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How to not be cheesy? Not possible so Ill keep it short.
I was heavily involved in the SCCA in the San Francisco region, if any of you competed at Castle AFB when the Fresno chapter controlled the site I was probably there helping with some part of the event. It was reputedly the best site in the country! Ive always been a rotary guy and chose the first gen as my platform of choice and began a journey to fully build the car to the max of what was allowed in CSP at that time. For some crazy reason about 12 ish years ago I moved to Pensacola Florida and it was pretty much a disaster of a choice financially speaking and I couldn't pursue any kind of motorsports. Lifes been good to me and I'm able to enjoy getting in the driver's seat again. Getting an 85 rx7 to the nationals is not important anymore and I have just been having track day fun. Here's the sexy beast at NOLA motorsports park.The realization that this car is now a collectors item, the parts are rare, I’m also older now and it's a tiny hot car with caustic exhaust fumes. This all signaled it was time for an update.. The Rx8 is a smoking hot deal as far as chassis go right now. I have a good roller that I was going to build up with an NA street port 3 rotor. Did I mention I love the rotary? Then I realized how much more expensive the rotary had gotten in the years I'd been away from motorsports. My friends quickly convinced me that an LS swap was the way to go, I figured 12-18 months of spare time and I could have an engine swapped car but it's fairly expensive to purchase one and get it in any kind of shape to compete on track. It also had more power than I desired.. I follow the miata forums, those guys do everything and have a pretty wide knowedge base. I noticed some miatas were getting a GM v6 swap and started looking into that as an option.
7500rpm redline, awesome powerband, easily, affordably and reliably makes 320whp.
<insert dyno here>
Perfect! Exactly what I wanted. Now I have to figure out how to make this happen. After many many hours of googling things I decided to reach out to Kiesler Automation.
I first emailed Andrew in late September, then started heavily asking questions and pursuing the idea mid to late November.. After much back and forth Andrew and 3 options on the table. I decided to use a car Andrew had on site and have him do the entire build for me. Quite the opposite of the original plan and some 200 emails later on February 16 I flew to Knoxville, picked the car up and drove it home. Sounds pretty easy. To good to be true even! Its scary as hell handing over large sums of money to someone you dont know, have never heard of and don't even have a known good source from a forum vouching for him. Scary! I paid about 50% up front and was pretty sure I'd be fighting to get my money back. I ended up hadlving a great experience
The build Did I mention I've never driven an rx8 and have no experience with them?
2004 rx8(no sunroof)
Kiesler’s willwood front brake kit (stock rotors better calipers)
Kieslers track pack
Lfx 3.6l
Jackfab intake manifold mods
Radium Catch can
Single exhaust. Andrew said duals wouldn't fit in an optimal way. I was doubtful about that till I saw it. Exhaust video
4.10 diff, clutch pack LSD (I prefer clutch style so hell yah!)
Spec aluminum flywheel/clutch
Penske double adjustable shocks and associated hardware
800/550 springs
Camero mv5 Transmission
Titan 7 tr10 18x10’s with federal 285/30 100tw tires
Impresions I spent 7 hours driving home. First leg of the trip was 2 hours though a national forest (mountains) the remainder was interstate. The trip was great and the car performed flawlessly.
I got 27mpg though the mountains and 29mpg on the interstate going 75mpg. Pretty crazy for a performance machine! I didnt plan on driving it much on the street as it was purchased primarily for track use but it is so much fun to drive that I have taken it to work a few times and when I have to run errands. Honestly it's the first time in a long time that I look for excuses to drive somewhere. I'm a huge fan. The power delivery is fantastic. It's not overwhelmly powerful feeling like a v8 car.
It's more like a well setup turbo 13b or a small supercharged engine.. There is torque everywhere. You never have to downshift to pass. The 4:10 gearing is an excellent choice. You can see the ratios and charts above.
Its perfectly manageable for street driving but was really chosen with track duty in mind. The pedal placement in this car is phenomenal! The car is loud. 105-113db on on my spl meter
Most of the peak spl readings are to be had under 4k rpms where you get that v6 rasp and the drone zone. If you live or race anywhere with sound restrictions spec out your own exhaust parts. If your old and just dont want the extra noise, spec out your own parts. I'll be changing mine up. To be fair to Andrew, exhausts are subjective and its really crapshoot of getting what you want out of what you bought. The exhaust sounds good most of the time and really good when going fast. The clutch
Personal preference item here, but I hate a clutch that engage/disengage at the top of the pedal throw. I just cant drive it smooth. Once I got the car home I adjusted the pedal/master pushrod to put the action at the bottom of the pedal. The rod is actually a little to long and I will eventually take it out and shorten it slightly. I was still able to adjust everything very close to ideal for me. Transmission
I had some trouble getting used to it. Combined with my clutch comments above I wasnt thrilled at first. Occasionally its hard to get into 1st. This seems to be a common complaint of this transmission. I initially thought i was missing the gate, or hitting reverse. I had severally really uncool moments at green lights feeling like an idiot that didnt know how to drive. Once I got the clutch adjusted the transmission also felt much better. I probably just got used to it. It feels pretty good now and under street conditions I can snick up an down the gears without issue. I dont notice the first gear issue often now either. When I do i just go to second then put it in first with no issues. Brakes
FANTASTIC. A friend of mine drove it on the street and it took a few for him to get used to the brakes. The car stops so fast that its very easy to stop early if your not accustomed to it.
The pedal feel is great, feel and ability to modulate are spot on. Unfortunately covid happened. I haven't had a chance to attend any sort of event and I haven't gotten the car on a Dyno to see what it's really putting down. Upcoming updates will be a wing and splitter.
I'm also looking into redoing the exhaust using burns/coastfab/profab parts.
So my biggest question is around wheel/tire and suspension combinations. This is a track only car, it will get trailer'd to events
I do realize the compromise between track day/autox suspension and tire choice means I wont be optimal for either. The plan for now is just to get seat time and have fun while getting back into things. I would really appreciated advice on my selections so I dont choose to poorly out of the gate.
Im starting with MCS 2w w/Remotes and 30mm solid front bar, stock rear bar stock rotors with willwood superlites in the front
No Aero to start out.
Does 700f 550r spring rates sound like a reasonable starting point?
Im looking at running federal 100tw 265's or 200tw 275's. I know its not the fastest or best thing out there.
Not 100% sure what to do with wheels. Id planned on 6 wheels to start.
The most flexible option Ive found is Forgestar f14 - this would be a 18x10 38-42 offset?
I also came across the titan 7 wheels, 600 bucks more and its forged. They have a 18x10 and 18x10.5 et40 and 50
Apex has a couple options also 18x9.5 et35 and 38 18x10 et40
Wrt Titan 7, I may just depend on what you’re specifically referring too, because you didn’t provide much detail. Most of the 18x10.5 in 5x114.3 are the wrong offset. I see an 18x10.5 +38 for the rear of the Acura NSX, but I’m not sure if they’ll split them up from front wheels. I thought you were referring to the former FD3 18x10.5 +57, which is now no longer listed.
That’s now listed as 18x10 +50 as previously discussed. It should fit. Worst case might need a thin spacer. I mounted a set on my car and the wheel cleared fine, one person insisted otherwise. I made a list of width vs offset in the DSP thread, but it’s based on wheel width. If you mount a 12” tire on an 11” wheel, then the tire is obviously sticking out further than the wheel lip. So some common sense is needed.
A 17” wheel is going to have a smaller barrel ID than 18”, so it might need a few more mm outboard offset or spacer. I have long race studs and don’t get too worked up over it. I’d rather space a wheel out where I want it rather than have it out too far and be stuck. Moving it out is easy, moving it back in is a live/deal with it situation.
I didn’t suggest 17” because the tire you mentioned only has smaller widths in 17” (245 max). Even their 18” tires are limited to 35 series and up only.
I framed the wheel question poorly, i was in a little bit of a hurry.
What i really wanted to do is confirm good fairly safe offsets
it seems like 10-11 inch wheels work with as little as 38 and as you advocate close to 50 as possible. You can always space out, not in. Sound logic.
so for titan 7, i was looking at evasive motorsports.
Looking to see what's available in 40/45 sidewall.
ive been running bias ply Avon's for a while =)
I understand in theory why 30/35 sidewalls wouldn't be desired however I have no practical experience.
Edit
Found a couple 200 tw options
Nexen has a 275/40
federal has a 265/40 though the 275/35 has a bigger od
Maxxis has a 295/40
$230's per tire is my current price point. Assuming the federals or whatever don't live up to my dreams, once my wallet recovers a little from the car build I can get something better
Edit 2
Everything wide in an 18 is a 30 or 35 aspect ratio.
I must have misunderstood what was meant.
About the maximum backspace you can get without having to limit the steering or rubbing the inner rear wheel well is going to be approx. 7.5”. This works out to around an 18x10 +50. So for every 1/2” wheel width increase from this you then need to decrease the offset by 1/4”, which is approx. 7mm. Of course the further outboard and wider the wheel is, the more likely you’ll be to run into outer fender clearance issues.
that’s the basis for the width/offset list in the post link below, but again take heed to my previous message.
Previously I ran 265/35-18 on 18x10.5 +43 lowered on racing coilovers without any issue as shown below. Maybe some minor scuffing of the fender liner here or there, but not tearing or causing damage for concern. That’s no guarantee as dimensions may vary a bit, but it is my experience on my RX8. Good luck.
You were right if course, no 18x10.5 et50.
Though I didn't disagree and am not surprised I figured I would give it a shot. I can do 18x10 et50 version or get something else.
I still haven't decided on a wheel but i did order a radium oil catch can. I wouldn’t normally buy something like that but for a direct injection engine it should prove to be worth it.
Yeah, might be cheaper options for either 18x10/11
you kind of messed up not buying during the holiday sales. You could have gotten a $560/set-4 discount on Forgestar wheels in the “raw” finish.
all these wheels are discussed in the DSP thread, but unfortunately it’s spread out all over the place and you’ll have to scan through all the yammering and bickering crapola finding it. I suppose one day I could go through and dig it all up, then update the 1st post by listing it all there.
12-30-2019, 05:01 PM
