Speedhunters - A Turbo Series II Pandem Kitted RX8's Road to SEMA
 

Not sure who frequents this site, but thought this was a pretty interesting article. Discuss!

Deadline Set: Taking An RX-8 From Stock To SEMA - Speedhunters

It seems to me like one of those builds that was designed to make teenagers jizz their pants over and I guess it achieves that goal pretty well .

I didn't realise they changed the engine to the bridgeported one before the event. That hasn't been mentioned before . I guess turning up with a blown engine wasn't going to cut the mustard.
I doubt we will ever get results for that new engine if my experience with bridgeporting is anything to go by.

I dont care for the pandem kit at all, but I thought the article was interesting. I was also surprised to read that Turblown was involved, as I have heard lots of negative comments about them over the years. I was also surprised to read the Renny was kept, I fully expected a car like this was going to have some sort of swap.

19 PSI !!! with stock internals?

My rebuild engine has more upgrades that this car and I am planning to go for 12psi boost.

AFAICT, builds like this aren't so much about doing good mods or building a good car. They're mainly about being unique and superficially interesting to some audience or another.

They did say it uses E85. Will you?

Also, pretty safe bet they don't care too much about longevity...

Well it worked for me, although I wouldn't have made the same choices this builder did, I still found the article interesting. Part of that could be that its an RX8 though, and RX8 content tends to be hard to come by.

True that!

I guess you guys didn't read the article to see my list of builds... or my RX7.

sometimes I wonder what our community would be like when instead of bashing or leaving commentary on builds they don't really know anything about.

if we provided insight to each other... dyno sheets, fuel, timing, oem setup info, built engine info, communicate to further our community or people that actually want to push the boundaries of whats possible when there's less than a handful have actually attempted anything like this...

Doing cool Renesis builds just because you can? Especially with so many routes from 2JZ or REW swap? All been done before.

But hey I guess there'd be hate when you spend as much as an engine rebuild or the entire aero kit on details as silly as titanium wing stands right? :rollingla

Exactly why I didn't create build threads on either of my cars... I shouldn't have built my FD for 10 years and the RX8 should've just been bolt ons and a body kit? Come on. lol.

Fair rebuke. Thanks for posting.

Would you care to share, in your own words, what your philosophy was for this car?

The article does a decent job of describing the build, and your attention to detail on the appearance/aero bits -- but it doesn't convey much about how or why you made any of the other decisions about the car, and it says very little about how the car actually drives. It'd be great if you could fill in some of the blanks left by the authors.

As one of those people who have done exactly what you mention here I concur 100% !
However , I'm not seeing the same details from you ?

Just to add : if the engine did blow (as has been suggested) there is no shame in that . I've done it multiple times (and so have others) trying to make power on this thing! The problem is ,no company that is profit orientated wants to admit it and thus we are all kept in the dark and don't progress.

If anyone followed my RX7 build and story.. you'd know about why I did this car. Mainly because outside of swaps or drift industry friends... no one has done anything like this in this vein for a street car. It's the little brother to my RX7 which is my primary build..the only difference is motor and the interior isnt full carbon (yet). Aside from Mike sharing the rendering during my time with the team over last season in Japan... this would be the first complete Pandem RX8. Uniqueness for me...no one had previously tried to do a Renesis II in this vein OEM or Built with OEM functionality/drivability. Quite literally taking a 70K mile used car I bought 1.5 weeks before on the dyno to see what can be done was fun. We literally studded it and upgraded the clutch... thats it. Over 100 passes in 24 hours in this configuration. I'm super proud of what we've done.. because we could've easily went REW or 2JZ. When most people would think this is daunting to A...complete a full color change/body kit install in 4 weeks ontop of custom complete build... ontop of a custom motor build... Provide feedback to the aero manufacturer for 2 other builds (1 in USA, 1 in Japan) simultaneously and complete in time for SEMA. This is casual if you've seen or read about my previous builds (aside from my personal RX7).

In fact, there's another REW swapped car that is installing the same body kit..that still isn't complete after 5-6 months.

With my personal history.. there is no way I would be taking this car to shows and events without also swapping to the motor built to my specs to coincide with my RX7. 4 IDX 1750's, Twin Walbro 450lph's in a surge tank, 350lph in tank, Borgwarner 9174... do you really think these modifications were made for the short term? 408whp? This setup supplies considerably more fuel than my 550whp RX7 (previous daily)... Think broader or just follow the IG.

Like I said... Build IG instead of a build thread... it's all there. Instead lazy salty people discredit on fb and forums. I'm busy taking this car to cars & coffee or the beach. Company for profit? what company do I work for out of any reflected on the RX8? Am I a shop? If you knew anything about my other build or career... Passion over profit. I live in a studio apartment and work 4 jobs to afford both of my builds. Why would I care to share anything with rude people after the fact. Search. Info's out there.

On the contrary.. some of the most vocal people opposing are followers of competing shops. I don't work for Lucky 7.. I've been a customer/friend for 10 years after being ripped off by countless other popular ones. So of course there'd be disinformation and hate. Meanwhile you guys are upset about negative experiences with Turblown... like I said in another post. I haven't experienced that.. and its 2018. I'd like to think Elliot would remedy them... as believing in my project and flying across the country/leaving his kids just for a base map out of his pocket is one of the coolest gestures anyone has ever done.

Hope other people that have the budget are down to push and take it further when everyone else has dropped the ball or given up. Take care.

I hate the car and what you claim to do on a dyno means nothing to me. But there is no disinformation, the car speaks for itself or it doesn't. And Elliot is shady, that is a proven fact regardless of how opportunistic, or cool you think he is to you.

And by Build IG, do you mean your Instagram page for the car?

Am I lazy for not following you on instagram or are you lazy for not posting information here? Actually I didn't even know what you meant by 'IG' till today ..lol

That's exactly what I have done ...only to find that the engine is inherently flawed in a way that makes high whp (over 400) unsustainable . Have a read of my build thread.

I'm not sure if you are implying that you think you can use all that fuel with the Renesis ? If so .... you are dreaming . Or are looking to put another engine in there to make a lot more power ?

I think he means his IG page for the car, @trmnl8 I think, which is just a bunch of pics of the car, there are no build details there.

But maybe there is some super secret build log somewhere on "IG" that we are supposed to find.

So looking back at my earlier post, I can see how it might look like I was alleging that you didn't care about parts quality. That wasn't my intent, but I can see how it came across that way and it's clearly not true, so I apologize.

My main point was that this build (like most SEMA builds) seemed to be more about uniqueness and appealing to certain aesthetic and technical preferences, and less about pure function. What you write here seems to confirm that.

It also seems like you're perceiving a lot of reflexive hate here, and you're pushing back on it. I'm 100% with you on that, and I sure as shit won't defend the vitriol. At the same time, if people declined to do thorough research on your build history or web presence before commenting, or if they just aren't feeling the build, that's not in the same category.

All-in-all, I'm glad you made something you feel good about. As you say, it's always an asset when people in the community share what they've done, so I hope you continue to share details about what you've done. Regardless of people's opinions on the build as a whole, I'm sure any insights you can provide will find an appreciative audience here.

I also want to state that while not everything on this car is 100% to my taste that isnt a knock on the car at all. I was just happy to see someone still putting time, money, and effort into the RX8 platform and legitimately thought people here would be interested in reading about the details of the build.