Mod recommendations for an RX8 (4k budget)

[psydom]

Hi Guys,
   
  So after much um’ing and ah’ing the wife and I have settled on modifying our RX8 rather than buying a RX7.. We’ve come up with a modification budget of around the 4k mark, give or take a few hundred.
   
  We thought about a RX7 of course but based on the money we’d be buying something older, stock or probably SORN from what I’ve been looking at in the for sale section, meaning I wouldn’t be getting much for my 4k after tax, mot, any repairs.. The other pretty important point is that we’re moving to Oz in around 14 months time.. so getting a 7 and playing the long game isn’t going to work for us.
   
  So that means we use our ’04 RX8, make some improvements and enjoy it while we can.. The car is a blank canvas with no mods done at the moment and we’ve kept it in good nick mechanically so we have a good (and known) base to work from.
   
  So I thought the best way to max the return on that money is turn to those  in the know and listen to some words of wisdom
  I\'m looking for advice on what people think is the best way to spend the aforementioned budget. Bear in mind that we’re looking for balance somewhere between track day use and street driving and given that we’re not going to have the car in 12 months I’d probably steer clear of doing internal work (porting ect..) but I am open to ideas.. That 4k will also have to include at least the first set of track-day tyres and other track day essentials too.  
   
  So what would you guys do? In your experience, what mod’s do you think I will see the best performance from with that kind of money available to spend?

Edit: We\'re already running the "Fast Road & Track ET500" racing brakes from Mazda Rotary Parts (which are absolutly brilliant btw, thanks Clive!).


   
  Cheers :Thumbs-up

[Aubec]

Are you going to do the work yourself or will that include labour?

[psydom]

Good point, I didn\'t think about mentioning that.
I will definitly be getting my hands dirty on this one but the bulk will be done by a workshop as I just don\'t have any tools over this side of the world.. so there will have to be some accounting for labor in there.
Having said that, I am hoping to make it an "all in at the same time" job..

[AtomicRex]

The 4 aspects of the car are:
1. Stopping (Youve done the brakes so tick
 
2. Handling.  We supply GAZ dampers which are perfect for both road and track.  They come in at £540+VAT (£648) for the set of damper or £780+VAT (£936) including top mounts.  I can offer 10% off on these.  The next option is to consider the bushes.  The full kit is £419.10+VAT (£502.92)  Combined with the GAZ I can sort a pretty good price for you.
 
3.Performance, we can offer coils, plugs, air filters, exhausts, supercharger kits (thats over the 4k budget though
 
4.Looks, what floats your boat?

[psydom]

I\'m probably not quite done with the brakes just yet I\'m a firm believer in brakes are everything, all the power in the world will do you no good if you can\'t pull it up! All things being equal I\'ll likely still go for some slotted discs as well.

Re point 2, what are the top mounts you\'re talking about? simply reinforcing the shock mounting point? and are these coilovers or just the dampers?
(btw, I can\'t get to your website..)

As for looks, I\'m not interested in mod\'ing for appearance tbh, if the wife wants that bodykit she can up the allotted budget

But generally speaking, i\'m interested in what combination of changes to thier RX8 people have seen give them the best improvements in overall performance. Take it as given that I\'ll be attending to brakes and suspension, not just power

So, as a guidline, I can be confident of dedicating around a 1/4 to a 1/3 to stopping and turning. That still leaves quite a bit for motive power..

What about lightened fly\'s? how have people\'s experience with them been? and after market ECU\'s?

Cheers

[turbotoaster]

well if your after power, ive seen a exhaust make a claim they made an extra 12hp on the dyno, and an extra 5hp ontop of that with a decat pipe.

Look at aftermarket manifold, though im not sure who the best one is.

then look at an air filter, but make sure its getting clean air from the outside.

after that i think you will be spending alot of money for very small gains.


probably then go for coilovers/springdamper combo.

since you have big arches id try and get plenty of tyre on there so what you loose on the straights you gain in the corners.

18x10 all around for £950 then 285 semi slicks all around, alot of people might think thats to much tire but im all for plenty of grip.

Then id look at a drivers bucket seat, you can at least feel what the car is doing more, when i moved over to buckets, its like somebody turned a light on, it will be about £500 for carbon seat and brackets, when you go abroad you can just sell the seat on so it wont cost you much in the scheme of things.

that should take you to around 4k+ and make a pretty fast rx8 with good residual value to resell the items if you keep all the stock parts in storage


Of course this only the way i would do it, everyone has there own preference