Mazda RX-8 Nationals 2010

This year I have the pleasure to join the rest of the RX-8 boys in the Nationals. This is the 6th edition already and I have been only able to go to half of those. For one reason or the other I was not able to make it. A shame I would say since it has always been nice. We even have organized one in 2007.

Wakefield is a good track, especially now it has been resurfaced. The bumpiness of the tarmac has gone. Every good bits associated with Wakefield, ie the trackside accommodation.




Now the track day went smoothly. First we have big breakie that feels us up. I am not going to comment in the masterchef as it was really not that good.

Anyway, I had pretty long time to change to the slicks. Then the worst comes. My slicks was shot! There is no grip whatsoever. Even getting off the line is no good. The first session was still wet with the moisture from defrosting ... Did I mention that we started the day at 0 degree. We had minus 2 the next morning.

Well the theme of the entire day is understeering. And I normally have a lot of methods to deal with that. I lower tyre pressure to get more temp. I soften the damper front then the rear more. No use. I had to modify my driving which is not up to standard anyway to combat that. Shit.

The video will say more

Posted by Taka via the trusted iPad.

Location:Bignell Rd,Moorabbin,Australia

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!

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.

2009 Victorian Track Sprint Schedule

Here is the schedule this year. It will be continue updated until the end of 2009 and highlight my potential starters and DNS.

19/01/09 - MCA - Phillip Island Practice
26/01/09 - CC (NSW) - Wakefield Park
01/02/09 - MX5 Club Vic - Winton (form)
14/02/09 - WRX - Haunted Hills Hillclimb
14/02/09 - Driver Dynamics Sandown
15/02/09 - PIARC - Phillip Island Sprint
15/02/09 - MCA - Haunted Hills Hillclimb
01/03/09 - AROCA - Winton Sprint (short track)
08/03/09 - HSCCV/FFCC - Haunted Hills Hillclimb
12/03/09 - Events O'Neill Sandown
|22/3/09 - RENEW Wakefield (form)
28/03/09 - Driver Dynamics Sandown
04/04/09 - WRX - Phillip Island Sprints
19/04/09 - MCA - Sandown GP
23/04/09 - Events O'Neill Sandown
25/04/09 - WRX - Sandown Sprints
27/04/09 - CC (NSW) - Wakefield Park
02/05/09 - Driver Dynamics Sandown 
10/05/09 - HSCCV/FFCC - Sandown Sprint
28/05/09 - Events O'Neill Sandown
31/05/09 - AROCA - Sandown Sprint
31/05/09 - PIARC - Phillip Island Sprint
06/06/09 - Driver Dynamics Sandown
13/06/09 - CC (NSW) - Wakefield Park
21/06/09 - MCA - Winton Sprints
25/06/09 - Event O'Neill Sandown
28/06/09 - WRX - Sandown Sprint
04/07/09 - AROCA - Phillip Island Sprint
04/07/09 - Driver Dynamics Sandown
12/07/09 - HSCCV/FFCC - Sandown Sprint
18/07/09 - WRX - Winton Sprint
25/07/09 - CC (NSW) - Wakefield Park
26/07/09 - NCCA - Sandown John Mott Sprint

08/08/09 - OzRenesis/RX-8 Club RX-8 Nationals Wakefield

09/08/09 - AROCA - Winton Sprint and Regularity (long track)
16/08/09 - PIARC - Phillip Island Sprint
16/08/09 - MCA - Sandown Trident Day
05/09/09 - CC (NSW) - Wakefield Park
??/09/09 - AROCA - Sandown Sprint (tba)
27/09/09 - HSCCV/FFCC - Haunted Hills Hillclimb
05/10/09 - CC (NSW) - Wakefield Park
10/10/09 - WRX - Winton Sprints
17/10/09 - AROCA - Winton AROCA 6 hr Relay
18/10/09 - AROCA - Winton AROCA 6 hr Relay
25/10/09 - MCA - Sandown Annual
03/11/09 - HSCCV/FFCC - Sandown Cup Day Sprint
15/11/09 - PIARC - Phillip Island Sprint
28/11/09 - CC (NSW) - Oran Park GP
13/12/09 - AROCA - Phillip Island Sprint
19/12/09 - CC (NSW) - Wakefield Park CC Festival
20/12/09 - CC (NSW) - Wakefield Park CC Festival

A wet Winton track day = hard work, but I have got POWER!

This should be the last track day of the year and proven to be interesting. The unusual severe rain cloud gathered over Benalla and provide an interesting experience on a race track that has the reputation of the lack of grip.

 

Today I was going through the data, comparing the run from Tampermotorsport days which is a dry track to this time in a wet track. Seriously, look at the acceleration of my car. Left graph is the little straight coming from turn 10, and the speed is 10 kph slower coming out of it and seriously, I am sure the throttle will be slower to get in on a very wet track, but still speed before I braked in the wet is only 2kph differnet from dry. Same goes to the main back straight. 13 kph to start and by the end of straight, 2.3 kph only!!!

The sleep of the acceleration increase so much. The only mod you can see is change of spark plug and my butt dyno told me the power is back. It is back!

Sandown Night Sessions

This is my first night session @ Sandown and hell do I love it. My aim this track day is to work on the sector 4 and 5 of the course.

As you can see the 4th sector (between S3-S4) is the downhill left sweeper towards the Dandenong corner and the final sector is the S bend before the front straight. I have been missing on those areas to improve my times. As my car is not the lightest and not the most powerful, anything that I can milk out of the corners will give me bonus and hopefully later able to hit into the low 31s. I did just that. I gain about 3 10th on the final sector. The 4th sector is nearly equal on time but with the wind I was not able to put some top speed on the car.

I also need to look at the spark plug since it is about closing on the 10000km mark. But I think the power is fine on the front straight and the whole lost of speed is a combination of head wind and lack of power out at Turn 4.

Enjoy the video blog that I just made. If you don't like to be called Vinny (I can change that ). He probably will not see that anyway. There is a lot of improvement in the video software (RaceChrono2AVI since then).

Video Blog: TMS Winton Track day

 

This is the video track blog for my track day last Sunday at Winton, organised by Tampered MotorSports. There are so many cars that it is unbelievable. There are 6 groups that means plenty of time and so little track time.I only did 26 laps or so for the whole day. Also they have 20 minutes sessions that most car could not lap continuously due to tyre and brake restrains.

I did a good opening session. When the track temp is going up through out the day, the time falls for everyone. I had my best lap of the day heading in the low 42 before a mistake of overbraking.

Chicken! I could not drive as fast as I used to

Back from the OTR track day last Saturday, feeling a bit shit about the whole thing. I really want to have a car back that has nothing really wrong with it. Yes, I did. But being nearly 3 seconds slower will that do?

I decided to spice thing up with a new video blog. Well because there is nothing really to cheer about, I made this sort of nice. Not British car show like but I am going to do the same for the upcoming track day, on the 28th of Sept, with Wayne

Sandown driving lesson - oh what a lesson

On Friday I went to Sandown to get some practice laps with Driver Dynamics. Oh god what a day! I crashed again. Here is the story to tell.

I already battled with the flu all weak, with self diagnosis of viral tonsillitis. At the time of writing it, it is the first time feeling comfortable. So I was a bit run down. After 3 sessions, I was already equalled by best time at Sandown (1:31.78). I needed to do better. When I decided to chase the guy in front (a Z M3) to get a target, I oversteered coming out of turn 4 and could not get back enough. The road is too narrow and I brushed the barrier. Here is the damage! On first sight with Nelson it is cosmetic only. The oil cooler just behind that was pushed it but appear undamaged, since the bracket appear intact with no scratches or breakage. The oil pressure appear normal driving back from Sandown. More detailed assessment on Monday.

Sratches are in the side and the clear corner is cracked a little and there is a dent just next to the headlight set. Lucky is that the headlight is ok and the oil cooler ... finger crossed.

There is the video of the accident. Please comment if you can. I basically was not preparing the spin and was half a second late to wind the steering wheel down or to get the power off. The tyre so slap quickly when they are cold compare with they are warmed up. I guess that is the biggest lession to learn here.

  
Video = "What you should not do when you have cold tyres"

Otherwise it is a good day. It is time for me to drive the Dunlop tyres and so far I give it a BIG thumbs up. These are sticky tyres! They are so responsive to change in direction and so progressive when understeering. They create the best tyre - bitumen matching. You know Sandown is old technology tarmac and it needs some matching in compound. I am sticking with these for a while.

I have increase the caster (+7.9) with reduction of camber (-1.6) at the same time, in anticipate to rain (which did not arrive). The car understeer a bit but it is no big deal. The tyre temperature runs less than 5 degree across from inside to outside. RevSpeed recently recommend testing the tyre to up to 9 degree different across the tyre. So it is ok. The right front is reduced to about 1/2 the thread but it is expected. I guess too much camber on the front decrease the grip at turn 1, which is off camber sloped down left hander, so the right front will suffer no matter what you do.

Some randown shots!

  Here we are. This time I changed the ignition coil so there is no issue with misfire!

Another Z4M with no mods. They are very powerful

Mr Brown brought his tubroed renesis. We are comparing the oil and water temp during the day. He wins in these parameters. He did a 1:27 flat today, well done Craig!

Some dangerous wind slicing wing here. No cops with yellow canary around I hope.

 

Assyl with his new 911 black spec. Well everything is black, including the driver's suit and helmet.

 

Wayne brought a new helmet for this track day. Good on him. He needs it when he drive this magnificant BMW 135i with twin tubro flat 6, 225kW and 400Nm. That is a lot of power. I tried it. I love it. No money to have it though.

Next thread I will talk about the data I got and some video.

Back to skid/drive school....

I decided that it is time to go back to basic and I think I am losing touch with my driving. Perhaps I have gained some bad habit during the last year or so.

One thing I found after the crash is that I have phobia of spinning. So I think it is worthwhile to learn some car control

Kevin is kindly arranged for us to have the skid pan at Atwood again. So I take the first lesson before the exam.

 

The problem with the car is that there is too much grip! The positive caster bring the car straight very easily and it is hard when the rear tyre has so much grip comparing the front, so the car is very understeery. But when it is on the skid the car is very controllable and you have to really step the gas to bring the car around. When the car is on the less oily section ... the car brings back quickly and it is hard to adjust the power to keep the skid going. I have too much to learn there.

I learnt very quickly that when just leaving the hand loose on the steering, the caster will pretty much bring the car forward and to the opposite lock. Perfect for track, not so great for skid pan haha.

(Thanks Daniel from shotatcloserange.com for the photos)

Not quite right

I decided to tow the car for the last track day at Winton raceway. It require a slope, a trailer, my new four wheel drive, and a few strong tie downs. It is a good experience and it is certainly worth the trip. Relaxing way and keep the tyres fresh.

The car felt strong at the start and ran a respectable 42.9 in the first session. The pressure afterwards is 36 psi hot and certainly with the heat in the afternoon, I am on par to get my PB. However, my fortune ran out in the second session when the back of the seat broke. I had nothing to hold on to and it is not fun anymore.

Certainly the data gather from the racechrono shows.

  

The sharp corner suffers consistantly....

Well I need a new seat and race seat it is.

I also decided to change the tyre. I have enough of the Yoko. They are much like a girl. High maintance, lots of fun when driving it, but never a fast one....

Mazda RX-8 Nationals 2007

It was not the perfect day for me. I had been struggling with my step up during the day. The event itself was perfect.

We arrived at the Leisure park on Friday afternoon. There were plenty to do in Benalla (NOT)! So we went out to the race track very quicky and inspected the track. It looked good, although some open wheel Ford went out at the roll over corner.

After Phillip Island mishap, I was very cautious of what I was doing. I had to make sure everything in the car was right. So much so that I misplaced my phone, then my wallet, and had to chase around for it. I knew my mind was wrong.

Rain fell in the middle of Friday night but the weather was perfect for the track day. The air temperature is about 20 degree but the track temp is much lower. Wish the track was much colder since most people were struggling in the morning. I, however, had a much longer task getting the balance right. I will tell you what the problem is later on.

 

No mishap for today thank god, because I was driving well within myself. Still manage a 1:42.1. I got to be happy with that.

This track day will be my last for 2007. I have decided to have lots of rest and clear my mind for the track days in 2008. I will crack 1:40s in 2008 or I will stop tracking (maybe )

 

More photos for the day
http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l230/taka_rx8/The%20Nats%202007/?start=all

Phillip island video

This is the fastest lap of the meet. No you will not see the crash video - too painful to edit and cut! At the end of the year perhaps.

It has to be done... the Phillip Island curse

Well. It was too painful to write it. Even painful enough just to think, but after a few days of claiming down most of the stuff is resolved and parts are ordered. Yes, the ride is crashed. Well I now remembered (after reviewing the video) that I went really really wide in the southern loop that my rear right was touching the gravel and spun.

The result is this.

Here is the damage and what survived:

• Front bumper needs to be replaced.
• Left front fog light bracket is done but the light itself is working, even the light bulb survives!
• Oil cooler is squashed and need to be replaced (ouch!)
• The grills and everything else are ok.
• Rear right underguard (where the side skirt is) is dented.
• The right rear toe and caster arms were bent.
• The right rear wheel is off circle a little (will be repaired) and a spare has been purchased.
• All tyres are ok.
• All brakes and wheel needs to be cleaned.

On the upside I did a 1'59"86. Link here

The circuit is fast and grippy, way too fast and way too grippy in my opinion. It has created some false sense of security and a mad rush of adrenalin. You can take a bend with full throttle at 4gh gear is very addictive. It is so nerve wrecking (what a wrong word to use here ) that one of these fear or thrill will actual give you endorphin to your brain, creating such an euphoria.

I have the video, which I am not prepare to watch too many time and show someone yet. Fuck I should just DivX it and put the unedited version up.

I always got outdone but someone else. He spun in front of me and end on the tyre of Lukey drive.