The RX8 as seen by the predator...
 

Got our new thermal imaging camera in. Gonna do some shots of the side vents and the engine and outside of the car.. anyone have any requests?

Get them in here before 2pm and I'll do them today. We own it so I can use it whenever we want. We are going to lunch in the rx8 so I can warm it up..

Take some pictures of the inside of the trunk. I want to know the coolest spot possible for my amps and for my ice box!

Oh and pics of the interior (driver and passenger seat). I want to know what can be done to keep things cooler in the cabin.

Yeah, the cabin cooking would be interesting to me. See what's going on to make my AC stuggle when supposedly it's "fine".

You know you need to hit those cupholders.

Drove the car to lunch and back, 20+ miles for warmup.

First the side vents...
http://208.219.69.31/rxpics/thermal/sidevents.jpg

The wheel and brakes
http://208.219.69.31/rxpics/thermal/wheel.jpg



Next the cup holders
http://208.219.69.31/rxpics/thermal/cupholder.jpg
http://208.219.69.31/rxpics/thermal/cupholder2.jpg

The trunk, I'll get the whole thing later.looks like I clipped the bottom hotter half.
http://208.219.69.31/rxpics/thermal/trunk.jpg

Engine with cover on
http://208.219.69.31/rxpics/thermal/enginecover.jpg

Engine without cover
http://208.219.69.31/rxpics/thermal/engine.jpg

Didn't have as long to do it as I hoped, we had to go and actually do some work right after lunch. I'll try and get some better pics before I leave tonight.

Haha, look at the cupholders -- 100º or so in those things.

Does this mean that the alternator is the hotter than the brake rotors?

The cupholders would have been hotter. I had a ice cold drink in the front one with the lid open. I'll drive around with it shut tonight and it will be much hotter.

The alternator was the hottest thing in the engine except the exhaust side. The side engine pics didn't come out very well. I was rushed just to do theses. I'll get some more later.

I knew my cupholders were a little warm but wow!

Just Awsome...!!
After all the serious quesiton pictures are taken a full body car shot after some spirited driving if you will hehe.. would look killa.

Mazda cracks me up with those cupholders.

Maybe I just can't find the coffee warmer off switch?

Holy crap, that shot of the engine cover would make a sweet sig pic. Interesting project man.

so the area around the dip stick is 170+

that's why I keep an oven mit it the trunk

ahhahaha boobs!

edit: first i didnt read your post and i scrolled down and saw the word "cup holders" and the pic... i thought they were bras... crap :rofl:
http://208.219.69.31/rxpics/thermal/cupholder.jpg

sntp has never seen boobies before

Hahaha Someone should send the one of the cup holders to Mazda.

look alot like the pics i took a few months ago... mine showed the side vents were useless as well

Thanks for taking the pics, going to enjoy the cupholders this winter, glad I drink coffee.

Awesome shots!
Can you take a shot of the area around the oil dipstick with the engine hot???
How about the exhaust pipes?

Beautiful thermal shots! I've always wanted to do that... best I could get myself was using an infrared thermometer all over the place and trying to imagine. The alternator thing is amazing... who would have guessed?

Great pics Aseras, very interesting stuff. Can you please clarify some details such as the ambient air temperature, a/c on or off, and was the car sitting in the sun before you went to lunch? I'm guessing it was pretty hot because the cup holder pic shows the seats being around 90 deg. I dont want to think about how hot the cup holders get with the cover closed!

Now that I think about it the cup holders being so hot in that thermal shot explains why condensation builds up so quickly on my Pepsi bottles. LoL.. again I'm looking forward to more shots, maybe afterward we can forward these to Mazda so they know we arnt crazy when we post this stuff.

Beautiful....
 

Great shots - how about the area of the oil filter?

...and a head on, idling with the a/c on? Just to see how hot those oil coolers get after a run, I'm betting they're the hottest thing on the front of the car.

S

The alternator is awesome. I never knew it was 230+ degrees on that thing. Damn, and when I touched the plastic coverings under the hood I thought they were burning hot...