ScottyStyles

I currently have a turbocharged RX-8 with quite a few mods. I'd be classed in SM. I've been running it at autocross primarily... hardly leaves the garage otherwise. However, I blew the engine in my RX-8 last Sunday. Not fun. After doing a lot of research on it, and with a lack of professional tuners around here I do not feel comfortable to continue running turbocharged. I'm taking it back to Naturally Aspirated, and moving things (battery, coolant overflow, washer fluid, etc) back to their stock locations since piping isn't in the way.

Once I fix the car, I'm going to finish up the year in a local "Run what you've brung" class known as IMS (Idaho MotorSports), which is a ton of fun, very friendly and competitive, but it has a limit on how long you can stay in class. While I have everything torn apart I will be getting the RX-8 prepped for STX. Plans are still up in the air regarding what I will actually do next year, but if I keep the RX-8 then I'll be running STX. The ST classes have always been very appealing to me, so if I keep the car this is the direction I want to go with it.

So, while I'm tearing the car apart I want to make sure I don't put in something that's illegal in STX. Reading through the rules confuses the snot out of me. Below is a list of modifications; which of these do I need to remove to be STX legal?

*COBB AccessPort Tuning
*Highflow Cat
*RacingBeat catback Exhaust
*JIC Magic full coilovers
*ACT Prolite lightened Flywheel (I understand this needs to go)
*ACT something or other Clutch (forgot which one exactly, understand this needs to go too)
*Koyo Radiator (stock location, different materials)
*EBC Brake pads
*Upgraded motor mounts from MazSport (not sure of material)
*BHR Ignition Coil
*MazMart water pump
*MazSport Fuel Pump

Thanks in advance for any help!

*Edit: By the way, I know there's several more things to do to the car still to be all the way prepped to STX. I'll read up on those as time comes, but this year has been expensive enough with the blown engine so I'll be leaving it as-is for 2010 once I take appropriate parts off.

tiresmoker

iTrader: (1)

All those things have to go back to stock

ScottyStyles

Thanks Tiresmoker, I appreciate it. I'll probably leave the fuel pump until next year; that's seperated enough that dropping the gas tank now would be too redundance and annoying, plus the pump is completely legal in the class I'm running this year.

STX looks like a fun class, and it would kill me to sell the RX-8. I hope it's fun enough that the 8 can still bring a smile to my face even after losing the turbo. I guess if it doesn't, getting an FD certainly isn't a bad alternative.

tiresmoker

iTrader: (1)

You know you can get the pump out without dropping the tank by removing the rear seat bottom and accessing it through a hole in the body. There are caps over the holes, so you either need to spend like $16 for some special tool from Mazda, or get a really big *** pair of channel locks (ones that have like an 8-10" jaw opening) and use those to unscrew the cap.

STX is a fun class, granted you won't be as fast in a straight line as you were with the turbo, but it will teach you how to use your momentum to drive the car, rather than stomping your foot and going.

ScottyStyles

Straightaways? In Autocross? We don't have those here... I would always get spooled for about a second or two, then have to stomp on the brakes. If I got overeager, and on the gas early I would spool in the corner, and send myself spinning. Honestly, I don't expect I'll lose any time switching induction back to N/A.

tiresmoker

iTrader: (1)

haha, yeah the whole straight thing. Not necessarily straights, but long sweepers and wide spaced chicanes and slaloms..

The one local club in my area (non scca) usually has at least 2-3 sections on course where you can go flat out WOT and top out 2nd gear and hit the rev limiter for a good 2 seconds before needing to lift/brake. Most of their slaloms and chicanes are open enough that I can plant my foot and never lift.

Needless to say a lot of us joke that we are going to need restrictor plates on cars to keep running there safely.

ScottyStyles

I want a lot that big! That sounds fun. We generally sit mid-range 2nd gear. The fastest cars (AM, turbo viper from hell, etc) do 60, MAYBE. There's one lot that we run one that's almost worth sitting in 1st gear the whole time (seriously). We only run it once a year though. We used to have a lot where it was possible (and happened several times) to get into upper 3rd gear, but it was on an air base and one of the higher ups on the air base decided we couldn't be there any longer, security, post-9/11, blah blah blah. Sad we lost that site, tire eating monster that it was...