I've seen this car also and as a matter of fact those rims came from one of my sponsors. It looks pretty damned good. I have one problem with what the dealer is telling you though.

I am sorry to say that there is no way in hell that MAZDA USA gave Sunflower Mazda the OK to install damned SUPERCHARGER on an RX8 and that it will retain it's FACTORY warranty. I have seen this car and also talked to the same people about it and they were only in the 1st stages of getting this project started.

I have worked for a dealership (not Mazda but VERY closely related) for over 9 years and not once have they had the manufacturer OK such a thing. I have seen powertrain warranties voided for installing 3.73 gears in a car, CAI kits installed, PCM reflashes, suspension warranties voided for lowering sprigs. If you modify a car and that modification causes a failure of one or more components then those components are not warrantable. I can just see it now. Hell installing window tint voids the warranty on glass, and window motors if they go out.

customer: "yeah I was passing a car on the highway and my engine blew"

Dealer: "do you think it could be the SUPERCHARGER installed on your freaking car"

It's not gonna fly. If you take that car to ANY OTHER Mazda dealer in the US they will laugh in your face.

I think that it's great the they are installing such a kit, however they are feeding you a huge line of crap if they tell you that the warranty is still intact.

If it is too good to be true it probobly is. And if by some remotely unfreaking believable chance this is true, I will drop $4,000 and install it tomorrow.

Yes, I totaly agree with you. It is very difficult for me to believe that the warranty would remain after such a modification to the car. After reading your post I do not see how this could be true. I will go back and try to clarify this when I get a chance as it may have been mis-stated or I mis-understood.

Are you able to get some pictures with the kit/wheels installed?

Well, this isn't entirely true. It is very possible for one of them to actually retain warranty with a part like this. Because Mazda USA isn't covering it, it's their insurance provider. So when the car blows Mazda USA won't pay much to fix your car, their insurance will and when covering a few RX-8s they only see it as a benefit I would suppose.

Blitz RX8 @ Tokyo Auto Salon with clutch driven S/C. If youv'e already seen it, sorry.
RACRX

http://javascript:popup('http://www....39;, 820, 700)

No freakin way!!! If they do this, I'M THERE BABY!!! :D Hell, KC's less than a day's drive for me. Better yet would be if I got my dealership to agree to honor the warranty instead.

And actually, it is possible that Mazda has decided to embrace the tuner industry for the RX-8. I mean, think about it... what's the ONE thing we'd all like more of? Power! And what's the one major controversy surrounding this car? Power. If MNAO embraces some manufacturer's mild FI kit, it would shut up a lot of their critics. Hmmm.....

There is one peculiar thing about the Blitz compressor. Any see it but me? Can you say "Mad Max"?

Charles

Are you implying that they are selling an aftermarket warranty with the kit, if so then yes there may be a warranty, but not from MAZDA. My dealership has done this before on a truck we bought from the auction that had a Blower on it.

Showoff,

What dealership do you work at. I want to know which one to avoid. I have never had that much trouble from doing simple bolt-on mods like CAI. Now the supercharger may be different. And who knows maybe MazdaSpeed is looking at getting some inexpensive R&D. It has happened before. Look at the NSX and the $120k version that was released in the US, all the work was covered under the Acura factory WARRANTY. Do your research before you flame here because I know quite a bit about the NSX R&D for this model. Some manufacturers will do this.

Don't worry you're too far away. Let me ask you this question if you know so much, is the warranty on a Saleen product through Ford Motor Co., or Saleen? They add S/C and Nitrous to some cars swapped motors and trannies on others and the vehicles are not covered by the Ford factory warranty they are warranted by Saleen, you also cannot have warranty work done on one of these vehicles unless they are a Saleen dealer. Just comparing similarities. Just as the fact that you cannot have a MAZDASPEED Protege worked on by a non-mazdaspeed dealer.

If this vehicle has a S/C will it be CARB legal in 50 states. Mazda will have to fork over some serious dough to get that approved. Like I said if the kit is for real, with factory warranty, in all 50 states at any Mazda dealer I will call Larry Ray at Sunflower and have it installed. And BTW I am not flaming here just stating the obvious.

I would just hate to see someone go out and buy this car based on assumption. Not trying to flame or piss people off I have just seen from experience how difficult it can be when you take a modified vehicle to another dealer and try to get warranty work done. The dealership (not the selling dealer) that may do the work has no idea why certain things were and weren't done on the vehicle, such as why is this oil line here, why is the piping moved, how do I reflash the ECU when my WDS system cannot even communicate with the PCM on this vehicle correctly. What do I reset the timing at on the vehicle. There are so many variables.

Now if you are talking about a $120,000 dollar NSX vs. a fully loaded out S/C RX-8 topping out at $40,000 the guy with the $120,000 NSX can probobly afford to have his vehicle trailered to the servicing dealer no matter where he lives. I have a buddy that owns 2 Lamborghinis and a Ferrari 360 Modena, he has to have them serviced at a qaulified shop 250 miles from here. He obviously can afford the bill.

Just got off the phone not too long ago and It is now confirmed the procharged RX8 will be at the Rotary Revolution this April 30th - May 2nd.

We'd like to see your 8's there as well. ;)

http://revolutionmktg.net/Revolution

and

https://www.rx8club.com/a-67/

We'll show em :D

Okay genius, then tell me which company makes the CLUTCH in question. That was my point. Although most people might have caught that it was clutch-driven, most might not recognize it as being from an air conditioning compressor.

That's okay, I am currently co-designing a much more user friendly version with the guys at SSR. Y'all gonna have a ton o' fun with it when we are finished.

Just messing around with ya, Racer.

Charles

Can't wait to see it, Charles. Any idea on release date?

A centrifugal supercharger is only going to make a peaky power band more peaky and not do anything for the area under the curve.

Perhaps this needs another thread, but I would like to hear more about the design of the supercharger that SSR is working on if it is supposedly better.

I think the twin screw design Blitz uses has proven itself very well for our type of powerband. In the US, it has been applied to the Celica GT-S with excellent results. Not the most powerful, but far more usable. It keeps the power band the same as stock but raises the whole thing up. A centrifugal tends to just make power up top.

Here is a dyno from a Celica 2ZZ application. All their applications include a piggy back for ecu retuning. This is a well though out kit!

http://www.turbomagazine.com/tech/02...ica13_zoom.jpg

I should mention that I am a fan of a well sized turbo, but I would take a supercharger for this car if done correctly and priced right.

Nipondenso, Hitachi, Toyo, Bendex. Pick one!!

Sorry, I misunderstood your point. I thought you were asking if anybody saw Mad Max, My bad.
RACRX

Nah RacrX, my point was to just encourage everyone to look a little closer and see what the "latest" technology is. An a/c clutch on a blower. I cannot see the application of such a thing. What a hassle to turn it on and off. I am working on something that is adjustable by the end-user, modifiable in five minutes, and a lot cooler looking when it is assembled. Someone said that our power curve is "peaky" but the dyno sheets I have seen show a quite flat torque curve and an appropriately rising horsepower level. Am I missing something?

C

As to the release date, we are trying for Rotary Revolution. The thing is, we(SSR and me) have not only the s.c. thing happening but also some other bolt-on type items with real functional purpose and some top of the line "bling" factor involved. If all of our arrangements converge properly my car will only look stock from the exterior with a gauge, or two, on the interior. I plan on picking the pockets of some musclecar owners in my area to offset the cost of the project. Is that shameless of me? Just wondering.

Charles

Cool!! Can't wait to see it. Best of luck with the project.
RACRX

That was me. I said it was peaky. I should rephrase that as you are correct. We have a very flat torque and a smooth rising hp curve.

The problem is a centrifugal is just a belt driven turbo. It does not make any power at all down low as it does not even make 1psi until 4rpm or so and then full boost only at max rpm. At low rpm, it can not make boost. It will make more overall hp and look great on paper but hard to use in the real world.

We only need to look at the S2000 for comprehension of that effect.

A roots and screw type (what blitz is using which happens to be better, but not really noticable in low boost I would think) would make the same amount of boost at any rpm and instead of only pushing the power even higher up top would give a similar power curve as stock but higher everywhere. A roots is not the most efficient overall though.

A screw is an improved design that compresses the air internally and is a lot more efficient. It tends to cost more and not really show advantage at low boost, but is the best design and what Blitz uses. I really like the Blitz. It shows promise.

It would have an effect similar to this dyno of a jackson racing RSX using an eaton supercharger which is a roots.

http://www.jacksonracing.com/SiteGra..._S_Race_SC.gif

My question was what type of supercharger are you guys using?

Murix, some of that is true, depending on the application, supercharger etc. it is extremely hard to judge and "guess" where the boost would come in especially since I've never seen a dyno, quarter mile or any result of an RX-8 being supercharged. But having a centrifugal your eliminating quite a bit of risk, being a rotary engine it's somewhat unpractical for the goals we are shooting for. And there are some problems with these eaton, roots type blowers. If you do not have the right fuel supply (which most kits lack) this whole boost at idle thing is very risky. First of all having a roots on a rotary if you have 1psi of boost at idle the chances of you detonating are alot more prone, and we all know what happens when you detonate a rotary engine.

I would also think that the ability to intercool the charge with a centrifugal supercharger represents a further reduction in risk and increase in power. This is especially important on a rotary because it tends to be sensitive to thermal load. I would also speculate that the centrifugal would be better suited to handle the higher rpm of a rotary that a roots type.

RX-8 Aftermaket Turbo A Reality
 

Well I am have been searching long and hard for a supercharger for my car, however I did stumble across this for all those in the US. I think this is the first positive news I have seen on this.

Rx-8 Turbo Charger

Where are these guys located?