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.