Are the OEM Series 1 wheels directional?
 

Hey guys,

While checking out the wheels on the RX-8 I just bought, I noticed the slant of the spokes of the OEM Series 1 MT wheels lean in one direction. On the 3000GT VR-4 I just sold, I discovered that the slant was supposed to face in a specific direction to make the wheels act as fans and help cool the brakes. Are the RX-8 wheels the same? I can't seem to find an answer anywhere in the forums.

Thanks!

~ Alex

All of the wheels are the same on the RX-8, meaning they are not intended to be used in a directional fashion.

Based on what you said, that means the left wheels were different than the right wheels on your 3000GT?

Wheels are not directional. Only tires are if they're high performance.

Don't think so. If that's the case, I have 4 left wheels.

But regardless which direction you put them, if it's a fan as you say, all that changes is the direction it pushes air.. either it pulls hot air away from the rotor, or pushes cool air at the rotor.

Yep, that's absolutely right. And if you wipe the dirt away, you could actually see R and L on the inside of the wheels. The spokes were configured in such a way that they would help cool when spinning in one direction, but wouldn't be as effective at it in the other direction (or wouldn't do it at all, who knows). Few 3000GT owners knew it, but it's true. And I also don't know how effective they were at their intended function, like many of the features of the VR-4 (e.g. all wheel steering, active aerodynamics, and active exhaust) :)

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Yep.....just checked with my buddy who owns four VR4's......the wheels are directional as you say. Crazy that the engineers took that into consideration during design. I knew there was some crazy stuff on the VR4 (active aero, AWS, active exhaust), but never thought they would have used directional wheels. CRAZY I tell you!

So you went from a VR4 to a RX-8.......how are you liking the lack of 100 hp? The VR4's mod very well too. My buddies street car dynoed around 550 hp, and his track car is around 450 hp.

Welcome to the rotary club by the way.

Honda Prelude wheels are the same way.

I bought an '05 RX-8 brand new and sold it two years later because it cost too much at the time. I later picked up the VR-4 because it was cheap and I always liked the car. But my real passion - "the one that got away," if you will - has always been the RX-8. I'm super happy to be back on the platform and I don't miss the VR-4... in general.

The one thing I do miss is, as you said, the power. I only did mild upgrades on mine and was probably in the ballpark of 350-375 hp at the crank. Even though the car was around 800 lbs heavier than a Grand Touring RX-8, the extra 120+ hp was very noticeable. And it moves pretty well for a fat, heavy car when you have the right suspension upgrades on it. Oh, and honestly, I sometimes do miss the AWD traction. I'd come out of a corner and just point the VR-4 in the right direction and smash the gas... the AWD would figure it out. With a RWD layout, I'm having to be careful to not get too tail happy :)

I don't miss the fact that my VR-4 was 21 years old this year, and even though it was one of the best condition '92s you'd find, it still showed its age in a number of ways. I was afraid to take it to the track for this reason, whereas I'm excited to get the RX-8 on the track as soon as I get a midpipe, some track pads, and some way to get data (Gauges? An app for my Surface? We'll see).

The stock RX8 brakes are extremely good for a stock package. Unless you are a seasoned track day enthusiat, or if you have DOT R compound tires, most find the stock pads good enough for track days. I am still currently on stock pads and have not experienced fade on the track yet (but I have replaced the fluid with Super Blue). I am also running 265/35R18 Kumho XS tires all around. If you are on stock size street tires, I would think stock pads are fine with a high temp fluid change. Just my $0.02 though, YMMV.

I don't know about the Surface, but if you have an Android, I use Trackmaster with a QStarz 818xt BT GPS. I also run Torque on my phone's screen to show OBDII speed as well as throttle position and coolant temp. Welcome back :)

Here's an example:

I know my tires are directional, but not the wheels. I could swap wheels from my rx8 to my mazda 6 or vice versa.

That's a great setup, very cool. I assume that's also using a couple of Go Pros? I've discovered that there aren't any apps in the Windows 8 store yet , so I can't run anything natively on the Surface RT I have. I could jailbreak it, but the problem then is it has an ARM architecture and won't run regular x86 or x64 Windows apps. I also have a first Gen Kindle Fire, but I'd also need to jailbreak it to install the apps you run. And even then, it doesn't have a Bluetooth adapter in it, so I would have to figure out how to use WiFi and a compatible OBD2 adapter. But even that requires me to root it and reconfigure the NIC to work with point to point connections.

Sheesh! I might just buy a cheap, used iPhone or Android for this specific purpose. I'll still invest in a 3 gauge pod, though, since we can't get any oil temp or pressure data through the OBD port.

Thanks! Android has more track apps than Apple from what I've found. You might try ebay or craigslist or something to buy a cheap android. I'm using the droid x2. You won't need a phone plan to use it for data logging ;)

Also I'm using two Sony handycams. I'm not a big gopro guy, though you can't beat the video quality. I just got in contact with an old hollywood audio recording guy and he is going to help me set up some mics to try and get rid of the wind noise. Should be cool!

the early Fc 15" wheels are directional, the ninja star is supposed to point a certain way.

the volvo 850 is directional too, but its a European car so you get a random mix of left and right wheels