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.

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.

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!

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?

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.

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！

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

bye-bye Roxy

Ok so its not really bye-bye, but rather see you in a week. She's going under the knife down at D-Technique to get that oil cooler installed. I figured track time was more important and signed up for a full weekend of driving on 6/30 so that left me with only one weekend to get the cooler installed. If it rained I'd be screwed so decided safest way was to get it done in the shop. They are also going to make me some oil cooler screens which should save the new one from sticks and stones and jolly big insects.

Oil cooler arrived.

The oil cooler kit from RE-Amemiya arrived. I decided to order it anyway as they couldn't fit it for me immediately. Fitting was going to cost 32,000 yen so I decided to invest that money in some good tools instead and learn a bit more about the car by installing it with the help of Richard. Just opened the kit and it looks pretty sweet. Cooler it self is about the size of an A4 page.

So its down to Super Autobacs this weekend to buy some tools and perhaps dyno the car while I'm there. Then I guess I'll have to wait until I'm back from China before I can install it some weekend.

Oil Temp

I recently installed the Racing Beat gauges for Oil Temp/Pressure and Water temp. Its been interesting watching at random intervals while driving around. First thing I noticed that water temp comes up way before oil temp comes up to temperature. I used to think I could just hammer it once the stock water temp gauge got to its usual position but it turns out that that is way too early. Oil takes at least a further 5 minutes or so. Normal ranges for oil temp tend to be between 80/90 degrees in normal driving.

My last two circuit outings though I noticed after a hard run, the temperature went over 130. The gauge maxes out at 138 degrees and it was around that mark when I glanced at it on the straight... That's not so good me thinks - at least not for extended periods.

Currently thinking I need a second oil cooler. I'm pretty much decided on the one from RE-Amemiya as its similar in price to MazdaSpeed one and the RE-Amemiya guys have a lot of good parts. Will see if they can fit it for me this weekend before Honjyo! Hope so. RE-Amemiya are out by Narita so its a nice little drive.

More clutch

Back in the car last night for first time since getting the new clutch and fly. The clutch didn't seem that heavy at all while driving. Blipping downshifts is a little different now too. I have get my muscle memory to relearn the movement to get it back smooth again. First toe'n'heel down shift on the track should be interesting.

I'm still being followed around by the smell of clutch also. I wonder how soon I can burn through this baby... I think I've improved a little though so hopefully it won't last much longer. First big traffic jam should be where I'll finally perfect it. Hard to believe how different it is to the old clutch/fly.

Was at D-Technique last night for a pre-track lesson on TC1000. Very excited about going there again. The last time I was a total beginner turning off DSC for the first time. It was pissing rain that day and I caught my first big slide in the 8. My best time was an abysmal 53s so I guess that it up for improvement. I think I should be able to get 44 seconds or the very least 45.

Of course TC2000 is just 2 days away now. It will be my first time back on new alignment. Unfortunately the weather is forecasting rain. Either way though its gonna be good run :-)

Tom.

Next mod - a bionic leg

Picked up Roxy from Mazda tonight. Got the following:

• Racing Beat flywheel installed
• Mazdaspeed clutch
• Mazdaspeed clutch line
• New clutch oil (5.1 castrol brake fluid)
• New Gear oil

The flywheel is 29% lighter weight-wise and reduces inertia by 55% compared with stock. I didn't know what to expect getting in. Would I stall? Getting into 1st gear was the first hurdle... Man this clutch sure is heavy. The spring shoots the peddle back at you with such clean crisp movement it takes you almost by surprise at first. I didn't stall going out though because the second I touched the throttle the damn thing shot up near 5000 rpms. This is going to be fun!

Out on the road and into Tokyo traffic. No better test. First gear is so light now, the revs are very racey in comparison to before. There is still that low down lull before it kicks in, but boy does it rev up when you floor it. Second was crispy, that new oil feeling, the new clutch line, everything so smooth. Once you're moving the clutch is really nice. It just spring right back out at you everytime. Change - snap, change - snap.

Decided to go for a wee spin. Called over to John who wanted to see the new gauges too. He immediately noticed the flywheels ability to rev and I guess the clutch surprised him 'cause he popped it out while still in gear and almost stalled it onto a nearby pole. Lol!

Out on the road again, I headed down Meguro dori, towards Roppongi and back home. The smell of burning clutch following me about as the new disc bedded itself in. Its so hard not to burn clutch right now. The flywheel is that bit lighter that it makes starting more difficult, the clutch is that bit heavier that it's harder to feather and if you rev at all you end up taking off at 4000 rpms or so. Going to be fun in Tomei traffic jams this.

With the window open, I can also hear a vibration which sounds a little like the clutch disc biting and breaking loose when you get your start wrong and rev to highly on startup while feathering the clutch. I never heard that before, but I think its just because a) its new and b) I'm abusing it with too many revs on startup. Hard to get used to everything at once. That said, I'm not sure its 100% normal so any feedback you have is useful.

Many lights later, my left leg starts to get a little tired. It can get like this usually after a good long day of driving in a jam, but I've only been driving 30 minutes or so. Seems if I drive at all, my left calf is gonna go daikon on me. If I drive occasionally, I'm gonna have to hit the gym in order to work that muscle up. Either that or a bionic leg.

Driving around though, I was smiling. The car now revs like it should. Headers would probably make it even better but for the moment, I have a whole new car to get to know. I'm feeling a 1'09 coming on strong.

PS - John I recommend you get yourself a clutch line. Its very crisp in comparison to the old line and from driving your car the last outing I thought that your peddle felt a little like a frayed brake cable. There is some feedback in it that shouldn't be there or wasn't there on my old cable. The old one is rubber. New one is steel braided. That's gotta be better! That's my feeling anyway.

New bits coming soon

Roxy is currently at the dealers having a new flywheel and clutch fitted. Nothing wrong with the old bits but the new bits add performance. The flywheel is from Racing Beat. The clutch is from Mazdaspeed. I'm also getting the Mazdaspeed clutch hose installed which should make engagement nice and crispy. I'm curious how heavy the clutch will become. Rumour has it that it's a bit of a stiffy. I should see some speed advantage out of the flywheel so it should be worth the extra pain. We will see. Roxy returns on Thursday night...