WHealy

I totaly missed this thread when it was "going on" but I did find the last paragraph of the Motortrend review interesting.

"Although Pettit’s wares add to the car’s edge and shave a few tenths, the drop in drivability, a slower slalom speed, and no return on the brake-kit investment indicate that when the cars perform as well from the factory as the RX-8 does, maybe “good enough” should be left alone."

Motortrend Nov 2004



Of course RX Tuner's artilce was interesting too ..

"The kit takes the great handling, but underpowered RX-8 into a whole new terriroty."

RX Tuner Volume 1, Issue 7 (why isn't there a month on this?)

shaolin

How did it affect slalom speeds? I can understand a drop in "drivability" but slower slalom? How much does this thing weigh?

WHealy

Here's the article. Mayby that will help the question.

Ajax

when we saw the car at 7stock, they had removed the front strut tower bar..
in the picture there, it's missing as well..

i wonder if they just run w/o it?

that'd certainly cause a drop in slalom performance

cgrx

they can't be that retarded......

Rob Tomlin

I'd have to say, if the numbers in the article are accurate, I don't know that I could justify the cost of the SC. Although shaving 4/10 off a quarter mile is pretty good, if you lose a lot in drivability, it's just not worth it IMO.

rotarygod

They lost drivability from the suspension upgrades they did. This is another shining example of how bigger isn't always better. In this case it was the sway bars, making the car too oversteer happy. Their big brake kit actually hurt stopping power. Just because something is bigger doesn't mean it will work better. It may sound good on paper, but if you mess up the balance of the car, it will only hurt you every time.

The article mentions 2 different supercharger kits, a high and a low boost kit. This is a joke. Low boost is 4 psi but high boost is only 8 psi. To me, 8 psi IS low. High boost would be 15+. $3800 for 4 psi or $5000 for 8 psi.

I and many others saw this car at Sevenstock. The craftsmanship wasn't very good. Hopefully this will all be worked out by production time. Their aluminum upper manifold was absolutely horrid. It needs to be totally redesigned. It may be temporary but why is there never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it again? Build the first one properly and keep it. This is faster and easier. They didn't want anyone taking pictures under the engine cover while it was off. While I din't take pictures with it off, I did take up close pictures looking under it. They weren't there to stop me. There was nothing special. The supercharger is too small. For 4-8 psi it is alright but it isn't going to give them any more power if they want it.

The reason their car doesn't idle very well is obvious. The intake pipe before the maf is too long. Even the K&N pipes that everyone installs on their cars is too long here. If they were cut down just a small amount, they would idle better. In Pettit's case, they should have moved the maf to closer to the air filter. Their filter was in the front of the car so the maf in this location wouldn't be a good thing. However, they could leave the air filter in the stock location if they tried and kept the maf inside the engine bay.

I applaud them for working on a kit. However, if they want to be taken seriously, they shouldn't let something be tested that isn't complete yet. They also shouldn't let the public see poor craftsmanship. The idea is good but the execution is poor. Maybe with alot more refinement they can turn that kit into something worth getting excited over. Keep an eye out for Hymee's twin screw kit. I assure you that he won't half *** any part of it. Not even the first one.

RX-Hachi

Thanks for posting the article. Pretty much sums up how I feel about the aftermarket efforts in general. It's not just the Pettit RX-8, I've seen many other tuner applications on other high performance cars that resulted in a marginal gains in some areas, while degrading performace in other areas.

Omicron

I'm sure the end result was poor because they rushed it to market. Next iteration will probably be better.

What I find even more interesting is that Pettit used a twin screw supercharger, just as Hymee is planning. In theory then, won't the performance gains be similar? Or do you think that the gains were lower than expected (50 HP at 8 Lbs? Bleh!) because they did a rushed job on the tuning, too? And anyone have any idea of what engine management they used?

zoom44

i think, but correct me please if im wrong, that petit used a smaller version of the one Hymee has chosen. i dont remeber looking for engine management at 7stock. could ask steve kan as i believe he took a ride in it(might have actually driven it). or ryan for that matter.

Ajax

I didnt see any engine management in there.. let me look at my pictures though..

EDIT: there's no VISIBLE sign of any engine management system beyond the standard ECU in my pics.

BIU

who makes that front bumper on the petit SC 8?

BaronVonBigmeat

The port & polish option is looking better and better all the time! No obvious signs of tampering, less weight, fewer moving parts, and increased durability instead of reduced.

shelleys_man_06

I think our impatience may be causing aftermarket companies to rush performance as fast as possible. However, companies like Pettit, Racing Beat, HKS, etc., are only trying to cash in on the RX-8's success. I can't blame them. I'll wait a few years for the aftermarket to open up more. Until then, it's back to the drawing board.

rotarygod

Racing Beat is doing it right. They take their time and develop their products after extensive testing. If you notice, Racing Beat has never offered as many parts for the cars as other companies do. They have a very limited product base but intend to do that segment the best they can. They will be the first to admit if you want more power or more extreme mods that they aren't the best ones to talk to. You won't go wrong with Racing Beat.

Omicron

RG, care to comment on my questions above?

rotarygod

If you are referring to the Pettit kit not being built so good I would agree. Cam admitted that the production version will offer an air/air intercooler instead of the air/water unit we saw. The aluminum upper manifold will be completely different from that one. The intake pipe was way too long in front of the maf which caused it to idle rough. Almost everything about their kit had problems. However, almost everything about their kit will be redesigned for the final product. I'm sure that the quality level will be much higher in the end. I'm pretty harsh on them but that's only because the product that I saw for myself wasn't very nicely done. If the finished product is nice, I'll like it.

As far as what ecu they are using, I have no idea. My guess would be something like the eManage. I know it isn't stock though. When the product hits the market, they'll tell us what it is.

Rob Tomlin

Agreed 100%!

It was this way with the FD stuff they sold as well.

Omicron

Actually, I was wondering why they were only getting a 50 HP gain with 8 Lbs of boost. Others have used that and the gains are more like 80-120 WHP. That low of a gain makes me wonder if they kludged the engine management just like they did the rest of the kit, so they could get it ready in time for SS7.

Rob Tomlin

But if we are talking about a 50hp gain to the wheels, that is a pretty big increase. More than 25%.

BaronVonBigmeat

Picking up a 1/2 second in the quarter for thousands of dollars is pretty lame no matter how you look at it. If I wanted a car that would only break even with it's nearest (stock) competitor when supercharged, I'd get a Mustang.

StretchSJE

Are rotary engines different in the way they gain power with boost? 8 psi is over a 50% increase in atmospheric pressure- that's some pretty heavy loss if they're only seeing a 60hp gain.

davefzr

Exactly.. I am pretty disappointed in the performance gains... Guess I am back to waiting for another system to display it's true potential...

Hopefully SFR will publish it's findings within the coming weeks as they said they would...

Rob Tomlin

I don't disagree with this. Frankly, I thought a 50 hp gain would have shown slightly better numbers in the quarter than it did.

Like I said in my first post, it doesn't look like this SC is worth it.

Tony Orlando

Well, if the engine management is so poorly tuned that the car bogs and hesitates on every shift, you lose the time you picked up during acceleration. Just because they can show a gain in horsepower on a single gear dyno pull doesn't mean that the 0-60 times will be better at all. Peak power is just that, and if there's less space under the curve, as well as erratic behavior on the 1-2 shift, it could be slower than stock.

Aftermarket FI is a complete package, I wish everyone would focus less on "how many lbs. of boost" or "Dyno HP". It means nothing.