minimum race weight?
 

Evening,

I am making the move to a dedicated track/race car and am trying to decide between keeping the '8 or getting a 1.8 Miata with some added power. I was wondering what the minimum reasonable race weight for the RX-8 is. I would like to keep ABS but everything else would go and I'm not afraid to cut metal. I'm not looking to spend $$ on parts just to reduce weight beyond wheels, battery, seats, dash, and rear/side glass. A cage with nascar bars and fire suppression system would be the only additional weight.

Thanks,
Chris

Miata.


EDIT: I have both and between them, the Miata makes more sense and is equally, if not more, fun to drive. Tires are cheaper, brake pads/rotors are cheaper, upgrades are cheaper, you go through wear items way slower, if you pop a motor (very hard to do), you can get a good one from a junkyard for $600 bucks and it takes a weekend to swap in. Get a '94 or '95. OBD1, 1.8L, etc. etc.

Usually you are able to race against bigger fields with a Miata. And best of all, if you want to go a bit faster, add boost and the stock motor is still reliable. It is THE BEST way to go racing on a reasonable budget.

I have a build thread here:

http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/89-...ack-build.html



The RX-8 is fun, and awesome, but if I were to do everything over again I would have started with a Miata. Plus if you decide to move to a chassis that can support more power (a Miata gets sketchy after about 250WHP), you are still able to sell a Miata racecar pretty easy compared to pretty much every other chassis.

The reason I'm building the RX-8 up is because I need a 500WHP chassis, for time attack, which the RX-8 is capable of handling. But the amount of money it costs compared to the Miata is ridiculous. I have more money into just the 13b-REW long block and the turbo for it than the ENTIRE Miata build.


Upside is that even a naturally aspirated Miata build can hold it's own on the track. Not to mention that you can mercilessly beat on it and it just keeps going. My buddy in front of me in the video below is a perfect example. His car has more than 250k miles, and about 60k of those are purely on a track. Original motor, and still makes just as much power now as it did years ago.

Our two cars are about dead even in power to weight, the only reason I was pulling on him is because he had a passenger.

all depends on what your racing in scca nasa chumpcar etc if you run in chumpcar its a ton of fun and cheap plus you can pretty much do what you want and you get to run tracks like daytona sebring vir etc in 14hr and 24hr formats.we run a rx8 in chumpcar and we have now lost the complete roof and windshield which lost alot of weight

Nice driving and fun video :)

I think even with a GOOD cage you can get an RX-8 down below 2350 plus driver with stock bodywork. That's all lexan, dash gone, etc.

Right now we're at 2487, and that's with the fuel quick fill assembly (heavy) and trans and diff coolers plus the seriously well-built Speedsource cage on our leftover Conti Challenge car. I think another 75-100lbs can come off before having to start spending money, even with keeping the coolers.

Of course I'm chasing a minimum weight of 2300 WITH DRIVER in SCCA E Production, which ain't gonna happen with this car. The GrandAm cage is way too stout.