Monday, June 20, 2011

Shenandoah Track Day

On May 14th I drove to Summit Point in West Virginia and raced with TrackDaze. The Shenandoah circuit is freaking awesome. There elevation changes on this 2.2mi course is a blast. However, the first session was while it was raining; which was treacherous.

Session 2 was on a damp track.


Session 3 was on a dry track.


Session 4 was on a hot track.


Here are some pictures from the event:

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover
Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Throughout the four sessions I managed to get point by's from a Nissan GTR, BMW 335i, BMW 135i, Nissan 370z, a handful of miatas, and a Mustang GT.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Street Ported RX-8 Tunnel Run(s)

Street Ported RX-8 running through a tunnel...and shooting flames. Flames weren't seen...but they certainly were heard.

Race Exhaust Setup Testing


Racingbeat Street Ported templates
Racingbeat Header
ExoticSpeed Race pipe
HKS Hipower Catback
AEM Intake

Street tuned with Cobb AccessPort

Street Ported RX-8 Video


Racing Beat Street Ported Templates
Racing Beat Header
Racing Beat Dual Resonated Mid pipe
HKS Hi-Power Catback

Rollbar

Since I have aftermarket seats on their way I needed a rollbar to mount my harnesses to, so I visited Zelse in MA to install said rollbar. Before I drove up to MA, I ripped most of my rear interior out in preparation for the install.  We ended up taking the front seats out as well because the rollbar was not fitting in there with them still installed.



Zelse has extremely detailed instructions on his blog rezelse.blogspot.com.

VDI Woes

I recently put my car on the dyno so that I could do some data logs. I found something very disturbing...major power loss after 7250 rpms.


For those who do not know that the VDI valve is; it is a valve that opens around ~7250 rpms and it allows for increased airflow into the engine.

In order to inspect that pesky valve, I ripped my upper intake manifold off (which is a royal pain by the way):



If you want to do this on your own please please please make note of where each fuel line clips goes. I did not do so and I installed them improperly as seen here:



Transmission Upgrades

I decided to take the plunge and replace my OE Clutch and Mazdaspeed Flywheel with the BHR 9lb Flywheel and Exedy Stage 1 (aka Mazdaspeed Clutch). I also got a new pedal off BHR that was already welded nice and tight before it was installed. Oh yes and a new master clutch cylinder and slave cylinder. The car has over 90,xxx miles and I want to make sure I can keep hitting tracks without any issues (hopefully).

Excuse the pictures, they are kind of blurry:





Rim/Tire Track Setup

Last year I nabbed a set of Enkei RPF1 18x9.5 +45 and I finally mounted them on some Hankook Ventus R-S3 265/35R18's. This was a test fitting.



I noticed something funny on the tread:

Redline Time Attack

April 2010 I hit New Jersey Motorsports Park with Redline Time Attack. It was there last track event on the East Coast.



My best lap on my first motor was 1:27:1xx and I placed 4th over all in my class that Saturday. I DNR the next day thanks to a massive pot hole on a PA highway...in short my brake caliper shot off the car. Here are the pictures from that Saturday:

IMG_1365

Saturday Morning061

Saturday Morning037

Saturday Morning066

Saturday Morning043

All in all it was a complete blast and was really worth it.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Motor Rebuild and Street Porting


Last spring my motor was starting to act up. Hot start issues, weird motor vibrations, uneven acceleration, and more. Turns out i was loosing compression. While i started to save up for my rebuild I decided to start premixing  since I was not doing so at that time. I chose the only premix that is fuel filter safe and designed for rotaries: Idemitsu Premix. That premix kept my Blueberry running for about 5 months without loosing any more compression.

This is the damage that was done to my rotor housings after ~79,000 mi...



Yea so it was time to get some new rotor housings and rebuild this motor.


Well since the motor is apart...might as well port it right? Right!


Alright, maybe it was also a good idea to paint the Irons blue as well.






There are marginal power gains with Racing Beat's porting templates, if you wanted an aggressive port job it would have to be custom. Oh and one more thing, make sure you research the shop you are going to send your car to before hand.

Sprucing up your Brakes

One thing that has always bothered me about the stock brakes is how they look after a few thousand miles. The rust and grime build up is terrible looking. So I grabbed some rattle cans of caliper paint in black and blue; took about two days to fully dry but it was worth it.

First and foremost, make sure you have the plenty of painter's tape to protect your wheel studs and other items in your wheel wells.


After sanding down all of that rust build up, I sprayed my rotor with the black paint to cover up all of that rust build up.


I then dissembled my calipers and started painting them blue.



After letting everything dry, I reassembled everything.




Much better looking and relatively inexpensive, it was about $30 in supplies for a much cleaner look.