Omicron

Thing is, now that it's in place and touched up with black paint, you can't see it at ALL unless you get into the floor well with a flashlight. And it really is secure... feels exactly like the original pedal, only closer.

Ahhhhhhh. I can stretch my legs out now!

Thanks for the compliments folks. If anyone comes up with a better solution, I'd love to hear about (and see) it.

Kev

I'm really surprised we haven't seen a set of Momo pedals on an 8 yet.

Spin9k

That's some impressive work! Did you try an auto store and see if they had something similar all made up that would do the same thing?

How about your driving/shifting now... can you comment in detail about if/how different it is?

MrWigggles

I drive with my shoes off and it has similar effect as what you are descrbing here.

-Mr. Wigggles

rotarygod

Hey Omicron why don't you just use wooden blocks tied to the bottom of your shoes like Short Round did in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!!! j/k

Omicron

I tried all the common suspects for auto parts stores, and they had nothing. Best I could find was cheesy looking clamp on pedals, and I felt I could come up with something better... retaining the factory look and feel.

Driving/shifting is MUCH more comfortable now because I can have my seat back where I like it, allowing me to not have my right leg at such an uncomfortable bend, and still comfortably clutch. Even better, with my right leg more fully extended, it is much easier to heel-toe. Before my knee was so bent there was no way to do it without tweaking my whole leg. And finally, with the seat further back, I don't feel as unnaturally close to the steering wheel. Related to this is that I'm a bit farther back from the shifter too, so my arm is more fully extended when I shift. I find this much more comfortable too.

LOL. :D

I tried the block thing, but found I was followed around by termites too much. The flying ones are really annoying. Besides, having just a left foot block made me walk funny.

Pam

This is GREAT!!!
I am 5-2 and almost never feel the floor unless I make a great effort..by that time I am looking out the passenger door window instead of forward..people make fun of me tying blocks of wood to my left foot... now I don't have to...it will be attached to the pedal!!!

Omicron

Happy to be able to help. :D

Omicron

Well, after driving my car for a week plus with this extension, I have made an improvement.

Turns out the original piece of sheet metal I used to attach the pedal piece to was too flexible. I had used a piece of ~14 gauge metal, which allowed the pedal to flex just a bit. Not enough that you could detect it with your foot, but just enough that it changed to feel of the pedal ever so slightly. I got to looking at the original pedal, and saw that the metal used to hold the pedal cover was ~10 gauge in thickness. So I got a piece of this, cut it to size (which is a LOT harder, as it is thicker) and put it on in lieu of my original, thinner piece. Much better.

I have updated my original materials list to reflect this improvement.

91vert

One word.....ghetto! j/k :D




.....very ingenious! I applaud your imagination and efforts.

Dugless

Hey 91vert, One word....

Almost necessary with F'd up position of the pedals.


I did something similar the first week I had my 8. Made all the difference. I also made new seat brackets that lifted the front edge of the seat 7/8 ".

Omicron

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who decided to do something about this. Dugless, I'd love to hear what you did in both cases. Would you mind going into more details?

Squidward

Looks like a really solid and seamless DIY job.

Great DIY, thanks omnicron, I might just give it a try too.

How much did you spend on it? Time vs. money

Dookie_Rx-8

I dont get it, why did mazda put the clucth so far in the beginning?

Omicron

Thanks! :D

I spent about 3 hours all told: one half hour experimenting to find the right extension, one hour making and installing version one (not mentioned) from stuff I had on hand, one half hour shopping for better materials for version 2, and one hour making and installing version 2. I spent about $5 in materials from Home Depot.

Oh, and about another hour taking pics and posting the write up. :D

zoom44

they didn't they put the gas peddle closer for better heel-toe action.

Renesis2004

I am SO glad someone else has mentioned the clutch pedal problem. This is the thing I dislike most about the new car I otherwise love. I didn't have the car a month before asking my Mazda tech about some kind of adjustment (-it doesn't exist). He said he'd look into adding an extension like this to the pedal. I think this was a real oversight on Mazda's part.

Thanks for this info. I'll share it with my tech.

rudy8

of all the things i cannot complain about, the one thing is exactly what you have addressed here...pedal position. iwish they would have made the pedals individually adjsutable, but hey, thats asking alot!
thanks for the great pictured detail...im going to the hardware store tommorrow.
rudy

Maximus

I tried a clamp-on pedal with an overall one inch raise in clutch pedal and believe me it makes a day and night difference...the driving position is so much better now.

rudy8

i used omicrons pedal model, and as promised, it is the answer to my problem. now i dont feel like i am driving someone elses car...only one week after buying the 8, it now feels like ive been driving it for years...
by the way, i had an 85 GS rx7 about 12 years ago and loved it.
in so many ways, this car reminds me of my first rx...and thats great.

Omicron

Maximus, I hope you didn't take offense to my "cheesy" comment. I made that comment based on what I could find in the way of clamp on pedals back in the end of October last year. I've seen the one you found and it is much nicer than any I could find at the time. If that had been available, I probably would have just gone with that and been done with it.

Just out of curiousity, where did you buy it?

Omicron

Really glad you like it Rudy, and happy I could help.

emailists

Where did you find the clamp on pedal?

Maximus

Omicron,
No offence taken

Bought the pedal set here

Pics after installation here

Regards,
Max.

XcelR8

After reading through the thread, I decided to give this a shot. I used some scrap 3/8" thick plastic sheet scrap from work and made the extention with two layers (3/4" total). It raised it clutch pedal about an inch with the arch. I like the feel so far...much beter driving possition. The only thing is that I used two zip-ties and velcro to attach it to the clutch. I am going to remake it with three layers to see if it is even better. At that time I think I'm going to screw it to the clutch. This should give me a much firmer feel. I will post some pics of the new one.

Thanks for the idea...didn't like the driving possition as others mentioned, but didn't think about how to fix. Glad someone is on the ball.