Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

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Ben
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by Ben »

Yeah that's about right really. The torque they have is fairly deceptive - the gears are quite long (and the rev limit so high) you can feel like it takes an age to get going, which can be a little frustrating on the road. It'll do 65 in 2nd and 90 in 3rd and it's very very smooth, so if you rev it out you'll often be going faster than you expect by the time you change up :lol:

This can be a bit frustrating on the road (as someone who drives an Impreza every day and is used to a nice thump of torque) but on track it's hugely rewarding to keep on song. It makes decent power all the way from 5500rpm to 9500rpm so there's a decent power band to make use of and the gearbox is nice and slick (even after 97k miles!).
2001 BMW M5 (Bahnstormer) | 2004 RX8 231 (the Racecat) | 2001 Volvo V70 (Swedish eBay barge)

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pistol pete
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by pistol pete »

I'm with ben on this.
I have huge amount of torque in my road car and it works perfectly.
the rx8 is such a high rev limit. its the same i found when i drove a type R
i like them, but not as a road car.. it is a perfect set up for track, but waiting for the car to get up to 9k on the road you just look and sound like a tool
Ben
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by Ben »

Yep, on the road it's like


rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
*beep*

change gear

BANG

*flames*


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
2001 BMW M5 (Bahnstormer) | 2004 RX8 231 (the Racecat) | 2001 Volvo V70 (Swedish eBay barge)

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pistol pete
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by pistol pete »

Ben wrote:Yep, on the road it's like


rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
rev
*beep*

change gear

BANG

*flames*


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:



Think you missed a few revs there :)

but yep its that... *flames*.. awesome...

we are bored today aren't we..
Is it raceday yet..
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JAAASH
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by JAAASH »

pistol pete wrote:Image Replaced With URL For Quote https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media ... t-trac.jpg


Has it been a year since Anglesey already?! :shock:
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pistol pete
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by pistol pete »

pretty much yep!!!

time flies when having fun
Ben
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by Ben »

Well, we survived Anglesey!

600 miles, 2 days of events, 30+ 6,000rpm launches, one spin, one 100mph trip across the grass and two pieces of silverware.

Image2017-08-21_12-09-56 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Image2017-08-21_12-10-10 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

I'll spend the next few days sorting out videos and stuff (we did 37 runs between us so there's a lot of footage to sort through!) and write a bit of a report when I have more time. Epic weekend though, and really really close between me and Pete :mrgreen:
2001 BMW M5 (Bahnstormer) | 2004 RX8 231 (the Racecat) | 2001 Volvo V70 (Swedish eBay barge)

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pistol pete
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by pistol pete »

0.09 of a second :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
Draven
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by Draven »

who was quicker?? i'm guessing Ben
Ben
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by Ben »

Kendrew this weekend. Things ave been happening...

First up, we have a bucket seat! Sparco Sprint, just out of date and a nice eBay bargain:

Image2017-09-04_09-17-29 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Image2017-09-04_09-17-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

And... more shiny things! :D

Image2017-09-06_09-52-52 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Image2017-09-06_09-35-52 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Image2017-09-06_09-36-08 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Image2017-09-06_09-36-17 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Image2017-09-06_09-36-38 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Image2017-09-06_09-36-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Image2017-09-06_09-37-32 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

Thanks to Pete for getting these fitted today while the car was in his care. I'm looking forward to having a go!
2001 BMW M5 (Bahnstormer) | 2004 RX8 231 (the Racecat) | 2001 Volvo V70 (Swedish eBay barge)

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1989 MR2 Mk1b T-bar | 1988 MR2 SC Super Edition
Ben
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by Ben »

Oh yeah, and the promised videos from Anglesey:

Mazda sprint on the coastal circuit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0I98J0VSNo&t=...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8jrjbbmXwo


...and the Javelin sprint on the full circuit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69am2i7XuBk&t=...

And me spinning :lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2WH9A9ynuA
2001 BMW M5 (Bahnstormer) | 2004 RX8 231 (the Racecat) | 2001 Volvo V70 (Swedish eBay barge)

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1989 MR2 Mk1b T-bar | 1988 MR2 SC Super Edition
monkeymax
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by monkeymax »

Looking forward to hearing how you get on! :thumleft: So Pete's driving back past where JAE was last weekend? Surely it would've been easier to have left it parked in a field in the showground for a week? :lol:
pistol pete
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by pistol pete »

monkeymax wrote:Looking forward to hearing how you get on! :thumleft: So Pete's driving back past where JAE was last weekend? Surely it would've been easier to have left it parked in a field in the showground for a week? :lol:

story of my life that is.
so weekend 1 drove to bens (oxford)
follwing weekend drove to east wales, past bens
follwoing weekend drove home, past bens again
next weekend drove to bens then up to anglesey, past where i had been the week before
then up to JAe the next,
Now up to kendrew
Then next back up to bens

Been a busy few miles!!
Ben
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by Ben »

You just can't stay away :lover:
2001 BMW M5 (Bahnstormer) | 2004 RX8 231 (the Racecat) | 2001 Volvo V70 (Swedish eBay barge)

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Magic Beans
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by Magic Beans »

When do I get to do some weight removal on it? [-(
Ben
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by Ben »

Right, sorry for the slow update.

Sunday was my first time at Kendrew Barracks (aka RAF Cottesmore) and as such the only true airfield round of the series I’d be able to make. My very first experience of sprinting was at Woodbridge airfield a couple of years back, and it was so much fun I’ve been doing it ever since. It’s a bit less glamorous than some of the circuits we visit, and tales of an abrasive surface seem to have put a few people off so we were left with a mere 36 competitors. This turned out to be a Very Good Thing – not only did it mean we could rattle through all of the timed runs before the rain set in early afternoon, it also meant more championship points available for those who attended :D

One of the areas we struggled with at Anglesey (over and above the xxxx Tein coilovers) was heavy shoulder wear on the outside front tyre. To combat this (and also because Pete had just fitted the new BC coilovers) Pete sorted a geo setting with a bit more camber…

Image2017-09-12_04-34-31

We arrived early and got through scrutineering before swapping over to the track wheels and generally setting up for the day. Note the ever trusty Subaru support car in the background :)

Image2017-09-12_04-24-23

The layout was very well thought out, with a good mix of technical corners, fast sweeping corners and a nice stretch down the main runway (we were seeing 122mph on the speedo, which I was pretty pleased with!) followed by a heavy braking zone into a tight right-left and some nice sweeping turns to the finish. I drew the short straw and didn’t drive the sighting lap (we’re now sans passenger seat, so I jumped in with a fellow competitor in his Civic Type R), so my first drive was the initial practice run. It was a great track, with varying grip levels as the surfaces changed, but it takes me a while to learn new layouots so I was on the backfoot most of the morning. This was compounded on my third run when I overcooked and spun out, stalling and setting off the EML at the same time! Fortunately we were able to borrow an OBD reader and clear the fault (cam position sensor, I think from the stall) and the car felt OK again afterwards.

Pete was also experiencing his fair share of frustrations, with wo void runs for eating cones and a stoppage to move some additional crumple-zone in front of a concrete platform which by rights shouldn’t have been anywhere the racing line ;)

Still, we were dialling into the new suspension setup and the times were generally creeping down. A few track-side pics show how much flatter the cornering is compared to before – this was still on a fairly soft setting for a bumpy track, and still on stock ARBs:

Image2017-09-12_04-23-25

Image2017-09-12_04-23-35

By run four I was 0.3s behind Pete, and unbelievably we were running 1st and 2nd in class. Much to his frustration I managed to edge another .4s off his time on run 5, and come the final run we both agreed not to tell each other our final times. In the end we both pushed too hard – Pete with a void run (cones!) and me with a messy lap that was a second off the pace. Still, we were both absolutely made up to be awarded 1st and 2nd in class, a first win for the bargain bucket RX8.

Cheesy photo time!

Image2017-09-12_04-24-49

As expected we wore a good mm or two off the R888Rs, but more importantly the wear was even across all four tyres so we’re happy we’ve got the alignment right. The RX8 felt a lot more balanced and playful with the new setup – hopefully it’ll translate well to Cadwell, which (given it’s late October) will probably be wet…

I managed to get a couple of videos edited down as well. This is my fastest run, followed by my void run (with the spin). This was pretty terrible all the way through really – I forgot to turn off the traction control at the start which had me out of sorts for the rest of the lap, and when the back end came around on me later on I completely failed to react properly and ended up tankslapping the other way with my foot jammed on the brakes. Yeah, I have no idea what I was thinking either…!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOtp4u63YtE&t=2s

And here’s Pete’s run, with his two cone-eating void runs afterwards. Suffice to say, we had a lot of fun :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UvJHCkYlBk&t=15s

Next up is Cadwell Park, the last event of the season, followed by a winter of tinkering while we decide where to go next. We already have a roll-cage lined up which is pretty high on the list to be sorted, along with a front splitter of some description to offset the BGW a little. Otherwise, who knows!
2001 BMW M5 (Bahnstormer) | 2004 RX8 231 (the Racecat) | 2001 Volvo V70 (Swedish eBay barge)

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craig
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by craig »

Well done lads! :thumleft:
monkeymax
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Re: Pete and Ben's Rotary Racer

Post by monkeymax »

Great write up! Well done both of you! :thumleft:
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