If you have ever wanted to come out to Mosport, this might be a good weekend for RX7 Fans. On Sunday, Al Balinsky and I will be running our RX7's in the CASC GT Sprint Championship Races. We will both be starting from the back of the GT4,5,6 grid and working our way to the front over the 2 races. Should be a ton of fun watching Al (01) flat out clubbing guys with his PP power and me (23) trying to outhandle and out brave everyone with decent power, LOL.

So come on out, say hi and get a chance to watch 2 of the quickest NA RX7's in Ontario race at Mosport. If you want to crew for me, let me know and I will add the first respondent to my team at Sign-In.

Eric

 

i might go up there and go karting this sunday, hopefully ill finally get to see you guys in action!!!

 

yeah i should be there as well for karting and time attack

 

A bunch of us will be at the DDT Sunday drop by if you get a chance. I was over at Dave Wood Mazda yesterday and their running two cars on the big track this weekend as well.

 

Yup. I will be at the DDT for the Sigma Time Attack. Probable will not have time to swing by the big track. Have fun Al and Eric!

 

I think I'll come out with the camera who knows

 

what time are you guys going? carting is at 12-2 i think, i dont wanna miss you guys again =P

 

Loaded on the trailer and ready to rock and roll. It feels weird not having some last minute thrash to get the pig ready to go. Going to see how fast I can get the #23 RX7 to go tomorrow. 1:38's would be good, but if I can pull out a 1:37 or so I will be absolutely delighted.

The car weighs about 2650 lbs and is all NA baby..... no snails on this thing.

Seriously, the engine is running the best it ever has. I just hope that there is enough grip tomorrow to make it into the 38's. We need at least 40 degrees C track temps before the tires start to work. I hope to see some of you there.

Eric

 

I'm heading to the DDT as well....what time you leaving Eric?

 

Sorry Jim, didn't see this post.

I was going to do a long race report about yesterday, but I am just freakin' sooo p___ed off right know. After I cool down and not feel like burning the car I will let everyone now what happened.

Thanks to Mr. Cool for coming out to give us a hand on Sunday.

Eric

 

Spit it out buddy!!!

 

Okay, here it goes.

We arrived at the track nice and early and unloaded. Car went through tech as quick as you could imagine. Everything looked good and it started and ran well. We decided not to go out for practice as 3 - 4 laps would not tell us anything and I already know my way around the track, lol.

First race called and our plan was to start at the back, pick off a few cars, work our way up towards the front and figure out what the car wanted, to help us go faster. When I rolled up to the mock grid, I was slotted into 19th spot and Al was slotted into 21st or 22nd. I thought that I would get to at least the back straight before he came streaming by and then I was just going to follow him up through the field. Warm up lap was normal other than the car I was gridded beside (Dave Wood Mazda RX8) lagged about 10 car lengths back from the car in front as we went into Turn 8. COOL, this gave me lots of room.

As we came out of Turn 10, as there was no car beside me to slow me down, I got a huge run to the green and was able to just honk down the straight, passed 1 car going in to Turn 1 by going outside of him, they were 3 wide going in to 2, s I was hung up, but got another car going in to turn 3. The car was flying!!!!!! Got a monster power drift coming out of 3 and realized that my 5 year old Toyo's were going to take some time to warm up, LOL. Stayed with the MAzda 6 going into 5 and as we came out he pulled me a bit, but I was able to catch up and blow past him into Turn 8. The car was motoring and twitching/sliding all over the place, but freak was it fast. As we came down at the end of the first lap, I had passed 3 cars and I was wondering where Al was.... On the next lap I passed 2 more GT5 cars and then I passed a Turbo 240 SX going into turn 8 and a 944 S going in to Turn 8 on the next lap. I was 4 laps in and wondering where Al was as I came out of 5.

What I thought was the white 944 in my rear view mirror coming out of 5 was actually Al. As we climbed the hill he went steaming past me and the leader in GT5 as we entered Turn 8. I was starting to hear some light rattling in the motor again and my brain started to go numb as I lbreathed the throttle to get rid of it. Passing the GT5 car, put Al off line and into the marbles and as I dove inside the GT5 car I watched as Al started sliding, sliding, sliding way out there, so I just said "screw him" to myself and went by him again as we went through 8. Brown spots in his shorts for sure, LOL. I held him off until we came out of 5 on the next lap (6 I think) then he just buried me up the back straight. The rattling started to get heavier and then as I went into Turn 8 my throttle hung open. It was karma getting me for giggling at Al's moment. I kicked the throttle and hammered the brake and the rpm came down and I made it through the corner.

For the rest of the race I just had to ease off the throttle more and more as the rattling got harder and louder and the car picked up this weird hollow sound. The throttle kept hanging up more and more often, but we made it to the finish in 10th out of 21 cars.

Drove down to the pits after doing tire temps (rears were up to 220, yikes!!!!!) and popped the hood to see what was going on with the throttle hanging up. So it seems like somebody, not mentioning any names (Eric) had replaced the stock Suzuki clamps on the throttle bodies with really groovy small hose clamps that weren't near strong enough, but they sure looked nice. The clamps had relaked and allowed the bodies to actually slip off the manifold. The bodies were free floating in the engine bay held only in place by the hoses, the aircleaners and the throttle cable. What is funky, is that the car was running okay, other than the very familiar detonation.

As I had forgot to bring the original Suzuki clamps to the track, we cobbled everything up again and tightened the claps as best we could. We also wrapped the bellows with aluminum tape to try to assist in keeping them in place. I had Dave pull another 2 degrees out of the timing and we were good to go for the second race. We had started the day with a full tank and I was down to just over 1/2 a tank, so we were good to rock and roll.

For the second race we lined up in 9th. It turns out that Al had to start at the back again as he ran out of gas with 2 laps to go, LOL. He gets no breaks at all. Same thing on the pace lap but as we came to get the green flag and I hit the gas, the detonation was horrible..... All rattles and no power. I lifted and coasted through 1 on the outside and about 400 cars went by me. I tried easing on the throttle, but it still rattled. Al stormed by me up the back straight and the GT5 cars just started motoring away. I pulled into the pits and let Dave and Patrick check under the hood. There was nothing wrong so I decided to just go back out and shake some rust off the driver.

I spent the rest of the race just driving the car on idle and seeing how fast I could make it go without slowing down. I got a 1:44 and change out of it and a couple of cars dropped out and I actually passed a couple of cars and finished 13th out of 19th. We finished the race and drove the car on to the trailer.

I am not going to race this car again until we get the detonation under control. It drives me nuts as the car can be very fast and with just getting rid of the detonation, we could be so much faster, grrrrrrrrrrr. I guess I need to find a friendly dyno operator who will let me simulate the Mosport track and help me find out whats wrong. Short bursts and short straights don't cause it, only long hard pulls cause it and it seems to grow in magnitude as the day goes on, not really air temp or water temp related.

Eric

 

Maybe I am just stupid. It seems that the stock S4 and S5 and RX8 NA ecu's do the following,

The RX-8 uses a very advanced engine management system. Besides precisely controlling the operating parameters of the engine, self-preservation (of both the engine and the catalytic converter) is also considered.

The engine management system continuously monitors all engine functions and adjusts accordingly. For example:

Under heavy load acceleration, the timing is retarded and the fuel mixture richened to reduce the likelihood of pre-ignition or spark knock. If spark knock is encountered, a knock sensor senses the condition and further retards the timing. Gradually timing is advanced and fuel mixture leaned after the load is reduced.

A second reason for fuel enrichment is that when timing is retarded, exhaust temperatures increase; a richer mixture lowers the exhaust temperatures and reduces the chances of damaging the catalytic converter.

It could be something as simple as under full load at Mosport, my timing needs to be in 10 degree range and not in the 16 degree range, hmmmmmm...... Just need to find a dyno that allows extended load cycles to see if I am directionally right. When I ran the car with the Holley, it was running the S4 ecu to control timing.

Eric

 

My race report differs slightly lol. We actually ran morning warmup because I have learned in the past that sticker tires take about 3 laps to start to come in and before that its worse than driving on ice. My crew chief thought to check fuel before warm up and he loaded in a full gas can which is usually more than enough to run a 20 minute race. I went out for 3 laps and the tires were coming in nicely but the GT 1, 2 and 3 drivers were maniacs (as later proven by the constant carnage in their 2 races lol) so I came in. Everything was set for the start, somehow they gridded Eric about 6 slots further up the grid than me (I think he paid someone) lol. At the drop of the green I actually got a start for a change passing 2 cars running down along the wall into turn 1. Then I just set on what I usually do in race one which is work through the field one by one trying to get a good starting spot for race 2. When I caught up to the pack Eric was in I used P.Port power to pull them up the straight and as I haven learned about turbo tranny's they dont like to gear down above 9,000rpm. Going into 8 at speed I went to back into 3rd like I would normally do however with this gear box its about a 3500rpm rev match instead of like 1800 with the good trans. It woudlnt go in! I had one hand on the wheel at about 110mph and one on the shifter trying to find the gear and my FRIEND ERIC thought "oh well I will just go inside of him lol" Thanks buddy lol. Anyway I learned to lift earlier and scubb off more speed before forcing it into 3rd for that turn. Our lap times were steadily dropping as the car started to come back to me. After passing another 2 cars I found myself into what I call "no mans land" which is where even with 20 cars on the track I had no one infront or behind me that I could see so I radioed the crew that I was just going to cruise until the end, no point in hurting anything. Coming out of turn 9 I pressed the throttle and........................nothing the car died then kicked and stumbled. I was sure I broke something so I made a very daring into the pits where your not supposed to, I figured I could be losing oil etc so not wanting to risk anyone elses safety dove in. Car was then running okay with the odd miss...... real strange all the temps, pressure were fine. Crew chief dives into the back of the car and checks fuel............1/4 inch on the dip stick...out of gas! I later realized that we swtiched from a 25L can to a 20L can, which would have just made 20 minutes if we didnt run the warm up lol.
Race 2 we started at the back..............again! I got stuck behind a good pal of mine in his Camaro and after 2 laps cleared him and went to it. We started race 2 17th and finished 6th, with a few more laps probably would have gotten another place or 2. The car ran okay but that transmission sucks!!!!! I found a RX3 tranny and hopefully with those parts we can fix the race box and be competitve again!
One of the best parts of the day was that my friends 6.0L Camaro couldn't catch (and I quote "stupid weed whacker") my little n/a 1.3 in a straight line lol.

 

"I had one hand on the wheel at about 110mph and one on the shifter trying to find the gear and my FRIEND ERIC thought "oh well I will just go inside of him lol" Thanks buddy lol."

Hey, I did think about it for a second before doing it. I was concerned about the mess Chris would have in your seat after the race and didn't want to add any more stress, LOL. Truthfully, it was fun to be in the same race as Al for once. I just need more power to be able to run with him. Freak, he has a fast car and drives it well.

Eric

Eric

 

haha awesome would've been good to watch