Now with 100% more paint.
Now with 100% more paint.
Got the interior mostly reassembled and ran an autox event with all the safety gear except the suit itself, to get used to that whole side of things. I haven't worn this kind of stuff since I was a kid in a jr. dragster 25 years ago. It was good to get the harness adjustments dialed in, as well as the little stuff like how far I can turn my head in the seat and HANS, where to leave the driver's door so i can reach to close it when strapped in, how far into the passenger side of the car i can see and reach, can I get the HANS connected to the helmet if I've already fastened the belts, when do i forget the arm restraints, etc. Lots of little stuff.
This little 'smallrig' brand camera mount is amazing for $15. All metal, easily adjustable and rock solid.
For the first time in over a year, I washed it. From some angles you can't even tell all the paint is falling off!
I ran SM class at this event because there were still random unnecessarily-missing interior pieces that would be technically illegal for DSP...but mostly DSP was empty while SM had someone to compete against. Now everything has either been put back, or is obstructed by the bar, which makes it OK to cut or leave out for SP as long as it's not excessive...Total weight absent from the car due to parts that interfere with the bar is 42 lbs, total weight added by the bar is well over 50 lbs so we're good there IMO.
I put three old cameras on the car (bumper, cabin and driver side), and in between everything else, remembered to start approximately 1 of them each run. Here's an early run showing the field of view from the mount in the previous post. Probably will just run this one at Pagoda, there's too much other stuff to focus on.
Very cool. I've wanted one of these since they came out, you are not helping me forget about them. Great job bringing it back from the dead!
Aaaand we're doing this i guess.
Mostly for my notes...total weight pulled is 51.5 lbs. Seats not weighed yet. Measured the bar and 33 ft of 1.5x.120 tube should be 59 lbs plus plinth boxes and plate.
I keep not having time to put together an actual writeup...but anyway Pagoda hillclimb is done! It was over 100 degrees on Saturday, the RX8 performed flawlessly, stayed on the road, finished 22/72. Holy E36 M3 it needs more power but was still lots of fun.
In-Car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D4GbV51PUA
Potato-quality bumpercam for funsies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv_uS4zMja8
The more video I watch, especially outside video from spectators, the less happy I am with my driving and car placement. But for a first event I'm calling it good enough.
In reply to RedGT :
For a first hill climb in the car it looks great. I can totally understand being more conservative with car placement when the consequences of error are substantially higher than in autocross. Having watched a few races there and driven on that road in a more sedate manner, I'd race on it with a level of self-preservation too.
If nothing else this resulted in some cool pics
So we really need to get the car improved from 'C-Street without a cat' trim. It's fun but it's close to the least-prepped thing to go up a hill, and now that it's missing interior i'm autocrossing it in DSP or XA where 'off-pace' is an understatement.
So, as i continue to do this as cheaply as possible:
-I have a set of lightweight pulleys i may as well toss on. They were $30 on clearance. Why not. Unfortunately not underdrive as advertised, just lighter weight.
-I have a versatuner license for the car from when I turned off the CELs and lowered the radiator fan activation temp...it's time to use it for an actual tune.
-Ordered $300 front upper control arms w/ camber adjustment. Currently have a very evenly matched 0.3 degrees of front camber and you can really feel it (well the lack of it) mid corner once the car takes a set. Adjustable upper arms should add at least 2 degrees and let me put off the eventual replacement of the lower control arms that have seized eccentric bolts, while being cheaper to boot.
-With camber added, I'm sure the giant rear bar will be too much and i'll need to soften it or go back to stock, eventually followed by a larger front bar once I add proper springs. I've got a variety of shock/spring/mount parts for the car obtained cheap or free, and will start messing with this as time allows. The limiting factor is wanting to do an autox on any big changes prior to a hillclimb. Need to skip Giant's Despair on 7/13 due to family plans so the next hillclimb event is Duryea on 8/17. Two autocrosses before then, hopefully i can get the suspension changes done in time to test.
Small updates. New coolant overflow installed. Now has a working level sensor, and is not 20 yr old plastic waiting to crack.
And lightweight pullies. Advertised as overdrive\underdrive but the joke's on me... they're the exact same diameter as stock. But they were super cheap ($30) and unreturnable as the company was going out of business (hmmmmm) and i was halfway in there to do the coolant reservoir anyway. At least they are a little lighter: from 10.6 to 8.4 oz for the water pump pulley and from 7.8 to 2.6 oz for the alternator.
After a test drive....nope. Nothing on the butt dyno. About as expected.
Updates prior to Duryea:
Front camber. P2M arms, which, while I don't love this style of control arm, seem like a good version of the design especially for the price. Marked all the hardware and none of the ricer stuff has moved, just keeping an eye on it. Around 3 degrees up front without needing to hack apart the seized lower control arm adjusters (yet).
Went out for a drive like this, with everything else the same as when the car had 0.3 (yes, zero point three) degrees of front camber and it turned in so quickly the DSC would fire off on the street all the time. Did a hasty rear sway bar swap and it's really fun to drive now.
Finally bought new tires, and 17x10 wheels to put them on because somehow a set of 17x10 +38 RPF1 is only $90 a set more than 17x9 and really competitive with the overinflated used market. No, I don't want to pay $1000 for your used, curbed wheels with junk tires when I can get new ones for that price. Everyone I know with a tire machine is 45+ minutes away and I realllllly wanted to verify fitment so this contraption got put to use again. When you don't have to dismount anything it's very reasonable...for the soft Yoko A052 anyway. I wouldn't want to try RE71RS or Hoosiers in this kind of fitment.
Looks good at least. Fitment is reasonable. Can't use the last 1/8 turn of the steering wheel but that seems manageable to keep in mind during parking lot maneuvers, and seems well beyond the range of steering used even in a big countersteer situation. I still need to check clearance at full compression in the rear...or just roll the fender lip and call it good. Have an autocross this weekend so hopefully that will be a good shakedown for any issues.
Enjoying the build. Multiple RX8 and RX7 build threads on here :)
Autox went well enough. Frustrating site to drive, but the tire clearance was great.
Duryea was this past weekend. Despite the apocalyptic forecast, Sunday turned out to be completely dry as far as precipitation, though the course never fully dried out under the trees.
I'll write a longer post later but the big takeaway is (surprise) power matters. Foot to the floor, 7500rpm in 4th gear and the poor car slows down as the hill steepens approaching the finish. It was doin' its best tho. Good car.
And with Weatherly, the season is over. Gotta write more sometime but for now, jumpy rx8 pics.
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