RHOLLOWAY0640

Mine will just be a daily driver. I have just about finished the interior, new carpet, leather, stereo, camera, carbon wrap the dash console. My summer tires are being delivered, rpf1 18 9.5 45 offset with ps4 265 35. After I get it back and we get some weather to paint in I will complete the exterior. Andrew also put in my new suspension and brakes in the conversion.

sicklyscott

I'm joining the ranks here as well. Andrew is aiming for mid-March for my delivery. Very excited.

What are you track guys using for suspension and brakes on these?

trackjunkie

stock brakes with some track pads and Ohlins

Tomasz Lesiński

I'll start with the current setup - EBC Turbo Groove discs and Stoptech pads. I'll add air ducts and see if it has enough thermal capacity.

As for the suspension I'll be installing KW V3 and 90Sha poli bushings all around.

I'm also upgrading the diff with 4.10 FG and Eaton Detroit Trutrack LSD.

Engine is another story...

NotAPreppie

If you don't have a good reason to get the KW's, I'd recommend something else.
I have them and they're good but the rear springs are progressive rate. It's not a deal breaker but it makes the math and tuning more complicated. I'd recommend something with linear rate springs all around (like Ohlins or a custom setup from FatCat) if your budget/circumstances allow.

Tomasz Lesiński

I had a great deal on KW so I'm going to stay with it for this season. I also had an option for KW Competition but it was much more expensive and takes 6-8 weeks to build.
I'll be looking into dofferent springs if it turns out to be not sufficient.

Looking forward to see your cars ready. Mine will be ready somewhere around April I think...

sicklyscott

I've been talking with Good-Win about their custom setup (13k/8k springs) and think I'm going that route. I'll be running 275 r comps on the track, i think the grip will overwhelm softer springs.

Do any of you have any data on what the swap did for weight to your car? Andrew seems to think the base model I have will weigh in at 2850 lbs, barely a 50 lb uptick from stock.

RHOLLOWAY0640

Picked up my car last Friday. The difference is night and day, this car with all that torque is soooo fun to drive now.
One word of advice, do not drive one of Andrew's swaps unless you are prepared to do it. It will make you sick to go back to your old car knowing what the swap will do to your car. Now, if I can just get him to do the new rear badges to let other people know what kind of car it is I can just point to it when they say "that ain't no rotary".

PS to the Poland swap guy, he is crating yours up now and you will be one happy camper.

DangerDanJD

I do not have any weight data, but I would be interested in knowing how much weight has been added. I really need to upgrade my suspension but I'm on a pretty strict racecar budget this year. I'm hoping to make Barber the weekend of March 23-24 but it's probably 50/50 at this point.

Tomasz Lesiński

Did you notice any difference in handling, as the mass distribution will be a little bit different.

I have recently weighted my car and its 1315kg with 20l of fuel, rollbar and mostly stripped interior. The weight dist, after aligment is F:50.5% R:49.5%.
After swap I will be able to tell you exactly what are the weight and dist changes.

How does the engine and the rest of the swap looks like? I'm super anxious...

RHOLLOWAY0640

Your engine looks just like the picture I took of mine, brand new, except you have an 80mm throttle body and mine was the stock 72mm. I put on Bilstein shocks and struts with Eibach springs, lowered 1.25 inches in the front and 1 inch in the back, but that is all I noticed in the handling department. I did have to put on my summer tires a few weeks early as the 225 55 16's just could not handle the power/torque. I put in the 3.91 rear end which boosted usable torque and that is what I noticed most of all. Mine has a lot, and I mean a lot more torque, which should help you coming out of corners and that is what you will notice most of all.

Tomasz Lesiński

Great news. If you didn't notice any new understeer, means that the layout should stay similar.
I went a step further with the final gear and went for 4.10. I hope it will be a blast. I need to start thinking about some traction control...

Thanks for the confirmation, that my engine is there. Buying such things overseas is a bit of a gamble. Andrew seems to know what he's doing so hopefuly I'll be able to put the swap quickly.

RHOLLOWAY0640

Mine is just a daily driver car, and with Andrews swap I keep everything except cruise control (which I HATE). The rest of the interior is stock which all works perfectly and looks just the same. Andrew was honest with me and takes great pride in his work. I would deal with him anytime again.

On the understeer, none at all but I have not really pushed it to the limit. I did do a 15 mile an hour curve (which should be more like a 25 to 30 mile an hour curve) at 60 and it felt like I was on rails.

RHOLLOWAY0640

With a 4.10 rear end, unless you are drag racing, you will never use first gear. My 3.91 i'm in first for only the time it takes to get to second.

NotAPreppie

Honestly, unless people are changing the suspension geometry significantly with these swaps, I don't see the handling changing that much with the weight change. Especially when you non-racers relocate the battery to the trunk. That's 27 lb front to rear (54 lb net change). So, even if the new long block weight 100 lb more, it's only a net increase of ~50 lb after the battery is moved. That's less than 2% of the total weight of the vehicle.

Maybe a bit more of a difference for the track cars but still probably won't be noticeable without sensitive instrumentation and Ayrton Senna behind the wheel.

trackjunkie

the increased weight is in front the front axle and also higher COG. depends on the level of driving experience but an advance driver will notice a 50 lbs difference.

NotAPreppie

Yah, I forgot that the crank on a V-piston engine sits fairly low compared to the e-shaft on a rotary (relative to overall engine heights). Still, I doubt that weight sits much farther forward than the Renny since V-motors aren't as long as their piston count implies.

The Renesis fully dressed is about 270 lbs.
According to GM, the LFX is 345 lbs.

Still, I doubt it's anything that most people will be able to notice and I'm sure it's more than made up for by everything else.

RHOLLOWAY0640

Senna nor Schumacher could not notice 50 lbs difference and we ain't either one of those guys. Hell before the swap I would get to 115 to 120 mph and mine would start floating all over the road. NOT a good feeling.

trackjunkie

whats the estimated cost for this swap, including donor motor, tranny, diff, and all the plug and play parts, minus the labor?

RHOLLOWAY0640

ex labor mine was 15,000. However I paid extra for a motor with only 64 miles on it, all other parts except tranny and diff (I upgraded to a 3.91 and paid extra for very low milage on them) were replaced with new. That excludes the dyno dynamics tune I got witch picked up another 32 hp which was well worth it. Nothing like shifting to 2nd and feeling the rear end come out on DRY pavement. I even get a kickout going to 3rd. The swap kit is only 8,000, it is worth that to avoid the electrical nightmare and have a plug and play system. That does include duel high flow cats and Andrews custom exhaust. It was a lot less painful than spending 3,000 on a stereo system.

sicklyscott

Tell me more about your tune. Was that something Andrew did while he had the car?

RHOLLOWAY0640

Andrew brought the car to an offsite tuner. It was fasttech I believe and they are located in Knoxville. they ran it through 12 to 14 iterations to properly tune it. Glad I did it.

sicklyscott

RHOLLOWAY0640

Sorry I cant find the graphs to share them with you ( I think I threw them away). I am a memory guy and just know on a dyno dynamic tune I gained 32 rwhp on 14 test runs. This is one hella fun car to drive. Even in the old days (muscle car) I never had a car come out from under me on dry pavement like his one does. I had a bad fuel rail sensor replaced (put in a new one on a swap) and my local mechanic drove it after the fix and told me that damn thing almost got away from him 3 or 4 times. Fun, fun fun car to drive.

sicklyscott

Reporting in that I picked up my car from Andrew about 10 days ago. I have some mixed emotions on the swap which may have more to do with the RX-8 than the swap itself:

1. First issue was the AC crapped out about an hour into the trip. I'll have to take it to a local shop to be looked up, fairly upset as I paid extra for the AC to be working and it didn't even go 100 miles.
2. On the drive home it was pouring, car experienced a couple hiccups as I tried to do a couple pulls, a very hard "cough" would happen. Today I am experiencing none of that. When I got home i wiggled some connectors and saw some wires that I routed slightly differently. I really don't think I did anything and right now am thinking it was moisture related.
3. The 3.91 I selected I think isn't right for the trans. 1st gear is useless. It doesn't do too badly on the highway but, a 3.45 is probably the way to go.
4. The steering ratio feels slow to me, though I'm used to a Tesla Model 3 which is 2 turns lock to lock. I'm looking into seeing if I can fit a NC Miata rack in as it appears to be quicker ratio.
5. Car seems to have amazing torque but power seems to fall off up top. I was expecting it to pull harder, it may be just expectations not based on reality?

The good parts of it though:

1. Very clean swap! Andrew showed me some of the parts off the car and he really did a good job designing and having them machined. I particularly like the cast exhaust elbows.
2. I'm using a "stock" RX-8 Greddy exhaust from eBay and actually like the sound of the LFX.
3. It's a great "street" car in that it can cruise for miles without complaints. I drove mine 700 miles back from TN.
4. As mentioned before, the torque is great. Passing is never a problem and really besides the sounds, downshifting is rarely needed on the highway.

I'm really looking forward to trying this thing out in some more high performance capacity.