How come all the other Regional Forums have hundreds of posts... Where is everyone in the Northwest at? I'd hate to be the only one on the road up here.. hehe.. C'mon... where is everyone! I KNOW you aren't outside enjoying the sun..

 

first let me say Welcome Aboard and where the hell is Bremerton? thanks for the post. i know there must be more people out there, i keep waiting for the first flamer so i can get out my moderatin' stick. we can't all be nice can we?

 

You're not!!! Although I know how you feel. I'm a diehard Rotary fanatic, but few people seems to care - although they are polite about it:D I'm in Tacoma, but belong to the RPNW Club in Portland (I go about 9 times a year- I have an office down there)
Welcome to all!

Brad

 

Hello NW'ers!!

I think theres more of us here, we're just the quiet bunch:D

Ill be jealous when I see you passing me on the freeway, I wont be able to purchase till next summer.

Edit for spelling

 

strange how i'm a SW'er, but further north than you guys??? :D

 

well, I guess I'm not alone up here! good to know I won't be all alone on the road...

 

Representin' Kent, WA here! Actually I'm a Honda owner :o

 

that's allright none of us yet own the car we are all talking about. welcome aboard

 

That's okay, just look at the RX-8 as a way to redeem your soul... :D

 

I'm a low-volume poster, but read everyday...

I think volume of posts was higher when we were in the speculation phase, then it peaked when the auto shows and order process happened earlier this year.

Now we are in that waiting phase... Maybe in March or April some lucky Japanese car buyer will post his experiences...

(and I'm living in Auburn/Bonney Lake, WA)

-ss

 

Hey I'm here 2. too damn broke to pre-order a rx8 though. I just keep telling myself, 'only 16 months of college left'. Then it will be time to add some more RX to the driveway.

 

Just got out of college and thought this might be a good way to spend all that expendable income now that I'm not getting ripped off by UCLA hehe. My Mom's moving up into OR and I was wondering if there's different tax laws applied to vehicle purchases or if there's no sales tax involved period. $25 for four years of vehicle reg sounds too damn good to be true i might add (considering I'm paying $120 A YEAR on a HONDA CIVIC for crying out loud...thanks to Gov. Joe "Gray area" Davis that's set to triple in the next year or so...sooooo since I'll have an OR address now I hope that all I've heard is true ihopeihopeihope) Anyway, thought I'd say hey considering I'll be ripping up I-5 periodically now... or flying low if that Eaton-Roots S/C kit comes out the way it should hehe. Any news from the Great North West would be welcome, thanks much.
Cheers!:D

 

Well, Oregon does not have a sales tax, I'm not sure if this applies to Automobile purchases though. Zoom44, any info on this?

Anyways, welcome to the NW... hope you have a good jacket.. :-) It's a little cooler than L.A. Where abouts you from down there? I grew up in Fontana, then moved up here for the Navy. Not too happy about it though.. gotta get back to the sun.

 

no sales tax period! cars included. it's saving me a good deal of money right of the bat. i'm pretty sure that the vehicle reg is going to go up some but not like what they have done in cali. air america did you mean to say that your putting th esupergarger on the civic?

 

I'm from Fullerton, which is Southwest of Fontana and just North of the People's Republic of Disneyland. My Mom's moving up near Medford/Grant's Pass and I'm looking for a new place now that I'm out of school. I've been rafting and cliff diving on the Rogue, familiar with Portland, but mostly with the back roads into ID, where the rest of her fam lives (...and not a cop in sight...)

No Sales tax sounds good, about $2400 good considering the stickers I've seen thrown around on here. :D I've been told that Vehicle Reg lasts about 4 or 5 years for around 25 bucks, which compared to here saves about $175 to $525 a year, depending on what our fearless...and mindless... leadership in Sacramento decides to do next. Spread out over the life of the car I could use that to mod about as much as I'd ever want to, which isn't a lot considering the inherent rigidity and lightweight that will make this car so much fun to drive through the twisties.

The 94 Si I've had since high school would be a fun platform to mod, but I've been paying paying paying my way through college and never got around to it. Besides, everybody else down here already has two, I'm ready for something a little different. I've seen some promising S/C kits for the Renesis already from makers like Stillen (and nobody trying to force a centrifugal on the market means they're actually taking the process seriously hehe), we'll see how the fit and finish comes out on those (three words Low End Torque!)

 

I definately know fullerton, used to work at the KC mill there... for about a year or so... then joined the navy... oh well... can't win em all.. Anyways, where'd you get the info that stillen was trying to make a SC kit? I haven't heard much about aftermarket stuff for the 8 yet (which isn't really surprising)

 

I know someone will eventually say that a high revving motor like the Renesis will mean trouble for a belt driven S/C...but if a vacuum bypass system works on the low end of a good system to allow it to pass CARB smog tests, why not one to bleed off the system at the high end before overboosting/lean mix/fuel shutoff becomes a problem? this block should take 10-12 psi of boost...which is more than you'd ever need to shut down even the most determined STREET LEGAL competition given the massive power to weight ratio you'd be looking at. I have always wanted to build a car that will shut down a GT2 for about $150k less hehe. I think this car will be a nice lesson in humility for all those pretentious Euro-fops who buy a car for a quarter mil and then live in constant fear of opening it up on the highway IMHO:p
Sure that 575 Maranello sports a 515bhp V12...but it's pulling 3815lbs of automobile. Car & Drivers' RX-8 test car weight? 2940 :D hmmmm can an 8 top 400bhp? wouldn't count it out given the astronomical power/weight numbers put out by the FD series cars. Gearing's going to be a big test between sports cars like this, but the featherweight 8 I think should handle giant engine import autos quite nicely through twisties.

 

what's this about stillen? tell tell:D

 

I've heard this talked about a couple times on the forum, why would the higher rev's have any impact on the supercharger? All it takes is a larger pulley on the blower to keep it spinning in range. As long as the blower is large enough to push more air than the engine can suck on its own, you're in there. I did all the calculations in a seperate thread, but the numbers seem to work out just fine. The beauty of a pos. disp. blower is that the airflow/rpm curve is linear, as is the renesis, so the boost would remain virtually constant (with the exception of variations due to less intercooling at higher flow rates). The bypass on a blower is simply to make the car more efficient when the blower is not in use, it is not a blow-off valve, though, if you are worried about overpressuring the system, a blowoff valve COULD be used i suppose... personally, I'm not worried, as long as you use the right gearing ratios, its all good.

 

Exactly, thanks CraziFuzzy for backing me on this I couldn't understand either why a linear disp blower had become such a big deal in some threads. the two key advantages to belt blowers are linear boost (no spooling of turbos or centrifugal s/c means off the line smooth low end torque and everyday driveability) and low heat retention versus exhaust powered turbos (sharing engine oil with a manifold mounted turbo is the real reason seals in fd engines gave out, just too much heat staying in the system and dicey timing/detonation melted em out, it wasn't pressure)
The following from http://www1.mazdausa.com/mazdaspeed/...ne_renesis.asp

"Low Emissions

Due to their configurations, rotary engines produce less nitroxide (NOx) than reciprocating piston engines, but they also tend to produce large amounts of unburned hydrocarbons. The side exhaust layout used in the RENESIS prevents unburned hydrocarbons of the combustion chamber housing from escaping to the exhaust ports.

Instead, they are carried over and burned in the next combustion cycle, dramatically reducing emissions. In addition, air injection directed into the combustion chamber increases the efficiency of the exhaust reaction, significantly over Mazda's existing system during engine startup. Together with the double-skin exhaust manifold, the new layout makes the exhaust much hotter when it reaches the catalytic converter, speeding the converter reaction for clean emissions from the moment the engine is started".

Note that the Renesis is designed to create hotter exhaust gases than the FD platforms, something to be cautious of when considering that turbo (which kept all the heat in the ill fated FI 7s, you won't be able to cut corners on fuel management or cooling (engine and oil).
Happy modding, but keep that motor protected

 

friend showed me a page where a mod shop was testing a s/c I'll see if I can find it. basically it would sit near the firewall under the cross tower brace just like the pic in the FI post forum (he's got an area circled) the hood was modified though, (that teardrop near the windshield was bigger so the hood would clear it). I'm hoping they'll figure out how to keep a more stock look. not that this car would be considered a sleeper...unless i was hunting Porsches hehehe:D

 

Hi everybody,

I finally registered after browsing the forum as "Guest" for the past few months. Thought I'd say hello to the other NW-ers on the board as my first post.

I've always liked Mazda's cars. Or maybe I just like to stick with what I've known. I learned to drive on a 1987 323 DX, came out of college (Hello fellow UCLA Bruin, Air America!) with a 1991 Protege LX, and traded that in for the 2000 Protege ES in my garage today.

Unlike the luckier members of the forum, I can't afford to get the RX-8 at (or near) launch. The fiscally responsible plan indicates that I'll trade in the 2000 Protege for a RX-8 sometime early 2005.

But then, I had thought I'd trade in the 1991 Protege for a 2002... until one day I just decided I wanted a new car, moved up the schedule, and to hell with fiscal responsibility. For better or worse - it could happen again!