An STX RX-8?! Chiketkd's 2010 STX thread!!!

[Chiketkd]

Originally Posted by SVXRide

Chike,
I was just going out on a limb and guessing that there were at least 3 tires that were at the top of your list. Did you read the tire test that was in Sports Car mag a couple of issues back?
-Bill

Yup. That was one of several articles that I read. I chose the tire I felt was best for my driving style and my car's set-up.

[92_LSL]

you shoulda got nitto nt05's. i love em'

[Chiketkd]

Originally Posted by 92_LSL

you shoulda got nitto nt05's. i love em'

They're a great track day tire, but require too much heat to work well in an autocross setting (~60 second runs).

[92_LSL]

you have a point !

[Chiketkd]

I did my first event in STX today -- a test & tune held by my local SCCA region. I co-drove with Gary, one of the better drivers in my region, whose previous experience was driving a decently prepped '00 camaro in ESP. Gary and I would typically PAX 3rd or 4th all of last season when I was still in B-stock (always within 1 or 2 places of each other).

Today's event was held at one of my local region's smaller lots, infamous for its bumps and a surface that has quite a bit of gravel in places. Not the best of lots for 2wd cars, and typically an awd car gets top PAX here.

My best time was a 48.204, while Gary got down to a 48.388. Only cars to go faster than us were a decently prepped Street Mod STi on hoosiers (47.9) and an ASP C6 Z06 (47.5). So I was top PAX for the event, while Gary was a close 2nd.

I found the car to be very well-balanced in my straight-out-of-the-box set-up! I had the front and rear shocks set to the middle setting of '5' for the first session. We both felt the front need a little more rebound, so I stiffened the shocks to the setting of '4' for the second session. The car felt even better, so around the end of the session, Gary suggested stiffening it up a little more, so I went to a setting of '3'. The car then picked up some power-on understeer in sweepers but was faster in transitional elements like slaloms. Times were basically the same (car was faster in some areas, slower in others), and when we went back to a setting of '4' in the front, the power-on push was gone once more. FWIW, we kept tire pressures consistent throughout the three sessions, as Technical Support at Hankook Tires was able to give me some good starting pressures to use.

One comment which Gary made that I felt really summed up the performance of these coilovers was that when driving through the bumpy section of the lot, the shocks soaked up these bumps very well w/o unsettling the car. The konis on his former ESP camaro did not.

So two thumbs up all around!

P.S. Tomorrow is Points event #1, and even more solid drivers will be in attendance. I'll see how things go as I'll have 5-6 other drivers in my class (including two WRXs). Gary is running my car in STU (as he wants points in that class since he just bought an E36 M3 that he's prepping for the class).

[Chiketkd]

I did my first points event in STX Sunday with my local SCCA region at the same lot as the Saturday test-n-tune. STX was one of the larger classes with a total of 8 cars including an '89 Civic Si, a co-driven WRX, and a couple of mustangs.

Gary ended up running with me in STX and he went first as my tire warmer. In terms of set-up, we ran pressures of 45F/43R and I went with the shock settings of 4F/5R.

After 1st runs, I was leading with a clean 55.9, while Gary was in 2nd with a 56.3. No one else in the class could match either of these times after 4 runs (closest was the civic si that got down to a 56.6 on his last run). However, Gary dropped his time to a 55.8 (clean), while I lowered mine to a 55.2 (clean). We both had faster runs where each of us just nicked one cone -- Gary had a 55.0+1, while I had a 54.4+1!!!

I finished 2nd in PAX, while Gary was 4th out of 84 drivers. The guy who took top PAX had a number of FTDs/FTPs last season in his decently-prepped Street Mod STi on hoosiers. STX also ran in the 1st heat on this dirty lot, while Street Mod ran later. However, if my 54.4 had been clean, I would have taken FTP...

Gary and I had a good talk afterwards about the handling of the car, and we both were in agreement that the car had absolutely no vices today. My set-up felt completely dialed-in for this lot. There was no power-on understeer, the car was very easy to drive at the limit, and the back-end rotated progressively when we wanted it to step out. However, we both felt that the front-end seemed to have a little more compliance/roll than the back-end. From the driver's seat, this felt like the front-end was slower to take a set than the back-end (especially in fast transitions e.g. slaloms). I'm thinking my new stiffer Swift springs will fix this issue, but those will be added after a few more events...

Summary:
1st of 8 in class
2nd of 84 in PAX

Results:
STX - Street Touring X
1t CHIKE DELLIMORE 2006 MAZDA RX-8 55.226 45.838 0.575
2t GARY KRICHBAUM 2006 MAZDA RX8 55.887 0.661 46.386 1.123
3t DAN KIMBER HONDA 56.681 1.455 47.045 1.782
4 DAVID LONNQUEST 2002 SUBARU WRX 58.367 3.141 48.445 3.182
5 STEFFEN CLARK 1984 PLYMOUTH COLT TURBO 59.580 4.354 49.451 4.188
6 DAVID MEYER 02 SUBARU WRX 61.967 6.741 51.433 6.170
7 BRIAN OETERS 2005 FORD MUSTANG 62.083 6.857 51.529 6.266
8 BRENNAN MCCRAY 00 FORD MUSTANG 64.580 9.354 53.601 8.338

Link: http://www.brr-scca.org/20100321.htm

Not many action pics are up yet, but here's two-

Gary


Myself

[Chiketkd]

Some more pics...





I must say I'm very impressed by the amount of shock travel that the Bilstein coilovers have. They really kept the car feeling very composed through the bumpier parts of the lot, and I never lifted an inside wheel (front or rear) on the grippier sections of the lot.

I'll see how she does on the high grip asphalt at Fedex stadium this coming weekend...

[LetItSnow]

Awesome. Stop by at Seneca this summer! I'll be there.

[Chiketkd]

Originally Posted by LetItSnow

Awesome. Stop by at Seneca this summer! I'll be there.

I doubt I'll be at the Finger Lakes NT this year -- might do the Peru NT instead to see how my set-up does on an all-concrete site.

[Chiketkd]

This past weekend I did the Test & Tune event with the WDCR. STX ran in the last heat of the day under overcast skies with temps in the upper 50's. My Hankook RS-3's need heat to work, so I knew the car would handle a little differently this time around.

The course design was by Lee Piccione and was filled with slaloms and offset gates. There were many cones being called in, and I knew running clean would be an issue.

My first run was okay - I carried too much speed into a couple showcase turns/sweepers, and I hit one cone in the downhill offset gates. My time of 61.6+1 lead the class by over 6 seconds (despite the cone penalty). On my second run I carried more speed in the slaloms, but hit 2 cones in the downhill offset gates. Aargh!!! I improved my raw time to a 61.0+2, but still had to stand on my first run. I had a big slide/semi-spin on my third run and took out a number of cones, and my 65.6+5 was of no help. On my 4th and final run, I went for it, but was a dirty boy - 61.2+5.

So in all, I hit 13 cones in 4 runs, and despite these troubles, I won my class by just over 1 second. If my 61.0 had been clean, I would have finished 26th in PAX. I definitely struggled with the lack of grip, and for the first time had wheelspin on corner exit. The car still handled very predictably, and even when I lost traction, I was able to keep catch the car 9 times out of 10.


Summary:
1st out of 5 in class
64th out of 178 in PAX

Results:
'Street Touring X' - Total Entries: 5 Times Total
1T 90 Chike Dellimore 2006 Mazda Rx-8 Grey 61.616+1 61.076+2 65.603+5 61.219+5 [63.616]
2T 39 Paul Evans 2002 Mini Cooper S Blue/White 67.466+4 64.780+3 63.973+2 64.667 [64.667]
3 13 Scott Bell 2007 Vw Gti Red 74.053 69.738 69.235 68.858 [68.858]
4 7 Charlie Turner 2009 Ford Mustang Grabber Orange 78.019 74.858 73.505 73.032 [73.032]
5 41 Robert Bartholomew 2009 Subaru Wrx Gray 81.806 74.723 75.467+DNF 75.214+DNF [74.723]

There were no pics taken of my class, but here's a few additional pics I came across from the Blue Ridge event a week earlier:

Talking to Adam before the event


At the line, waiting to run


Sweeper

[Chiketkd]

I had my second event with with my local Blue Ridge region today. Course was a longer one for the BRR region (~60 seconds) on one of our bigger lots with elevation changes. I won my class (5 drivers) and finished 2nd out of 76 in PAX. The guy that won FTP was one-out-of-the-trophies in FSP at Nats last year.

In terms of set-up, as temps were in the mid 70's, I tried some lower pressures - started at 40F/38R cold, and maintained 43F/41R hot. Tires felt quite grippy but not as grippy as the first event when I had a co-driver. I went with a front shock setting of 4, and a rear setting of 5. On my last run, I tightened up the front to a setting of 3.

Car felt well-balanced, but I was getting a little wheel spin on corner exit. I feel like there's a little too much dive under braking which is causing my inside rear wheel to loose contact with the pavement.

Summary:
1st of 5 in class
2nd of 76 in PAX

Results:
STX - Street Touring X Pax: 0.830
1t CHIKE DELLIMORE 2006 MAZDA RX-8 58.099 48.222
2t DAN KIMBER 1991 HONDA CIVIC SI 60.589 2.490 50.289
3 STEFFEN CLARK 1984 PLYMOUTH COLT TURBO 62.787 4.688 52.113
4 MARK HOUGLUM 06 HONDA CIVIC SI 62.862 4.763 52.176
5 BRIAN OETERS 2005 FORD MUSTANG 63.449 5.350 52.663

Here are some pics of the car in action:

[Chiketkd]

My next event is points event #1 with the WDCR region this coming Sunday. I'm going to try the lower cold pressures again, along with a front shock setting of '3' and a rear shock setting of '4'. Hoping the extra rebound will keep the rear end planted until I can find the time to swap in the stiffer front springs.

Once the springs are swapped, I plan on getting the car professionally aligned -- as I'm still on a garage alignment.

[Chiketkd]

I did Points event #1 with the DC region Sunday. STX ran in the morning, when temps were in the mid 50's, skies cloudy and a cool breeze was blowing. To make things even more interesting, about 50% of the lot was recently re-sealed and was VERY slick in these cooler temps! The 2wd cars were struggling to put any power down (even on the straights) while awd had a solid advantage.

I ran pressures of 39F/37R which felt good in these cooler conditions, however, my initial shock settings of 3F/4R were too stiff. Car was skating over the surface on my first run. Softened the fronts by two clicks and the rear by one, and that improved things greatly. I ended up third in class behind two solid drivers who were co-driving a well-developed WRX (both drivers have multiple trophies in STX at Tours and Pro Solos in the car).

For the morning session, the STX class winner (Travis) PAX'd in the top ten, while his co-driver (John) was 18th and I was 20th. Speaking to my friend who ran in the afternoon, temps got warmer and the sun came out, which improved the grip of the lot significantly. We all tumbled in overall PAX due to this...


Summary:
3rd out of 8 in class
70th out of 236 in PAX


Results
'Street Touring X' - Total Entries: 8 Trophies: 3 Car Color Times Total
1T STX 107 Travis Finlay 2003 Subaru Wrx Blue 59.715 57.550 56.758 56.605 56.605 -
2T STX 7 John Willemin 2003 Subaru Impreza Wrx World Rally Blue 61.693 58.110 57.432 62.806 DNF 57.432
3T STX 90 Chike Dellimore 2006 Mazda Rx-8 Grey 62.352 66.645 66.430 57.789 57.789
4 STX 13 Barrett Hill 2004 Subaru Wrx Silver 68.630 59.266 59.136 58.972 58.972
5 STX 57 Matthew Mero 1994 Bmw 325Is White 66.267 1 61.554 2 60.459 1 59.060 59.060
6 STX 39 Paul Evans 2002 Mini Cooper S Blue/White 60.092 DNF 63.775 3 59.724 61.191 1 59.724
7 STX 16 Derek Vlcko 2005 Subaru Wrx Crystal Gray Metallic 63.886 1 62.604 63.002 DNF 60.418 60.418
8 STX 1 Charles Bernard 2002 Lexus Is300 Graphite Gray 66.762 61.840 DNF 64.120 64.029 64.029


A few pics from Sunday's DC event:






One of my spins caught on camera...

[Myxalplyx]

Nice ride and pics Chike! Looks like you are having a lot of fun. Like those Enkei wheels too. Believe it or not, I have a 16" set on my RAV4. I hope you continue to do well in your racing. Will be watching.

[Chiketkd]

Thanks Kevin. Looks like your RAV4 has run some pretty insane times in the 1/4 mile!