SilverEIGHT

That be me, Sorry! Discovered it when I unpacked.

SilverEIGHT

Super will be getting me the images he took and I will host them on my site. Also, Lego may have a rather exciting video clip to show you. I will host it as well.

Stop&TurnFreak

Guys,
Great to see you all......it wouldn't be a track day without you guys now.

I am TOO tired to go into detail now, but TA, as always, you impress, thanks for the ride. You think now you are solo'd it will be easy, whelp, no, you will be watched like a hawk. Before you only had to deal with one instructor at a time, now you have a WHOLE track full to contend with....

I have some vids of the Ev-slow around road A, I will post the links when Steve, gets them up.

To all, later...

Tim Benton

Even though I was the red-headed step child of the group driving the FD, I wanted to say thanks to everyone for making me feel welcome. I really appreciated that. Even though the wife has an rx-8 and I KNOW it handles extremely well, seeing those in my run group taking curves in front of me had to be the highlight of my weekend. The RX-8 just looks like it's at home on the track. What a great weekend and like those stated above, you guys help make it happen.

I'll upload the pictures I took to the gallery of the Ga RX-8 site. Hope some of them turned out okay.

Thanks again and I hope I can meet up more often with you guys, whether it's on the track or just a meet and eat.

Tim

legokcen

TA was talking about this during dinner on Saturday night, so I had to find it before going to bed.

http://vowe.net/archives/006146.html

I had an amazing weekend everyone. I can't describe the how much fun I had, even in turn 10A, which I have some great video of. I didn't scream like a 12 year old girl, at least not out loud.

I'm exhausted and will be going to bed soon. I'll post more salutations in the morning. Thanks again to everyone for the great weekend.

Have a great night.

Tim Benton

Just wanted to mention I uploaded the pictures I took around turn 12 and the front straight to the GA RX-8 site in the driving schools section in the gallery. Got one with 2 8's going side by side on the fron straight.

Tim

SilverEIGHT

Great shots Tim. That one with Kurtbob and Lego is a keeper!

Guys, we did not get a group shot. How did we let that happen?

L8APEX

wow, do I feel like a lazy ***. I did not have the energy to turn the computer on last night. So I will make up for it now.

What a great weekend. We represented our car very well. It was really fun to be on track with other 8's at such a prestigous track. I have some good footage following the other three cars that were in HPDE 1 with me, and will try to get it burned to a CD for those that I followed.

To Blue and RSD, thanks for coming down to track with us. I know it was a long haul, you obvioulsy have the same addiction the rest of us. do. It was a pleasure meeting both of you, and I am glad you both had a lot of fun, and hope to see you both again, maybe at Road America.

I had a great weekend, and it confirmed that I need to be driving Roebling in May, not watching from the sidelines. Now it is time to get to work, if I can focus long enought to get something done.

Track on...

-L8

SilverEIGHT

L8, did you get any footage of me screwing up turn 3. I'd really like to look at that if you did.

L8APEX

LOL, I think I was following you in turn three. I may try to capture some of it tonight. I will let you know. I have about 2 hours of footage, some of it is discussion with my instructor, and I am sure no one wants to see that. So I will try to go through it and see what would be worthy of sharing.

valpac

iTrader: (2)

At the end of the day my instructor debriefed me. He said, "Just remember, this is entertainment." What an understatement! I had a freaking blast!

Where to start?

Thanks to Mazcare (Charlie and crew).As always gracious hosts for our pre-track get-together. Excellent way to crank up the excitment level. If that was even necessary.

Great to meet our newest inductees to the GA RX-8 Club, Blue and RSD. Very cool of you guys (y'all) to join us for some high speeds, melted rubber, sharp turns and sharp cheese. Hope you had fun, and a safe trip home.

Thanks to Silver for roping our area off on Sunday. Trying to keep out the riff-raff (pesky Miata's). Worked well and we had a great spot to showcase our nice cars. Also, your driving (what I saw of you) was great. Couldnt tell it was your first time at RA.

Congrats to TA for making the big leap to 3! Some scary fast cars out there but you looked right at home amongst the other lunatics. Wonder why that is?

Enjoyed our track talk, L8. Its always good to bounce stuff off ya. Also, glad you didnt have to replace your front bumper (thanks semi!)

Good to see that big, bad 'Stang LOOMING in my rear view mirror and not in my back seat. Nice heads up, Francois.

OD, thanks for winning that tire gauge for me. Your car looked great. Its the color, man. I think you really enjoyed those 17's.

Good to spend time at the track with Lego (again) and Kurt (first time). I wanna see that video again, Levint. And Kurt, please tell me how those Kumhos hold up for ya. I'm curious about that.

Also great to have support from our other esteemed members, Pam and Chris.

Had a excellent time chatting it up with Pam in the grandstands. I could tell you were itching to get out there, huh?

We didnt talk much at the track, Chris, but we'll catch up soon. BTW, the pawn shop gave me 50 bux for that camera. Not bad, huh?

Ok, I'm sure I will post some more stuff later. Thanks everybody.

P.S. I have a couple of photos that I'll post when I get a chance

P.P.S. Likewise, thanks STF for keeping that crazy white EVO from running over me. Whew.

SilverEIGHT

I uploaded a video:

Please keep in mind this was my first NASA event and that I understand I have a lot to learn and I am not up to the standards of my fellow drivers yet. I know my hands are not in the proper position and I turned in early on many turns but I will get it right eventually. Also, the red miata in this vid was a bear to get around. It wasn't untill I nailed turn 7 that I got around him. Don't know what was going on with his car but he was fast.

Day 2 Session 3

...

Stop&TurnFreak

Here is the vid from Session One on Sunday, I was being very conservative, due to loosing my brakes on Saturday.

Here is the codec install, for those who dont' have it.

http://download.divxmovies.com/XviD-1.1.0-30122005.exe


Here is the link to the vid....BTW 120M all 20m worth.

http://www.opentrackers.com. Under Road Atlanta.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Fine time this w/e. Fine time. Unbelieveable turnout for this event. It was really overwelming seeing all the differant types of cars at the track. Now I know why they gave the the American Thunder class it's name!
I had a great instructor Saturday (Jeff) and he taught me well on 10A and 10B. He was also really good corner weight for 7A.
Hey Charlie---I'm proud of a lot this w/e but 2 things I really am proud off
1- appexed turn 7 at 60mph and was able to open the steering and give it full throttle without even touching the rumble strip!--Man did I fly done the straight after that!
HeHeHe.
2- I actually entered turn one at 90mph(on purpose!) and was able to carry that speed through the turn. That really changes the time you have to get right for that blind turn at the top! While powering through turn 3 I was thinking "Holey Crap! Did I really just do that!
It was a blast seeing and driving with all once more--as a group we sure are advancing. Think back 1 yr and remember what we where doing and compare that to now. Big change !Good change.
Used 1 1/4 quart of oil this w/e.
Vacumn line to the air injection pump came off the last session but the car handled it well. I really didnt notice it.
Ok I have to talk about the 17's and my ra1's here. Once I got the pressures right and my front shocks right ----man! It changed the entire track for me.
I would HIGHLY recommend this set up. Here are the advantages I observed at RA
1- real grunt out of turns in 3nd-- on turn 7 go into it in 3nd, then to 4th at rpm and then shift to 5th at 7.5-8k a little before the flag station--yes that is right. Short shift her a little and you WILL be faster. You be hauling dude. I was pulling cars on that straight I have never pulled before.
2- the gearing is PERFECT for the front straight in 4th. and then you have better pull to keep your speed until al the way to turn 5. This car and me cannot keep enough speed through turn 5 to keep it in 4th.
3- great gearing through turn 6.
4- it really helps in 10/A-10/B

No down side here. None.
By calculations it is a rough 5% reduction in gearing. Beside the speedometer shows that you are going really fast!
I am still tired and traffic was a B on the way back to MAcon.
Val how did to like those pulleys man?
HP 1's --ALL where looking great by Sunday--much better than I ever did on my 1st session there!
Gotta go no time to thank all
Blue and RSD hope you had a good trip back you guys!
olddragger

Tim Benton

One thing comes to mind and it deals with turn 12, specifically the speed of the turn. After seeing Val take the turn with more speed than I, I'm still amazed at: A - how well he took the turn, and B: how the car let him take it at that speed. I never really felt comfortable with 12. I sort of wish I had let the instructor take my car around the track a couple of laps so he could FEEL what I feel at certain points. He would constantly say give it more throttle in turn 12 after touching the white line on the left side. I would toe it in slowly, but he would say give it more. I'm not sure he knew the power delivery of my FD since I felt like if I gave it any more and the boost rose along with the power, it would break the rear tires loose. Not a great thought at turn 12. Having to much power and basically being a babe on the track made it a challenge sometimes. I think I should have drove the 89TII I have which was making around 230 rwhp and would have felt more comfortable driving it and not having the fear of imminent tire spin the FD has...and I did have it on the low boost setting for the event (12 psi). At this point of my track experience, the FD might be a little to much car for me. On the street, the car is fine since I don't ever push it like you do on the the track. My brake point coming into 10A was right after I pass the 100 mark, slowed it down from 150 to whatever 3rd gear was at turn in. The instructor I had was great, he was getting excited as I started hitting my marks and gained speed but also was informative when I made a mistake and didn't make me feel like an idiot. He walked me through the mistake/mistakes that had me spin at 10A - 10B on Sunday. So even though I spun, he made me feel like, no big deal, but lets learn from it. Besides you guys making the weekend a blast, he was also a major reason I want to do it again. Granted I think it will be in the TII until I get a bit better and more consistant.

Tim

rxeightr

Glad to see all made the weekend fun without incident.

How was the weather on Sunday? Any rain?

TrackAddict

It was cold but the rain stayed away. We could not have had better luck.

SilverEIGHT

No rain, PERFECT! The rain dance must have worked.

Tim Benton

No rain on Sunday. I had a few drops hit the windshield on the back side of the track, but nothing that actually wet the track.

Tim

SilverEIGHT

...

Here is TrackAddict getting passed by everyone!

MUST SEE TO BELIEVE . . .

...

Stop&TurnFreak

You guys be nice, or I will put him in your group

TrackAddict

STF- dude your vid is crazy! Traffic is incredible, passes are incredible, your acceleration is frightening.
You seem to really accelerate hard thru turn 4 as well. Great driving.

thanks for the instruction this weekend.

Stop&TurnFreak

Guys, remember he is running with RACERS and INSTRUCTORS, not students. It is going to take him some time to get up to speed, but he will get there, I am sure.

BTW, I found out the two times I was passed this weekend in HPDE4 were both 600+whp cars, and they were driven by Grand AM (pro) drivers. Man, what a load off my shoulders.

SilverEIGHT

I have to say TA, you may have been passed by a lot of cars but, dang, you were flying! Very impressive. Seeing you pass that one car in turn 3 then get blasted from both sides as you are approaching 6 must have been an exciting set of turns.

STF, please put him in my group... as an instructor in my car!

EDIT:
TA, you know I'm not being a meanie!

Stop&TurnFreak

In good time, he has some milestones to achieve, but in good time.