Mazda PRO7 RX8
 

Mazda pro 7 racing is now introducing a RX8 class to runalong side the S1 and S6 cars in the IRC series.

Currently there are already 2 cars built and another oneunder construction.
(not including mine)



After speaking to one of the guys who has already built one and has it on track I decided to build one myself. The car is basically a standard Type S with safety gear and a few bits and pieces.



I imported a grade 4 (Good Condition) 2003 RX8 type S outof Japan which arrived a few days after new years. Importing a car ex jap cost approx half of what a dealer in NZ would ask for an equivalent car.



So far I have stripped the interior and removing thewiring.



Ill post some pics of the car as it is developed into a race car.

Feel free to give me any advice/ criticism as this is the first car build I have done.





https://www.rx8club.com/attachments/...o7-rx8-rx1-jpg

Awesome, I see some extra aero bits on that car as well that you could sell. Good luck with your build.

Sweet - look forward to seeing these on the track !

Hi There

Who did you use to buy the car in Japan and import it with through?
I have imported a car before and I used Tau, but they use to mainly deal with wrecks.
Any info would be great.

Will be good to see how the RX8's go against the RX7's.
Good luck
Thanks

Rotaman

And he has a potential buyer already lol

Explde64, where in NZ are u located?

Hi guys,
Im in Auckland. I got the through Import 2 Order. They sent me a list of all the cars up for auction each day and I said how much I was willing to pay for the ones I liked. After a couple of weeks looking and bidding I got this one. The 2003-2004 cars (which don’t meet NZ emissions laws) can be picked up for between $6.8K -$8.5K landed in NZ

The RX8 will be slower than the S6 as they will be about 100kg heaver, have less expensive suspension package and stock computer etc. Target cost is between $13k and $15k on track where the s6 RX7 cost between $35k-$60K so I am told.
They should be between the S1 and S6

One of the guys ran his RX8 at the Manfield IRC round a month or so back

There isn't any advantage going with anything other than the stock ECU because it is very powerful and can do most things better than anything aftermarket anyway - save perhaps a Motec.

I can see the weight thing as a major disadvantage - maybe that's where you need to spend some extra $ .
Power wise you may have an edge .

I have made a start on the wire removal.
Most of this wiring is for the AV/Sat nav.
I am removing all of it except for the Rear lights, screen heater, ABS sensors and Fuel Tank pumps/sensors. Which is only a hand full or wires.
The Air Bags have been removes so all the sensor wires from the seats and doors goes as well

https://www.rx8club.com/attachments/...119_135630-jpg

Make sure you keep us updated mate i'm pretty excited

Pro7 now have car specs for the rx8
Car Specs - New Zealand's Mazda RX-7 Racing Series

I have made some progress on my rx8 over the long weekend.
I romoved the wiring from the cabin and also removed the AC system.
As you can see I now have a lot of wires to remove from behind where the dash was.
https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1359356332

Now I have a hole in the fire wall I can hear a whining noise when the car is on but motor is not running, sounds like the throttle body servo, is this common?

Next weekend I have been told there will be one rx8 running at Hampton Downs with the Pro 7's
There should be one or 2 at the NZ gp meeting at Manfield the following week as well as 2 weeks after that at the IRC round.

With any luck others will see them run and we can get a few more built.

If any one is after RX8 interior parts check out Trade Me - Listings from explode64jj

awesome man, cant wait to see more progress an get down an watch some racing

I have made a bit more progress by removing the sound deadening from the car.
8kg of dry ice and half a bottle of thinner later the car looks much better,
Also ordered the roll cage kit.

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1360139444
https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1360139444

good stuff keep taking photos and keep us updated.

how many kg worth of sound deadening do you think you removed?

We removed buckets of the stuff from a friends S14, it's heavy shit

i would say 5kg ish i didn't weigh it so only guessing. the bin felt
heavy. also cut all the ac stereo and airbag wires out from behind the dash. all the weigh is starting to add up


Posted from Rx8club.com App for Android

nice work, my RE040's are so noisy on the road i began to think the RX8 didnt have any sound deadening..

roll cage kit? is it only a bolt in "kit" then for this series or full spec MANZ approved?

Cage is a full weld in cage. Racecraft engineering in CHCH make a kit and send it to you. All I need to do is have it notched and welded to the car.
It's a much cheaper option if you know people who are expert welders and have build cars before.

I have finally got around to fitting the seat.
On the weekend a friend and I cut the floor where the cat goes and stepped it to fit my race seat. In order to do this a new mid pipe had to be made. it's a bit ugly but we had to put in 2 steps to get around the gearbox and still keep clear of the new section of floor.

Looking good bro!!!

MORE PICTURES

Great work and yes more pics

Ill post up some more pic once I get them off my Phone. In the mean time I have started a Facebook page documenting the car build. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jacks...26596210776429
The idea behind the page is hopefully some more ppl will see it an get interested in building more Pro7 RX8's

Liked mate

Ditto. Good idea.

Hi Guys

Here is a few more pics of what me and my mate did over the weekend

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...81771127_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...95102046_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...26944736_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...53609479_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...41823968_n.jpg

I'm glad my RX8 is left hand drive because of how the exhaust is routed... be sure to put something like DEI Gold Reflect on the underside of that panel where the exhaust is routed and insulate the interior side of those panels. After a session on track I reached over to that side of the transmission tunnel to see how hot it really was, and burned the living shit out of the tips of my index and middle fingers. I'm almost positive that it will start to melt a fiberglass seat if placed too close to the tunnel without some sort of insulation. I don't recommend driving a right hand drive car with no interior without at least a 3 layer fire suit so you have some insulation from the heat as well.

Since it's for Pro7 races I would also look into getting a cool suit and run NACA ducts off the rear side windows for driver cooling.


Progress looks good so far man, keep it up and keep the updates coming in! Especially interested in the wire removal since that is something I've yet to tackle in my car.

ill keep a look out for that dei gold. I'm decimally going top run a nasa vent in the rear window. the plan we have come up with is to run a pipe with holes in it and run it along the tunnel to blue air along it. we will also all a louvre panel or air scoop to force air down the tunnel.

as for the wiring after i did the research on what can be removed it was easy but time consuming. i followed each wire back to the fuse box then removed it. i could/may remove a bit more and unplug from behind the fuses


Posted from Rx8club.com App for Android

of topic. is it possible to edit posts using the mobile app? my stupid word predict changed my post


Posted from Rx8club.com App for Android

Awesome RX-8, hows the build going?
Did you end up rewiring everything?

I am up to the stage where I need to put the cage in,
We plan to start that next weekend. I have the kit now we just need to notch and weld it in.

All I did was cut the un needed wires. I left the rest so no need to re wire.
removed all
Seat belts wires/ sensors/ coputer
AV system
Sat nav
Airbag

A few pics of the progress

More pics can be found on the facebook page i set up to document the build and generate some intrest for the class.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...26596210776429

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...08542208_n.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...type=3&theater
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...82374296_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...80231805_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...75231002_n.jpg

In regards to your latest photo of fb what is it?

Sorry I dont understand?
The pats in the pic?

this

Rain ligh, steering wheel quick release and 4 naca ducts

check out the gave book page for pics of the car with the cage in it. it is now having the interior painted.

I'm looking at getting a new clutch and flywheel. current thinking is a quatermaster 7.1/4 single plate and use a rx8 a automatic flex plate with customer flywheel centre (green brothers ultralight ). how does this sound?


Posted from Rx8club.com App for Android

can any one help me out. i am having a flex plate / clutch insert made as my flywheel as it Is much lighter than a flywheel. i will need to get some bolts to bolt it to the counter weight. how far does the thread need to go into the counter weight?


Posted from Rx8club.com App for Android

With a bit of research and some help from Barry at MRP I have put together a flywheel and clutch that is much better performing at a lower cost than those that you can buy off the shelf.
The flywheel is machine form billet and is just big enough to fit the 7.25’ Quartermaster Rally V drive clutch. Starting is taken care of by a FD rx7 flex plate
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...47389319_n.jpg

keen to know if you have the 2 oil coolers or just the one, and if it has one do you plan on upgrading the system,

mine is NZ new type S 2004 and just has the one oil cooler and im very worried about using it for the odd fun track day as even with 2 oil coolers on the later models the oil is temp is hard to keep down from what ive read

my car came with two oil coolers. in told that this must have been a optional extra because the other 4 rx8 race cars in the club only have a single oil cooler


Posted from Rx8club.com App for Android

oo ok so are they just running the stock single cooler then? or do you know if they have larger units?

I know one is running a after market twin set up. Don't know about the others.
Best thing to do is get a oil temp gauge and keep an eye on it.

I got my clutch and flywheel back today.
This is the first time I have had them side by side.
I'm hoping the flex plate fits inside the rx8 bell housing as it sits 7.5mm closet to the gearbox assuming the counterweight bolts back as far as the original flywheel.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...49596052_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...97309893_n.jpg

A quick update

I have the new clutch and flywheel set up in the car. I had to make my own thrust bearing as the old one was crap and the 7.25" clutch works better with a smaller bearing face.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...37241459_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...87071218_n.jpg

Good stuff Explode, I was wondering,seeing the difference in the height of the ring gears, will the manual starter have enough of teeth on the ring gear to engage properly ?

the starter motor doesn't fit any more. we had to space it out. currently I'm using 7.8mm worth of washers and it works. we will measure it up this weekend and have a spacer plate made that gives the max tooth contact. i have been told a auto stayer may work but have never measurers one.


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Had a look at this car recently - that clutch setup is amazing ! Never seen an 8 free rev like that before .

Do you have a vid (with good sound quality) of that single side dumpy exhaust?

I have a vid from my cell phone taken when we first installed it. but it was taken from inside the work shop. it sounds crap in the cell phone vid. after i have rewired the car I'll try get a good quality vid and post it on face book


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Ive got a vid of me reving the car from inside. Sounds crap on the vid as I took in on my phone again.
Ill try and post it up online later