Worth the Money?
 

Hello everyone, I just bought my 2005 Rx8 two weeks ago and I really love the car. I just want a little bit more power. I have read a ton of threads on this site already but i still can not make up my mind on what i should do to this car. The first thing i was planning on doing was AEM cold air intake, mainly just for that little bit more pep, and possibly extra fuel economy. After that i was thinking of getting some sort of catback exhaust, and finally an underdrive pulley kit. Do you think these mods will give me that "little" extra power that i am looking for? All of my friends like drifting and i think that this car just needs that little more pep to get the wheels spinning around a corner. I am also trying not to spend too much money, and keep reliability up. So would you recommend these mods? or is there something else that i should be looking into. Turbo/supercharger out of the question.

Yes i know if i want a fast car i should have got a manual 8 but i got this thing for a great price and its "almost" fast enough.

Thanks for Your help and suggestions

Doing all the above will only gain you about maybe 10 hp and you will be out $1000. You will get the biggest gain from ECU tuning.

A good Place to Start

AEM sounds like a good starting point to see where you want to take the car too. Exhaust was my next step.

Favorite choices for the Exhaust are

Exotic Speed
Agency Power
Borla
HKS Hi-Power

To name a few

Yes those things will give you a little bit more power...but good luck drifting with an automatic...

I missed that initially. How do you clutch kick a auto?

No, not worth the money imho. The return on investment to horsepower gain for those components is just not there.

A Cobb ECU tune unit is your best bet as a single procurable outlay which can allow you to trade some [more] gas mileage for horsepower.

However, you need to step up to forced induction for significant gains, but that is of course pricey.

lol well drifting in an automatic is difficult, but ill get it done some how. lol i mean if its wet outside i can get sideways and its not too hard to do. And my 8 has brand new bridgestone tires.

Hmm thanks everyone for the help, i think i might just go with AEM intake + eventually and Exhaust. I know i will not get huge gains from these two things but hell, at least it will sound awesome.

Your best bet, get the FEED 4.77 final gear ratio, it will help you a ton and make the car faster (literally). But from What I heard it was pricey, but worth it. Only bad thing about it is that you get worse fuel economy, but who really cares with this car ?

Well this brings me to my next question then... I hear a ton of stuff about AEM cai and little to nothing about anything else. Although i know an intake will give me very slight gains, which intake is known to give the best results?

Also, Which catback exhaust is known to give the best results? while keeping the noise to a reasonable level?

Thanks for your input

After much discussion and trials, it's the general concensus that Mazda got it right in the first place and the 8's stock intake and exhaust are quite good. Of course you will get a different tone with another exhaust, it that's what you're looking for.

After what i read,a Cobb AP/or tune is a good investment....

~R

Ok well if you have not noticed yet, I am very new to the whole car tuning situation, and on an even bigger note, rotary motors. I have a honda fourwheer that i have done tons of work done too and that is the only reason i know anything about motors. So can someone please explain to me what exactly the Cobb Ap does and how it would benefit my situation

Thank you

No problem, we were all rotary rookies at some point.

The Cobb AP tuner allows you to load custom data ('flashes') to your ECU. With today's essentially computer controlled vehicles it's all about the software (firmware). As you would expect, Mazda's stock flash is very conservative. There are a number of elements that can be enhanced given your driving style preference (performance, fuel economy, etc.). Note that for a performance increase you'll have to trade off fuel economy - the add'l power has to come from somewhere.
The Cobb also displays a host of real time engine perfomance metrics. It's like an electronic gauge cluster.

OK, that was the layman's blurb. I'm sure others will give you much more technical insight.

btw: if you decide to go with the Cobb unit, get it from MazdaManiac as he includes more personalized customization.

Thanks for the quick lesson

So this Cobb AP tuner should give me good gains? like how much are we talking here? lol

Every car is different, but you should see anywhere from 10 to 20hp. There are other gains to be had from the AP also.