Renegade Miata First Points Event of 2012!

Tech inspection line

With the rain letting up early this Saturday morning, we were able to have a dry first event. Today, I was planning on running on street tires to really feel out the natural behavior of the differential. I want to understand it's behavior a little bit more so I can drive the car at it's limits more comfortably. Kaizen Tuning adjusted the rear alignment a little bit, bringing the camber from -2.6 to -1.5. This should help in keeping the rear planted and allow me to feel out the rear wheels more.

My adorable co-driver for the day?

Instead of driving my Miata, Kristyn was up for the task of being my co-driver for the event in the RX-8! Kristyn adapted to the car very quickly, learning how to stay in control by working the throttle. That's when I started to really think upon it and noticed the car has become more of a "throttle steer" car. With Kristyn's feedback and help, we were able to make the car to be easier to drive. The quick setup we cooked up that helped keep the car neutral on the street tires was:

• Took 1 degree of camber out of the rear, setting it to -1.5
• 30 PSI front
• 28 PSI rear
• 12 clicks from stiff front
• 15 clicks from stiff rear
• Front swaybar full stiff
• No rear swaybar

I'm not sure how I plan on translating that for tomorrow's event on R compounds, but I'll try a few things out. Something tells me that the car may be too stiff on the front swaybar, but it could just be a hunch. At the end of the day, I got down to a 1'12.8 clean, with Kristyn getting down to a 1'21.6 clean. Given her experience with the Miata and that she has never driven the RX-8 before, she did great! The rest of the results are located on the Renegade Miata website, here.

Kristyn going for her last run!

It was a great event overall, and it was fun to drive the car on street tires for once. Big thanks to Kristyn for  co-driving with me, providing me feedback to help me out, and making the event that much more fun. As for changes that need to be made to the car to make it faster and more stable, I have a few ideas brewing in my head. In the meantime, below are videos of my fastest run and Kristyn's fastest run. Be sure to check out all the videos on the YouTube channel. Stay tuned for tomorrows event!