Had my second track event at Tsukuba today. 6am start, 8am on the track and 2 hours later it was all over. Time to dream of the next event. Didn't manage to get any good pics this time. GTRs kicked my *** badly all day :D

Last (and first) time I did Tsukuba was in April. Today's conditions were *very* different. The track was really hot and my RE040s were sliding all over the place. The aim today was too be smooth though so that was a little unsettling to be skating in the places. Finally got heel and toe working all day. One one miss.

I had my oil warning lamp come on twice only to go off each time I entered the pits to check it out and turned off/on the car. I checked the oil level and it was pretty much just under full. Does that light go off for other reasons? Oil too hot or something? What would be a likely fix for that?

One other thing I noticed. I planned on taking off DSC today (for the first time) but as the car was slipping through some of the corners already and grip was no so great I thought I'd be safer with it on. Last two laps though I braved it and turned it off (one short press). To my surprise the car was amazingly better behaved. It didn't then flop around so much. Is this expected when things get a little slippy and the cornering is not really normal motorway g-forces? ie, I was hoping DSC would save my butt in case of big mistakes but it seems it was actually causing most of the problems I was having?

I guess I better mention my lap time. 1'16.52. Not as good as my last run in April when I had a 1'15.888 but comparing the conditions today, I'm pretty happy.

Ah one other question on tire pressures. The inside of the door says I should set front and back to 220. I let it down to 200, but it climbed to 240 or so on the track, so I let it down to 220 or there abouts again. Is this the right thing to do, ie, trying to keep it at 220? I don't know what that is in lbs but concepts is the same I guess.

Thanks!

Tom.

PS. Fastest time on the track today was some GTR that did it in 1'02.?.

 

Go to know you had fun. I've never been on a REAL race track. I dream of the day I could run Tsukuba. Heck, Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, .... *sigh*.

About the oil lamp, could it be oil starvation???? If it is, I wouldn't be surprised. But I would add an additional/better oil cooler and a race radiator. Also, if you have the stock bumper and grill, I would drill holes in the top part of it. It's solid plastic at the top for the U.S. models so only have half the air getting in (careful though if you got a CAI). A vented hood wouldn't do harm either. Basically, from what I've learned from everyone on this board, and with a rotary for that matter, do everything possible to keep the engine cool. By the way, what mods do you have on your car (sorry for rambling)?

 

Crimson,

Ah mods... I should have mentioned that. Its mostly stock except for a Racing Beat exhaust , AxialFlow short shifter and some DOT4 brake fluid. Next on the list is probably a better air filter, maybe some brake lines and something to fix a little understeer that I noticed yesterday. I need to read up on that but I think a front sway bar should do the trick. I'd like to keep stock springs, dampers etc so something that will work nicely with a mostly stock suspension.

As for the oil problem, thats kinda first on my list now. It didn't happen last time on the track in April so perhaps its more temperature related than starvation? Donno. Guess I did toss it in to some of the twisties pretty hard :D

I posted pics from April here: https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-multimedia-photo-gallery-6/tsukuba-track-day-pics-89277/

In the mean time I've lots more reading up to do.

Tom.

 

Road Atlanta is a lot of fun, been there twice, and looking for a way to go again this year.

tpodowd, the oil issue is odd. Our group does a number of different road courses, and none of us have ever had the light come on. That light would usually come on due to lack of oil pressure, but I don't know any other reasons, of which I am sure there are some. I am assuming you have a 6MT, meaning you already have 2 oil coolers, so I am not sure that oil temp is your problem. What weight oil do you use, if that translates into something us Americans can understand, or do you use the same ratings we use?

And your understeer problem, will not be fixed by a stiffer front sway bar, that will make it more likely to understeer. A stiffer rear bar, will make it more likely to oversteer, but that might not be any better. Might be more scary.

Hope you find out why your oil light comes on, let us know if you do.

 

L8APEX, I've no idea what oil is in the car. Tut-tut. Mazda change it for me when it runs low or on service. So its stock stuff me thinks. Its a 6MT. I gotta open up the bonet (hood?) more often and try learn something :D I'll discuss oil types next visit.

As an aside: Its kinda hard to tinker with the car yourself over here in Japan as I park my car about 3 minutes walk from my house in a rented car space with just enough room on both sides to squeeze in the two front seats without dinging the car next door. Impossible to get in the back door - its that close... The luxury of a garage is only a dream :-D Also as my Japanese is limited I really appreciate this forum although I wish more of the parts were the same :D

Thanks for the info on the sway bars. Guess both would tighten things up and keep a similar balance to what I have now. The amount of understeer wasn't too worrying. It was probably due to the grip problems I was having also. Hmm which gets me thinking that there are better tires out there than the RE040s she's currently wearing. Maybe I'll give them one more track day and look for something better. Probably lots of reading on the forum about that too :-D

 

I think a lot of the grip handling issues are just the stock RE040's like you said. I did a few low speed autocrosses on my stock tires and suspension and I felt a little corner entry understeer even braking before and turning in at a reasonable speed. Try some better street tires if you can't get an extra set of wheels and some RA1's or something similar.

 

Congrats you lucky man you! I run tsukuba everyday on GT4, but its not the same =) ..maybe one day. Thats a dream for me.

 

Lol... Thats were I learn my lines :D Enthusia and GT4 in the 8. Best time is 1'05'21 in the stock 8. I wonder if you could do that in real life though??? I don't know where all my seconds are going.

I've another Tsukuba track day booked in October. Just can't help myself... Now I just need sponsorship so I can quit my job, buy lots of bits and a bit of talent too.

Tom.

 

Yeah, thats what I'm thinking... btw looks like you're an S2K guy. I was at Tsukuba with two buddies one in another RX8 and the other in an S2K. It was the S2Ks first time at any track but he managed a 1'18. Pretty cool.

 

Was back at Tsukuba again on Thursday. Set a new best time of 1'12.42. Track was a little damp. Unfortunately, I lost the car into a wall on my 3rd 20 minute session. I don't quite know what happened to start off the crash. Car isn't that bad luckily enough. Scratches on left side A-pillar, mirror, rear wheel arch (both the bumper and the panel above it) and a little on the trunk top where a foam bail flew over it. Could have been worse.

Was hot out of Dunlop corner and full on the gas in 3rd about midway through the long left when the back went out. It was the first time I'd gone flat there that day but had done it quite a lot before with no drama. I think the car caught grip before I could counter (inexperience) as I probably lifted a little to get it back in check. Was probably doing about 110 to 120 kph at the time. That put me facing the inside wall with grip and before hitting it, I managed to get the car back facing the right way. Unfortunately I hit the grass at that point which took away my grip. Momentum took me in and I bounced off about 4 big foam bails before coming back on the track heading for the hairpin. Nothing for it but to hit the pit lane and check the damage.

The first sesson was pretty damp and I had left DSC on. Later sessions it was 1 press off. I'm not sure if it was the track that was still damp but it actually took quite a few people on the day. In the second session I was under-steering quite a lot on the 1st corner where I thought I should have been fine. Mostly throttle sorted it out but I went off briefly on two different occasions which was new for me. Should have heeded the warning :-D

All down to experience. I don't mind too much about the car as thats all part of the excitement. I'd like to understand and learn from it though. I'll stick some photos up when I get the chance.

Tom.

 

wow, sucks to hear about your accident, but glad you are ok, and that the damage is not too bad. that is part of the risk when tracking, those of us that do it, have to come to grips with it.

 

I think I just nailed the reason for the crash. I recently got a new suspension put in - about 3 months or so ago and had it re-adjusted once after it settled in a bit. That time they just re-adjusted the front as the rear was fine. I just measured things up again this morning. It should be front: 355mm; rear 350mm. I'm reading 355 on the front but 330 on the left rear and 345 on the right rear. Damn, thats 2cm down on the back left from what it should be reading and 5 on the right. An imabalance of 15mm between both rears. I should have checked it again before going back on the track but never thought to do it. D'oh!

I'm not so sure how the cars behaviour would be effected by such an imbalance but I'm willing to bet that some of my right hand understeer problems on exit may have come from that as well as the step out that caused the biggie. I'd like to understand better what the expected behaviour would have been to explain the crash to myself. Anyone in the know care to elaborate on what could be expected from such a setup? Thanks!

Tom.

PS. I've dropped it back into Mazda to get a respray on the rear bumber, a good polish and the suspension adjusted to the correct numbers. Should have it back in a week. There'll still be scratches but what the hell.