Dorito Fun

[DocWalt]

I bought an '09 RX-8 R3 back in the beginning of July. It had lots of weird issues... and apparently a blown engine. Spun bearings, so I can't even make funny apex seal jokes.

It had a pretty long list of mods, so not a total waste.

While I was replacing the engine with a friend, I did Hotchkis swaybars and fixed a LOT of other nonsense. Replaced the stupid spherical bearing Megan Racing lower control arms in the rear.







Typical rotary, visiting gas stations often



About a week after purchase the damn door handle broke. The fix involved trapping myself inside the car among other stupid things.



Oil pan full of copper



Pulling the engine a week and a half later







Hotchkis swaybar:



Wrapped the stock header:



More swaybar goodness:



Reman Mazda engine arrived!

[DocWalt]

Quickly turned it into this:



Then this happened the next day:





I got the injectors cleaned and flow tested, when they arrived I quickly did this...







I've been breaking it in since!



Did new brakes the other day



Tweaked the tune to better match the ignition coil dwell times to what the upgraded coils on my car want and it's *so* much smoother, more responsive, and feels more powerful too. Huge difference in performance from such a simple thing.

[stealthee]

You're just a glutton for punishment Kenny. My buddy and I went to lunch the other day to hang out. We were talking about rotary swapping a Starion/Conquest to really piss people off, but also talked about all the pitfalls of the rotary, then another friend called while we were still on the subject and we told him what I was thinking and his response was "As much as I want a rotary, I don't really want a rotary."

[anyonebutme]

Needs header, cat delete on stock tune for those flames....

[OhioSpyderman]

Beauty!!!

You'be probably had more cars in the last 5 years than I've had in my life....

Must be nice

Bob.

[j2k4]

Beauty!!!

You'be probably had more cars in the last 5 years than I've had in my life....

Must be nice

Bob.

This is absolutely disgusting.

Well done, Kenny.

The guy I bought my Stealth from replaced it with an RX8 - he was an unrepentant Auto-X racer driving on the street; we got to and from dinner in record time.

He'd bought the car one week and put four-point harnesses in the next - fucking needed them, too, the way he drove.

If I ever drove like that, they would have taken my license away til I was a fucking old man...like now.

[DocWalt]

Rotaries are fun

Mine shoots fire, haha. Catless for now

[DocWalt]

Ok, since my last post I got the tuned pretty well dialed in. Should be ~190whp now on 93 octane.



Got the midpipe with HFC done up with my buddy Jeff! He has quite a collection of Mazdas, haha.



Got the car inspected and an alignment was attempted... Unfortunately 6 of 8 adjusters were stuck so that turned into an adventure with the sawzall and new bushings and new arms where needed. Unfortunately I got the front control arms out fine but they exploded trying to press out the camber bushings... so Jeff volunteered up his spare control arms. I did Mazdaspeed offset bushings in the front upper control arms for more camber while it was apart.





Alignment specs now are pretty nice!



Pretty low when the bushings are properly clocked (loosen them and torque everything at ride height)

[j2k4]

Looks like you've ODed, Kenny...

[DocWalt]

Did an SCCA Track Night in America! It rained a bunch, I only did two sessions, the truck broke, I spun the RX8 through the grass violently and avoided any sort of damage! Unfortunately the GoPro cut off literally 2 seconds before crossing the line on my fastest lap (1:54.7, nothing impressive if it was dry) and it missed my spin too.

Here's my first session:



Here's my second session: