2 attack laps followed by only attacking the 2nd hairpin to start off with. There is probably still time to get with a fast entry/exit on that corner as the back straight follows. I feel I'm also weak at the 1st hairin - well most corners to be honest but I hate it when I go too slow through there with over braking. I find I don't have a proper entry plan in my head or at least I never stick with one for that corner. Hopefully targeting specific corners should help get me the 1'08 that I seek - although I'm really after a 1'07 :-)

New Gear Oil

After all the gear problems today, I tried giving Kato-san at D-Technique a call to see what he thought the problem could be. He thought it sounded a lot like the wrong gear oil. As he was at the shop he asked if I wanted to drop in and change oil. Now that's service - D-Technique is closed on Tuesdays after all. Normally, I would have just dropped in the weekend but since I am back on the track on the 18th that wasn't possible. So thanks for the offer Kato-san!!!

New oil: Motul Gear Competition MT Oil 75W-140
Old oil: Speed Master Pro Super Gear Oil 75W-90

Hmmm. spot the difference? I didn't recall the temp ratings on the oil I had put in it last at Super Autobacs when I had it done recently but sure enough it had a lower temp rating then Kato-sans recommended oil. I expect this will solve the problem. Gear changes were just fine all the way home. He said they might be tough first thing on a cold morning.

I hope this holds up now. Thanks again Kato-san!

TC2000 with RE-01Rs and new alignment

Today was my first time trying out my new RE-01R (225/45R18) tires along with the new alignment. Car started without problems this morning. I'd been a bit worried after it failed to start on Saturday. Problems seem resolved today on that front.

The shuto expressway is a good test of a cars settings as its twisty enough and the speed is just right. Traveling up to Tsukuba the car felt a little different than before. I wasn't too sure why. Tires seemed comfy enough but something felt strange. Sorted this out at the gas station. Turns out the pressures were uneven. I'd asked Super Autobacs to put 220 kpa in each tire but they were sitting on 250 and 230 on different wheels. Can't those guys get anything right? Anyway set them all at 240 with the garage guage and hit the track. At the circuit I decided to start my front left at 225 and the others at 230 on my gauge to see where they'd go.

First session I took it easy enough for the first bit exploring the tires. They felt really solid in terms of grip. I really felt the back sliding very nicely into turns in a very controlled manner. I didn't really look at lap times but got a 1'10.699 on the 2nd last lap. I was dying to explore more. After coming back in front right was 280, back left and front right were 270 and the rear right was 260. I set all tires to 260.

Second session I started to have problems changing gears :-( During a shift up from 2nd to 3rd it would grind. It would grid also dropping gears. Even 4th to 3rd became hap-hazzard. Hmmm. Syncro? I tried to change as carefully as possible but it wasn't possible. Sometimes the gear would not engage. This seemed to happen only at high revs and only after the car had heated up. I was thinking my gear oil is not right for the car or something. I'd just added some new Speed Master Pro Super Gear Oil SAE:75W-90, so this was a little upsetting. This made getting a decent lap time quite hard as missing 3rd to 2nd coming into a hairpin can really throw the car off the line/speed not to mention balance.

I decided to do the last session to see what way gear changes would behave during the first few laps. Sure enough, problem seemed resolved only for it to resurface after about 4 laps. Gear oil seems to be the culprit. Hope I didn't destroy my synchros too much today or cause any other damage. I think I was as gentle as I could be.

Anyway - back to the tires and alignment. I can't really tell you much about the tires alone except that they are as good as the ADVANs. Braking is better with the RE01Rs. With the ADVANS its very easy to lock the wheels where as the RE01Rs really did a good job of stopping me. This is not just a recent thing about the ADVANs either. They were like that from the start. The tires also looked a lot better after 3 hard sessions today than I remember the ADVANs looking which is a positive sign. The sidewalls didn't get quite as eaten as they did on the ADVANs.

Alignment was amazing. Felt excellent. Turning into the corners the back would come around very gradually. Great sense of security in how the car moved. Never felt it was going to go into wild over-steer like my older setting would sometimes send me. Todays best time was on the 4th lap of the 3rd session. Each session I got faster apart from the last few laps where I was nursing the gears.

Weather wise it was quite hot today. 19 degrees!
Including all sessions, top 5 times for the record were:
1. 1'10.254 - 28.520 28.868 12.866 - 152.392 km/h
2. 1'10.422 - 28.413 29.350 12.659 - 153.562 km/h
3. 1'10.493 - 28.854 28.839 12.800 - 153.061 km/h
4. 1'10.699 - 28.643 28.979 13.077 - 150.880 km/h
5. 1'10.787 - 28.699 29.179 12.909 - 150.670 km/h

My best sector times give me a best virtual lap of 1'09.801. So at least that's still on the cars. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't do a faster time today but the gear issues mad driving fast quite difficult. Oh well - take heart and look forward to the next one.

As a side note: I was in the A group today. Its pretty interesting when there are a lot of fast cars around. It made things pretty fun. I didn't really have to wait up at all. The other side of that is though, most people seem to just attack one lap and then sleep until their cars recovered. That was painful at times as there was always someone to watch out for. I like to just go-go-go all the time.

I didn't notice an appreciable difference in the plugs. Its hard to tell though as I was concentrating mostly on my tires and alignment.

Spark plugs and alignment

Called down to D-Technique today to pick up my car. Had the following done.
- Alignment
- plugs and plug leads.
- clean the air filter.

The previous alignment setting was complete gone. Where as previously I started with no toe in on the front, I now had toe out and where I had toe in on the back, that was gone. This is apparently quite an over-steer setting which does explain some of the trouble I've been having keeping her straight these days. New alignment gets me back on track more towards my previous alignment again with some changes.

Since, I mostly track the car I also decided to go ahead and get the racing plugs and matching leads. This helps with the power at higher revs which is what happens on the track. I ran it down Daisankeihin today and noticed the sound of the car under acceleration is quite different. Hard to describe the difference as its just a tone change. I'm quite in tune with my car so I know its definitely different now.

On leaving D-Technique I called down to the home center in Yokohama to pick up a 20 litre gas tank as I'll need that to tune my gas load for the upcoming Mazda Speed Cup Trial. When I tried to start the car, it started but quickly cut out. Started it again and it did the same thing about 5 times. I tried revving after starting the car and that worked but once the revs dropped it cut out again. Called DT and they asked me to check the plugs and air filter. No major issues there so decided to keep the car alive by revving it and trying to make it back to D-Technique for more debugging. Pretty soon after moving though all was well again and I made it back. DT checked everything and reset the cpu again. All looked fine. He thinks the car needs time to re-learn the new plugs and cleaner filter. Probably right. Driving home felt just fine. Never felt the car wanted to cut out again after that. Go figure. Old plugs were filthy! Yuck! Must have been slowing me down some me thinks.

Also called into Astro shop on the way back and picked up some tools for changing the brake pads. I think I'll try changing the pads myself the next time and see how far I get. I should have all the tools I need to do that.

Looking forward to Tuesday now although I got to be careful on the new alignment and new rubber!

Mazda Speed Cup Trial

My application to the "Mazda Speed Cup Trial" went through. I am in the "More" class and have taken the very attractive number "13"... Its amazing how negative that number is. I am actually surprised that they have that number at all. But I'm above all that! Lucky 13!!! I think its rather a cool number to get.

RTE Member

Finally paid up my membership fees tonight to join Racing Team Eightlien (RTE). RTE are a bunch of really good drivers so hopefully they will teach me more things and my driving will continue to improve. I'm looking forward to being part of the club and meeting them on regular occasions on and off the track. Hopefully I can teach them strange Irish/English in exchange :-)

RE-01Rs arrived!

I took delivery of my current tires, Neova AD07, early February this year which means they lasted me 19 track days! Their days are numbered now. The fronts still have about 2mm of thread on them but as they are also my road tires this is not so good on wet days. They gotta go.

I'll write up a few thoughts on the differences in the 2 tires when I finally get to try the RE-01Rs out on the circuit. Next day is the 13th. Apparently they are quite different. Hearsay has it that they are better for braking and acceleration where as the AD07 provides more lateral grip. I'm looking forward to experiencing this first hand!

I'm getting them fitted on Saturday at Yellow Hat and am then going to get an alignment done with D-Technique for good measure. Its the best timing to do that on the new tires.

I paid 23,000 yen per tire where as the Neova last February cost me 16,700 per tire. Still that's the cheapest price I've seen for my tire sizes.

TC1000 - video

This clip about 10 minutes into the 2nd session. I'm not driving very smoothly and the tires are suffering for it. I tend to always end up driving wildly like this on TC1000. Not sure why. It feels like a safe environment to do so in. Perhaps that is why. In the first session, I'd done a couple of 43 second laps but in this session I think I only managed one. Most of the others were 44 and some of these are worse.

Anyway, this video is interesting because when I mess up on the hairpin, Kanepee-san (Party Race champion) is behind me and I let him past so I can hop on his tail and have a look at his driving for the first time. Of course, my eagerness to follow and my tires being in the state they are in doesn't help much. Hence, madness follows. Sorry tires!

TC1000 - 2007/10/21

Yoshida-san (Cayman s) and John joined me at Tsukuba TC1000 today. The lineup was 1 x 20 minute session followed by 4 x 15 minute sessions. Long day then...

The first session I was actually quite amazed at my driving. I was silky smooth for the most part and really did some nice braking. Unfortunately I forgot to video that too. Hmmm, Maybe there is a connection there. I suddenly became able to do the inner hairpin where as before I would more than like be very slow or spin out. I got a few 43 second laps in the first session. Wow. My best previous time was 44. My best was 43.81 in that session. Things were looking up.

I actually managed to get 43 seconds in the first 4 sessions. I had quite a few problems getting around the last corner though for a good run at the straight. Just never really turned the car enough and had to curb hop to get any sort of speed down the home straight which is not so good.

For the last 3 sessions I had problems on the first corner with under-steer. I just couldn't take it at speed for some reason. I think its something to do with my front tires (Neova) having only 2mm of thread left. Time to change me thinks. The final session was my worst session in terms of rounding that corner and I just couldn't dive under the 44 mark.

Still, what a fun day! I got to follow Kanapee-san around for a while which was great as he is the Party Race champion. He actually spun in front of me on the last corner which was rather cool. Even champions spin! He was using 255 tires today so can't directly compare times but he was running low 43s which makes me pretty happy with my 43.8 efforts :-)

After my last run, I asked Kato-sensei to show me some magic driving and he took my car around in 44s with 2 up which is pretty cool. He really hooked together the first and last corners better than I had done all day. Wish I knew how he did it! I think I was faster on the inner corners though, but thats hardly surprising considering its my car. The large time is gained on the first and last corners on this circuit. As always, deeply impressed by his driving.

I'll try sort out some video footage later on. Too tired now. I hope I can stay up to watch the F1 tonight. Its gonna be a great race!

1'09 - the video

Right so, here are 5 laps of my 3rd session at Tsukuba. I tried pretty different lines than my usual particularly on the last corner. Things I noticed: Still steering too late. Still doing far too many steering inputs (although sometimes required). Way too slow on the 1st hairpin. Under-steering like a dog through Dunlop (although its worse in later laps). If I can clean some of these things up, I should be able to do 1'09 pretty consistently and perhaps attack 1'08.

Lap times are: 1'10.857, 1'10.354, 1'09.774, 1'10.006 and 1'11.781

I left the 5th lap in for a mate who was driving his NSX. I caught up to him when he was taking it easy. Great looking machine. Pity I didn't capture it roaring.

Enjoy!

Finally! A 1'09 is mine!

Only one 1'09. I guess that makes it very special!

Today was cold in the morning but it was actually quite hot in the sun when I did this run near midday. Its great that its a little cooler again as its not so hard on the car. It was quite hard to get space on the track today. A lot of cars were fast on the straight but slowish on the corners so I just couldn't pass them. Even hanging back a bit, they seemed forever to be in my way. I did have space for the first few laps though and you can really see the difference in the lap times. Gotta try different strategies for this me thinks. Its a pain wasting valuable lap time braking early because someone braked in front of you also. Good racing practice I suppose...

Today I really wanted to crack 1'10. I tried a few different lines in different corners and I feel that some of them worked so need to review my video footage again to see what I did differently. I'm still either understeering or oversteering around the corners though and my tires still scream for mercy.

Today again I felt that I'm turning too late into a corner. I felt that I was very slow around the 1st hairpin sometimes it felt that I was almost stopped. Definitely loosing too much momentum there. I did better on the last corner in the 3rd session by trying a wider line. I glanced down at the speedo in the middle of the 1st corner once and saw it at 80kmph which quite surprised me. I also noticed that its really hard to brake and change down into 3rd for the last corner without dropping the speed under 120. I guess I haven't looked at speeds like this in a while as I remember back in April entering the last corner at around 135 or so. So going to have to try something else there to keep my speed up. Perhaps, I should try just going around in 4th at different speeds and see what feels good. Take the whole gear change variable out of it. Maybe my next first session at TC2000 I'll do that. 4th for last corner, 3rd for all other corners. I wonder what the lap times would be like.

Taking into consideration other sessions my top 5 times today were:

Including all sessions, top 5 times for the record were:
1. 1'09.774 - 28.278 28.752 12.744 - 153.649 km/h
2. 1'10.006 - 28.522 28.841 12.643 - 155.083 km/h
3. 1'10.176 - 28.899 28.757 12.520 - 152.910 km/h
4. 1'10.210 - 28.833 28.577 12.800 - 153.474 km/h
5. 1'10.335 - 28.959 28.621 12.755 - 153.105 km/h

Hmm. A virtual best of: 1'09.375. Again, best sectors are not pieced together into the best laps. 1'09s will hopefully become more common after today. I'm even eye'ing up 1'08 now.

Foiled again batman

Drat and double drat! The rear left light is half full of water again! Can you believe it?! I'll order a new gasket from Mazda I think and see what that will do for me. Hopefully that will fix the problem.

Was out driving yesterday around Hakkone with my mate in his NSX. Fantastic car. Sounds incredible - especially the super charger winding up. Another friend took his Cayman S out. He let drive it. Very nice car, but it was hard to use the stick on the right hand side. I guess you get used to it. Its very much hunkered down on the road and sounds fantastic when you rev it. Very different sound to the 8. Thank you Yoshida-san!

Mission B accomplished

Today I picked up my B licence! Its official!

Party Race 07/09/15

Gotta love those race queens. Took a while to upload so many photos from the Party Race but here they are! Click on the photo for more photos.

This event was pretty special. It was the usual party race followed by a 4 hour endurance race for car related media companies. The cars were all identical and were provided by Mazda. Wow! Isn't that amazing.

Kato-san, was driving on the Mazda team and qualified them in pole position. Peter Lyon was also driving and his team qualified in 11th place I believe. 4 hours later, 3 different crashes, 2 safety cars and 90 litres of fuel, it was all over. Some cars ran out of fuel. I'm not sure how many, but amazingly, Peter's team worked their way into 6th place! Congrats!

Kato-san completed another victory in the Emblem race. In the RX-8 masters race, Kanepee-san fought hard for 3rd place after qualifying 2nd. With that, he claims the championship for the year. Congrats on a fine win!

Goodbye condensation!

For the longest time now, my rear left light has been carrying around water. Not just a little bit either, its basically been 1/3 full of the stuff. This was also causing condensation resulting in a very dim and not very pretty rear light.

Finally on Monday, I decided to get the tools at the car and take it out to see if I could get some of the water out of the light somehow. This was actually easy enough. Probably took about 10 minutes as I wasn't so sure what I was doing the first time. The second the light came out I spilled water on my shoes - it was that full!

After removing the bulbs and shaking the thing about for a while I had most of the water out.. Unfortunately, there was still water inside that I just couldn't get out and the light was still full of condensation. I decided to bring it inside and leave it in front of the de-humidifier for some time to see what would happen.

After about an hour most of the condensation was gone! Yeah!!! But there was still a lot of water inside. Nothing for it but to keep going. Finally after about 24 hours, not a drop of water remains in the light. Its all gone!!!

I cleaned the gasket off a little bit and cleaned off some dirt and finally connected it all back up to the car again tonight (in the dark!!!). Yep - its that easy a job. I guess it might start to collect water again at some stage but at least I have a work around now. Mazda wanted nearly 20,000 yen for a new assembly! If it fills again, I'll just try a new gasket after the same procedure.

I'm Japanese!

Finally decided to figure out what it takes to get a B Competition Licence. Turns out that since I'm Irish I need Motorsport Ireland to contact JAF and tell them that I do not hold an Irish competition licence. Once I have that I could apply for a Japanese B licence. As I've got 30 days to get the paperwork in, I decided to do the course this weekend. It took about 2.5 hours and was pretty easy stuff. I got 2 huge books of rules and regulations all in Japanese and 2 slimmer handbooks. As I was already a member of JAF, I only had to hand over 9000 yen. Once my Irish paperwork arrives, I can hand in my application (along with another 3000 yen) and I'll receive a B licence. That simple!

The result of doing all this in Japan is that apparently if I ever decide to get a foreign racing licence and take part in a foreign event, I'd be racing as a Japanese driver! Certainly easier than getting citizenship. Anyway, this should open up a bit more fun for me over here. I'll keep you posted!

Driving Weekend

Busy weekend full of driving. Saturday attended the Party Race and 4 hour media race. That was superb fun. Kato-san as usual wrapped up the emblem prize and scored pole for the media run. Peter Lyons team managed 6th place which was fantastic. Well done to all.

Today, I had an appointment at RE-Amemiya to have my oil cooler fittings checked. I arrived at 10am and it was supposed to take 3 hours. They found a leak in the hose, so swapped that out with a new one. Then a test drive and unfortunately they found that the new hose was faulty too, so they swapped that one out for me too. I was a little pee'd off at waiting for nearly 7 hours but then again the guys did it all for free and I was happy to have it back in perfect condition with new RE-Amemiya engine oil after a very defailed look over.

The engine oil feels different to the Speedmaster oil that I'd been using. I remember thinking the Speedmaster oil was fantastic when I first drove my car with it. It's amazing the difference you feel over the standard Mazda oil. I haven't had that feeling in a while with my other oil changes. Now again, I immediately felt the difference with this oil change. I'll definitely try this oil again with my next change.

I also got RE-Amemiya to change my LSD oil. It hadn't been changed before as the dealer had never mentioned it to me. So that oil was 4 years old! Amemiya said the oil was in a very bad state when they took it out and that I should ideally change it every 2 oil changes. They also recommended changing gear oil every oil change. Wow... I hadn't thought about the LSD oil in that way although I've occasionally been changing the gear oil.

Finished up there at 5pm and drove to D-Technique as they were having a sale. I finally bought myself a driving suit. Alpinestar GP PRO LM (2006 model) for 50% off which is a pretty good deal I think as its a great suit. Its red/white and black. I'll stick up a photo soon. One less thing to buy and it sure beats driving in jeans...

Just waiting for the F1 to start now. It's on from 11:50. I'm just glad tomorrow is a holiday and I can take it easy all day :-)

TC2000 07/09/11 - Rain

Ok, I dug out this lap from the wet session. It was the only lap with a bit of excitement as I was taking it pretty easy. I believe this is a 1'19 lap and I had a little action on the second hairpin where I probably didn't match revs properly on my down-shift and locked the back wheels briefly.

TC2000 07/09/11

The magic of TC3000 was coming straight from TC1000 over to TC2000 for the afternoon. What a feeling... We were up for 3 x 20 minute sessions from 3pm to 5pm. The rain was holding off so it was looking good to break under the 1'10 barrier.

The first decision was what to do with my suspension. I usually use 3F/5R for TC2000 which is a harder setting than TC1000. After playing with the suspension in the morning, I decided to try a setting of 4F/5R for the first session. The main aim for today was to concentrate on corner entry (braking softer and earlier and coming off easier) and I was thinking that by doing this I'd naturally get a 1'09 without working too hard. Not a chance. My car worked very nicely going into the corners but I had a lot of under-steer on the exit in particular on the 2nd hairpin and the last corner. I managed a 1'10.9 late in the session but it was hard fought. Hmmmm.

One of the pro-drivers brought me out next. I forget his name but the last time out he got a 1'09 in my car two up. I'd left the car with the same setting as I had used for the first session to see what he thought. Funnily enough he also had major under-steer issues in the same places and could only manage a 1'11 after just 3 laps before we had to go in. Still I did notice that he was turning the wheel a lot more than I was turning it so I thought maybe I'd try that.

Before my 2nd session I set my dampers to 4F/6R and headed back out hoping for better behaviour. The difference was immediately noticeable and it seems like a good ratio for my current driving style at TC2000. Half way through, I noticed the turning the wheel more really helped to get rid of some of the under-steer mid-corner and towards the end of the session, I was beginning to feel that I was braking too much into the corners and could take them harder. This is hard to do though because your brain is used to you slowing to a certain speed you previously thought was the limit. I ended the session on a series of 1'10 times the best being 1'10.456. One more session I thought, and I'd have my 1'09!

It started to rain. Oh well... I was actually happy in a way as driving in the rain is great for learning more about how smooth you are being. My objective was just to build up speed in the rain and feel for grip but not lose it. I even trail braked the corners in the wet ever so softly to keep practicing. I only really lost grip the once, although I didn't always turn where I wanted to... It would be good to have a whole day of just rain to practice on. I'm guessing that I should lose 2sec per km in the rain so my rain lap time should be 1'14. Best I got in the rain was a 1'17.885 but I guess the rain had stopped also at that point and it wasn't at its worst. The best rain lap in my session was a 1'15.303 so some people were obviously going for it :-)

Anyway, while I still didn't break into the 1'09s I feel its a certainty now if I can build up my entry speed. I think the first 2 sectors should be enough and I can probably improve on the last sector too.

Top 5 times for the record were:
1. 1'10.456 - 28.862 28.792 12.802 - 149.938 km/h
2. 1'10.535 - 28.562 29.113 12.860 - 150.943 km/h
3. 1'10.791 - 28.853 29.135 12.803 - 150.104 km/h
4. 1'10.809 - 28.901 29.155 12.753 - 150.523 km/h
5. 1'10.876 - 29.081 29.116 12.679 - 151.261 km/h

Wet for comparison was:
1. 1'17.885 - 31.651 31.723 14.511 - 146.045 km/h

Ok, now that all the boring details are out of the way, here is a video clip of 3 laps which include the 2 fast laps and one in the middle where I stuck her in 4th instead of 2nd! Opps.

I wonder if you notice any difference in driving styles between this video and the one from my previous run at TC2000! I certainly do.

TC1000 - 2007/09/11

The day promised light rain. While I don't mind rain so much as you learn a lot, I'd been hoping for some dry runs to see if I could get my inner hairpin technique down. The threat of rain also meant that it was cooler which should be good for pulling out a fast lap or two. 43 seconds looked doable today I told myself.

Session 1, I was having my usual over-steer entry problems on the fast first corner. Managed a 44'043 so things were looking up :-) One of the sensei's drove my car and commented (after a small spin) that I have too much over-steer setup on my car and that slightly less over-steer would be a good thing. I'd started out with my suspension set to 7F/9R so I dialed it to 7F/6R. Next session the car was different. It was a little understeery on entrance and very understeery on exit. So for session 3 I tried 7F/7R which seemed to bring it back to oversteer again but more controllable on entrance I thought. Must play with the settings more next time again. I completed the remaining sessions on 7F/7R.

Finally in Session 4, I managed a best time of 44.016. So close to 43 seconds and yet so far! I still haven't got the inside hairpin right so I'm losing time there I think. I also can't seem to get the last turn just right so probably lose time there too.

I actually spun quite a lot on TC1000 again. Some notes for myself would be:
- try carrying in a tiny bit of brakes all the way until the car turns on the inner hairpin. Try using more steering early on mid bend. Don't come off the brakes fast.
- turn earlier on the first corner. I'm still turning too late.

Weather wise, we ended up with light misty rain the first session which quickly dried out mid session. Petrol at Ishige was 142 yen where as petrol at the circuit was 178 per litre! Damn what a difference.

Oh yeah and John is back on my tail with his new suspension/alignment combo. He had quite an exciting time :-)

Oil cooler fitting recall

Apparently there is some issue with the fittings on my RE-Amemiya oil cooler. I've made a booking on the 16th with RE-Amemiya to have it looked at. That will be a good excuse to go have a look at RE-Amemiya as I haven't been out there yet.

Hmmm. Should I get the battery done too? I need a replacement. I guess if I break the 1'10 mark on Tuesday I'll see if I can change the appointment to also include the battery. If not, it can wait me thinks until I have more money.

John's Suspension - Poll

Closure is a great thing. The poll closed 1 month ago. The R-Magic Ohlins suspension was tied on 4 points with the vague "Other". What was "Other" and was it worth looking into. We waited...

Finally, John found a suitable "Other" to represent the 4 point tie breaker. The final choice he made is this. I'm really looking forward to a review and a drive. He also got an aggressive (but blessed) track alignment to go with it!

TC2000 07/08/28 - Video

The laps on this video are mostly 1'11 or 1'10 around TC2000. I was trying to practice some of the things I'd learned at SSPark. Mostly I was practicing Dunlop without braking and the various hairpins carrying in brakes to help turn the car quicker. I think once I get this in my head and through experience I can pick up more speed and get faster at TC2000. Wish my videos were better quality but at least I can see them so thats what counts right now.

Had a few hairy moments in this video, one where I nearly lost it on the first hairpin (the inner one) and the second where I was passing a car just before the last hairpin and touched the brakes while still turning left in preparation for the right hander.



Update: I since showed this video to my sensei and it turns out I mis-understood what was being thought at SSPark and hence also at Tsukuba. I need to turn earlier, brake earlier and fade the brakes out as I get lock on. I was basically braking into the corner and fading them out during the corner. Tricky language this Japanese! Perhaps I still don't understand but I think I do. The great thing is my next session at the track is with these guys so I'll get to experience it first hand again.

TC2000 07/08/28

Had to be at TC2000 at 6am so left the house at 4:45. Saurus as always had organized a 2 hour free run session. The weather started quite cloudy but it soon got hot. Our two hours on the track were from 8am until 10am so it was the best time.

A month ago I had planned on using this 2 hour session to try different suspension settings and learn more about my car and what the different settings can do for me and how the car behaves. After 3 days of driving lessons this month though, this day was basically dedicated to trying out the new techniques, namely trying to turn the wheel earlier and trying to use my brakes help turn in faster. Hmmm.

Before this though, I'd cleverly spent an hour on Monday night practicing on GT4. Initially I crashed quite a lot but finally I was able to get into the 1'03 time zone with a best of 1'03.09 or something like that. So nearly a 1'02!!! Best I'd got before was 1'05! I'm a believer!

Reality of course is harder than virtual as there are consequences to going off the track. It had also been April since I'd been on TC2000. So quite a long time.

The first few laps, the track felt really narrow. I couldn't actually believe the size of the final corner. Was it really that small and tight? I guess after Fuji Speedway your perspective changes. I spent the first 10 minute session just getting used to the track. DSC off of course :-) I was also trying to practice turning early etc but keeping the speed down. Final lap I got a 1'12.9.

It was getting hot and I was sweating quite a lot again. Amazing how hot the car gets with no aircon and all the heat coming up through the center panel. Anyway, I was out again and this time, I'd decided to increase speed and see what could be done.

Naturally (for me it seems) I spun out 3 times in the next 2 sessions. I spun into the corner on entry each time. Seems I'm too good at turn in :-) I spun on the first corner twice, had a close call on the inner hairpin, and spun on the 2nd hairpin once. Each time I spin though, I find that I try to learn what I did wrong and try again with equal vigor. It doesn't really put me off that much. I'm only sorry if I do it in front of someone which I try hard not too. But I think my spins are mostly well controlled where the car behind me can easily predict where I'll end up and avoid me. The plan is not to spin though of course as that is safer for everyone!

I just watched the videos. I'm pretty happy with Dunlop corner where I really tried to turn early each time. I didn't use the brakes there at all this time, but I think I can still improve. I actually ended up taking most of the corners quite slowly due to concentration on braking. I didn't actually turn the wheel as early as I had been wanting (or thinking I had been doing though). I'm quite disappointed but that is one of the great things about videoing your driving. You can look at it later and see if you are doing what you are thinking you are doing. Turning the wheel early while braking hard is a lot of belief to ask of yourself.

Anyway, I ended up with a best time of 1'10.919 on the day. My best sectors are all over the place this time. I'm usually very consistent but I guess not when I'm trying new stuff. So here are best sector times compared with my previous best.

Sec1: 28.606 (before 28.872)
Sec2: 29.027 (before 28.707)
Sec3: 12.773 (before 12.385)

So compared to my previous best sector times, I seem to be doing a little better on Sector 1 which is the twistier part of the circuit but have lost time on the other sectors. Looking at my speeds my fastest all day was only 147.682 kmph compared with mostly 155s previously.. I guess that boils down to two things. 1 it was hot and 2 I didn't push it on the entry to the last corner this time as I felt it was more important to improve the other corners first technique wise.

Top 5 times for the record were:
1. 1'10.919 - 28.650 29.476 12.793
2. 1'10.936 - 28.606 29.523 12.807
3. 1'11.044 - 28.901 29.241 12.902
4. 1'11.090 - 29.202 29.115 12.773
5. 1'11.121 - 28.795 29.550 12.776

Anyway, great to be back on TC2000 and really great to be trying out new things and never stop learning! I'll see if I can stick a video up later on.

Fukushima SSPark 07/08/26

I didn't fancy the idea of driving 300km in the morning, driving all day at the track and then driving 300km back that night, so I had to drive to Fukushima the night before and pitch my tent somewhere. All the usual business hotels were full where I usually stay so I thought I'd chance a love hotel by myself.

Pretty great value. My own covered car space, private room/shower, ultraviolet lighting, vibrating bed, huge TV, beer and ice-cream in the fridge! 6,800 yen! Its just a shame I had to actually sleep to be ready for a hard day of driving the following day.

There were 8 people on the course. This was fantastic as I got great attention all day. We studied high speed turn in and practiced lots of turning the wheel earlier and earlier. This is really hard to do mentally as your mind says that if you turn your wheel at that point, you'll either spin out and crash or you'll turn way to early and drive into the corner rather than around it. We practiced no braking slaloms, double braking turns, single braking turns etc. It was really good to get so much practice over and over again. A second day would have been great to really get it all to sink in, although I'd got Tsukuba TC2000 coming up on Tuesday to try it out on.

For the first half of the day I was a bit confused as it all seemed very different to what we'd been concentrating on with Kuragon-san. The later part of the day, I felt a lot better about what I was learning and actually began to piece it together. During the last session were we practiced a mini course I feel I did pretty good turning the car quickly.

I was having a bit of trouble wondering how to put all this knowledge together and apply it to TC2000 on Tuesday. At TC2000 the speeds are way up (or seem that way) compared to what we were doing at SSPark. I was wondering just how to apply my brakes etc in the same manner to get the same feeling at TC2000 without having some sort of off track excursion. Still, you have to believe it and try it or you will never progress. I am a believer! I'll progress.

Sorry no photos from the day. I seem to have forgotten my camera in the midst of the constant driving. So, Here is one from the inside of the love hotel were I stayed. Some nice use of yellow in the room...

REVSpeed Mag No.202.

While chatting to Doi-san at R-Magic on Saturday, he'd mentioned that he'd seen John and I in the new copy of REVSpeed. I'd done a mini interview in Japanese at the Eightlien event on 8/5 and posed for a photo so was half expecting it. Flipping through REVSpeed, I came across page 61 and there we were - myself and John at Roxy's wheel with a photo of my new Recaro seat along with helmet, gloves and harness underneath. Cool.

Had a bit of a shock when I read the title as it basically says "I got to the circuit every week". While this was almost true in August it was more an exception than the rule. But good eye catching opener I guess :-).

The article reads something like:

He's from Ireland and likes to go to the circuit. He likes the RX-8 rotary smooth feeling and chassis balance. He likes to go to the circuit 2 to 3 times a month. The English dude, John, he is pictured here with today is someone he met on the net. They are both enjoying the Japanese tuning culture.

They mention that inside my car, the Recaro bucket seat gives it a racy feel and that my car is lightly tuned with an exhaust. It mentions I'm thinking of an Autoexe suspension and dry battery as my next step up. I guess my Japanese is still not so good as I already have that suspension :-)

Anyway, nice little column. Thanks REVSpeed!

Gear Oil and some booties.

The heel on my right driving shoe finally decided to remove itself from the shoe during the last 2 circuit days in Fukushima. Must have been from all the toe'n'heeling I've been doing of late. This flappy heel made driving a bit more difficult as it kept flapping about. So I decided it was time to invest in some booties. I remembered that Super Autobacs had a big selection so decided to head down there and see if they had something that should fit me.

I finally bought the Alpinestar Tech 1-R bootie. It fits really well and feels very comfortable. They didn't have all colors in my size so I had to go for red/black. I wanted yellow/black but they didn't stock that in any size... It must be the most popular color... yeah that's why :-)

While I was making up my mind about the color etc, I decided to change my Gear Oil again since it had been about 4 months and the 8 runs really hot so I guess is quite hard on the oil. I bought Speed Master Pro Super Gear Oil SAE:75W-90.

Now I'm all ready to go to Fukushima tonight. The only missing piece is a hotel reservation. I can't find any place right now as they all seem to be full due to some festival. Looks like the lights of the love hotels are calling... Hope they allow you in by yourself :-)

Summer Heat

August is proving hot. The heat must be getting to me because I'm having crazy thoughts...

I had booked into RE-Amemiya to get the battery kit and stabilizers fitted this Sunday but I canceled that. Instead I'm going on another driving course concentrating on high speed turn in on Sunday in SSPark in Fukushima again. That's madness in itself considering that with TC2000 on the 28th, that will make it 5 days this month! やばい！やりすぎ〜〜〜

On top of that I'm thinking that I want to join in the Party Race fun next year. I'm thinking the easiest way to do this is in a roadster although I'm mostly having thoughts of sharing a roadster with some other folks. Problem as always of course is the expense of parking the damn things. I really want to keep my 8 also right now as its so much fun and I love the rotary engine so much.

Also thinking that its time I picked up a driving suit. Not so many suits fit me over here so I'm thinking to get a custom suit from Wesco. Looks like decent value for money to start me off. Choosing a design is the hard part! Anyone any experience with these suits? Is Multi Layer (SFI 3-2A/5) recognizable in Japan? Would it be allowed in a race here?

Mod creep

I've been admiring the RE-Amemiya 3 setting adjustable stabilizers for a long time. At the Eightlien day on 8/5 I got a 40% of discount coupon. They are primed to be mine! I also need a new battery. RE-Amemiya has a battery relocation kit that looks sweet and is in use in quite a lot of cars. It replaces the 17kg stock battery back to where the wiper fluid is and exchanges it for 9kg battery. That moves that 9kg behind the front wheels and at the same time makes the car some 8kg lighter. Gotta be a good thing.

Which brings me to wondering about the necessity of these things. They aren't necessary. My suspension is pretty much fine as it is I think. I don't have so much roll as is. One thing the stabilizers would give me might be education in terms to playing more with the cars setting and experiencing the resulting behaviour. Does it under-steer more/less if I up the front a notch. What happens if I change the damping at the same time. In this respect it seems like a good investment.

I need a new battery. Relocating the battery back opens space above the radiator and should provide better cooling as well as the loss of weight up front. It also provides an oil catch tank. Its seems to be well worth it also.

One of the reasons I find myself confused in this respect is I'd kind of like to enter the Party Race. This requires a mostly base 8 or base roadstar if I headed down that road. I guess modding the car for now is no harm as I'm already way down that road. Both of these mods seem pretty sensible to me right now. Its too late to be writing this stuff :-)

Kuragon Room - Day 2 - Link Circuit

Before arriving at Link circuit I'd heard that it was pretty safe. I hadn't really looked at the layout so when I arrived I was quite surprised to find it was based on the side of a hill with several tight looking hairpins and narrow straights. Yikes. I was in B group again so by the time it came my turn to go out and explore on the free run, I was unusually nervous. That pretty much disappeared though the minute I was out on the course. There is something relaxing about driving on a track with other cars. Relaxing and yet stimulating at the same time.

First couple of runs I stuck to 3rd gear as directed by Kuragon-sensei. This is quite tough in the 8 because there is no torque at low revs so coming out of the hairpins was murder. I decided to play with 2nd a little to explore and pulled a 1'06.358. With that time in mind, I thought that a 1'03 would be a good first mark to aim for.

For the remainder of the morning we used the main straight in 2 groups, 1 car at a time to practice full braking. This was pretty interesting. We started off by braking hard from a cone marker to stop. Once that was mastered we practiced full braking to stop inside a box marked by 4 cones. I found that I don't usually pick a braking point but rather go by the feel of the speed, so I was a little inconsistent with where I stopped. Also my brakes are stronger than I thought so I tended to come up short rather than over shoot. Got great feedback from Kuragon-sensei again over the radio each time.

The afternoon started with another free run. I scored mostly 1'03s and 1'04s with a best of 1'03.456. I was pretty happy with this as I was driving consistently and practicing the full on braking that we'd been thought earlier. It was hard to imagine going quicker, although I knew the time was there on every corner waiting for me.

Next up was more braking practice this time with a heel'n'toe downshift thrown into the mix during the stop into the box. This was not too hard as I'd been doing heel'n'toe since I first started on the track.

Finally after waiting in line during the last free session, Kuragon-sensei drove my car. I couldn't really see the peddles but I decided to concentrate again on the feeling and sounds of the car as well as his steering and shifting rather than on his lines. He stuck up a 1'02.876 which was 1/2 a second quicker that my fast lap with 2 up in the car...

With that in mind I took to the track again (forgetting to put down my passanger seat for the video). I tried really hard to get the braking just right and to accelerate quicker and smoother. There it was my first 1'02.941 lap! The car felt so good sliding around beneath me. I was getting braver and faster still. I managed to finish off the day getting faster each lap!

The video shows laps: 1'03.241, 1'02.941, 1'02.840, 1'03.321, 1'02.734, 1'18.411 (tire break) followed by my best lap: 1'02.684. I was so happy I ran over and shook Kuragon-sensei's hand. The feedback over the radio and the repeated exercises throughout the day had really helped me. I jumped up a level to get those times towards the end. I was really happy. I hope I can get back on a circuit soon to repeat that same feeling. Hmmm... no so long to wait me thinks. TC2000 awaits!


PS. Sorry about the quality! I guess leaving the seat up changed the lighting also.

Some people remarked that they couldn't see the circuit in the above video, so I decided to upload 2 laps from my previous session where I had the seat down. The lighting is very different so the circuit is clearly visible. Main differences between the videos I think are: Droping to 2nd on the final corner, grabbing 3rd on the uphill instead of holding 2nd. Braking into the middle hairpins etc more aggressively and improved shift timing as well as a more stable car. Quite different I think. Below is my previous best 1'03.456 and a 1'03.701.

Kuragon Room - Day 1 - SSPark

Touchn was kind enough to tell me about a 2 day driving class with Kuragon-san. Day 1 was on Friday at SSPark where I'd been once before on another 2 day course. It was a very different experience.

There were 16 cars in the class, 2 other RX-8s and a bunch of other stuff including a GT-R. In the morning it had been pissing down but the rain had thankfully let up and soon dried out. It made for a cooler day which was very welcome. We were split into 2 groups, 8 cars each. I'd no idea what to expect as I couldn't read any of the introductory material.

My group started off car by car by driving full on into a small roundabout clockwise. The idea was to control brake all the way to the clipping point and stop. This was mentally a challenge as I wasn't used to the idea of braking so hard (using ABS) so deep into a corner to turn the car. I also found it mentally hard to stop as I naturally wanted to go around the corner and out the other side. Kuragon-sensei gave us feedback over a radio for every attempt, the common theme being brake harder, the tires can take more. I knew they could too but it was hard to cross to that point. I was getting more and more aggressive though.

Finally Kuragon-sensei gave us a passenger ride and after feeling the car move underneath me, the tires on their limit I was ready to attack and replicate with new venom. I finally got close to that same feeling in my car.

Next up, was driving around in a big circle around cones. This was to learn how to cope with under-steer etc. I found this a little boring but managed to work on my throttle control a little.

After lunch, we were back on that little roundabout this time looking for the exit. Radio gave me lots of advice again all pretty much bang on to what I felt I was doing wrong too. Look more in the distance, accelerate earlier, brake harder. Kuragon-sensei again demo'd in my car which was great. Attack and replicate! Unfortunately I missed 2nd gear so took the corner slower than previously but I felt great coming out on the throttle nice and early.

Back on the circle again for another bit, this time, the other sensei holding the wheel while we were told to control our circle with throttle. To complicate things the rain came back. This was pretty easy also but quite interesting to practice as I didn't have full control over the car. I learned more about throttle control again from this. Great exercise even in the rain.

Last part of the day was free so I went back to attack the small roundabout in the now pissing rain. Attacking the roundabout with similar venom as before quickly had me spinning which was no surprise. After smoothing out my braking, I really also gained a bigger understanding of earlier acceleration out of the corner even in the wet with smooth throttle application. I was pretty elated at being able to practice this so much. Its great to attack just the one corner repeatedly all day.

It continued to rain hard all the way to my hotel. Link circuit which was Day 2 and was some 50km north of SSPark. Lots to sleep on. Great day of driving!

Water Temp

It's hot. Damn hot here in Tokyo. Fukushima is not much better and I've two days coming up. Must be mad! At TC1000 the other day the water temp was mostly around 110 but rose to about 115 on the long runs. The second 15 minute run was hardest on Roxy and me for that matter!

With this in mind, I'm going to flush my radiator of its winter coolant and am going to try out a mix of water and Redline's Water Wetter. The plan is to see if it helps. When it gets cold again, I'll flush and stick in some regular coolant again. It will be worth trying me thinks as the car can't work properly when its so hot or at least the cpu robs me of power. Hence Roxy is going to Super Autobacs tomorrow for a few hours. Apparently it can take about 5 hours to do this. Yikes... What do do while I'm waiting...

I'm also going to ask them to swap the front right/left tires. I had the wheels off last week and although the outside of the tires are almost gone (slip sign is long gone), the insides still look good. So if I can get them on the outside, it will be better for grip me thinks. I'm not willing to just reverse the direction of the tires by just swapping the right/left wheels. It costs 2,100 yen at SA to do this so worth doing me thinks.

Alignment 2007/04/11

I don't really understand alignment so much. I know the basics like what toe/camber/caster etc stand for but I don't know so much about how it effects the handling of the car (apart from stuff like tire wear).

In April I decided to get my first ever 4 wheel alignment as my suspension had been on/off the car a few times up to then and I'd no clue where the wheels were pointing. On the shop guys advice (he's not familar with the 8 though), he dialed in the pictured settings.

I can see that my previous settings were not good at all, but I'm wondering about the new ones. Immediately after the new settings I definitely get less under-steer. I'm wondering if my brake over-steer though is a result of this alignment.

I'd love to know how this compares to other peoples settings and if this particular setting suits the 8. Please make a comment and let me know what you think. Thanks!

Heat Exhaustion!

I have weird memories of Sunday at TC1000. It was hot. I remember climbing out of the car after the second session and thinking - no more today. It was too hot to be driving in long sleeves/jeans/helmet and no aircon. Still - not a lot of places as much fun nor many I'd have swapped in its place. I hid inside the control tower for about half an hour soaking up aircon while draining about a liter of water after that second run. It helped a lot.

I'd got it in my head that it was slippery on the track in the heat. Tires were somewhere north of 240 but I was too lazy to check them in the heat after my runs. I remember having a lot of fun pushing the car around all day and catching my mistakes. I felt like I was improving a lot in terms of being able to catch a slide and I was enjoying the practice after my big ones at Fuji the previous Sunday. I felt I was getting better.

Looking at the video again in retrospect, I was pretty damn rough in places. I'm doing far too much steering corrections mid-corner, unwinding too fast and then re-winding again in places. I think I need to be more crisp and accurate in my inputs to go faster. I mean, what was I at at the end of this video coming out of the last corner?

My current setup seems to go from understeer to oversteer quite fast. I actually usually drive TC1000 on (damper settings) 7F/9R but decided to dial in more understeer by driving with 6F/9R. 6F meaning 6 turns on front dampers and 9 turns on the rear. The higher the number the softer the setting.

As I understand it, hardening the front will give you more understeer which is what seemed to happen. I noticed a big change on the center hairpin which this setting. Usually I can get the car to turn more quickly through that corner but this time it just wouldn't turn so easily. Previously though on the other setting it had been quite easy to lose the car on that corner. Somewhere in between is ideal. I need to understand these settings more.

Actually, I'm planning on getting the RE-Amemiya stabilizer set and spending my TC2000 session on the 28th trying different settings. Its 2 hours free time on the track so it should be ideal for this kind of thing and its about time I started exploring my car setup a bit more. It will also slow me down and allow me to concentrate on smooth driving again - something I really need to practice! Hopefully, the heat won't get to me again!

Anyway, enjoy my loony qualifying session video. Mad and all as it is, the lap times were actually not that bad for this session: 44.67, 44.60, 45.01, 44.92 and 44.61.

6th place RX-8 "more" class.

Its not as much bragging rights as Kanapee's Party Race win, but its a start in the right direction! Roxy was running really hot all day so it was good to grab this. I guess everyone had similar trouble. I gotta invest in less heat!

I believe this prize is for the time 0'44.46 which I set in my first set in the morning. I got close to it a couple of times during the day. I actually beat the time with 0'44.2 in the race but I guess that didn't count.

I'll stick up another video later on from one of the qualifying sessions that is quite entertaining to watch. Off to bed now though!

First Mini Race

As part of the Eightlien meeting at TC1000, I took part in 3 x 15 minute session, 2 x 5 minute qualifying session and finally a 5 lap mini race. It was a hot, hot day. Very humid and did I say hot! I guess 34/35 degrees. The 15 minute sessions were very hard on Roxy. Oil was 130 at one stage and water was 110 or just over. My tires were very slippy towards the end of each session and I felt grip in general was pretty low. That made it good fun though to fight with the grip and catch a few slides along the way. TC1000 is a nice place to not worry too much about sliding out as visibility is very good around the course.

I qualified 6th on the grid out of 10 cars I believe. The first corner was going to be daunting. 10 cars piling in at the same time all looking for space and perhaps to make a place or two. I thought about leaving DSC on to have one less thing to worry about but that kinda goes against my philosophy so I left it off. I won't learn anything with DSC on.

When the light went out nobody seemed to move for a second and then I let rip. Handbrake down and the back of the car wriggling down into the first corner somehow in 4th place. Gotta love that Mazdaspeed clutch! The top 3 cars were really fast. I am really slow on the inner hairpin it seems and not too bad else otherwise. Seems thats where I'm losing my time getting the car turned quickly.

A blue 8 that had been 3rd on the grid was right on my ass but I knew there was pretty much nowhere to pass as long as I just drove my line. So although he was big in my mirror it just excited me rather than worrying me too much.

On the final lap, I was too eager to catch the cars in front on braking into the first corner and carried the brakes in too far. My correction wasn't enough and I lost the back end. I'd been so good at catching it all day I guess I got carried away in the heat of the moment. Still I managed to get the car turned around and back in the race before a few cars at least.

I got my best time of the day during the race 0'44.2. My previous best on the day was 0'44.46 in the morning session so its nice to have performed well. What a great day. Superb organization by Eightlien. The schedule was very tight but they made it work! Big thanks Eightlien!!!



Naomisan's (the blue 8 behind me) wife took this video of the race from the outside. Its cool to see the big picture.

Video - Fuji Speedway

Ok boys and girls. sit back and have a look at this. There are two laps. The first is my 2'15.06 lap and the second is a very slow lap which includes NOT one but TWO rather big slides. I remember seeing the 2'15 come up on the lap timer as I passed the finish line and thinking to myself that a bit more late braking could get me another second or two. You gotta be much smoother coming off the brakes when you brake later. You also gotta rev-match perfectly... Nobody said it would be easy. Would have been cool to catch the first slide. I actually stuck the clutch in although I think it needed a dab of revs instead.

Fuji Speedway 07/07/29

I spent a little bit of time on Saturday playing GT4 and trying out Fuji Speedway. Considering I've got the 180 kmph limiter, I figured that I'd be happy with a 2'20 time on the real thing.

Fuji turned out to be a little more different to the game than Tsukuba had been. If nothing else, it seemed narrower in places. Braking in real life is a lot easier than in the game though as you don't have fuzzy pixels getting in the way and you can really feel what you have and how fast you are going.

I drove as I always drive now with DSC completely off. The first lap, really took me back. It was such a long course, the hills constant corners making for a really technical experience. It had just about everything and the F1 is going to be really exciting there.

On the first session I drove a couple of 2'17 laps when nobody was slowing me down. I was really happy to break under 2'20 so soon but was wondering how to go faster. In session 2, I managed a 2'15.06 as my best lap which I was pretty excited over.

The following lap with confidence running high I lost the back on the fast 3rd gear left turn and also lost it off the last uphill chicane before the end. Looking at the footage, I'm still a bit puzzled by a) how fast I lost the back and b) why I lost it in the first place. Perhaps, I was pushing my tires too hard and needed to give them a break.

I remember the long left one vividly. I had lots of time to think of what to do during the slide. As it started to go, I put on opposite lock as fast as I could, as it kept going I put on more. I then put in the clutch, hoping that taking power from the rear wheels would bring it back around. (Perhaps this was wrong though, maybe I should have dabbed the gas to give the rear a bit more grip instead as the slide was not invoked by power but rather by loss of grip). As I started to get a bit closer to the wall, I decided it was time to brake and take the rest of the speed off asap. It was funny to watch myself react to everything so quickly and yet make a very conscious decision about braking.

I had a fantastic day none the less. Main thing is to learn lots each time and this I feel I did. It was great to see Yoshida-san lose his track cherry in his Cayman S which is pictured here. He had a great time as did the rest of us. Hopefully, I'll get some footage sorted out soon!

All ready for Fuji

Fuji Speedway is tomorrow. Today I picked up a torque wrench at Super Autobacs while John Dyno'd his car. Then popped over to D-Technique to pick up Roxy. Tested the seat position and had it tilted a little more forward as the peddle/arm ratio was off a little. The harness is pretty hard core. Its surprisingly snug and really adds to the atmosphere. Its a little harder to get in than I'd thought it would be. Perhaps because the straps are new. Getting out is easy though which is the main thing.

Finally driving my car down the street, it all felt very different. I'm sitting lower in the car than my old seat. Its quite noticeable. Shifting gears is a little different because of the left shoulder point. It kinda sticks out and blocks some of your movement. Still very functional though but less free than my normal seat.

I was actually surprised by how light the normal cloth RX-8 seat and rail was. When I got home, I had to drag it up a little step ladder to the loft with one arm while clinging to the ladder with the other. Ok, not so light perhaps... Decided to weigh the thing and was surprised to find that it weighs 15.8kg with rails attached. Hmmm, the Recaro is 5.4kg (without rails). Wonder how heavy the rails and side adapter is? If its another 5kg, thats still a 5kg saving which isn't too bad.

D-Technique also raised my rear suspension. Right was 330. Left was 340. Now both sides sit at 350 again.

Looking forward to tomorrow now! I've 4 other friends going. An S2000 (the feather king), A super charged NSX, a Cayman S and of course John in his RX-8. Can't wait.

Suspension woes

More than a few people have commented recently about my ride height at the rear. I was dropping the car off at D-Technique tonight and decided to measure the drop again. According to Autoexe documentation, from center to top of wheel arch should measure 355mm at the front and 350mm at the rear. This is for a drop of 20mm all around.

This was what it measured when R-Magic fixed it for me last time with nearly a full tank of gas. That was around February I think. Today I had a full tank again. Front is close enough to 355, rear measures between 335 and 340. Yikes! Thats off by between 10 to 15mm on both sides. I asked D-Technique to raise it up again... Going to have to keep an eye on it again. It's like a bloody yoyo! Its hard to measure accurately as its hard to tell exactly where the center of the wheel is. But I'm definitely not off by that much.

I wonder how much it varies between a full tank of gas and an empty tank???

Getting the seat and harness put in for Fuji this Sunday! I'll get Roxy back Saturday.

Tom.

Party Race 7/22

The photo isn't me but is another yellow from the Mazda Speed Cup Trial event earlier today Not sure who but check out the flames coming out the back!

What a great day. I knew so many people competing today that it would have been impossible not to have had a good time. Click on the photo to check out more photos from the day. I always get way to distracted by the action and forget to take more photos!

Highlights were Kato-san fighting his way up from 4th on the grid to finish in 1st place. Kanepee blazing the pack and finishing a very comfortable first. Watching Peter race for the first time and just losing his first place with about 3 laps to go to finish a very good second. Eightlien of course blazing to victory in the Mazda Speed trial.

It was also the first time Yoko went with me to the track. I think she enjoyed herself although it was a pretty tiring day.

John managed to drain his battery by leaving the light on for about 2 weeks but made it up after getting JAF to jumpstart the car! He should have been driving more often obviously! Driving to Tsukuba was a great way to charge the battery though.

Fantastic day. I definitely want to try going in the next circuit trial on 11/18!


Here's a short video showing the start of the RX-8 race.

John's Suspension - Poll

John has been wondering what to do with his suspension. The stock suspension on the 8 is pretty good by all accounts. Nothing is perfect though and there are many choices out there. He used to have the Mazdaspeed dampers and springs on his old 8. They were the non-tunable type. He is currently using the Mazdaspeed anti-roll bars on his new 8 but still has the stock dampers and springs.

I'm using the Autoexe Sports tunable suspension and while I feel its pretty good, I find it a bit on the noisy side over bumps. Also with an extra passenger in the back it can bottom out sometimes and I have had different trouble with it over time which I won't go into now. It would be cool if he had the same as me so we could compare things but then again why not try something different? I know I would if I could choose again.

A fast few people we know have the Quantum from RE-Amemiya. That's a big drop (yen wise) but looks to be well worth it. But just how much better can it be for the likes of us? Wouldn't something cheaper do the job? I'm not thinking dirt cheap here. Just cheaper than 460,000 yen! I'm thinking the Revolution suspension looks pretty good and is about 160,000 yen cheaper than the Quantum. Revolution has some quality products and has good write ups on some of their testing. They even got a 1'05 at Tsukuba which is pretty damn decent :-)

So Revolution gets my vote to kick things off. Please see the left panel to vote on a specific suspension and/or leave a comment here! This is your chance to play with John's wallet!

日本語のコメントもどぞ！

Seat and Harness Time

Honestly, I don't know where all the money is going but its hard to stop the flow. Might as well let the trickle continue. After about 2 hours of hopping between the Recaro TS-G and RS-GS seats at D-Technique earlier today, I finally made up my mind and decided to get myself the TS-GS model. I also ordered a black Willans Club S4 harness to go with it.

Also coming is some spare Project Mu HC+ front brake pads. I'm not sure how much life is left in the current ones. Good to have the spares anyway. Looking forward to trying it all out in Roxy before Fuji Speedway! The count down begins as that is only 2 weeks away now!

RE-Amemiya oil cooler

You may remember a couple of posts back that I dropped the car off at D-Technique so that they could install the RE-Amemiya oil cooler. I also asked them to fabricate some custom grills to cover both coolers to protect from the odd flying stones and/or insects.

The main reason for getting the extra oil cooler was the oil temperature on the track. At Honjyo circuit it was running over 140 degrees after about 7 or 8 minutes and that wasn't even mid summer... Naturally this was not a good thing and something needed doing.

Since the install, I've gone on a 2 day Gymkhana and half day track day at TC1000. The max I saw the oil hit was 110 degrees at the gymkhana which doesn't use the cooler so much as the runs are really short. At TC1000 it was between 100 and 110 for the most part after a hard run so that is encouraging. On a larger circuit like TC2000 or Fuji Speedway, I should have no problems what so ever. The cooler was a tad expensive all in, but will hopefully give my hard working engine a better life and go easier on the oil. So far so good :-)

If I was doing it again, I might just have got the Mazdaspeed cooler as it is smaller and fits more easily. I could probably done the install myself (as no cutting was probably required). I also could have just used the Racing Beat oil cooler grills as-is without having to get ones custom made... Perhaps though the extra cooling will be worth it? I don't know yet :-0

Power Check

I ran down to Super Autobacs in Yokohama in early June to run Roxy on the chassis dyno. I'd been there with John in his previous RX-8 in April so I wanted to see how the cars compared. If the truth be known a red RX-8 was supposed to come and dyno with me but a late night out the night before meant the driver needed his beauty sleep :-O!!!

Getting the dyno is pretty easy if they are not busy. Its 5,250 yen to get your car on it which is reasonable enough. They did 2 runs and got max power of 190.5 PS on the second run. Max torque was 18.3 kg-m. The photo shows a comparison between John's old 8 and mine. They are quite different, but then again so was my first/second runs. This dyno biz is definitely not an exact science. My first run had me at 185.5 PS and 18.1 kg-m of torque which is quite different.

My only power mod is my Racing Beat exhaust. John had the full R-Magic exhaust system headers/cat and exhaust. The 8 is supposedly 250 PS stock. 20% loss to clutch (conservative) would be 200 PS. With a power mod, I'm only making 190... I wonder what the car made when it was stock?!

TC1000 07/07/03

Couldn't believe I was off to Tsukuba on Tuesday. I mean, I'd just driven 300km up to Fukushima at the weekend. Had 2 full days of Gymkhana madness. Drove back to Tokyo. Worked 1 day. Now 1 day later again, TC1000 awaited! How mad is that?!

This was another D-Technique day with the deadly duo Deki-sensei and Kato-sensei. Those guys have amazing energy. I wish my Japanese was better so I could soak in more of what they are trying to teach me. My Japanese is improving though and perhaps my driving is too :-)

John was in group B and I was in group A. This was nice as it meant that we could take some outside footage of each other around the track. My previous best time at TC1000 was 0'44.41 so that was one of the days targets. I remember it being quite hard to get under 45s the last time out although I did nip under it a few times. This time around it was quite easy. I think the gymkhana helped me improve quite a lot. Unfortunately I couldn't climb into the 43s range. I got an early best time in the first session 0'44.119 and couldn't top that although it was pretty easy to keep close on clear laps.

I actually span out quite a lot in a few different places, sometimes due to too much throttle on the exit, others too much brakes trailing on entry or the car not taking a set early enough for the corner. All self-inflicted anyway :-) Its healthy to spin though because it forces you to think. Its also important to know how to spin properly so practice helps! - or so I keep telling myself! Its also quite a lot of fun to see another car spin infront of you. You can see them go from really early on. You can tell from the noise and the pitch of the car.

I got some good practise in on the inner hairpin. I'm still not happy with that corner but I did manage to try a few different things. Its all too easy to go wrong there and I feel that's where I can gain more time next. After the 3 sessions were complete, all I could think about was how quickly it was all over. I wanted to go karting or anything to continue on the rush that driving gives you. Luckily I didn't though as I'm quite tired today, 1 day later :-) There will be another day.

Here's some in car footage from the second session. Taking the outlap nice and easy and then playing catchup. Quite a lot of cars sliding around out there including myself. I actually span out only once in this session. Those tires are making quite a lot of noise... I started them off at about 195 and didn't check them after that. Hope to get more time out of them as I only got them in February! Must post a photo when I get a chance.