Frustrating as it was that I couldn't convince myself to go to Houston with Clyde (2900 miles round trip did NOT seem appealing, especially in a glorified two-seater filled with stinky tires) I managed to beg a co-drive in bmc's car for the first Philly region SCCA event this "summer." Never having driven an Rx-8 that wasn't on DA Konis, I thought this would be a great opportunity.

Wait, did I say "summer?" Somehow, 45 degrees and drizzling seems more like a Baltimore winter. Ah. Bygones.

First impressions - as expected, the excellent brakes and "right now" steering is not dulled significantly, even lacking shocks. The big difference is the confidence level of the car through fast transitions. Granted, we were running.. uh.. interesting tire pressures all day. The overriding sensation was that of flopping back and forth onto the bump stops. Fortunately Mazda seems to have planned for this, and installed some nice progressive bump stops (or maybe they're just SOFT) for us. It's almost .. comfy. Of course suspension engineers don't like to use bump stops as springs because transitioning from a low spring rate (let's call it zero) to an infinite spring rate mid corner is not what I'd call "fun." Unless you like plowing understeer followed by snap oversteer.

Even though we didn't get any heat in the tires, even though the car has squishy shocks, even though the pressures were not what I would have wanted and even though it was rainy and cold, I still had a great time. Thanks, Brian!

Now, bring on Atlanta and the 350Z's. (eeep!)
John V

 

By interesting, he means 38 in the front, and 25 in the rear. ANYTHING to heat the tires. They were cold to the touch until I spun badly twice.

Something much less wide than a 275 is probably the ticket when it is damp, and below 45 degrees outside.

 

What tires were you running?

 

Hoosier A3S04's in 275/35/18.