Four-passenger flight plan.
In just over a year, the little car company that could quietly sold more than 100,000 RX-8s. In the same period, GM sold 60,000 of the much ballyhooed, phallus-in-a-box H2.
Just as quietly, SR Motorsports in Brentwood, Calif., produced a cadre of upgrades to the growing army of Renesis-armed enthusiasts.
The Renesis fed the rotary naysayers crow, proving the viability of the Wankel engine despite CARB's best efforts to install us all into rubber band-propelled vehicles. Asked to list a downside to a fabulous chassis and overall driving experience, however, owners usually point to an engine that doesn't muster as much might as it might.
Ray Lockhead, owner of SR Motorsports, is known for forcing enough air through ported ports to zing the millennium horsepower mark, and for attaching them to second- and third-generation RX-7 chassis running eights in the quarter mile. He is currently finishing up a 1400-hp, three-rotor, tube-frame RX-8 for the NHRA's Pro Modified Class.
The rebirth of the rotary in 2003, unsurprisingly, found Ray standing in line at the Mazda dealer. His red RX-8 became an immediate breeding ground for the parts his shop produces and sells. SR's answer to demands for more juice is a number of powertrain bolt-ons, available individually or as a package. The result of more than 900 dyno pulls on this very car is SR's full GT-4 package that produces a claimed 210-wheel hp, or 37 more than stock, on the shop's Dynojet.
SR's cold-air ram intake system places the filter in a sealed chamber that draws fresh air from behind the front bumper and is manufactured from T-6061 billet aluminum and polished 304 stainless steel. SR uses 3.5-inch-diameter intake piping--which is huge, but not much larger than stock--that hints at the lungs built into this engine and bodes well for future horsepower extraction.
With the ingress of combustibles massaged, SR installed its own 304 stainless high-flow catalytic converter attached to a 63mm-thick wall 304 stainless exhaust system. V-band clamps are used at critical junctions to ensure a leak-free exhaust system.
Traditional nuts and bolts can loosen over time. It's a serious issue, given the significant thermal expansion common in rotary engine exhaust systems. With exhaust gas temperatures that make piston engines look like a hair dryer by comparison, managing a rotary's heat is critical.
More than half of SR Motorsports' horsepower gains were accomplished via its complete underdrive pulley kit. Three undersized pulleys replace the stock alternator, water pump and main crank pulleys, and are 45 percent lighter than the pieces they replace. Made of hard-anodized billet aluminum, the undersized water pump pulley helps reduce the risk of water pump cavitation at high rpm. Cavitation occurs when the pump's blades rotate so quickly that the water is aerated and the volume of coolant pumped actually decreases when it is needed most.