TAKA 8 – WTF. 60.19 sec?!?!??!

The car is at the track again today this month. I was keen to get the car under 60 seconds. The racechrono program has been improved since last time.

The standing start function is important in hillclimb. I don’t want to cross the line and then start the clock. That inevitably will underestimate the time. But if you start the time when the car moves, then it is more accurate.

Well the real hill climb start when the starting gate release you… include your reaction time to start the car.

Racechrono is way ahead on most GPS based timing system, including Performance/Drift box. YAY!

Back to Haunted Hills

Well I eventually have time and effort to come back to the scene of motorsports.. It is important for me. I nearly forgot how to drive that bloody thing. Plus I just spend some money to replace the brake disc, pads, fluids and oil. The plugs are clean. So why not fang it?

Come and join me on November 28! I will go again!

Death do not do us part!

I do not normally sell parts. I love them stacking up in the shed! But a forum member got one stolen from his carport. I had to help!

Found a box from the basement store room of my lab. It is a bit off size so I cut and wrap with packing tape. In fact, it is the idea of the forum mate. He told me that cubic size is much more expensive than weight alone. Although it weighs 12kg, doing it by weight is $19. Doing it by cubic it is easily over $25!

Hope Ash likes the packaging.

60000km service

Well I put it off for a long while now and I eventually took the RX-8 off charge and brought it to Nelson for a service.

The rotor has worn out nearly completely and I took the Project Mu SCR Pro rotor that I took delivery from Henry about 4 months ago to get it install. The pad I had it for more than a year now. Think they have a good shelf life right????

The rear I had it machined… it looks near brand new!

I also had the spark plugs cleaned and engine oil and filter changed. It brought back the life of the car! It revs and has the 6,500 rpm surge~! Surely it is all the 170kW I need!

  Brought the car for alignment and it is not much need to be done. The camber and rear toe are pretty much right. Only the front toe needed to be adjusted… Sweet.

Car is stripping down

I eventually have time to do something in the car. I started from stripping the boot space lining first.

There are many of these collect. I will buy a box to store those.

There are many surprises when you strip a car. I found some tool stuck in the black and somewhat sticky stuff. I hope I can found some $100 notes later :).

I am not sure what that is for. I was advised that it is for air pressure in the boot while closing and it is seen in many cars. I have not stripped many cars in the past.

You can bring back swirl city black car yourself.

I have to admit in the last 2 years, especially after I put this old baby as a track car. I basically treat the paintwork like shit. I use carwash brush and no polish for more than 2 years.
I decide that I don't use the 8 that much now and I put the RX-8 as a test mule for cut and polish - major time. If I stuff it up - at least I won't cry over it  I don't want to use Zaino either, coz it is on the expansive side and I want something that everyone can do.
I kept using the same products. I have Meguire detail spray with clay bars. Autoglym hard deep gloss wax, the lovely resin polish which I like very very much, the new meguire scratch X 2.0 *(twice as expensive as the original but 2x good - $20), and the bumper care gel which I like becauseI can't be stuffed masking tape all the plastics. It removes extra wax very well.

I have the good old orbitor going at low rev - which is good for applying wax at the end but I need something to cut the scratches so....

I brought this - an rotary buffer from Supercheap auto (I can only find it at Preston shop). It is called Rockwell shopseries (made in China) ... it's a 5" rotary buffer going from 500rpm to 3000rpm (1-6 setting) and has a velcor backing you can attach the wool pad on. However, I replaced it a foam pad instead (I brought a very nice foam pad from autobarn for $26 made by K&H - local and australian made). The rotary from Rockwell is about $72 - on sale at the time.

It looked like a swirl city before I started. I started by using the clay bar to get rid of the big residual first. It should feel like smooth after clay bar.

This is after 1-2 applications of scratch 2.0X with the faster rotary setting at 2000rpm-2500rpm.

I need 3-4 applications to bring back most swirls. Now it just leave the thousands of stone clips I collected on the track days.
Final results: There is still some ripple strip effect under strong sun. I don't know how to get rid of it (EDIT: On retrospect I may have used too much wax for it. I will cut down on them for next time)






The car is still very easy to collect swirls afterwards. There is a product out there to firm the wax up and resist minor swirls. May be I will use it next time.

A new RX-8… office chair

I took the delivery of my new RX-8 office chair. How cool is that? Stephen & Eric from UPanel Ringwood made this for me.

The seat is nearly fully functional. The back rest can move up and down and the seat can go limited forward, backward, up and down. Only the lumber adjustment is not wired. I will be game to hot up the remaining wires to see if the lumber support can be adjusted. But I will be risking an explosion to the air bag. .

 

The power is from a 12V battery from Jaycar. They seems to last forever but they are easily rechargeable.

I am very happy indeed. A seat for GT5 on PlayStation.

He is about to flood the engine

This is not my car, but being a Victorian I should know this dude do I???? He is probably not on the rx8club but I would like to find out.

I do have a question… what is wrong with the remote and besides GPS tracking. What is so good about the application?

Turning engine on remotely has been around for decades… why do people still want it?

This will remain in not ‘my cup of tea’ gadgets category.

Driver Dynamics Drift day

I decided this year I may not be doing a lot of track day. A lot of expenses to be paid and there is a new baby on the way, a BMW 135i. I saw there is an exact same one from a forum member from 1addicts. Well I still love white sports car with red leather. I will keep that Honda Type R theme going in my future cars if possible.

Back to about the day. This is a education introduction day for drifting and it is not easy for someone who never drifted though. However, it has a very friendly environment and good teaching. You can do your own pace too. There is no pressure of being the coolest sideways. Some who drifts regularly will get more cheers. But I am please that most people thing that some part of my drift exercise that day looks good. haha. I am totally shit at it.

Feeling HOT HOT HOT! MX-5 Winton track day

I cannot imagine how come there is no fire ball behind my car. I will never think of describing a 35 degree plus track day at Winton. However, more than a week of 40+ degree day at Winton make it a very interesting day indeed (NOT)...

The day did not start well. I started driving at 4am to get to Winton only to know that they did not come and open the gate before 5 minutes to 8am. What the...

Changing tyres at 30 plus degree morning heat is bad enough... but putting the full body suit on because we want something fireproof... it is beyond hell.

The water coolant temperature is going up as quickly as the tachometer itself, and the only relief I get is to short shift the car. Even so the coolant temp is still higher than desired.

So I just packed up before they change it to the short track. I think most people with turbo MX-5s also left after lunch. Not worth breaking your car for...

I don't have much video to show - this is the crappy stuff I put together.