Mazda rx8 with ls1 5.7 v8 conversion

[LOW4LYFE]

ManOpener said:

GregK2 said:

LOW4LYFE said:

All that hard work ruined by Rotas Buy some proper wheels before those have a catastrophic structural failure and kill you and your car.

Quite. Total myth, no worse than any other cast wheels.

It's strange then, how other cast wheels manage to get TUV approval, but Rota's don't. They are cheap, over priced junk. I should know, I've sold enough sets of them. And as kerrly pointed out 99% of their "designs" are blatant rip offs of proper wheels.

[skyrover]

TIGA84 said:

sounds bonkers, but fair play to you.

Riding quite high non?

Nothing bonkers about it... it's a very logical upgrade

Riding high is probably due to having no engine in the front

[otolith]

Fastdruid said:

1373Kg is a massive difference to 1500Kg, 130Kg is like carrying two extra people round with you all the time!

I actually agree that the RX-8 is not as light as it could be but for something with 4 doors and 4 seats, decent stereo, nice interior and lots of toys rather than a stripped out car it's really pretty light for a modern car.

Compare to a 350Z, which has no rear seats and not much boot.

The main advantage of the rotary is not so much that it's quite light but that it's very compact - facilitating positioning of mass in the car to give a low centre of gravity and small moment of inertia.

[skyrover]

otolith said:

Compare to a 350Z, which has no rear seats and not much boot.

The main advantage of the rotary is not so much that it's quite light but that it's very compact - facilitating positioning of mass in the car to give a low centre of gravity and small moment of inertia.

Luckily this is where the compact OHV V8 design excels.

It has no large, complicated overhead cam arrangement so sits very low and very compactly in the engine bay.

[otolith]

skyrover said:

otolith said:

Compare to a 350Z, which has no rear seats and not much boot.

The main advantage of the rotary is not so much that it's quite light but that it's very compact - facilitating positioning of mass in the car to give a low centre of gravity and small moment of inertia.

Luckily this is where the compact OHV V8 design excels.

It has no large, complicated overhead cam arrangement so sits very low and very compactly in the engine bay.

Low and compact for a V8, certainly. It's all relative, though;

[skyrover]

otolith said:

Low and compact for a V8, certainly. It's all relative, though;

Low and compact for any DOHC engine really, including "tiny" 4 cylinders

Here's the LS1 next to a DOHC toyota V8



And here's the LS1 next to a DOHC 6 cylinder



And next to a 4 cylinder

Edited by skyrover on Thursday 7th August 10:42

[otolith]

Yes, if you must have a piston engine rather an LS1 than a turbo 4.

[ManOpener]

LOW4LYFE said:

It's strange then, how other cast wheels manage to get TUV approval, but Rota's don't

Erm:

Yes they do. They're also all either have JWL-VIA certification or were pending it last time I checked.

I appreciate they're by and large copies of other wheels, mostly Rays/Volk stuff, but there's no evidence they're more failure-prone than any other similar brand aside from masses of largely contradictory internet conjecture from 5+ years ago, which you can find about just about any wheel if you look hard enough. Plenty of people complaining about failure rates of TUV-approved OEM wheels on the various manufacturer forums, and about expensive stuff like Rays/BBS.

Used fairly extensively in motorsport AFAIK. I know of several teams who run them. Also they're an OEM supplier to Toyota amongst various others.

Edited by ManOpener on Thursday 7th August 13:12

[MrLizard]

Ive used Rota's on the race car for 4 years, had one wheel from one set look like it was stressed but they have done 40 races and track days including some on slicks with relatively (for me) large G going through them with no issues. Used them along side forged nismo wheels, rota's are a bit heavier but they are fine, with anything i think you 'could' get a bad one...

[S90ttb]

So the car has been at Craig's a few weeks now and is coming on, he has removed the engine bed , bolted and welded the new engine mounts and welded the new brackets for the steering rack to it and has had it powder coated
The diff has been resupported and Polly bushed
He has fitted new rear discs and cl pads with braided hoses , all the front arms have been Polly bushed and a hub spacer fitted to take the brembo brake conversion ( Craig has fabricated all the brackets and spacers )
Next week he is hoping to fit the new cam, sump , valve springs etc then get the engine and box mounted !!!
I will update in a week or so

[flatso]

S90ttb said:

So the car has been at Craig's a few weeks now and is coming on, he has removed the engine bed , bolted and welded the new engine mounts and welded the new brackets for the steering rack to it and has had it powder coated
The diff has been resupported and Polly bushed
He has fitted new rear discs and cl pads with braided hoses , all the front arms have been Polly bushed and a hub spacer fitted to take the brembo brake conversion ( Craig has fabricated all the brackets and spacers )
Next week he is hoping to fit the new cam, sump , valve springs etc then get the engine and box mounted !!!
I will update in a week or so

Good stuff...keep us updated! This is indeed a very interesting project for me, or anyone who is looking for a quality good looking 4 seater, with decent handling, manual box and a reliable bad ass sounding engine.

[J4CKO]

otolith said:

Fastdruid said:

1373Kg is a massive difference to 1500Kg, 130Kg is like carrying two extra people round with you all the time!

I actually agree that the RX-8 is not as light as it could be but for something with 4 doors and 4 seats, decent stereo, nice interior and lots of toys rather than a stripped out car it's really pretty light for a modern car.

Compare to a 350Z, which has no rear seats and not much boot.

The main advantage of the rotary is not so much that it's quite light but that it's very compact - facilitating positioning of mass in the car to give a low centre of gravity and small moment of inertia.

The 350Z is pretty heavy, but they don't break. Seats and volume inside a car dont add much weight, its all the oily bits, 350Zs started out at 1450 kilos and put a bit on as the run went on.

[S90ttb]

So I know it's been longer than I said for an update but Craig has been busy with the driftworks team etc and I haven't found the time to update!!!
Since the last update Craig and Carlos have managed to move the abs unit and fit braided brake hoses, move the front anti roll bar and strengthen the mounts to the chassis , remount the rear anti roll bar and replace the rear drop links
Carlos has welded all mounts to the new radiator and fitted cooling fans
Craig has now fitted the new cam , valve springs, sump, dip stick and sump baffle
The ecu has arrived and nod is working on the electrics , so all going well the engine should be mounted this week

[CarAbuser]

Seems like the perfect solution for the RX8.

Every time I've seen someone mention owning one of these cars the fact it drinks fuel and eats engines seems to be the reason they got rid.

[S90ttb]

[S90ttb]

[S90ttb]

[S90ttb]

[S90ttb]

[007 VXR]

Nice