Project RX-8 at HIN-LA
03-24-2008, 07:01 PM
#11
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My Enkei RPF1s are 19"x8.5" and weigh just 19.6 lbs each. With no tire pressure sensor installed, you can do the math quickly on the weight savings!
The "park bench" is from Extreme Dimensions. I felt the car needed a longer look at the rear than most of the current "made for the RX-8" wings available. A guy in a Lotus Elise actually rolled up to me on the freeway on the way home Sunday and told me I had the "best setup RX-8 he'd ever seen" (slow portion of the freeway of course). I was like, "Dude, you're driving an Elise!"
The car looks more "finished" with the kit painted, but it's a bitch to keep rock-chip free. The black primer was definitely more durable than the Mazda paint-pack.
Clear corners on a red car really "bring teh gay"! I won't do cosmetic crap like that (though I did put on a Seibon hood for the show-gah!). The hood was SUPPOSED to be painted, but it didn't work out that way. I should have won an award for the Best Application of a Seibon Sticker! I mean, where else on an RX-8 shaped hood can you put a sticker? LOL
The BBK is a Wilwood 4-piston, 14" two-piece rotor kit from TCE Performance products. Fits nice, excellent feel, will even work with stock wheels! The rear is TCE's 13" two-piece rotor and offset bracket. Both front and rear packages come with braided stainless steel brake lines.
Under the hood is only a JIC-Magic polished aluminum strut tower brace and a K&N air filter, but by the time Mazdamaniac and I get done playing with the Cobb tuner and a high-flow cat, I'll have a respectable amount of horsepower somewhere north of 200 at the tire. It's the handling that makes it a monster though...
On the way there I was being tailgated by some dude in a first-gen 5.7 liter GTO. There were something like 2 stoplights to get to the freeway on ramp. This guy is tailgating me at each light like he thinks our cars need to mate. At the last light I give it a 7500 RPM launch, grab 2nd when I hear "Beeeeeeeeeep!", then dive to the right onto the on ramp Behind me, GTO dude is gunning his engine and doing the same. With the construction on the ramp, and one of its two lanes closed, there was a cool right-left-right snakey combination of turns, culminating in an off-camber right-hand turn onto the freeway. As I hit third gear and bent around the last turn, while keeping a close eye on traffic, I peeked in the rear mirror just long enough to see the GTO, now far behind, fishtail wildly around the last turn, swerving dangerously into traffic mere feet in front of a poor soul in a Toyota Corolla! By "swerving" I mean "losing the front, sliding too wide in the corner, panicking, lifting off the gas, causing the back to slide, panicking more, fishtailing, and probably soiling his expensive US Polo boxer briefs". I never once came close to the threshold of my RX-8's handling.
Summation, modified RX-8s are better than their drivers can handle. Period. Unless you're a professional driver by trade... I'm not.
The "park bench" is from Extreme Dimensions. I felt the car needed a longer look at the rear than most of the current "made for the RX-8" wings available. A guy in a Lotus Elise actually rolled up to me on the freeway on the way home Sunday and told me I had the "best setup RX-8 he'd ever seen" (slow portion of the freeway of course). I was like, "Dude, you're driving an Elise!"
The car looks more "finished" with the kit painted, but it's a bitch to keep rock-chip free. The black primer was definitely more durable than the Mazda paint-pack.
Clear corners on a red car really "bring teh gay"! I won't do cosmetic crap like that (though I did put on a Seibon hood for the show-gah!). The hood was SUPPOSED to be painted, but it didn't work out that way. I should have won an award for the Best Application of a Seibon Sticker! I mean, where else on an RX-8 shaped hood can you put a sticker? LOL
The BBK is a Wilwood 4-piston, 14" two-piece rotor kit from TCE Performance products. Fits nice, excellent feel, will even work with stock wheels! The rear is TCE's 13" two-piece rotor and offset bracket. Both front and rear packages come with braided stainless steel brake lines.
Under the hood is only a JIC-Magic polished aluminum strut tower brace and a K&N air filter, but by the time Mazdamaniac and I get done playing with the Cobb tuner and a high-flow cat, I'll have a respectable amount of horsepower somewhere north of 200 at the tire. It's the handling that makes it a monster though...
On the way there I was being tailgated by some dude in a first-gen 5.7 liter GTO. There were something like 2 stoplights to get to the freeway on ramp. This guy is tailgating me at each light like he thinks our cars need to mate. At the last light I give it a 7500 RPM launch, grab 2nd when I hear "Beeeeeeeeeep!", then dive to the right onto the on ramp Behind me, GTO dude is gunning his engine and doing the same. With the construction on the ramp, and one of its two lanes closed, there was a cool right-left-right snakey combination of turns, culminating in an off-camber right-hand turn onto the freeway. As I hit third gear and bent around the last turn, while keeping a close eye on traffic, I peeked in the rear mirror just long enough to see the GTO, now far behind, fishtail wildly around the last turn, swerving dangerously into traffic mere feet in front of a poor soul in a Toyota Corolla! By "swerving" I mean "losing the front, sliding too wide in the corner, panicking, lifting off the gas, causing the back to slide, panicking more, fishtailing, and probably soiling his expensive US Polo boxer briefs". I never once came close to the threshold of my RX-8's handling.
Summation, modified RX-8s are better than their drivers can handle. Period. Unless you're a professional driver by trade... I'm not.
03-24-2008, 07:03 PM
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03-24-2008, 07:06 PM
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03-24-2008, 09:23 PM
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Needless to say, once he REACHED the freeway, and reigned in his stupidity, he drove the speed limit, though, I must say, as a left-lane hog. What a putz.
In a way though, it's sometimes how a nice RX-8 is viewed by others. It simply gets dismissed by people who don't understand that speed at a track is often determined by who corners the fastest, and most importantly, who doesn't over stress their soft-sidewall 17", 50,000-mile, all-season, GM-original-equipment tires. Yes, Mr. GTO Owner, I'm talking about YOU! LOL
03-24-2008, 09:42 PM
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I wasn't "racing". At no time was I beyond the limits of my car's handling, nor was I beyond the speed limit of the freeway I was entering. I merely demonstrated to the owner of the GTO that I was NOT amused by his tailgating...
Needless to say, once he REACHED the freeway, and reigned in his stupidity, he drove the speed limit, though, I must say, as a left-lane hog. What a putz.
In a way though, it's sometimes how a nice RX-8 is viewed by others. It simply gets dismissed by people who don't understand that speed at a track is often determined by who corners the fastest, and most importantly, who doesn't over stress their soft-sidewall 17", 50,000-mile, all-season, GM-original-equipment tires. Yes, Mr. GTO Owner, I'm talking about YOU! LOL
Needless to say, once he REACHED the freeway, and reigned in his stupidity, he drove the speed limit, though, I must say, as a left-lane hog. What a putz.
In a way though, it's sometimes how a nice RX-8 is viewed by others. It simply gets dismissed by people who don't understand that speed at a track is often determined by who corners the fastest, and most importantly, who doesn't over stress their soft-sidewall 17", 50,000-mile, all-season, GM-original-equipment tires. Yes, Mr. GTO Owner, I'm talking about YOU! LOL
second, you're still going to hear **** from site admins when they read it.
03-24-2008, 10:25 PM
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This stuff is less than $1 per foot, looks good waxed, and stays in place without glue. I did lose one when I went to Willow Springs though!
03-24-2008, 10:28 PM
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Eh? The only people who can worry about my rear are behind me...
Actually I'm talking to Shine about removing the center panel, converting my Magnaflow exhaust to a single center-exit, and building two carbon fiber splitter tunnels for either side. I saw something similar on a Lotus Elise (though they use a dual-tip exhaust). I don't want "rice" though... just something lighter and functional.
Actually I'm talking to Shine about removing the center panel, converting my Magnaflow exhaust to a single center-exit, and building two carbon fiber splitter tunnels for either side. I saw something similar on a Lotus Elise (though they use a dual-tip exhaust). I don't want "rice" though... just something lighter and functional.
03-24-2008, 10:42 PM
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It's good sounding. Not raspy at all. Still does a little of that rotary burble and pop on throttle-lift.
03-24-2008, 11:16 PM
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Sounds good, Formula-D is coming on the day of my Birthday! (7-11) I'll bring my VR and maybe we can take some pictures and a video of your car and post it on YouTube for everyone to hear..