Japan8

What do you need to look at them while driving for? Outside of racing situations or tuning situations... do you really need to precisely know your coolant or oil temp and boost pressure while the car is moving? But that is just my opinion...

Bindon

Well its good to see if your AFR suddenly shoots up, or if your fuel pressure suddenly drops. That way you can do the neccesary to stop any damage from being done.

I dont know, I just figured that If you cant moniter the gauges on the go, whats the point in having permanent gauges in the first place?

california style

i think the guages below the air con controls / in ashtray hole is a good idea.

What about by my Sat Nav linky guage idea? Is that even possible?

Winning 8

a single din after market radio convertion, with three holes for guages is perfect. finish either factory style or CF.
a radiator fan control.
hks twin power & wire harness.

rotor_man

the guages add horsepower japan8 at least 10 per guage!

but seriously i just came up with an idea, i like the idea of a guage pod that replaces the steering wheel cover.

Not for engine status guages but for your radar detector / laser jammer concealed display. as i have a stock car which doesn't really need anymore guages. I think there would be a market how big who knows? It would wan't to be quite low so not to cover much of the tach which is a work of art!

rotary crazy

this is what I like to see: a performance engancing pakage like the one you have for the rx-7 the tkt pakage, only that it lets the car in NA form and have something like 220 rwhp and that you can do it in stages.

try to extrac the most out of the car in NA form

- intake
- exhaust
- pulleys
- ECU REFLASH ( so that this mods work ok)
- larger 6 ports sleeves (if this do anything)
- header
- fly wheel

the reason I ask for this is that my car use to have a tkt kit on it and I love it.

Bindon

Thats a good idea, But the problem is that the RX-8 wont gain 60 hp from an intake system :-p

200+ is likely attainable with a flash though.

rotarygod

With the exception of the sleeves, these are things that are already available on the market. Larger sleeves won't do anything. As it is their diameter is much larger than the actual port opening so you can't change anything from a power standpoint.

I believe the original intent of this thread was to see what the RX-8 owners would like ofered for their cars that aren't easy to get now. An intake, exhaust, flywheel, pullies, etc are all products that are already saturating the market. Is adding one more really going to do anything for them from a business standpoint? Probably not.

Many would like to see a header. They already have them on the market and they don't do much if anything. There already is a cheap header on the market and hardly anyone is buying it. This is hardly worth their effort.

An individual throttlebody would be a sweet setup. Realistically how many will buy it? Remember it would need to be converted to drive by wire, the intake manifold configuration needs to completely change, the fuel rails need to completely change, the ecu tuning needs to completely be redone. How many are going to pay a couple of thousand dollars for a mod that may or may not give them more power? It will almost certainly narrow the powreband somewhere. Mazda did a good job on the intake manifold of this car. If there is a market for a product like this, make it a new uper manifold that is made out of aluminum for the forced induciton guys. Maybe even one with different length runners to retune the powerband a litle bit. Nothing serious but that's realistically the extent of what will sell. Anyone willing to do an individual throttlebody system on this car should already be willing to source the parts themselves and make it happen anyways.

He needs more realistic ideas and starting small is a good place to start. There have been a few good ones.

New body kits: Originality in this area always seems to sell.

Gauge pods: Cheap to make. Easy to sell. I like the idea of the steering column mount as the a-pillars have airbags and I wouldn't want to get hit in the face by a set of gauges in the event of a crash. To expand on the steering column pod, instead of one or two small round locations for gauges, make it a large oval or rectangular surface so one or several gauges can be mounted. A larger surface leaves more room for creativity. Someone could put a turbo timer up there, or even a boost controller. Just give them room. This would sell better as it would be more functional to more people.

Oil cooler upgrade: Something that should be offered on any rotary. Direct replacement coolers for the stock location that have better cooling ability.

Ignition upgrade: While there is an option on the market, it is prohibitively expensive. This is definitely needed if it can be done at a real world price.

Start there. Make those few things happen first. Then worry about bigger things later. If these simple things can't sell well, you know that there probably isn't a terribly large market for more radical upgrades/changes either.

Japan8

Oh I know what you mean. But that is why I said about racing or tuning situations. I would think that the majority of people... those that would want to buy a Pettit S/C kit... they don't need to always be watching their gauges (afr, fuel pressure, etc.). That is one reason why they went with the Pettit kit or Axial Flow S/C... just bolt-on. No tuning required (because of ecu flash or magic black box being used). Like it came from the factory that way.

Those people who regularly track their car or have a turbo kit... they will be much more interested in being able to monitor the gauges as they are driving... but then for these people, two gauges isn't going to be enough.

On a related note... the MkV GTI has two boost gauge kits that have come out. One is a steering column mounted one (like you have proposed) and the other... it mounts in the driver's side a/c vent (uses replacement vents with the gauge built-in). The idea was to look less FF and make the gauge blend in with the car. Another kit that is coming out offers space for two gauges and mounts in the ashtray area...

Why not offer both? Or make prototypes of both and take a poll of which people would prefer...

Japan8

I also agree with RG on all of his ideas. I think that from a business standpoint, all of those would be best to start off with... the things that'll have the widest audience, lowest dev cost and highest profit margin.

XELLR8

I don't want to sound like a broken record but I will mention 'ECU Reflash' only because I'm so surprised that we're pretty much the only car on the market that doesn't have one out yet..

-Apperance wise i really like your Pettit Racing RX-8 Front Splitter. How about one that fits the stock front nose, with a CF option. I was actually thinking about adapting yours to fit. Especially as your body kit looks like great quality at a great price.

- Also, I luv the radio ****, what about a replacement for the Nav Joystick. That thing is the thinnest, cheapest piece of plastic ever put in an automobile. Some nice little solid rotor thingy would be perfect. Any Nav guys that agree please post cuz our joystck has been bothering me for years!!

Thanks,
xEll

Avalonstar

I have to echo the others. I feel the most imporant thing is to have a reputation of following through on your word. I mean, was it really smart that you asked about more potential products before your supercharger was available? Maybe, maybe not. But I know from my own experience that I'll shop with people who not only have good products, but will make them and release them when they say they will - or at least be transparent about the process and the problems. Show them action, and they'll flock.

rotary crazy

[QUOTE]yes, most of this parts are available on the market but most are made individualy and dont work well with one another we have seen cauntles dyno sharts of people that buy and intake and then an exhaust only to lose power.

what I want is not hart to do for a company like pettit, test the parts available, an figure out the ones that work well with eachother, develop an ecu flash and see what they got, most people want to just drop the car at the shop and pick it up with improments a kit that improve power to 215 or 220 rwhp for somethin like $2000 and stay NA an drivable its really good.

most headers dont do anything because the ecu dont let them work but there is 10 to 12 hp from this with ecu tunning

rotarygod

You aren't going to get very different results from any header, intake, exhaust, flywheel from manufcaturer to manufacturer. Don't expect miracles. You won't get them. Show me a better designed intake system for the RX-8 than the REVi. I'll wait... Tell me why one light flywheel can't match another light one of the same weight? show me how an exhaust that gives you 5 extra horsepower is any better than another one that only give you about 5 hp. Some may lose power. The logical thing is not to buy those!

You'll see an ecu flash in due time. Trust me. Don't expect 215 to 220 rwhp though. Again you are asking for miracles that you won't get. Expect about a 10-15 hp gain realistically over stock since anyone providing a flash is going to need to comply with emissions regulations. If you want more, you'll need a tunable solution and we already have those. I'd go so far as to say that any reflash we ever see hit the market, probably won't change much about the low load/drivability maps for emissions reasons. They might change the full power maps, potentially open the variable intake system at different times, or maybe change the rev limiter, but that's about the extent of it I see happening. I don't see a 10,000 rpm redline or tons more power happening.

Headers do something yes but none of them perform miracles. I don't believe any 10-15 hp claims as we haven't seen them yet. By the time you get a header that "might" do something useful, it will probably be too long to include a cat. Then you'll have people crying because they can't pass emissions and there will be no market for it. At least not enough to justify the effort to produce it.

You are asking for the impossible or the redundant on all accounts. When extreme products do come out that people really want, they always complain about the price being too high. From a financial standpoint, these products are not worth their time or effort especially when they probably can't reinvent the wheel and develop a new part that suddenly does something where all others of the same type have failed.

Ghost Trooper

Oh I second that! That looks awesome!

BaronVonBigmeat

Okay I want to change my vote to: lightweight powerplant frame.

* It shouldn't be too difficult to develop
* It won't void warranties or affect reliability, so people with new cars can buy without fear
* It's a fairly straightforward bolt-on, installation should be relatively easy
* No competing companies, you'd have a monopoly
* If you can make it out of aluminum, it should be fairly cheap.
* Rotary fans do tend to be weight ******

I think there would be a market for it, but it really all depends on the cost:benefit ratio. Headers sound good, but Hymee is going to be selling his soon (I assume?), so that market may be more crowded than you'd like. Especially since a header with real gains basically means no cat.

Bindon

The powerplant frame isnt as easy as most would think.

To do it correctly, we should do some strenn analysys etc, because its either going to be a different material, or a different design to save weight.

R&D is very extensive on that one.

rotary crazy

basically what you are sayng is that you took an rx-8 with headers, exhaust and inatake try at least 3 combinations, all the bolt ons available tuned it and got 205 rwhp and that the rx-8 its not capable of making more power and still be street legal?

shinronin

SR motorsports has one already although the link doesn't show any more detail. also no word on its weight. as Bindon said, i'd be worred about copious and extensive stress testing as that's not something you want to swap out on a whim.

rotarygod

So far the record with extreme tuning and no regards for emissions, with no cat installed is 211 rwhp. It "might" have a few more left in it but don't expect much. So keeping it street legal will be a bit less. The engine is capable of near 250 fwhp on the extreme side and that's it. You're expecting good tuning, some new parts that are essentially the same as others, and some pixie dust to top that? I don't think so.

rotary crazy

im not going to keep hijaking this treat, but I have seen a renesis do more than that and have seen a completly stock rx-8 do 204 rwhp.

rotarygod

Let's see it. Better yet get ahold of the timing and fuel map so someone here can load it and verify it. I'll load it in tomorrow if you get it to me.

rotary crazy

if it was my car I would have post it a long time ago, now lets see the 211 rwhp you clain is the record and who got it.

Bindon

Scott got it tuning with an interceptor.

Bindon

Just to give you guys a head up...

Im currently working on an Ignition system upgrade for you guys, and a fuel upgrade.

This should solve most of the FI folks woes.

Ill keep you posted on the progress.

-Bryan