First, let me say this was my first time to a drag strip and my first time to do attempted top acceleration runs. I was very disappointed on my last run when I saw 16.11 sec and 89.11 MPH end speed ("trap speed"?) until later when I was fueling after I left and realized it was the Matrix running next to me - mine was on the other side of the paper.

run# -------1------2-------3--------4

DSC --------on-----off-----on------off
1/4 mile 15.636-15.1579-15.936-15.2565
60'------ 2.3915 2.1549 2.5123 2.2573
330'------6.729 6.3669 6.9488 6.4466
1/8 mile 10.2182 9.8005 10.4779 9.8926
trap spd 90.633 91.9566 89.5009 91.5212
reaction
time......1.4506 1.2927- 1.2614 1.0511

time of
run ----- 5:38PM--6:05-----7:01----9:12

some of my own observations. 1) turn DSC OFF! (forgot on 3rd run, didn't think of it before 1st run
2) my reaction time isn't very good - but that was not what was important to me - but evident would need work to be 'good' at this
3) at least I beat the 'other car' -1st 3 runs a Subaru AWD wagon - early 90s vintage, 4th run a black Toyota Matrix- I never saw it again after green 4) I saw a 350Z there, it did 14.45 and 97 I think. Not sure what model or skill level of driver or anything else subjective or objective 5) 2 3rd gen RX-7s were there, running about 12.8 6) a 2nd gen RX-7 was there and I think did about the same

weather: about low 70s at start, about 62 at last run; first 2 runs done while car was very warm and close together. I tried to warm it up some before the 4th run was started. Running 93 octane. First run had 32lbs pressure all tires, for 2nd run let out to 24PSI, for 3rd run 20.5PSI, last run could have been lower since it had been sitting for 2 hours in cooler air.

any comments are welcome, I'm not a professional driver and don't claim to be.
after edit:
added trap speeds; 2nd gen was a Turbo II model; interesting comments from the original,in-his-50s 93 touring model RX-7: it rides like a ____ truck [hard] even with Eibachs and Bilsteins - of course those lowered it so I'd think so, he just had the clutch replaced last week and when starting at 6500 it immed dropped to 4500,didn't know why, he was still peeved that he had to replace the engine at 60,000 and Mazda did nothing out of the warranty, he had a PC tracking all sorts of things and I guess could modify things as did the turbo II owner and I think the younger 3rd gen owner. And they both often ran 103 - 110 octane, the younger running 93 last night and the older I think running 103.
Seems like a N/A (Rensisis) rotary is just so, well, simple - regular pump gas, no adjusting much of anything, etc.

 

Hello rx8daniel

What were your trap speeds for the respective 1/4 miles runs?

 

Good runs ... and those prove that the production RX-8 are no way capable of consisten 14.5s runs at 96 MMPH. You need those mising 20WHP!!

 

actually, if a newb can get it close to 15 flat his first time out on the track in this car, I can definitely believe that a pro/semi-pro driver can knock down that half second EASILY.

good runs rx8daniel! which track did you run at?

 

How does a total novice running 0.6 sec behind the published 1/4 mile time prove that that time is unobtainable?

 

it was at 75/80 raceway.

I too think that if I'm capable of low 15s my first time on a strip that the car is capable of mid 14 second runs in more capable hands.

I did not / will not do a 8000 clutch drop to accomplish it - but - I think trying different launch RPM levels and shift points may make the times come down. FWIW, my shifts were almost all at about 9200 - before the rev limiter could shut off the fuel.

 

The 2nd run with a 2.15 60 ft time is nearly as good as can be had on street rubber. With practice you might cut it to 2.0 which would still only put you in the high 14s, not the mid 14s.

I still don't see how anyone expects a car that is posting 91 mph trap speeds in the hands of real owners to miraculously run 96 in the hands of another driver. That shows there is some power missing. 5 mph in the 1/4 is huge.

I'll recant everything I've said about the missing power when we start seeing owner cars running 96 in the 1/4. Seriously if your car had pulled 96 mph on the run with the 2.15 60 ft, you would've run mid 14s. Go look at the timeslips Mazda sent to rotarynews.com and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Honestly an amateur driver in a relatively slow car will be almost as fast as a pro driver. It's when you start racing 500 hp or 1000 hp cars that the driver starts to make a huge difference. In a street car, you can usually get the best out of the car with 20 runs under your belt.

 

Argh... just another example that the damage is already done and there no way to repair it fully.

Before you make blatantly dumb remarks such as that, look around namely:
http://rotarynews.com/view.php?id=208

 

Different launch techniques may help, but different shift points definitely will not. We had previously seen sets of "cascades" which show the available torque in each gear with varying road speeds, and they clearly show that the curves do not intersect between gears. What this means is that there is no point where the available torque in a given gear tails off to the point that more torque is available in the next higher gear. In that situation, maximum acceleration is obtained by shifting as close as possible to the redline, as you have been doing.

 

Ignorance is sadly a disease that cannot be cured.

 

Really the only way you'll reduce your ET without changing the car is working on the launch and learning to power shift which is really hard on parts. That's about it as far as wringing what else the car has to offer from it. Gear spacing on the current crop of production cars is usually such that you have to shift at redline to get maximum performance. This is done mostly for fuel mileage.

Seriously you will never beat your current mph in the 1/4 by much. You may beat your best ET dipping into the 14s by driving the car harder and launching more aggressively. The only two real driver ETs I've seen for these cars were both low 15s at 89-91 mph. That is a far cry from the road test and Mazda claims of 96 mph.

 

I believe I may be able to drop the time and increase the terminal speed a bit by totally turning off DSC/TC - I for one had forgotten the posts about holding the button down for 5 seconds - I probably held it down about 4 seconds. Before Saturday I had never gotten the sliding car light in the tach set to illuminate.

I can attest to how much that having it off allows the car to behave like a 1st gen RX-7 in regards to power oversteer. I had it turned off for the 2nd time Sunday afternoon and made a near 90 degree left to enter an interstate entrance ramp and hit it hard before starting the turn and very nearly did a 180.

If I can I'll hit another strip this weekend and try some runs with all traction systems disabled.

 

I just cleaned all this up, don't drag on treads into flame wars, we all know that some people just don't know what the RX-8 is and just try to make it out to be something its not.

 

Those time slips you posted a link to are baffling to me, those are some of the worst 60' times I've ever seen, and the ETs that match up to them just don't seem to mix. With the information you provided people should be able to turn low 14s and even high 13s with the car, it just doesn't make sense... Any other drag racing knowledgeable people out there find those slips odd?


Ike

 

I don't know much about timeslips etc..... could it just be the nature of a n/a rotary engine?

 

Not really, unless for some reason wheelspin is a good thing with them... But that's prettymuch goes against every drag racing principle there is. I'm going to see if I can dig up some timeslips from the S2K which is another low torque car high rev car and see if higher 60' convert to lower ETs... which again goes against just about every drag racing principle.

Ike

 

Car and Drivers Review said that "even with and extreme amount of wheelspin it helps the Rx-8 get 60 in 5.9secs." Could it be something like launching it at such a high rpm keeps the engine near the peek part of its output rather than waiting for the power to build up from down low.

 

A 2.1549 is an awesome 60' time, good job, getting any better would be very hard and rare as far as 60's go. I usually average 2.15-2.23 in my Z. You ran a 15.15@91.95 with that awesome 60' so thats a good, very pure run to go by and is about exactly what I would expect given the dyno numbers seen on this site.

Getting under a 2.2 60' time with stock rubber takes loads of skill with a high RPM launch car, expecially if you can do it consistantly, so I don't know how people are still saying the rx8 will still run mid 14's and mid 90 1/4s if he pulls an awesome 2.15 60's and runs a 15.15@92.

My buddy's heavily modded 2002 Celica GTS which has a curb weight of 2500lbs was putting down 170fwhp and 135fwtq and he was around a best of 15.1@94.5mph with a 2.23 60'. Which makes sense comparing the rx-8 since the rx8's HP-weight ratio would be just a lower under his Celica.

Once again nice runs!

 

To get better at reaction time, the usual hint is to leave on the last yellow light. It won't make any diff on your 1/4 mile time, but could make the difference between winning and losing.

I don't have an RX-8 but have drag raced my 2K2 automatic Maxima many times. I sometimes go in between the 2nd and 3rd yellow to get slightly better r/ts.

 

what rpm did u launch at?

 

I'm starting to lose track of which comments may be for me or someone else - but - my reaction times got better, I think, and I did hear about starting to release at the 3rd yellow light. My launch RPMs were near 6000 but if not exactly probably more in the 5500-6000 range as opposed to the 6000-6500 range. I understand that the reaction time will make a difference in a close race. I was only testing the car the best I could, not me and certainly wasn't out to race anyone else present. We've had rain all this past weekend and appear to have more next weekend thanks to a small hurricane. Rats.

 

my mechanic could only get a 15.2 @ 90MPH i believe at the track with his car bone stock. he got six runs is no newb to driving n/a rotaries! something is def wrong..........

 

Slips? or could u ask him to email me them etc...

 

i will ask him to get me copies of the slips and i will post them for him. he is internetlesat the moment

 

vosko
I'm glad you are still posting after some of the crap you got for enjoying your car and putting some rubber down