Well, best of luck to everyone tomorrow and enjoy it. I am jealous I could not make it for this.

 

I'll be driving up tomorrow morning, leaving North Raleigh around 6:45am. Anyone in Raleigh is welcome to caravan with me. Hope the weather is nice. (919) 600-4052

 

Any updates David?

 

I had a great time. I watched the dyno runs and got to meet some really nice people. Some friends and I stayed at the hotel at the track the night before so I was pretty worn out and decided to opt out of watching the track runs. I'll post up some of the video I got of dyno runs later.

 

Big thanks to Gordon for paying and to David for running the event. Everyone seemed to have a great time hanging out and playing with cars. I look forward to doing this again.

 

+1 BIG THANKS to Gordon! Thanks to everyone for the rides and the amazing experience! Also nice to meet you all, it's good to put names with faces.

So...when's the next event!? I can't wait to smoke all 4 brakes again!

 

Ditto the thanks to Gordon for funding the event, I just Paypaled some $ to help out and a big thanks to David Hayes not only for being a great host for this event (he even brought drinks to the track in 3 coolers), but for all the contributions to the forum like the well documented "how to" threads that save members a lot of time and money by doing it ourselves.

Thanks to other participants for the ride alongs, wonderful to be back on a track at speed, even if only as a passenger.

I hope we get more group interest and support for doing more of these, as they say track driving is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Next time I should bring an FD.

 

[QUOTE=ledgebmx;11473260 I can't wait to smoke all 4 brakes again![/QUOTE]

Aaron, that wasn't just smoke, there were flames I saw coming off your front pads through the front wheel (only saw one side, probably the same on the other) when you got into the pits, no kidding.

 

The wonderful aroma of unburnt fuel, hot rubber and burning brakes! I can still smell it!

A big thanks to Gordon for spearheading all of this, despite not being able to actually make it! It was a good time for sure. There were some good ideas thrown around today about putting another one of these together in the near future, perhaps this fall. I would be all for it. Hopefully MM would be willing to come down again, depending on what they do with the material they collected today.

I have a bit of video footage I will edit and put together, hopefully it will be up within a week.

 

I'd love to perhaps do something similar sometime soon, but maybe be sure all the intended cars are sorted before the date is even set, that way there wont be these issues. I'm sure it was fun regardless, but its sort of a bummer it couldn't have turned out as intended.

 

Quick post as I get up this am to drive back to Asheville. To summarize, possibly the best event I've attended, despite the fail of most of the test cars, including mine. What could be better than hanging out with fellow RX7 owners at a closed track event? It was essentially 5 1/2 hours of having the track to yourself and there is no better place than VIR. The South Course is highly technical and will test your driving skills (or lack of in my case) as well as your setup.

My car is essentially DOA. Had extremely low power and very high water temps. It's back soon to Kilo Racing to assess what is going on with the engine and to sort out the cooling problems. Will post updates in my build thread.

On the event front, This will be a must do annual thing with a tentative plan to regroup and do this again in the fall.

Big thanks to Gordon for setting this up and to Fritz, Peter, and the other instructor drivers for getting us all out on the track and showing us the vast capabilities of the RX7. For those of you that haven't driven with Fritz the community's "Stig", it's a must do bucket list experience.

I'll post up more later but thanks again to Gordon and to all that attended and made this so much fun.

 

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to assess what needs to be done to the engine. lol

-Austin

 

Awesome people, awesome cars... It is events like this that make you happy you are an RX7 owner. Regardless of how frustrated you get at your rex, after going to an event like this it makes you fall in love all over again haha.

Thanks to Gordon for setting this up and David for taking the lead. He did an awesome job! Big thanks to Peter and Fritz "the stig" Flynn for showing us what these cars are really capable of within the corners. I know you guys must have been beat, but it was awesome that you hung around to play. Also thanks to the V8 guys that were there, very awesome cars!

Hope this happens again and more frequently...it was a blast...
-Andrew

 

YES the brakes were LITERALLY ON FIRE!!!!! HEHE!

Rob,
As always great to see you. Your car looked and sounds AWESOME, BUT I must admit there were times I closed my eyes and pictured a corvette

I also shot some video and I'll post asap.

Gordon,
You were greatly missed by all and sorry you couldn't make it. THANKS for putting this together paying the check etc......

I'll reiterate that the comparison is pretty useless for any sort of science regarding optimum engine setup without equal cars and tires however I for one was looking forward to trying your car out. Not so much for handling but power delivery etc.... and I think this event provided the Modified guys with at least that much info on the cars they either road in or drove.

Speaking of modified they are a class act for sure and it was super fun hanging out with them

David,
Good to see you again and THANKS!!!!!!!..............for the organization, the drinks, the conversation, etc....etc...... you sir are a true gentlemen

AND AGAIN As far as I'm concerned the event was a huge success. No better way to enjoy this hobby than hanging out with like people who share the same passion and being able to exercise that passion both physically and mentally so from where I'm standing it doesn't get any better than that to me. So YES we should definitely do this AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!!

AND AGAIN I think the modified guys were able to get a decent vibe on the how the different engines felt from a power delivery stand point/seat of the pants sort of thing which of course isn't scientific but they likely came away with some questions answered so I don't think it was a complete fail regarding the attempt at some sort of comparison which AGAIN is impossible with out equal cars, prepped equally with one driver anyway so even if every thing went perfectly as planned the end result wouldn't be much different other than have having a bunch of meaningless #s.

PS That's a lot of AGAINS!!!! LOL

 

Man I'll tell ya. This was an experience I never expected. I mean most of us bought are fd's for the love of the design and it's very unique little engine that could. Well after yesterdays event, I have a NEW love for chassis that Mazda designed more than 20yrs ago. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect an Fd to handle like that. I got a ton of passenger seat time in almost all the vehicles and probably the reason I'm feeling nauseous. Fritz you are an animal and why your driving skills aren't used more in some of these Fd modified/ultimate street car testing events is beyond me. If my car ever enters something like that, I will be contacting you.

I also wanna say thank you to Gordon for funding such and event. Being an NA guy myself, I was very bumbed that his car and Logans 4 rotor didn't make it. Regardless I had an absolute blast hanging out with guys I've never met before. Props to David for taking control of the event in Gordons absence. I had lots of fun talking to him. Oppps time to board the plane.

 

Like everybody else has said a HUGE thanks to Gordon for fronting the event and then not being able to make it out. David did a GREAT job as well organizing everything once we were there, and bringing refreshments.

The ride-alongs were OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD!!!!!! I had never been to VIR before, and the South Course was def. a HUGE thrill ride roller-coaster. The best part was being able to feel the difference between you LS engine guys (HOLY POWER + TORQUE is nice) and Fritz's Track Monster! I had a great time meeting some of you as well and def. can't wait to do something like this again!

Fritz: Watch out for the squirrel; LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

T nice meeting you and glad you enjoyed the ride. The dinner and conversation last night was AWESOME!!!!

LOL, poor squirrel was just frozen in place with eyes the size of grapes.

The south is BRUTAL. The driver and car never get a rest. My rotors aren't old and I burned through the slots. Me, Peter, Scott etc.... all suffered from a soft pedal throughout the day even worse as mentioned we had brakes literally catching on fire LOL. Old Red went 300 miles and took out 12 passengers.

 

Not much more to add to what has already been said - it was an awesome weekend. Three days hanging out with a lot of great FD drivers and great cars at the FSR PCA event, topped off by an afternoon with more fellow rotor-heads and an open track - what more could I ask for?

Definitely one of the best tracks weekends I've had. Reminded me a lot of some of the early MSCW events. It was great to finally put some faces together with their forum IDs. I'll have to admit that I felt a little like the "tag along kid brother" since I was the only FC driver there and my car certainly was not as refined as the FDs I saw. Even my wife gave me grief over not having my FD available to bring up. I hope everyone whom I gave a ride to got something out of the experience.

Huge thanks to Gordon, David, Fritz, Pete and everyone else who got things rolling and then put in the efforts to organize and keep things moving when it became apparent that the FD Shootout was not going to happen and the direction of the event was going to change a bit. It was great to meet the guys from Modified who came all the way down from Ontario to join us. Also, my appreciation to the VIPER people for bringing out the formula Mazda car. I was amazed watching that thing move around the track.

Last note - I think Fritz felt less like The Stig and more like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_Schmitz - he was certainly the designated "Ring Taxi" for the event.

I'll post links to photos and vids after I have a chance to sort through things - my Explorer is still packed with tires and track gear.

Thanks again to all,

-b

 

Always great to hang with Bill who's seriously one of the most genuinely nice people you'll ever meet.

The taxi driver went through 3 T shirts which says it all right there LOL

 

Hoi (AKA chinoflyer on the forum) owner of the Tokyo Grill in Danville took care of dinner for us on Friday, Sunday AND MONDAY!!!!!!

HUGE THANKS!!!!!!!!!

As always great food and glad we were able to get you back out on the track after the 3 or 4 year Hiatus.

BTW Excellent moves out there on that dance floor especially in t10

 

Video is UP

 

Glad fun was had by all. Fritz is a good dealer. One ride with Fritz is all it will take to REALLY get you hooked on crack... I mean track. Lots of 'Holy s@#t! I didn't know any car could do that!' etc... My favorite is always when people start to freak out because you don't know how hard you are about to brake and think 'there is no way they are going to be slow down enough to make this turn."

So maybe there was some goodness in selling this event as some ridiculous car comparison because it got people to the track who otherwise normally wouldn't show up. In doing so, most got to really see what the FD was capable of and was truly built to do. Hopefully it also opens some peoples eyes. It's one thing to have a street car that you occasionally put your foot to the floor (which is fine if that is your prerogative, not knocking it. I love to get around in my FD)... it's another to put thousands and thousands of miles on a car at 10/10th's; engine, trans, suspension, brakes... everything. That's performance. Fritz (Pete too... he is no slouch) has been doing it since 2000 and has ran damn near every set up that's ever been available for our cars. There is a wealth of knowledge there that is often disregarded. I don't know of any one with more real world, practical experience in these cars. They are an extremely valuable resource to our community.

 

Now I wish I would have stayed, wife tried to put me to work on Monday...

Glad everyone had a great time, I really enjoyed the PCA event and need to talk to Fritz about some parts now that I have been bitten.

I wanted to send a special thanks to Fritz for being my instructor, can't imagine having a better one. Also wanted to thank Pete for the ride. It was great meeting everyone and I should be seeing you all again in the future.

 

Definitely someone who I don't want to leave out - Sunday dinner was fantastic!! A great guy and it was an absolute pleasure meeting him.

-b

 

Thanks all, an especially to Gordon for making the event happen.

I'm sorry I wasn't more active... only gave two ride alongs that were mostly sideways and sloppy as I learned the track. Also, after three days on track prior, and swapping tires and brake rotors, I was just worn out. Once I saw the temps climb on my new motor build, and the dark clouds forming, I decided to call it a day. I guess I am a slouch! As it was, by the time I got back to DC, and returned the trailer, I didn't get home till well after 10 pm.

Glad everyone had fun anyway.