Mazda Australia’s official RX-8 National Video

 

Thanks to Luke. Thanks for coming and took a video of me, although I did not speak.

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!

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.

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).

RaceChrono2AVI program - TrackVision for free

If you have played RaceChrono enough, you will love this program. This is the TrackVision for the RaceChrono, and for developer to call it RaceChrono2AVI (download HERE). This program uses the .csv files export from RaceChrono and use it to generate a moving AVI file. All you have to do is to use a movie maker to combine a picture in picture video. I use Sony Vegas Platinum 7.

A few bugs at this stage:

1) I cannot use single lap files. All lap files are used at this stage.
2) The capture does not work in all Windows Themes. I use the Classic theme to reduce the top of the bar and it works perfectly.

*******both the above has been solved and a new beta V0.1.15 has come out (8/10/2008)*********

The end result:

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.