#TBT: Hellenic RX8 Club Trackday 2018

Back on 2017, during a coffee break at the local racing circuit (Serres Racing Circuit), a decision was taken. The following year will find the little rolla racing, not spectating. As you understand, this decision quickly scaled to an enormous... problem, as the little rolla was (until then) a full, road-legal car for my transportations. In order to race it needed work, MUCH work. 

The challenge was accepted. The first parts, if I remember well, were the suspension springs. Built by MotorQuality, they lowered the chassis by four centimeters and improved the feeling of the car. In order to handle it better, a small RAID 3-spoke steering wheel was used and also, a replica Mugen S1 bucket seat helped me feel better while turning with much more speed, feeling that (until then again) was quite... unknown. The car already had bigger front brakes, taken from an EE111 G6 Corolla, quite new KYB Excel-G shocks (NOT suitable for fast driving!) and some basic gauges for oil checking. So, the next step was more power, as the 2E-E engine was quite slow for a trackday. 

Weeks before the trackday, the new engine was found. Taken from an EL54 Paseo, the 5E-FE remains until today the power unit of the whole project. Swapped as mentioned here and fully repaired, it is believed to produce around 100hp and move the 900kg car quite fast. 

The big day came and still, much work and stuff needed. We raced with road tyres (Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance) on 14-inch wheels, so the lap times were slow, but also useful for gaining experience for the following years. Our best lap time was 1.50.471 and the day ended without damage. 

  

[Photo Credits: Carhub Photography, Hunter Action Photography]