Renesis stockin a Track car is fine.....always wanted more power...but it was fun. Never had any issues with it NA...beat the **** out of it for years

Turbocharged the Renesis is waiting to pop

I think with water/Meth and a good tune it is good to about 350HP.....more than that and it's a grenade

I am more than happy with a 500HP REW....it keeps up to most things that cost 5X more nd has a distinct personality

 

Actually, my Renesis has lasted longer than a single one of my piston engines

99 Miata: 700 miles after purchase, catastrophic failure, and 400 after it's replacement, blown rings
05 Miata: 86,000 and crossing my fingers (but might have a bent rod)
02 Corolla: 62,000, catastrophic failure
02 Protege5: 75,000(ish?) I didn't have it longer, unsure how long the engine actually lasted

05 RX-8: 96,000, quietly failed a compression test with no symptoms, but suspect it was from my cat failure at 55k.


I'm paranoid of piston engine failure at this point. I want back in a rotary because they are more reliable.

 

Ding, ding, ding... We have a winner!

This is why some renesis guys are so butt hurt about a REW.
In turn they can't face the facts.

.

 

It's a shame to take such a great machine, even though far from perfect, and try to turn it into something it wasn't designed to be.

I'm reasonably sure many more have succeeded in destroying the essence of a very nice car rather than improving upon it in some way that makes sense to them, but few others.

For what?
To prove how smart one is?

I've always thought the 8 is fine just the way it is, and if the reputed short lived frailty of the Renesis is the trade-off for such a pleasurable driving experience, then so be it.

I enjoy my hours driving my 8 more than the hours, days, even years spent trying to solve problems from chasing some bastardized pipe dream of a modern day 'hot rod'.

For those who have succeeded, congratulations.

For those who haven't, thank you for ruining yours, possibly making my relatively unmolested GT eventually more desirable.

 

Fixed.
I recently had the enjoyment of breaking necks/hearts of a few mustang owners(including one dumbfounded coyote 5.0 mustang) This, is not BIG POWER by any means, but the bang for buck is undeniable. Now to see what she will do on the road course.

Renesis by design will not have the potential of the REW in the long run. The potential it does possess, has not been realized... The easy option has been, REW. I don't want anyone to get it misunderstood;the REW is the way for BIG power numbers. It's EASY.

 

When you say big power numbers, i hope youre speaking specific power. Its never a proper measurement to stack up motors by specific power or hp per liter. Thats ricer math. Hp is always a nice thing but torque gets it done. If we are talking about large generators, boats, aircraft then the rotor wins. I didnt wanna bring this up before i got the results but im quite sure my 400 hp stock motor, LS1/T56 RX8 will weight within 60 lbs of my friends mildly modified RX8. And it goes without saying that my car will easily cut faster lap times. We are even g
Running stock wheels with th exact same 0 mile tires and same brake pads on stock brakes. It isnt a long course either. It is a tightly setup course so the midengine rotor has the upper hand. Both are gonna be driven by the same driver too.

 

And never brag about beating mustangs. Coyotes are definately a good kill but more ex rice dummies own them which increases your probability of a slow shifting, slower thinking driver. Lets see how many rotors go after vettes and LS cars

 

QFT... It's hard to ignore a car that out of the box will destroy a rx8. Let alone one with mods. I like the idea of taking out vettes on the road course. if it happens, I would assume it's more driver skill, or lack there of on the vette's part. Although, I couldn't ignore the fact that the extra ponies helped put me in a better position to take him out.

I guess, I understand why people swap, I just really like to explore the current powerplant of a vehicle. To take the road less traveled. Maybe I'll end up beating myself over the head in the future. Oh well. Let us know how well your car does LSXREX. Where are you located btw?

 

Stay .......tuned .....


That aside , I recently hit the track in my 300+ Renesis . There were perhaps 40 - 50 other high performance street cars at the event . There was only one other car that was quicker (around the track)than mine on the day - a late model M3 v8. I don't think you need 450whp in an rx8 to beat and match other cars with that much power.

 

HPDE type track days are such a crap shoot though. There are some clubs that run that I could show up to in a Honda Odyssey mini van on winter tires and blow everyone's doors off.

 

Agreed LOL . But damn it's nice to fly by all that expensive machinery !

 

Don't Tease. Now I'm just going to message you on google everyday until you cave.

I agree. It's a false sense of accomplishment when you're smoking a Ariel atom ;/

 

On the other hand, it's a good sense of accomplishment when a Cobra replica can't drive away from you down the straight...

 

Im not disputing the great performance of the chassis and the difference in weight of a fully dressed Renesis and an aluminum LS1 is less than 100 lbs. The centroid of the LS1 is just aft of the axle centerline and only a few more inches ahead of the Renesis. I dont dispute that a rotor can be made to make serious power but it isnt that well delivered and the day to day usability of the car is that of a two stroke dirtbike. I went on a ride in my buddys ig sjngle FD(which is on its 2nd motor in 30k miles) and i wasnt impressed. If i could take the same money he put in that rotard and put it in a properly built LS1 he would be much better off. I respect the whole dare to be different thing in the end of the day i wanna win. There is a reason the LSX is used in almost every type of motorsport and its versatility is unmatched. Im in Austin TX and would very much like a member with a REW car to see hoa mine stacks up. Keep in mind my car has a 200k bone stock 853 headed LS1 so running it against a 500 hp 20k buuld iskijda apples to oranges. When my budget forged 406 LS2 with a 300 shot is finished then id like to go find some 20bs.

 

A) 500hp is not day to day usable. Daily drivers use less than 75hp for 90%+ of the miles they drive. There s a running joke between myself and some friends of mine about the Evos on EvoM. If it's under 450hp, it's a viable track car. If it's over 800, it's a daily driver. It's sad, but true. Virtually all of the massive power builds are "daily drivers" as claimed by the owners, and if you look at the dynos you can see why, 5,000rpm of less than 100hp for daily use. So if "day to day use" is your complaint, then you have a very skewed perspective on how you actually drive on the street.

B) You want a car for day to day use, and you want to win at it. How exactly do you win at day to day use with lots of power?

C) You are forgetting one key factor: There are many people who find that how the power is delivered matters far more than how much is delivered. And for that, there is nothing like a rotary. People enjoy it, and no, not everyone does. We get that. But we don't discard your whole perspective just because we don't agree, so you shouldn't discard our perspective because you don't agree. We are all different, and that's a good thing.

 

well, 9k is closer to you so maybe a friendly drag strip meet is in order. I don't think he does road course stuff

 

Im not competing dailys bc theres always that guy with the 1000hp, no options, five pt harnessed, fuel celled, caged etc car that the guy dailys. When i was talking winning i was talking about racing and for that the lsx is the indisputable champion. I thought this thread was a let er rip thread but there sure is alot of equal oppurtunity, harmonizing weenie-dom going on in here. Ill admit us V8 guys are a bit club fisted. One would think rotary owners would be more resilient to harrassment andgetting messed with.

 

No where in the intent of the thread was it indicated that you must love lots of big power to join in. We aren't shy about what we love around here, regardless of whether or not you agree. If all you expected was for us to agree with you, that would make us rather weak minded...wouldn't it? No, we have minds of our own.

The people that aren't resilient to how much hate the rotary gets are the people that don't stay around here long, or never show up in the first place. We can take it. Just pointing out some things that are chronic problems with all V8 muscle car guys. They can never seem to understand the point of anything other than big power. It must be something to do with compensating?

What I'm saying is that you can't seem to understand the value of what we see, but are demanding that we understand the value of what you see. And we actually do. Every single rotor head sees the point and benefits of an LS engine. And then we say "no thanks" intentionally and deliberately.

That's the part that LS guys can never wrap their head around.

 

Yeah great points. As i said us V8 guys are heavy handed. Im in no way a dyno queen person and anything over 600 hp on the street is useless and lives on jackstands. I love a well built 450 hp V8 daily that has torque. Now i k ow thats a rare thing among the rotor crowd and they love to be forcefed 299 of their 301 hp after 8k rpm throughout their 500 rpm revband. I dont want my statements to imply that i want everyone to i stall an lsx into their car. Thats why i decided on the rx8. Bc the rotor community is so loyal and the other ones are broken. V8 swaps are very rare and when i go to sell it ill prob make a profit.

 

Actually, one of the things that the Renesis shares in common with the LS engine is the flat torque curve. We deliver close to the same torque at 3,000rpm as we do at 9,000rpm.

For most of us, it's one of the things we love about the engine. The single biggest part that I hate about my MSM's power delivery is that it is a big bell shaped curve, little torque to start, big spike as the turbo rolls in, and then tapering off.

Even a turbocharged rotary is usually flatter than a turbocharged piston car.


For my part, I also actively dislike the V8's sensation of weight. The engine FEELS heavy and lumbering, not light and rev happy. And I can't enjoy an engine that feels that poorly. My MSM's engine is only marginally better, being a raspy thrashy little engine that never ever sounds or feels like it is enjoying what I'm doing to it. The car is pretty quick, but there is no active joy in doing it. I enjoyed my RX-8 far more, at 600lbs heavier, 70qtq lower, and 40hp less.

 

What a crack up !

 

I chuckled at that too. The pristine beautiful sub 10k chassis mile LS swapped TougeFactory R3 is down to 38,000 (only 6,000 more than the original MSRP), and has never been sold. The dealership that took delivery of the car off the boat, and had TF build it, still has it for sale in their lot. Years later?

 

600HP FD's? Where? I am not saying there are not any but they are 1 in 100,000 and probably all of those are dyno queens. I have never seen one at any track event, or any of the rotary meets I have been to all over the country that was not trailored and wasn't a tubbed and caged purpose built drag car. Hell I know of several dedicated drag FD's (no track days, just drag racing) locally that don't make close to 600HP including a 20B Turbo powered one and a 20B Turbo RX-8. But on any given Wednesday at our drag strip you will find Supras, Vettes, Camaros, Challengers, classics, EVO's, etc. that are making that and much more that drove to the track. It is what it is, I didn't claim that if you want "Major Horsepower" you need to do an REW swap. I just pointed out the stupidity in that statement.

I have never chased a number, but the REW guys love bringing up how much HP they make, as if that equates to fast car. A 400-500 HP RX-8 setup with the right driver is a pretty fast car on most road courses, no one is doubting the capability of the RX-8 with another 200HP or so. But an REW powered RX-8 is still as much of a ticking time bomb as as 350WHP turbo Renesis and if we are talking street cars, a REW swapped RX-8 won't be much faster than a properly setup turbo Renny. Like yomomspimp said, it is just easier to make that power once you swap in a REW.

Cost is another subject all together, with what I have spent I could own a few seriously fast cars and a few others in this thread as well I am sure. But for me it has always been about the build and starting with underdogs, it was the same back in the day when they laughed at us Honda guys saying a FWD Civic would never run 12's. By the time I left that scene local guys like Kenny Tran were running 8's. I come from domestics, I got bored of them quickly. But now days times are changing, a new Mustang GT with bolt ons and a little nitrous oxide can run 10's.

 

qft

 

Lets be honest. NO ONE is gonna pay that kind of money for a kids race rocket. No matter the power plant or execution of the swap. 38k will get a low mile loaded LS7 ZO6, very nice Porsche, GT500, etc. All with similar hp and designed by engineers. Not Todd with a TIG and free time. People who go for swaps are younger people aho want to make an impression/statement or just want something cool. Those people dont have 38k to spend. Now 15-18k? Easy money and im playing to the right crowd with that number. This is a carefully calculated budget build. Not a "money is no concern" build. Those builds are quicksand pits and fhere is usually no way to get out.