MSR Houston (ongoing)...

Lets keep a thread going for all MSR Houston stuff. I was there first time last weekend racing the RX8. The facilities are great and the track is OK, it might grow on me more later.

My best time on the weekend was a 1:49.8. Not bad for a 165 HP car. Here's a video of me reeling in a 5.0 Mustang. Not my best time, but a more interesting lap. Few corners sloppy and on the edge. Later I will try to do a graphic with my limited advice after the first weekend.

http://www.chicksdigitracing.com/videos/20060416_RX8_MSRH_1_51_1.mpg (35 Mb.)

 

Try Save As local and not trying to stream it. The link is correct. It locked up my computer trying to stream with Firefox, but I think if you just download to computer first it will be OK.

165 HP rear wheel on a stock RX8. It is kinda a joke because Mazda claimed 238 HP at the flywheel. No way that loss factor is that high. Anyway, with the exhaust and computer mods we can do, maybe 185 RWHP at most. I was still faster than the top SM guys and that is a good judge because the best of the best come out for 40+ fields in SM. Many like Steve Ott and Tony Rivera have been on MSRH dozens of times already. I still have a little time to drop and should be 2-3 seconds ahead of the SM's instead of 1. HP only helps you so much at MSRH, the video shows the 5.0 Mustang I eat.

SM's are great because they have big fields. RX8 in T3 is good for the variety of cars and the contingency money is better along with smaller fields competing for it. If I win a Double National weekend I get $800 from Mazda and $900 worth of tires from Hoosier.

 

The top SM's are supposedly only putting about 135 and that is being a little shady. I think 125 is about top you can get legally. The BIG advantage SM's have over me is they weigh 2400 with driver, my RX8 is 3090 with driver right now. The SM's also run race springs, I have to run stock suspension except for the shocks.

The RX8 handles great, the SM handles great, the SRX7 I'm driving today doesn't handle great!

 

I was at MSRH this past weekend for SCCA race. Saturday morning was pouring rain. Rest of weekend was dry, but track was green and slick. Dirt gets kicked on track easily there. So with hot and humid plus track conditions fast times were not to be found. I was in the 1:51's all weekend and this was driving a little better than when I got into the 49's this spring. Relatively I knew I was faster because there was less margin between me and the Tony Rivera/Mitchell M3's as that is their home course. They never broke 1:47 and I know they can do 1:44's or better out there.

What data acquisition do you have? This weekend was first time I used my AIM MXL system.

 

$1,000 looks like a great deal for the traqmate.

The AIM MXL Pro was little less than $2,000 but covers up my stock dash with a digital one that I can program. Only slight problem so far is original software is Italian and some of the translations aren't the best.

The traqmate must have some NOS hidden inside to make you go faster, hard for me to comprehend anything better than the AIM system. Here's a picture of it in another car, but that's how I have it installed in the RX8 too. The screen shot is of my best lap in Sunday Qualifying. The yellow line shows my highest speed (112 MPH). You can see all the other data points at that same point like my 208 water degrees. The track map shows a X where this point is.

I haven't really gotten into the actual analyzing yet for improvement, but just looking at this one point quickly you can tell where I'm just lifting around the right and delay getting on the brakes. Several tenths could come from staying on the gas to the turn and then on the brakes hard. So you would see a more pointy peak.

I don't think the AIM system uses a GPS, I think it is all accelerometer. Amazing how accurate the track maps come out.
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