Posted: January 31 2005 at 10:10am | IP Logged

I wanted to say "hi" and "thanks" for making these track events so affordable and for feeding this starving student. The event at Big Willow was my second event with Speedventures and I'll definitely be back for more. I've lurked through this forum before and decided that I would finally register. I'm the guy with the '97 Eclipse that has his times listed with "race" tires. Starving students can only afford "street" tires . Anyway, thanks again for making these events possible.

Mike0615, you should ask Mike with the Evo to show you how to drive your car, but if you're not sure, ask Denny about it.

Posted: January 31 2005 at 10:47am | IP Logged

Mike: It's hard to say what a good time for an RX-8 on street tires is as I don't know how good the street tires on an RX-8 are. The RX-8 should be capable of times close to that of an S2000. Something around 1:40 should be doable with more experience. That may sound unbelievably fast to you at this point, but with experience you'll get down there and you'll be surprised how effortless a 1:43, for instance will be. Glad you had a good time!

E: Fixed your "race tires" entry. Glad you're having fun as well. You guys aren't from the USC car club by any chance, are you?

Posted: January 31 2005 at 1:45pm | IP Logged

USC has a car club? Is this a club that's actively involved in roadracing? I'll be sure to look into this when I attempt to transfer as an engineering student. Thanks for fixing my entry.

I was wondering about my times so far. That was my first time at Streets of Willow and I managed a 1:36.965. What kind of times should I reasonably be shooting for? Also, I managed a 1:42 at Big Willow and I'm sure that if I hadn't blown off an intercooler pipe in the last session, I would've broken into 1:41. I plan on tweaking the suspension a bit more before I finally get into upping the horsepower. Do you think 1:40s or even sub 1:40s would be possible?

Posted: January 31 2005 at 1:50pm | IP Logged

Werd up!

Posted: January 31 2005 at 3:16pm | IP Logged

USC has a car club we've recently been talking to and they've shown some interest in events, but they're new to it. I believe some of them came out to an event or two, but they're not doing many events yet.

On times, that's really tough to answer. You car should be about 2 seconds slower at SOWS than a comparably modded S2000 based upon weight I'd say. I would say a very impressive time for you car on street tires would be 1:34 or so, so your time is really pretty damn good!

At WSIR your car should be closer to the S2000's, so you should be able to hit high 30's I'd say, maybe a 1:38.5 or so?

Posted: January 31 2005 at 3:38pm | IP Logged

Wow... looks like I have some work to do on my technique and suspension. Just as a reference, my car tips the scales at about 3200lbs. Does this still agree with your time estimates?

Posted: January 31 2005 at 3:56pm | IP Logged

At SOWS I estimate a 1:34, so you're pretty damn close!

At WSIR, really it comes down to guts to gain that time...and you've seen what can happen. I'd say be content in the low 40's or at least get a rollbar and harness in that car before shooting for :38's

Posted: January 31 2005 at 5:42pm | IP Logged

mike0615 wrote: Sup guys, just finished my first event today at willsprings. Thanks a million to Arron and Cris AKA Dukeofearl for going out on the track to show me the lines so that i could have a good time. I'm addicted so u guys will be seeing more of me out there. Are there another other RX8's that come out? kinda wanna see how someone else would drive this car. Anyone got any good tips for a newbie, i can use all the help i can get. I got a top speed of 1.47 but i was averaging like 1.55. Anyhow, see u guys soon i hope.

Mike I am very happy I could help you with your driving. I am also happy you have picked Speedventures to drive with. This is the best bunch there is. Aaron and John have really worked hard on Speedventures and it shows. Hope to see you at the track again soon.

Chris

Posted: February 01 2005 at 12:40am | IP Logged

My learning curves at both of those tracks are still pretty steep but I might consider signing up for your school group to do some educational fine tuning. Thank you, John, for setting some reasonable goals for my times.

Posted: February 04 2005 at 9:33am | IP Logged

WOW!!! Here I was asking if sub 1:40s were possible and the results show a time of 1:00.223 at 149.44mph! Does this mean that I now hold the new record and have surpassed the great Michael Andretti and Nigel Mansell? I guess I found the perfect line through turn 9 .

Hmm... there might be a mistake. There seems to be multiple times listed for the same laps. I know there was another person there with the same name but driving an M3. He might be wondering where his times went.

Posted: February 07 2005 at 10:29am | IP Logged

Edward, how much for your car? I'll trade you the Ultima for any M3 that can run a 1:00 at WSIR

Figured out the issue, there was a "naming error" in the times.

Posted: February 09 2005 at 12:14am | IP Logged

I'm thinking that there still might be an error. There was another Edward Kim there with an M3. I was driving the Eclipse. I like the possibility that I ran a 1:40 but I'm not so sure that I actually did. There was some confusion during check-in because of the names and #876 (my car number) had "M3" written next to it on the envelope. Can you please verify that the times posted are my times. I plan to be excited very soon if you say I ran a 1:40 but if not, I'll have to be at your next Big Willow event.

Edit: I just noticed that there's another E Kim with a 97 Eclipse that has times posted on 1/29. Those times don't look like my times at all. Also, I was only there on 1/30. Can you please look into this. Thank you, John, and sorry for the trouble.