I ordered the fender strakes from rx8strakes.com. hopefully they look good. I will let ya know. Has anyone else got some, i know i have seen a post about it, but i want to know if anyone in the NE forums bought any.

Also has anyone bought any of those piggy back units off of ebay for like 50 bucs? I bought one to see how it was thinking about installing it. Let me know what you all think.

 

I got my strakes from Trussville. I like the way they make the car look.

Q: Piggy back units? Wuzzat?

 

a piggy back unit is an addtl computer that attaches to the stock ecu circuit and causes the ECU to think that one thing is one way but it is actually different. (ex. real intake air temp is 150 degrees but the piggy back makes the ecu look like it is higher or lower.)

 

did i cover it guys, if not clear it up, cause if you flame my response i will remove your existance.

 

Dont waste your money on that its BS!!!

 

WHich "that" do you mean? This that, or the other that?

I'll have you know that my strakes add at least 5 hp...

 

I ment the that chip on ebay , I also got the strakes they look pretty good for the price

 

so why do you say not waste the money?

 

the $50 chips are terrible hacks that don't work. the rx8 ecu is very complex and no way does a simple resistor to fool the reading at all times is going to do the trick. that, plus, if it actually fools it, you can get in a situation where you way too rich or, worse, way too lean, causing detonation and bad things happen to your engine.

greddy emanage units are $500 units that adjust inputs to the ECU and they still require a lot of tuning and programming to throttle position and RPM. even those units fall prey to the "too smart" rx-8 ECU, so that now serious tuning requires full override of the ECU fuel/ignition controls, instead of fooling w/the inputs.

so, that's why you don't want that $50 unit messing with your intake inputs.

p.s. sorry for poor grammar, too long of a workday (still at work)

 

One of the guys down here tried a cheap piggy-back and after a brief, rough run, the car wouldn't start. He finally got it running again. I don't recall for sure, but I think it smoked a fuse. Don't go there.

I got the strakes and they're well-constructed, but the paint on mine could be smoother. From any distance at all, it's not noticeable. For the price, it's a good deal.

 

great response. That is the kind of responses that are necessary. not dont buy that shia it sucks...

 

Ah, okay. Yeah, I gotta admit, you have to be pretty careful on eBay. A lot of stuff advertised there is just trash.

 

i got my strakes put on last night. Check this before and after pictures.

before strakes


after


car

 

Are those Sunlight silver strakes? They looks very close to the mazda aluminum strakes. Hmm.... These might actually match well with my pearl finish fuel door...

 

I just bought a pair from RX8Strakes.com off of ebay...I can't wait until they get here. I've been waiting for him to list another set for a while.

 

These are stainless steel strakes with a polished mirror finish. Unlike the Mazda AL strakes, these are not affected by water and salt, etc.

 

I thought all the strakes by RX8Strakes.com are plastic and painted to match the body color. Howard on eBay makes them in stainless steel. Did you get them from him? He is in the UK. Thanks.

 

got them from howard

 

just put mine on. They are pretty good. I have no complaints about them at all. Plus they are lite so a bump wont take them off.

 

got mine from howard too.

only wish they were thicker as oem strakes. but looks good still

 

The "polished" finish needed work on mine. I polished them with Meguires Scratch-X, a very light-weight polishing compound. Made a big difference.

The left, top strake (the one you see the most!) is about a 1/16" shorter than the others. You get over it after about a week. I also was un-impressed with the double sticky tape sent with the kit. I used 3M, from the local NAPA store. Also, carefully scrape off the paint and primer from the area you install the tape on or it lifts the paint off and doesn't do what it was intended to do.

cc

 

They are held on with doublesided sticky tape, or am I missing something?

I thought they were bolt on.

 

The original Mazda ones were bolt-on with tape to keep them from turning. The later ones (available from Trussville Mazda) don't use tape. They have a diamond-shaped post that keeps them straight. DON'T get the tape-on ones!

See this post for description:
https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...7&postcount=69

 

The RX8Strakes ones are fastened with a single screw and use tape to keep them from rotating.

 

Ok, complete novice question here: do these strakes do anything, or are they just supposed to look cool?

Krankor
05 Shinka 6MT