Well guys and gals we did it! I just got back from a track day at road atlanta which most say is the most difficult track to drive in north america{i'm sure I'll get flamed for that!}. Its over 2 miles long and has a LOT of elavation changes. It has one neg chamber turn thats downhill and fast and I really didnt like that one. It has a little dip about 4/5th's of the way down(entire turn and the straight is about 3/4's mile long) that made my frontend a little light while the chassis recovered. A little error there and "oh boy". You are running in 4th at about 85 when you hit that dip.
Lift thottle oversteer is very perdictable but you really have to be smooth with the thottle to take advantage of it. Th brakes where great. We usally did about 12 laps at the time and absoultly no probrems. The ess's where a piece of cake!
There were 8 of us. 4 reds, 2 greens, 1 grey and 1 black Made for a pretty picture(coming) One member took video from inside the car and it turn out excellant(taht is coming also). The cars where amazing(we wherein a lead follow group no speed limit) All of us had stock bridgestones and only one member had the rb suspension. Corvette owners where very impressed(stock vettes not the zo6"s come on guys!) The vettes could not pull us as soon as we learned how to exit the turn with enough speed to keep our powerband on. We ate them in the turns. The instructors where driving a6 audi's. Top speed for the day was approx 115. We ran mostly in 3nd and 4th gears. One little shift to 5th was possible if you wanted.
One unexpected thing. I actually found the car performed better with the dsc on. My system never engaged and I had a good amount of "happy tires". I guess it is calabrated well. The cooling fans never came on when we parked(is was in the 70's temp wise).)I do have the rb catback and the cz 1.1 and I could tell it was there. I am even more impressed with this car than I was before. I have found it's element. A road track is home to the RX8. Do not come to it's house looking for a slow car.
Can't wait til the next time!
olddragger

 

great description
i have run my car at gingerman raceway in southwest michigan.
i too found the my 8 to be a great track car.
this track is moderately technical and tough on brakes and tires.
i found weakness in suspension settings and torque coming out of turns 2 and 10? but overall i had a blast in the 6 times there. next year i will have hi flow cat and tune the suspension a bit. this year, with sr flywheel, and cz 1/1 i shaved about 8 seconds off my time...best time was 1:46. best straight speed was 94 mph, according to speedo...(really about 89 or 90.
brakes did great until i wore the fronts out and warped the rotors. these brakes are not weak or easily fried howeveer...this was after 6 track days over the summer and the last time i really used the brakes! (thus the much quicker times)
by comparison, the race prepped miatas,,,and a 427 cobra were coming in at about 1:38 or 9.
i have since put on new sr pullies and look to see a better time yet.

 

Olddragger, what club did you go with for Road Atlanta??

 

Panoz Racing..

 

Not really a "club" - just a group from this board. Panoz Racing runs Track Days throughout the year. The guys running it were cool enough to set up an RX-8 only group.

Don't those 8s look good at speed! This is the middle of turn-1; a downhill/uphill righthand turn; probably 70 mph at this point... I think.

 

Are they going to have it again next year? Let's make it a multi-day event :D

 

Here are a couple of pix.

http://www.geocities.com/legokcen/RX-8/PDR_0059.JPG

http://www.geocities.com/legokcen/RX-8/PDR_0060.JPG

The in-car video came out wonderfully. I got it onto a VCR tape and now I'm working on getting it onto a CD. You can hear me hoot with delight as we went through some of the turns. I didn't know the sound was going to be that good.

I'll post some of those as well when I get them transfered to my computer.

 

It's scheduled again for December. Second weekend I believe.

 

>It's scheduled again for December. Second weekend I believe.

So is it for sure or its still planning?

Weekend sounds good as you would need at least two days to have all the fun :D Btw, how much will it going to cost?

I need to drive down all the way from NJ! Anyone up here interested in going as well??

 

http://www.panozracingschool.com/TrackDays_Schedule.asp

It's Dec 11th and 12th. You can go either or both days. When we got a group or 6 or more, we got 10% off.

 

Count me in :D
Btw, how long is the run session per day? And any instructors out there to show you the line around the track if you've never been to RA before?

 

On the enrollment form, how come there is no Group C for Sunday schedule??

Btw, how many of you in here are planning to go back for the Dec event?

 

you guys need a non red/black/titanium car in that group.... so trichromatic, lol :D

 

I guess what we must decide is whether we do a Saturday or Sunday or both days. Some new guys will have to run in group C which is Saturday only. You get 2 hours of run time on Saturday. Sunday groups get 3 hours but it costs about $100 more. Please post which day you would prefer to sign up for. Remember if you have not done a track day ar Road Atlanta you have to go in group C (Saturday). If you do both days, you move to group B on Sunday i believe.

 

I am going to start a thread in the SE forum

 

Hey guys the more the merrier! You will not be disappointed. Plus for the wives that come there is the largest shopping mall in the state of georgia 1 exit down the interstate. I believe all that participated this run are coming back in Dec. I'm not sure if I want to go to the B class or stay in the c.
olddragger

 

Pam... Remember olddragger said that... not "us".

 

nice photos! no 8 has a front license plate:o , which is nice...
lots of red ones too....

 

uh oh I feel the heat coming! Just for everyones information I had to promise my wife a day at Chateu Elan spa in exchamge for my next track day! Well I ddnt really have to promise ....but in all fairest I thought since I was having so much fun(and she's not interested in coming to the track) then she deserved a little something extra. Christmas comes early this year!
Does anyone know it Mazcare has the rb springs, bars in stock? I wonder if they have ther flywheel also.
How many guys are interested in staying in c class again vs how many going to b? I wonder if we could get enough 8's to have our OWN b class session. That would be great wouldn't it? I just dont want to get into a swapping paint party>
olddragger

 

Yeah, I may have to do something like that too. I showed my wife the in-car camera videos and she wasn't that happy with the 115 mph speeds.
She said something funny:
"I don't understand you... you don't park anywhere close to anyone for fear of a door ding and you put your car on a track like that!"

 

That's funny, I don't care who ya are!

 

That is truely an indefensible comment... I'd love to hear your come-back...

 

So how many 8s are going to show up in the Dec event?

 

Exactly, I really didn't have one. I tried to say something about control and being in the drivers seat, but she didn't buy any of it. Oh well.

 

Hi All!!

Here is a link to videos and pics from that day that folks have sent to me. I am waiting on the in car video and I will get it posted as well....

http://www.geralds.net/gallery/Track...-Atlanta-10-04

I think we have four or five so far for the Dec 11th group!