newb here, guick question.
 

Hey everybody, I'm new here. My girlfriend just bought a RX8 with the automatic & I was wanting some recomendations for what would be the best cold air intake for her car (I'm look'n to get a few browny points for christmas :) ) I've done a little research, & the mazdaspeed unit is outragous price! I have had great luck with K & N products in the past, mostly for my bikes & saw one I liked. I am very mechanically minded, just never had any experience with these rotary engines, so I figured I'd ask ya'll. Thanks for any help!

search woot woot and if u need any jdm parts come holla at J-onDemand =P

I did search for a little bit, most of the threads I found regarded the manual trans, thats why I posted in the auto trans sub forum 'cause I didn't get many results, thanks.

Racing Beat..............

but I wouldn't buy my girlfriend an intake unless she was a mechanic, and even then she'd probably get pissed because she would want to make the choice.

i had the k&n typhoon II on my 04 auto and absolutely loved it. if your looking to get a cai then go with the aem. or you can just get the revi with the air duct which will basically turn it into a cai.

Found mostly the same thing when I did searches on intakes - lots of good stuff on the Revi.
You have a valid question though that I had considered - is there any difference on the intakes for a manual or an auto. Don't see why there would be, but am new to these engines myself.

well the auto has more torque at 5500 rpms then the manual does so i would figure that u would be able to feel the intake pull more at that rpm than the manual would where as the manual pulls more throughout the powerband. im new to these engines as well so im sure someone here is more knowledgeable about this but this is just what i figure. :)

For the intakes and exhausts they work for both the Auto and Manual.
Things that wouldn't work would the lightened flywheel. The Turbo's and superchargers will work for the most part. They all bolt right on (except RP's Axial Flow, it has a seperate UIM).

Right now the reason we don't see more turbos and such is because the Tuning is diffrent from the manual.

for an intake for an auto, i went with the MS but there are tons of great reviews for Racing Beats intake too. another thing to note is that the MS and the AEM intake are the practically the same. one just doesnt have the name on it

Did you notice any power increase with the intake?

eh hard to tell. i feel like there is a little more pull but i could just be my imagination with the new sound. im happy with my purchase and i really like it.

at first i thought it was too loud but after getting used to it i love it now. just need to be a little lighter on the gas to keep it quiet

The Racing Beat intake is not loud like some with the open filter. Would be my choice if I was to buy an intake. :)

use Mazdaspeed filter! they give u a few HP!

this may sound dumb, but is it hard to install an intake? I have no experience at all installing parts on cars. and how much hp do you get?

It is not too bad. Most require the removal of the front bumper, which with a little patience comes off easily.

3-5 HP increase is what they seem to get. The response is what is nice and the sound is a bonus. ;)