Offical Grand-Am GT RX-8 Thread
#526
A big ol' fat congrats to Pontiac for winning the championship. Yeah, I know it's not over JUST yet, but with the weight addition PLUS the rev limit restrictions that GA placed on the Mazdas, the season is all but over now. I guess the Pontiac teams just bitched loud enough and GA felt a need to hand the championship back to them. This DESPITE Banner Racing's attempt to sneak a ride-height adjustment by the officials a few races ago. Did anyone else hear during the race broadcast that Speedsource cracked an exhaust manifold due to excessive heat secondary to the rev limitations? Way to go GA...penalize teams that are successful to the point that they begin to have mechanical failures.
Funny, but it seems to me that if GA had simply given the Porsches ride height adjustments sooner in the series, things would have been pretty even all through the season. But nope...start screwing around with formulas LATE, and screw a contender out of a championship title. Nice going GA!!!
Oh well...third place in the championship is pretty damn respectable. Go Mazda, and nice going Speedsource.
/rant off
Funny, but it seems to me that if GA had simply given the Porsches ride height adjustments sooner in the series, things would have been pretty even all through the season. But nope...start screwing around with formulas LATE, and screw a contender out of a championship title. Nice going GA!!!
![Rant](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/rant.gif)
Oh well...third place in the championship is pretty damn respectable. Go Mazda, and nice going Speedsource.
/rant off
#527
It's Not Easy Being Green
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The optimum shift point was apparantly around 9100 so they ended up cutting off over 500 RPMs of max power production not to mention the RX8s would go near 10k when a late shift wasn't helpful. And like you said this is actually causing the car to overheat damaging the exhaust manifold.
Ridiculous that a team as well constructed and funded as Speedsource can't compete on a track which should have been a dream for the 8. And while the 70 car had a few problems with cold tires getting them into the dirt today and an oil leak the 69 had none that I noted and still wasn't competitive.
What a waste of what had been a pretty competitive season. When the highlight of the race is Patrick Dempsey leading for a lap or two because he's off-pit you probably need to rethink your strategy.
Oh well. At least the Speed announcers seemed to give at least as much, if not more, TV time to the GT series today over the DPs. I guess they realized that there wasn't a whole lot of drama in the DP series. Course now there's no drama in either for the final run but oh well. That's what Rolex wanted.
#528
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RK,
I agree with you in all aspects EXCEPT with regards to the #69 car. It finished 11th which is pretty much on par with their average finish and better than they had been doing. I mean ****, their last 3 races prior to this one they were 17th, 17th and 12th
. They have only done better than 5th on ONE occasion, so to me the only thing really off was the #70 car and for obvious reasons.
I agree with you in all aspects EXCEPT with regards to the #69 car. It finished 11th which is pretty much on par with their average finish and better than they had been doing. I mean ****, their last 3 races prior to this one they were 17th, 17th and 12th
![Dunno](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/dunno.gif)
#529
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RK,
I agree with you in all aspects EXCEPT with regards to the #69 car. It finished 11th which is pretty much on par with their average finish and better than they had been doing. I mean ****, their last 3 races prior to this one they were 17th, 17th and 12th
. They have only done better than 5th on ONE occasion, so to me the only thing really off was the #70 car and for obvious reasons.
I agree with you in all aspects EXCEPT with regards to the #69 car. It finished 11th which is pretty much on par with their average finish and better than they had been doing. I mean ****, their last 3 races prior to this one they were 17th, 17th and 12th
![Dunno](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/dunno.gif)
When the 69 runs without incident it runs as well as the 70. This weekend the 70 had more incidents that I saw while the 69 ran clean - and was completely smoked. Maybe I missed something with all the cars getting off track and creating dust storms.
EDIT: Just looked at the results and the 69's best lap was almost a full second behind the leader. 70 was closer but was still almost half-a-second. Both came very early in the race (lap 27 and 29). All of the 8s had their best times around the 25th lap which I believe was right after the caution with the driver switch (sans McDreamy).
Last edited by RK; 09-02-2008 at 04:04 PM.
#530
Registered
A big ol' fat congrats to Pontiac for winning the championship. Yeah, I know it's not over JUST yet, but with the weight addition PLUS the rev limit restrictions that GA placed on the Mazdas, the season is all but over now. I guess the Pontiac teams just bitched loud enough and GA felt a need to hand the championship back to them. This DESPITE Banner Racing's attempt to sneak a ride-height adjustment by the officials a few races ago. Did anyone else hear during the race broadcast that Speedsource cracked an exhaust manifold due to excessive heat secondary to the rev limitations? Way to go GA...penalize teams that are successful to the point that they begin to have mechanical failures.
Funny, but it seems to me that if GA had simply given the Porsches ride height adjustments sooner in the series, things would have been pretty even all through the season. But nope...start screwing around with formulas LATE, and screw a contender out of a championship title. Nice going GA!!!
Oh well...third place in the championship is pretty damn respectable. Go Mazda, and nice going Speedsource.
/rant off
Funny, but it seems to me that if GA had simply given the Porsches ride height adjustments sooner in the series, things would have been pretty even all through the season. But nope...start screwing around with formulas LATE, and screw a contender out of a championship title. Nice going GA!!!
![Rant](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/rant.gif)
Oh well...third place in the championship is pretty damn respectable. Go Mazda, and nice going Speedsource.
/rant off
#532
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Yup although the Pontiacs did seem a little upset on one race (not sure which) where the 8's were clearly pulling away on the straights every time. It was right after the pontiacs had the weight penalty added.
#533
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I just wish they wouldn't do adjustments in the middle of the season. All the teams are striving for that "unfair advantage", so it really penalizes the teams that try and look for the loophole, which they are all doing anyway. Give us unrestricted revs!
#535
Upsilon Sigma Mu Chi
This is true about the midseason changes.
#536
Upsilon Sigma Mu Chi
#537
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Revin to 9 grand and popping the clutch! Go for it, the damage is done. Of course Sylvain would be his typical gentleman self and keep the faith in Rolex Grand Am decision making. In reality, you know it's beakin his heart as hard as these guys worked. Not fair Amigos and Amigas what they did.
#539
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NOOOOOOOOO!
Oh Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!
http://www.grand-am.com/rolex/news/index.cfm?cid=19123
NASCAR/Grand-Am?![Puke](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/puke.gif)
Oh Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!
http://www.grand-am.com/rolex/news/index.cfm?cid=19123
![Rant](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/rant.gif)
![Icon No2](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/icon_no2.gif)
![Icon No2](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/icon_no2.gif)
![Rant](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/rant.gif)
![Mad](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/mad.gif)
![Shocking](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/shocking.gif)
![Frown](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/frown.gif)
![Bash](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/bash.gif)
NASCAR/Grand-Am?
![Puke](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/puke.gif)
#540
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well, it did say in the news release that they would still operate independently. we can hope.
P.S. This takes SpeedTV one step closer to being NASCAR TV
P.S. This takes SpeedTV one step closer to being NASCAR TV
Last edited by mikeyfuzz; 09-04-2008 at 08:51 PM.
#542
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I dont know, whatever happens if the 8's cant find a way to counter the rpm limit in a way that puts them near where they were, im not very enthusiastic about future Grand Am events. I mean, the heart and soul of the rotary lies within the high revs at the LIMITS, not at the ALMOST limits (wtf). They have taken that away and its just disheartening. Its just a freakin Rape.
#543
Drop it into 3rd
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#544
Upsilon Sigma Mu Chi
![Lol2](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/lol2.gif)
I dont know, whatever happens if the 8's cant find a way to counter the rpm limit in a way that puts them near where they were, im not very enthusiastic about future Grand Am events. I mean, the heart and soul of the rotary lies within the high revs at the LIMITS, not at the ALMOST limits (wtf). They have taken that away and its just disheartening. Its just a freakin Rape.
#545
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Unfortunately the only chance is for the Pontiac teams to have problems or a DNF. In a 7 hour race I guess it's possible. Grandam basically decided the championship when they limited the 8's revs.
#548
Endurance might be the only shot that the RX-8s have at Miller, but there were comments during that last race that the higher elevation at that track will make for higher exhaust temps than they saw last week when they had a cracked manifold.
#549
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Yeah, part of what I heard too was that heat becomes a bigger issue as they have to shift more compared to when they have higher revs available. The Pontiacs will just sit back and let the race come to them.
Still what more can you hope for than to have a shot at it in the last race of the season. Either way it's been a fun year.
Still what more can you hope for than to have a shot at it in the last race of the season. Either way it's been a fun year.
#550
Upsilon Sigma Mu Chi
![Rant](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/rant.gif)
http://www.grand-am.com/rolex/news/index.cfm?cid=19132
I guess our outpouring cries were enough to put it in print.
![Icon No2](https://www.rx8club.com/images/smilies/icon_no2.gif)
Interesting info as well on both classes...