CosmosMpower

I had an 05 RX-8 sport 5 years ago but sold it. I'm now thinking about getting back into a RX-8 for a daily driver and HPDE track car. A local had problems with transmission synchros going out 3 times in his heavily tracked 04 RX-8.

Anyone else had problems with transmission or engine reliability when tracking? Does the car need anything special to get through a track day of 4-5 twenty minute sessions?

9krpmrx8

iTrader: (46)

Yes, people have had issues with engines and transmissions. But there are many here who have tracked their 8's for many years. The series II RX-8's (2009+) have a better transmission and a more reliable engine but there are some downsides if you want to bump up the power seriously due to the fact that there is not a tuning solution available for the SII ECU.

The real plus side though is that they are relatively cheap.

40w8

I track a 07 6spd auto, and the auto gave up on a track day.

After a 18k btu cooler instalation, heat is taken out of trans and engine, so on last track day I only got to 211 deg on engine or trans.

My 8 is mostly stock except for BHR ign and fuel pump, and still on original brakes at 32k miles.

Maybe I'm just thinking I do track days because I don't wear much out, just find the weak stuff.

bse50

A properly built engine will be reliable. Just have it tuned and premix.
A series 2 transmission is reliable.
The ignition system sucks, you can either keep buying coils or contact BHR.
The fuel pump assembly may need to be modified.


Other than that I find this car to be pretty much bullet proof at the track. 38 hours on my current engine and it's still going strong.

etzilon

Since you live in TX, heat is your enemy. All cooling mods are welcome. Watch your coolant temperature at the track and you'll be fine.

04Green

iTrader: (1)

A good way to watch coolant temp is with an Ultra Gauge. You can set alarms. I can hear the alarm, with the windows down, at 115, with a full face helmet. I keep mine set at 205 degrees.

One weekend last month the car did 17 DE sessions with my daughter and I driving it.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

Don't do it, you already know better, especially as a daily gas guzzler

40w8

I have rules....

I don't sign up for track day if I think ambient temp will be 90 f or over.

I think the 8 will be fine in the Texas summer, but I won't and neither will the tires.

Spring and Fall for me.

CosmosMpower

Sounds like it's 50/50 mixed depending on how hard you drive the car and if you have cooling mods. I'm looking for something that can pretty much just slap on tires and go. Don't want to have to deal with a lot of cooling issues, already have that problem with my GT-R for track duties.

etzilon

A driver at TWS is digging his new Subaru BRZ so much he's thinking on selling the Porsche.

etzilon

Mine has done well in 100F. The key issue at the track IMHO is water pump cavitation followed by air flow escaping the under tray instead of going through the radiator.

A larger radiator does help but it is not the silver bullet. That is next on my list.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Not sure about the transmission...I have 3 spares...and have yet to have a problem with mine. ( oops....2 now. Someone needed one last week ( not me ) )

I think the biggest problem is the fuel setup. I have tried so many different things to make it work below 1/4 tank and have yet to find something that is easy and works. I think have it licked now...but it isn't simple or cheap. The Speedsource fix is actually not so bad when I look at what I have done...but they won't sell it for a street car...so it is kinda off the table anyway.
The stock setup works well until you get fast.......so if someone says that it isn't a problem...they just haven't gotten there yet.

Easiest solution is stay above 1/4 tank

The ignition is weak....but if you upgrade it..BHR or the like, especially if you have a Cobb AP or another way to flash the ECU....that becomes a non-issue.

The engine NA loves track days......just pre-mix and drive the **** out of it...and it seems to love it. Mine always runs best after about 3 hours of tracktime

A good set of coilovers or shocks and springs with a higher springrate, and a set of good pads and you are good. You likely will want to upgrade the sways as well

Oh....use good oil in the DIff...and change it often...it gets really hot ......

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

You should talk to Ian since he used his for the same duty

CosmosMpower

I did, he said stay far far away for track duties. He was on his 3rd transmission when he sold it. Not sure if that's the norm so I wanted to get a larger sample size.

CosmosMpower

Can you give me more info on the weak ignition? Is it the coils? What is the BHR upgrade?

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

in the ga rx8 club we have 10's of thousands of track miles on these cars. The trans held up fine with biannual changing of the oil ( we all use redline). We dont shift like we are in a drag race either........, Out of about 10 rx8's we have had one trans to go, and one diff to go and those cars had close to 100K miles on them.
Most of us have switched to the S 2 version of the fuel pump/cup and that seems to work pretty good--except like Dan noted--dont go out with 1/4 tank of gas.
Better ignition is always a good thing--the BHR type set up is one example. Pay attention to the coil ground either way.
We do pre mix at 1 oz per gallon on track. Most of us use synthetic oil. No one has the sohn adaptor.
If you car has a Cat--it will not last on track--get a midpipe.
Dont run the engine to 9K. 8.2K is the best redline for longetivity. That has been our experiencep. One of us that didnt and pushed his car did blow a water seal. We also watch outr oil temps and try not to let it get to the 220F on the return range. That means 240-250F in the engine. ( flame suit ON)
A few of us do us the secondary radiator set up--it does help a good bit in hot weather. None of us have converted to the waterless coolant--although I am considering that.
Hope to see you out there--somewhere

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

My trans is now whining loudly clutch-out in neutral after the Tour event at St Louis Gateway several weeks ago. Likely input shaft or counter shaft bearings. Got three full seasons out of it and it didn't blow up internally, so that was a noticeable improvement over the past. Have a garage full of them though and am planning to buy the tools to rebuild them all myself. So at least you can call me when yours finally breaks. I would definitely recommend the Race Roots Synchro Saver. It will at least prevent overthrowing the shifter which is why most of them break.

The trans has always an issue for competition. I'll put my flame suit on and say that IMO the average street/track person is just cruising ...


.

j9fd3s

my friends trans has sounded like a box of rocks in neutral, practically since new, and i'm sure someday it'll be a problem, or we'll need to pull it apart and put bearings in it. its got 83k on it now, its been a while since its seen the track, but it has done a bunch of track days.

the trans is actually pretty easy to pull apart, the trick is putting it together! the factory must have a jig or something, but we found you need to hold all three shafts, in alignment to get them to go into the case, which is tricky, because they weigh ~40lbs, and you can't touch the hub sliders, because they slide and then the shift ***** pop out, and you get to start over. keep in mind the only one i've done was in 2006! i think after that the techs ziptied the gear cluster together...

buy the trans book, if you haven't already, 9999-95-T15M-D

Re the cruising around; i helped timing and scoring with NASA, and you're 100% right. this is 100% fine in the HPDE part, but i see it in the racers too. well along with the guys who bring more car than driver. i can say this because i do both of these things.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Mostly coils...but the wires aren't great either...so upgrading is a good idea.

The BHR is the most widely available upgrade. It uses GM Yukon truck coils and a plug and play harness and bracket that makes it a nice and easy to install. Black Halo Racing is the website......

I think you would want a Cobb Accessport as well...you can change the MOP values, fan temps, and adjust the stupid rich AFR thast is only there to protect the factory CAT on the street....that doesn't work on the track anyway

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

And I'll counter with "you autocross dudes need to learn to shift "

My 2nd gear syncro is getting tired...unless I rev match perfectly it grinds more than it should. The super light clutch/FW doesn't help....it magnifies any rev errors because it falls off so fast

etzilon

My 4th gear is starting to go. As the tranny heats up, upshifting/downshifting to 4th becomes a real pain... It is when the tranny wants to; especially inconvenient when coming out of the longest straight on the track into the fastest turn.

MagnusRacing

iTrader: (2)

All cars have issues when being pushed at the track. Of course the RX8 has SOME issues but honestly I think short of a Mazda Miata it's about as trouble free as a street car gets for track use.

My RX-8 has suffered over 10,000 miles of track abuse in all types of racing - from Track Days, to Time Trials, to club racing, to street circuit to rally racing. All types of temperatures.

My experience so far has been pretty good in my opinion. Mechanical failures are the exception to the norm - and trust me this is not the case in many cars that are not professionally maintained (such as mine).

Issues so far:

Transmission - orginal lasted a couple of years before synchros went out. Been running the new gen II tranmission for two years now with no problems. Might want to add a cooler if you're endurance racing (over 40 mins)

Ignition - I've had the stock coils go bad once.

Fuel Pump - Never had a problem - replaced it once a couple years ago as a precautionary measure with a new stock pump - but don't run it low on gas like they say

Cooling - I had overheating problems with very hard track use at days with temps over 80 degrees. Well... the motor never "overheated" but it did get hotter than is healthly for a rotary motor. Upgraded to the "Mazdaspeed" Ron Davis radiator - didn't help much. Later upgraded to a custom Ron Davis dual pass radiator (has to be custom build by Ron Davis - they have the specs - ask for the "Mother's Racing" design) and have NEVER overheated since - even at very hot days.

Engine - first motor already had 80K miles when I started racing the car. Made it a couple years until a coolant seal let go. I ran this motor too hot many times (didn't have the big radiator) and it probably would have lasted longer if I had been nice to it. Second motor was bought used and built as a race motor. Worked great for almost two years. Was running a sustained 9700rpms in a high speed banked oval and broke the track record on Saturday. Motor threw a side seal on Sunday morning during warm up. I had hit 10,000 rpms countless times with this motor with no ill effects... but I think that SUSTAINING such high rpms under a high load was a bit much. On third motor now... so far so good.

Brakes - Fantastic - no need to change anything or "upgrade". Just put in track worthy pads and brake fluid and you're ready to go. I have had odd problems with the ABS system wanting to turn itself off after start up on occassion. A restart fixes it... strange.

Suspension - holds up great. Bushing / ball joints survive very well. Handling is great.

Differential - never had a problem that wasn't the direct result of a botched gear set installation. If you're going to endurance race the car you probably want a cooler (over 40 mins).

CosmosMpower

Not to be rude but that sounds pretty unreliable to me.

New motor twice, new trans, required significant updated cooling. That doesn't sound like the mark of a ready to go track car.

I'm not planning to do endurance racing just 4-5 twenty minute session DE's, maybe some autocross and time trial stuff. I don't want to ever have to replace an engine, transmission or any other component. I'm fine with doing small stuff like replacing coils/wires etc. For the price of a really ragged out S2000 you can get a pretty nice considerably lower miles RX-8 which is swaying my decision right now.

dmitrik4

iTrader: (5)

Doesn't sound too bad in the context of 10,000 track miles with sustained periods above 9000rpm.

j9fd3s

for 10,000miles of track use on a car that is starting with 80k miles that's actually pretty good.

we've run integras since 2005, and it would take way more stuff to get that thing to go 10,000 miles, we've done 3 25 hours of thunderhill so i do know that our list to go 3,000miles is a lot longer, than Magnus's list to go 10,000. Welcome to whyAfoto.com : Cars