Thought I'd post a few images I took at the MRCCFL.com meet (Gold Coast BBQ) event that took place Friday and Saturday. I was there Saturday only but there were at least 40 cars in attendance. It was a great time, especially visiting SpeedSource. Not many individuals get a first-hand look inside a real race prep shop and their RX8's were amazing (well everything inside that shop was amazing). They're not in any particular order (they're backwards chronologically actually). The event included a dyno session in the morning, BBQ in the early afternoon, and a visit to SpeedSource in the late afternoon.



First pic, outside SpeedSource with a bunch of the club cars in the parkinglot. Lots of 2nd gens, a handfull of third gens and about four RX8's.

Here's one of three SpeedSource-built RX8's that will run in the Speedvision Cup. They make about 250 flywheel hp and feature stock engines, brakes, roll cage, Motec engine management and a few other nifty features. It's apparently faster than the Boxter these guys ran last year, the car that won the championship. They feel very confident about the upcoming season.

And yes, they started the car after much prompting from the croud. Guess what, sounded like a rotary! https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png They also popped the hood but no pictures were allowed. Not much to see. They're stock Renesis engines. The engine/tuner guy commented it's by far the best rotary engine ever made by Mazda in terms of internal balance and tolerances. Right now they're running the stock Mazda 2pc seals but are trying Ianetti's Ceramic seals using the older (3rd gen and previous) apex edge radius. Apparently they're also going to create new ceramic seals with the updated "Renesis" edge radius/shape.

Here's something most of us will never see (at least not for 10 years when 8's start showing up at the junkyard!), a fully stripped complete chassis. It weighs 801lbs. with doors.

here's a better shot of the interior roll cage. Mazda provided technical data on how to build the roll cage in these cars. The chassis is about 300% stiffer than the third gen and according to SpeedSource, easier to drive at the limit than the third gen (which is pretty darn easy IMHO). The two yellow cars are Mazda Factory backed cars. Other factory backed entrants are Lexus (IS 300), Acura (RSX) and BMW (3 series 4 door). There are at least two other Mazda's running in the same class, those being a Protoge' and a 6.

The cars feature U.S.-spec Mazdaspeed body kits. No rear valiance however. The MSpeed front end in the US has a smaller opening to cover the bumper bar we use here but not used in Japan. Can't believe they're using stock brakes! (upgraded pads and fluid however) https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/wacko.png



He wouldn't give out spring rates, but the balance would be the same as running 1000lbs. front to 800lbs. rear. Stock rear swaybar, MUCH beefier front bar (dialing out understeer anyone?)



The cars run ZERO split on the timing with the Motec. None, zilch. The tuner has tried tons of different combinations with no real or significant changes in output. The intake ports are pretty much maxed out in his opinion but the exhaust has a bit in it. Just the ports however. No one has made any hp going to a tuned header, mostly due to the side port configuration not being "tuneable" for exhaust pulse. Apparently the stock log manifold is designed well.

The silver car is semi-privateer. All told, they're scheduled to build five RX8's. One is running in a Belgium series and another is for a privateer if I remember correctly. The shop is immaculate and they also run in the Daytona Prototype series with Ford Cobra-engined cars.



The rims are Racing Hart CP035's made to their specifications to be even lighter. RH provides rims for the Mazdaspeed series of cars so there's a "Mazda" connection. They have unique offsets and center design which runs sans center caps. They're even lighter than the off the shelf piece.

One last shot of all three completed cars. They've tested the cars quite a bit.

First gen, Cosmo 13B motor, single turbo, blowthrough turbo kit. Yes, they're swapping jets out on the dyno.

See, told you they were swapping jets...Normally he runs fuel injection but his Haltech went down. Put on the carb just for this event and made 371hp at the rear wheels. Nice. Very nice.

An overall shot of the engine bay

A nice 2nd gen done up for drag racing. Didn't get a chance to talk to the owner but apparently he's using Chrispeed's old turbo and puts down just over 400rwhp. The turbine side was VERY small however, so I'm a doubting thomas on that one. It was about as big as a small grapefruit or large orange! Compressor side was much larger. Overall a good looking car and he's obviously put a lot of love into it.

Just the engine bay

Last one...RX8 on the dyno w/GReddy exhaust. Guess what it made? 180hp like every other car out there. The a/f ratios were in the 11.6 and richer range. Leaning it out to 12.5 should be good for an easy 20hp.

nice https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/bigok.gif .....wha city was this in?

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and thereabouts :-)

Very cool, not sure if I like all the rotor decal deals, but there are some nice looking cars.



thanks for pics

looks like a great turnout.... better than our 0 degree F meet last friday

do you have a pic of yourself?? I showed up late, and was swapping hoods with a guy so I wasn't even able to see all the cars before we went to speedsource.



Speedsource was heaven btw. like 8 2nd gen its cars sitting around 3 st rx8's 2 ford road cars for the 24 hour race. Seriously, i was speachless. Got an up close and personal look at the renisis missing half the intake which was cool. They redesigned the oil injectors to have two that dump directly into the housings right beside each other. I'd love to put one in my n/a whenever it get's rebuilt.



I wonder if the change to side housing exhaust ports has made the car quieter because, i was standing next to the rx8 when he revved it, and I swear my car is louder. All he had was a small borla muffler on it??



Great time tho, wish I would've gotten there earlier.

What great pictures. You should be a professional photographer:)



We will visit Speed Source again. Possibly this summer sometime. The guys there were very impressed with our cars and knowledgeable questions. You can watch them run on Speed Channel next Saturday and Sunday.



This BBQ was a great time. Thanks to everyone who came out.





Ron Slabach

Naples, FL



SW Fla VP MRCCFL

http://www.mrccfl.com/



74 RX-4

84 GSLSE

http://intertron.com/ron/

great pics michel! i wish i could have gone but alas my clutch fork went to poop on me. i will most definantly go next time.

No pictures of myself...I had the black third gen with the FEED front end, carbon fiber rear diffuser and single turbo. Had the bronze Volk wheels.

Michel

great pics..makes me drool thinking about attending an event with that many rotorheads together. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/blush.png



fritz

That is Crispeed's old turbo. Last dyno, just before last moroso event, it made 556rwhp w/ 419torque. It still has more to go as according to Chris it still has plenty of injectors left. At the track it ran 11.2@132mph on 18" dr. That was its first and only pass that day as on the second pass it broke both axles, on the third it broke the tranny.



Thanks for coming Michel and many thanks for the pics.

Here's Michel at the dyno, hard at work.

http://intertron.com/ron/mf.jpg



Ron



http://www.mrccfl.com/



74 RX-4

84 GSLSE

http://intertron.com/ron/

So the RX-8 is running the Touring classs? Will be interesting to say the least.



Supposedely Tri-Point's Proteges were making 300 HP or thereabouts.



Great pictures.

oh ok, i was standing there when you were talking to dave (i think) about the split issue, even under boost.

The results from Daytona test days (Jan 3-5) are on the Grand Am series site.

http://www.grandamerican.com/race_results/...tresults57.html



Tremblay and Haskell in #70 were 12th overall, 1st in class.

Schlessinger and Tuaty in #68 were 14th overall, 3rd in class.

Walker, Wollersheim and Fanelli in #67 were 16th overall, 5th in class.



Of course you never know who's sand bagging, but all three cars in the top five during testing can't be bad.



Ron

Tri-Point's cars are making about 240hp with the help of Mazda. Each engine cost a bit over $20K and none of the parts internally are stock. It's the only car in class that's allowed to do this. Politics.

It actualy made 370rwhp at 17psi!

Hrm...I thought he said it was 371. I was there for a bit but left when they stopped swapping jets so I did not see the final big number run. What do you think about Cartech? Seemed like they were doing some pretty cool things, esp. with S2000's.

thats awsome where in florida was this?

We were in the Ft. Lauderdale area.

A short article I wrote about our trip to Speed Source is on rotarynews.com



Ron Slabach

SW Fla VP MRCCFL

http://www.mrccfl.com/

74 RX-4

84 GSLSE

http://intertron.com/ron/

BTW, that was my 8 on there, and I am waiting for my new fuel controller to get here, like, in the next 30 minutes.



Now, I need someone to give me some pointers on where I need to go to read up on rotary tuning, and if you know how the e-manage works, all the better!

The short and correct answer would be to ABSOLUTELY take it to someone who has tuned rotaries for some time and is known to be quite good at it. Do not mess with the settings yourself as you can and will blow your engine just by changing to a wrong setting. Your best bet would be to use the stock programming (assuming a "better" map is included with the e-manage) and read/listen carefully on the RX8 forum to those with more experience. Hopefully others will share maps that are dyno/daily proven and you can download their settings. Otherwise spend a few years reading up on rotaries and tuning. Really. No kidding. I guess I wouldn't try to be the "first out of the gate" on anything. Let others make the successes and mistakes and learn from them.

Let's take another look at that "tuning" picture. I've labeled Chris and myself. Chris "should" have been the one doing the tuning. I've known him by reputation and the internet for some time, years actually. Never met him in person and I didn't know that was him. He has an FC which runs low 9's (he can give you the exact times/trap speeds) but he's a tuning/rotary god. Dude, next event, you're our featured speaker :-)

You just forgot to add the "You" tag over me in that picture https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png



I have been trying to learn as much as I can. The e-manage already has a nicely done map on it, and I plan on doing a lot of reading before I attempt to do anything at all. But I need to know what to read first https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png It's easy to find books on the subject, it's hard to find GOOD books on the subject. I'm not planning on doing anything stupid, and have been warned by many people to make sure I know what I'm doing first.



But I gots to start somewhere.

Again, my advice would be to have it tuned on a dyno by a rotary tuner. Ask him questions and that should get you started. There are many threads on timing and tuning in this forum alone.

Eddie here, just visiting NOPISTONS after a loooong hiatus (I actually forgot my password here). That's my car!!