Test and Tune

Yesterday was the "Test and Tune" event of the season. This it an event to set up your car for the season, not for points. I would not really know what to do at these events so, Jared was to take my RX-8 to tune it for me while I raced it the following day :).

The deal we currently have, involving my car, is that he can use it for SCCA autoX if he pays for wheels and tires. I thought it was a good deal, right?
So far this has worked, he got some light weight wheels and hoosier tires. He also has gotten a new alignment with a little bit of camber and caster. All I have really done is put in a K&N air filter for it. I guess that is all we have really done thus far.

Yesterday was a terrible day to try to tune my car. Although I did not sign up for the event, I went and co-piloted to get an idea of what one does to tune a car. Well, it started off raining. No, SCCA doesn't cancel for anything. So, we could not put the slicks on and could not get a very good feel of how it was handling for the first 1/2. But then a miracle happened and it was dry for about 2 hours. We put on the slicks and knocked 2 seconds off the current time. I had no idea tires made that much of a difference. Silly me.

Other things I learned are that I need to remember are to keep the traction control off and keep checking tire pressure. The tires get really hot causing the pressure to increase and we really don't want to blow up any tires :). Speaking of tires, DO NOT drive slicks anywhere other than the track. Jared thought it was a good idea to drive them 5 min home on the highway 'cause it was raining and got a screw stuck in one......:) No worries though, it is patched now.