mike is that you?

if so, i can assure you that if mike is a noob, hes the kind of noob that shows up at a national tour event and wins super stock out of nowhere. that just doesnt happen.

james
two V8s and a Renesis

 

Hi James. baghead knows I'm not really a "noob" (although, just finishing my 2nd year of autocross, I consider myself pretty new to the game) and he just loves to give people a hard time about learning to use the search feature

I'll see you guys on the 22nd at GGF.

 

Reading that the first time as, "I'll see you guys on my 22 year old girl friend," is why I called in sick to work today.

 

I'm just not sure how to respond to that one...

 

probably the same way I did

 

Mike/James,

See you on the 22nd at GGF with a group of students from San Leandro High School. Can I hook them up with rides from you guys too?

 

Not sure I'll be taking passengers, yet. I only have a couple of runs in the car and need some "quality time" to figure out what it's doing and whether I'm on target with the alignment, prior to installing the shocks.

 

alignment before shocks? interesting plan...

 

well, I have sponsorship from a shop, Custom Alignment in Mt. View, so getting realigned is not an issue.

Because I didn't have time to install the Konis prior to last weekend's event and also because our winter events are being held on very bumpy sites, I decided to just run the stock shocks for the next couple of months. I think I can determine whether my alignment has the basic "feel" I'm looking for and then will make tweaks when I install the Konis and do the final set up, prior to the "real" season.

 

Koni's change the car dramatically. The stock springs are way soft and without the Koni's you'll be on the stops occasionally which makes the car do weird things. Wouldn't expend to much effort untill you get the shocks on.

The Koni's didn't come out until about a year and a half ago and before that people were running big front sway bars (ala 1st gen RX-7) to keep the car off the stops. Now with the shocks most people are back to the smaller front swaybars.

Anybody interested in taking a RB swaybar off my hands?

 

+1.

The car I drove for most of this season felt dramatically different when we added the Konis. The RX-8 is not a Z06, and the stock shocks are not very good at all, imho.

 

Well, I ran the RX8 again today, but this time on very gravelly asphalt at Golden Gate Fields. With the uneven surface quality, I don't think the lack of shocks was a problem, at all, as those on adjustables were going full soft, anyhow.

I did drop pressures, ending up at 37f/35r on the V710s, which seemed to work pretty well. If we had more runs, I would tried dropping them further, as I didn't see any evidence of getting any real roll over of the sidewalls.

An observation, after running on such a low grip surface, is that the RX8 is 100% more "tossable" than the Corvette. Stuff that would have had the Z06 going backwards (either in terms of time or literally) I could not only get away with in the RX8, but resulted in quicker times. This car is just a blast to drive!!!

 

are you coming out on the 29th? i ran at stockton this weekend. but will be out at the 29th slush. 3 rx8s this season!!

 

I plan on being at GGF next weekend. We should have at least 4 RX8's, if Barry and Jody both show up again, which I think they will

 

glad to see the tires get some track time. Now for some lightweight wheels and you'll really feel how light the 8 feels.

 

Yep, they're working out great, thanks Keith...it would have been kind of a waste of money to have bought a new set of Kumhos for our winter series and with the car not really set up.

I did send an email to both SSR and TireRack (are they joint venture partners, or something?) asking about RX8 stock size wheel options...I haven't heard back yet. It looks like they still make a 18X8" Comp with the right offset, but wrong bolt pattern?

 

The best part is the new ones weigh 2 lbs more than the old ones. Yes that is right they are now 18.x lbs vs 16.x lbs for the 18X8 SSR with 48mm offset. Just buy the OZ or order some Kodiaks now and you may have them in time for natls.

 

You funny guy, you

Whatever, I can't tell the difference, anyhow...

 

SSR was bought out by Tanabe, they have been very selective on what configurations they're offering, nowhere near as many as SSR previously had

 

i also had the experience of getting all on the bump stocks in the rx8- it does bad things when that happens. i cut my bump stops in the front and that helped but might not be legal in stock- is there still a provision to change the bump stop with different shocks?

awesome times on sunday mike! well heck, i would have outpaxed you, but *i* took passengers each run.

id keep experimenting with lower pressures, especially at GGF.

rx8 is good at that site. fun car, huh?

james

ps i was in texas on the 22nd.

 

I haven't had a problem with hitting the bump stops, yet, but the car only has 1600 miles on it...maybe with more wear on the shocks it would be a problem, but the Konis are going in by year end.

The car does work very well on the low grip surface, I think because you can get on the power so early without worrying about too much torque causing excessive wheel spin.

I was pretty happy with the progress made, but pissed that Navid got me by .05 for #1 PAX...although, his car is well dialed in, has the AWD advantage at GGF and that soft SM index...there, is that enough excuses?

Didn't you take FTD?

 

maybe the 06 is different. my 04 would get on the front bump stops under braking very readily and kill turn-in. i had to greatly lessen my trailbraking.

yeah, my 1st group time held up through the day- that surprised me since i had shiny new 710s on which have been very slippery the first event in the the past.

james

 

Great job!
I'm not surprised that a brand new, non heat cycled V710 did well at GGF. Andy Mckee told me he thinks the best tire to run at GGF is either a brand new "softie" (no heat cycles) DOT R or a low treadwear rated street tire (Azenis etc., with treads to channel away some of the gravel ). The worst is a totally heat cycled-out V710...which you can get away with on some of our other sites, like Atwater.

 

Nothing different on the shocks from 04-06... Its all about brake early and power out. Not brake and turn at the same time and wonder why it is still going strait.

 

Aw, what the heck do you know?

btw, I liked the graphic package on your car when you won the '05 Championship much more than the one when you won this year

All kidding aside, the car is just wonderful to steer with the throttle, something which was both slow and dangerous in the Z06!