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.

SSPark Gymkhana Mazda RX-8

Great weekend practicing different things at SSPark Gymkhana with D-Technique. With 2 days you really learn a lot and get to practice a lot. I managed to get a 56.3 out of the little course which I'm quite pleased with. Probably could have got another second at least out of it, perhaps more, but this time was bascially a second faster than my previous best anyway so that's pretty huge. You can't see much of the gymkhana setup in this video, but it records what I did (when I turned the wheel, hit the brakes, gas etc). Still lots to learn! Must be possible to do a 53 in my car I reckon especially with a kami-sama driver ;-)