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Total weight:
+2897 pounds on Oct 20, 2019
- 2479 pounds on Feb 16, 2024, with full roll cage added
------------------
+ 416 pound reduction
Feb 16, 2024 weight scales
Note on car condition at the point (Feb 16, 2024) of this weighing: Items not on the car which will add weight:
Main battery
Transmission and differential fluids
Door handles and latches, front and rear - [less than 1 pound]
Rear side window (1)
Interior mirror
Headlight lenses (gutted headlights) - [less than 1 pound]
Interior dash wiring harness
Items on the car which could be removed of replaced to save weight:
Factory wheels
Factory rear exhaust and muffler
Factory exhaust header
Factory trunk lid, not gutted
Factory side window (1), not polycarbonate
Factory windshield and rear glass, not polycarbonate
Factory bumper supports, front and rear
I decided to build an RX-8 race car. Later I'll post who I am and why I made this choice. For now I'll just dive into the first meaningful milestone at the beginning of the project - the purchase of the car, or as I refer to it, "the project car". It's a base model 2004 that had 130,377 miles.
September 29, 2019: $1,400 bought what is pictured.
As you'd expect, it was not running, but that was a given. I was only looking for a clean straight shell with an engine that was rebuildable. I checked out a couple in the $500 range, then found this one. At the time its California DMV registration was current and good for another 3 months. My hope was that would be enough time to rebuild the engine, get it reinstalled, and then be able to drive the car on the street to help break in the new engine before completely dedicating the car for track only use.
The car came with, or had on it, enough desirable parts to recover more than twice the purchase price. Yes, that was a real Mazdaspeed front bumper!
October 20, 2019: Picked up the car. Well, AAA towed it the 30 miles back to my house (fee included with membership).
Pushed the complete car into my garage and onto corner scales. It weighed 2,897 pounds.
Corner weights:
LF 757 -- RF 782 = 1,540 front (53.1%)
LR 693 -- RR 665 = 1,358 rear (46.9%)
left 1,450 - right 1,358
(50.1%) -- (49.9%)
Last edited by racer-tom; 01-06-2021 at 07:21 PM.
Reason: Added scale photo
I dove right in. As seen here, removed are the hood, the battery, and the shock tower brace bar. Visible is the AEM intake that came with, a couple of dealer service/recall sticker, and a sticker indicating "Plasma Direct coils by Okada Projects". "Cobb" on the relay/fuse box hints at still unknown damage done. You can also see what condition the headlights were in, but who needs those on a sprint race car?
It's going to be a dedicated track car. So, to do it right, that means gutting the interior. I skipped many steps. Most of these show the results.
In a tight garage it's helpful to take the doors off. Although I ran out of room to put the removed doors. So, the passenger ones stayed on.
It was also beneficial to strap an LED shop light under the headliner, front to rear.
Along the way the windshield was also removed, not without cracking this one though.
Mocked up with dash back in place, a steering wheel with quick release hub, and racing seat. The wheel I already had, and the seat came at a very good deal.
November 22, 2019: The car ready to go off for cage installation, "a bit lighter" with engine bay and interior emptied. Post #5 of this thread will have a running log of car weight and many parts that I put on the scales along the way. At this point, as pictured, the car was 1,744 pounds! Damn, wouldn't it be nice to hit the track that light?
As purchased corner weights:
LF 758 -- RF 782 = 1,540 front (53.1%)
LR 693 -- RR 665 = 1,358 rear (46.9%)
left 1,451 right 1,358
(50.1%) -- (49.9%)
Cage stripped corner weights:
LF 348 -- RF 485 = 833 front (47.8%)
LR 519 -- RR 392 = 911 rear (52.2%)
left 867 -- right 877
(49.7%) -- (50.3%)
Alan Cross posted images of his gutted doors in his #49 STL Build Thread.
I used that as a guide to start on my doors. At this point, this was a side distraction while I was still finishing the removal of the car interior previously shown.
So, more on the door gutting later.
Engine at the builder's shop. New housings assembled with previous end plates and rotors. Rotating assembly along with SPEC lightweight flywheel, aluminum pressure plate and clutch balanced by specialist.
Wear on previous center housings after 130K miles. No surprise.
Even the coating was worn through. Needing new housings was expected and they were part of the rebuild budget.
Rebuilt and reassembled ready to leave the shop. She got some intake and exhaust port clean up and very mild porting as well.
Unloading back at home. Ready to lower on the moving dolly and stage for later installation.
The first "real" work to convert this to a track car. Left rear door has inner trim removed, but hasn't been gutted yet.
A craftsman at work.
Rear bars before the main hoop diagonal bar.
Rearward bars converge at the top of the rear shock mounts.
Stock driver's seat rails were removed, and the transmission tunnel squared off and widened to allow for more room for the race seat.
Main hoop now done. Rear of top window net bar visible.
Detail shot of converging tubes
Cage complete, tied into chassis, seat in place. A pillar bars and all of the cage up tight and touching the chassis. A good view of the replacement dash bar and the steering column hanging from it.
Gussets from cage to A pillar tie the two together.
Driver's side gusset and view of the replacement dash bar and attachment of the steering column to it.
A view of the driver's side NASCAR style door bars, extending out into the gutted door, providing maximum protection for a side impact.
A view of the passenger side X bars which stiffen the cage and chassis, but aren't as extensive as the left side because the intrusion protection isn't needed on that side. Here you can also see the down tube terminating at the side frame rails rather than going down to the floor. Also visible are the forward tubes, terminating at the firewall, which provide leg protection on the driver's side.
Last edited by racer-tom; 07-25-2020 at 11:25 AM.
Reason: Changed two imaged to cropped versions
Looking good. If you haven't already sold that front bumper, I'm interested
It took me awhile to decide whether I was going to sell the Mazdaspeed bumper or not. While deciding, I collected names of interested buyers and worked to determine a fair price. After I realized the value of it, and that there was little need in risking such a piece in wheel to wheel battle, I decided to sell. I then started contacting those with previously expressed interest. After working through those declined offers I started opening it up. A local buyer finally ended up with it.
Here's how I handled the rear emissions stuff just removing dead weight re-using what existed to reconfigure it as such.
It's a bit of a pain removing the charcoal canister without dropping the differential, but where there's a will there's a way
@TeamRX8 Thanks for posting this requested info. Am I seeing correctly that in the race configuration the vent hard line from the engine has been eliminated? If that's correct, what is recommended on the engine side?
(My differential is currently out of the car, so this is a good time to do this. I may actually drop the rear subframe which would make it even easier.)
ideally you should replace the OE rear subframe bushings with metal cups or solid replacements.
you can remove the evap solenoid or cut the entire thing off the UIM and cap the intake nipple. The metal evap line can be removed or possibly used for some other purpose. It weighs about 1 pound.
Here's how I handled the rear emissions stuff just removing dead weight re-using what existed to reconfigure it as such.
It's a bit of a pain removing the charcoal canister without dropping the differential, but where there's a will there's a way
. Race Configuration
.
I like that. I did something similar, just using an OTS mini-cone filter (like for a crankcase vent) stuck onto the end of the hose that previously went to the charcoal canister.
I almost did that because it’d be slightly lighter, but there’s so much dirt and dust going on back under there I thought it was just best to stay with the OE filter and evap chamber. The evap chamber plugs into the rear bumper crash bar which separates it from all dirt flying around.
so just following up on our sideline conversation, I spoke to Andrew at Keisler Automation at the end of last year about whether he’d sell just the transmission mount brace and rear subframe/differential mount brace separate from the V6 LFX swap kit and he said yes. It was my assessment that with these parts you could then make brackets from them to where the PPF attaches to either end and support them to eliminate the heavy PPF structural member. He quoted $260 for the trans brace and $250 for the differential brace plus then whatever costs you’ll have making the final adaptor pieces to the trans and differential mounting points. It would be wise to have stiffer engine mounts and delrin differential mount bushings whether you ever do this or not.
05-12-2020, 06:56 PM
2020 Build Thread: Track / Race Car
