Sapphonica

I am thinking about putting a Racing Beat flywheel in my 8, but wonder if the gain in lower-gear acceleration has a downside.

For those of you who've done this for a street application, does your car coast down too quickly at low speeds and/or require more finesse going up/down hills in city driving...not sure if these would exactly be the bad things one might see with less rotational inertia, but surely there must be some reason why Mazda didn't put a 12 # flywheel in the car to begin with?

Thanks.

Fanman

I have the SR Motorsports unit (though I probably would have gotten the RB if I hadn't gotten a screaming deal on the SR one. In my opinion the biggest downside is that sometimes the engagement of gears is a bit light, leading to stalling. Embarrassing a bit, but not to bad. other than that no drivability issues whatsoever. No issues with coasting, you do have to rev tha car a bit from complete stop, more so than when it had a regular flywheel.

Jaguar_MBA

I have th RB flywheel...no issues at all with street applications......It is one of the best mods you can do short of Forced induction or Nitrous.

shaunv74

I also have the RB flywheel and think it's just fine. No problems at all up hill and no coasting issues. You have to use a little more gas to keep the revs up starting up in 1st but it's a small adjustment that takes no time to get used to. I love the performance gain and most people that drive it or ride in it don't notice anything different either. I say go RB! :D

dvcn

Installed the Racing Beat aluminum flywheel about a year ago. It's been great. This is one of the few modifications that has no downside other than cost. It gives better performance, does not hurt gas mileage and will actually make your transmission/driveline last longer (due to lower inertia/shock loads). It makes driving the 8 so much more fun.

I'm not sure why there are so many driveability myths out there. The only complaint I've heard out of an aluminum flywheel owner was why they hadn't done it sooner.

rx-81688

I also ordered the RB flywheel, and it came in about a month ago, did't have time to install yet, but plan to do it this weekend, and tips that i need? after all that good stuff u guys talk about the RB flywheel i feel good that i have it. Thanx

WidGet

Which one would u guys recommend? The RB flywheel or the unorthodox racing flywheel?

sleeepyhead

i have a rb flywheel in my rx-7 and noticed the easier stalling and harder 2 start from a hill and stuff and didnt feel any power gain at all. I thought i just wasted my 400 dollars and a lil bit of the car's drivability just to make my car rev faster at idle until i learned how to heel toe downshift. A faster and smoother heel toe downshift seems to be its only performance gain but is actually well worth it. Then again after a day with it installed i drove it just as easily as i drove the stock flywheel, got used to it so now theres no negatives other than price

cretinx

They're not myths. Racing Beat probably got it right this time without going overboard on lightness (as they tend to do with all their products - not extreme, just right).

I had a Celica GT-S and put a Fidanza 5.7 lb flywheel in there - it basically ruined the car for street applications.

RX4life

^^^5.7lbs are you sure????

thats ridiculous.. i dont even think race cars have that light a wheel.

did you have to rev it to like 5K rpms just to launch the car off 1st gear .. and i cant imagine driving on hills ...

dvcn

You need to go drive an 8 without an aluminum flywheel then report back.

Phlash

I have the MazdaSpped flywheel. For the $ it's probably one of the best mods I've made. Not only comes alive after 4k but also spins down quicker. Stalled it a couple times when new, but now, it's just easy sailing....

cretinx

Yes.

5.7 lbs.

It was hellish.

lethologica

My service guy told me it just makes the car easier to stall. He says he has got one in his Focus, he loves it but every so often when he isn't paying attention... It will just stall.

Does anyone have any idea how much this increases HP at the rear wheels? What is the drive train percent loss after installation?

MadDog

Your service guy must be the worst stick-driver ever!

I ran some numbers not too long ago. I made some assumptions which I won't bore you with, but they seem pretty reasonable because substituting the REAL, stock numbers into my equations gave 220 HP at the crank which is what people seem to be getting on dynos. Anyway, according to my simulation the HP realized at the rear wheels is only slightly different with a light flywheel. I'm talking 2-3 HP max - and that's if you had a FW with zero rotational inertia, which is unobtainable! You have to realize that the inertia of the FW is about 1% of the total inertia of the vehicle. So, loosing that 1% inertia gives you a 1% gain in the apparent power that can be used to propel the vehicle forward - 1% of 220 is 2.2HP.

That being said, I have a MS flywheel and love it. I wish I had gone with the lightest one I could find.

-MD

cretinx

flywheels don't give horsepower, they make it easier for the engine to spin.

MadDog

that's why I said "apparent power". lightend flywheels are just a way to reduce drive train losses. more of the available power from the engine can be used spinning the wheels instead of the mass of the flywheel.

rx8wannahave

I too want to add a flywheel at some time in the future but I thought going light was a good thing. What I mean is, I guess there is a point where you really should not go any lighter. RB states that the stock flywheel is about 16+ pounds while their flywheel is about 12 pounds. I was going to go with another company (in the future) because their flywheel was 10 pounds and cost a little less, but I guess taking off too much is not a good thing. Do you all think 10 pounds might be taking off too much?

Also, to be honest I think I might stay away from doing the flywheel since it sounds like it's a major operation and I don't think I have the skills to do such a big job (nor good tools).

Thoughts...

Mzdarx8

I just had one installed tuesday. Pettit racing did the install on a 8.5lb. aluminum. Cost about 450.00 for labor. As far as weight Cam said the lighter the better! (quote). Driving is easy. You can launch with very little throttle maybe 1500k to roll. The revs are the best part! You can sit at a light and rev up to 7k and back down in maybe 2 seconds. Awesome response!

Hope this helped!

socalightning

My 8 drives better with the RB flywheel! Not much of a downside at all. Mazda should have installed one in every 8.