breezy_rx8

How are you gentlemen!!

Yeah, way too much overkill. Being a former Valet, it is terribly simple to get used to the feel of a different clutch. I'm having my flywheel installed friday. Will let you gentlemen know if I experience any unforseen discomfort.


http://www.allyourbasearebelongtous.de/

MrWigggles

You shouldn't have any discomfort with the Mazdaspeed flywheel. It is 16+ lbs.

-Mr. Wigggles

rotarygod

breezy: This isn't an attack at you so don't take it personally. I have never understood that whole "all your base are belong to us" crap. What the hell does that mean? It isn't even a sentence. How can something be cool when it makes no sense? That whole video intro didn't even make sense. Is there something missing from a translation? Is it referring to music? This is spelled "B-A-S-S". Does it mean a "base" as in a video game or baseball? I find it more annoying than anything. Maybe I'm finally just at that age where the youth of today don't make any sense. Never mind. They don't! I still don't get it.

neit_jnf

I don't understand it either... maybe because English is not my native language?

twospoons

"All your base are belongs to us" is a badly translated jap. game.
Somehow people thought it was funny and it has spread like wild fire.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,...ory_page_prev2

..

breezy_rx8

Yep, it made no sense to me either the first time. Thats the point. It's making fun of a video game that has really bad/humorous english translation

breezy_rx8

All those stock 350Zs out there, watch out, with the flywheel installed, "you have no chance to survive make your time. ha ha ha ha"

Supposedly the RX-8 0->60 is around 5.8sec. The 350Z is about 5.7sec. That is close enough to allow an RX-8 with more driver skill to beat the Z at a stoplight. Now, with the flywheel I suspect the race to be more in favor of the 8, but I'm just guessing. As soon as I get the install, I'm gonna go look for Zs to race and will let everyone know the results. Has anyone beat a Z yet?

rotarygod

So there is something lost in the translation. Strangely enough it all makes sense now. They do some weird stuff overseas.

RotorMotor04

I raced an automatic Z for about 1500 ft and took him by about a half a car length. BTW, i was not slamming the gears hard at all. Shifting at around 9000

RotorMotor04

with just k&n

breezy_rx8

On a side note, how do you like the K&N? Is it just a filter drop in or do you have the typhoon intake?

MrWigggles

0-60 times are about 6 seconds for the RX-8 with the stock flywheel, but reducing the flywheel weight won't change things that much for the following reason.

When the car mags do a 0-60 launch they typically rev to 8000+ RPM before dropping the clutch. With the stock flywheel you are actually storing more energy by reving the engine to 8000+ than you do with a lightened flywheel (this is why it takes longer to rev to 8000+ with the stock flywheel)

When you launch, a lot of that stored inertia is translated to the wheels to accelerate the car (and a lot of the energy is lost as heat in the clutch). Going to a lighter flywheel means less energy is going to be stored at 8000+ RPM. The car is quicker overall but it doesn't get as much umph at the start because the flywheel does have as much energy to give the car quick boost. The bottom line: even though a car with a lighter flywheel will be quicker at the track, its 0-60s times will be about the same as car with a heavier flywheel.

For this reason and to help better show how quick a car really is, Car and Driver (or was it Road and Track) came up with there street start 5-60 MPH test. This is where they don't rev the engine at all. They simply get the car rolling in 1st gear at 5 MPH and then punch it (no feathering of the clutch is allowed). The stock RX-8 bogs down and does really poorly in this test. I believe on the pre-production car it was tested at 7.4 seconds 5-60MPH. This is where the lightened flywheel would really help - in the low gears to keep things from bogging down as much. I would guess the MS flywheel will shed at least a couple tenths in a 5-60MPH test and the ACT Prolite would shave probably a couple more.

-Mr. Wigggles

breezy_rx8

Mister Wiggles-

I don't know about other drivers, but generally when I'm at a stop light racing somebody I am already revving up the RPMs. My first couple of days having the vehicle, I wasn't doing that and the acceleration suffers until the vehicle gets into higher RPM.

The engine's quiet enough to not set off your competition that you are revving the engine. So I rev it up to about 3-4K RPM and this gives me the engine momentum and inertia I need to get off to a quick start.

Anyhow, enough theorizing. I will try to take this bad boy to a track and get real hard 0-60 times. Has anyone done this yet?

breezy_rx8

Another thing, I also wait until about 8500 rpm to change gears. Or in other words, wait for the warning beep. Why would I want to loose any momentum or have any less 0-60 time than the vehicle is capable of. One time on accident, I revved the vehicle over red line and immediately, the engine warning light comes on the vehicle deccelerates. I think Mazda has built in this safefy feauture to prvent engine explosions. Scared the crap out of me but I'm glad they have built in such precautionary features.

breezy_rx8

Another thing, the vehicle goes to about 40MPH top speed in 1st gear. It only needs to go to 2nd gear to hit 60MPH. So there's only 1 gear shift needed. If the light flywheel gets you to 40MPH more quickly than stock flywheel, I think the 0-60 is faster too. Granted, a small amount of inertia will be lost during the changing of gears, but if you're quick on the gears, I still believe the light flywheel to be quicker.

Guess I'll find out relatively soon..

MrWigggles

breezy_rx8,

Yes, the stock flywheel does slow down the acceleration of the car because you have to store more energy in it versus a lighter flywheel. However, you do get some of that additional energy back when you shift from 1st and into 2nd.

Good luck in your testing.

-Mr. Wigggles

RotorMotor04

breezy, i like the k and n quite abit. I have not had any of the reported problems like some others have had. i have the typhoon

davefzr

I am having San Dimas Auto Racing install my SR Motorsports Flywheel and ACT Street Strip Clutch set tomorrow. I'll post a review after I get these products installed.

86rx7

I dont entirely agree with this and i drive a car with a 9 pound flywheel. while your correct that it will store less energy from being reved up when you launch, you remedy this by reving the car a couple thousand higher, energy storage problems solved. Also, because of the fact that in lower gear acceleration is faster, a flywheel has a much larger affect in lower gears. The gain falls off in high gears. i remember seeing a site somewhere that calculated the avaliable horsepower it added for a third generation rx7, it was something like 40 in first, 25 in second, 15 in third and 7 in forth, but i cant find it rite now to cite, so ill just say from driving my car, its Very noticable in first, noticable in second, hmm... in third ,and not noticable in fourth. I think it makes a fairly large differance in 0-60 times. Both light and normal can store enough power to easily drop the clutch at high rpm and burn out, so there you have it both have the capacity to store much more energy than is needed for a launch. I will say that it seems to make getting a perfect lauch a little harder, it feels like it made the thin line between boging and burning a little thinner, but its nothing you cant ajust too.

MrWigggles

86Rx7,

The fast 5.9 second 0-60 times that Road and Track and Car and Driver got where from reving it up to around 8000 RPM. You wouldn't be able to go much higher than that with a light flywheel to compensate. You will hit the rev limiter instead.

My point to breezy who claimed that the RX-8 can do a 5.8 (not sure who got a number that low on a production RX-8) was that a launch like that is a VERY hard launch. You are not going to get much improvements in the 0-60 tests because a lighter flywheel won't give you quite as much bump at the beginning.

Doing a easy street start 5-60 on my RX-8 I get about .4 gs of acceleration in the mid-upper rpm band. If you dump the clutch just right with a hard start you can use all of the stock flywheel to get you closer to the .6 or so g level before the wheels will break free. Now once you have depleted the stored energy, the heavier flywheel will make the car slower to accelerate because more energy is being stored in the flywheel. However, the same goes for the 1-2nd shifts, you will be getting some that energy back (and you will be losing the rest as heat).

0-30 times will probably be faster with a heavier flywheel, 0-60 times will be about the same, and every other imaginable performance test with the light flywheel should be better.

I don't mean to imply that in anyway that a lighter flywheel will make the RX-8 a slower car just that high reving drag racing 0-60 tests will be a about a wash either way. Using 8000 RPM drop, the heavier flywheel is going to have more energy at the start (which will be tricky to put down effectively) while a lighter flywheel is going to quicker in general.

No one drives there cars that hard on a regular basis, so for just about everyone a lighter flywheel be faster in every test - like you mention. But the magazines got their sub-6 second 0-60 numbers by dropping at 8000 RPM.

-Mr. Wigggles

davefzr

Hey guys..

Just dropped my car off at the shop to have those products installed. They said that it would take around 4 hours to complete the install.

They are installing:

SR Motorsports 9.75 flywheel/cw
ACT Street Strip clutch set
Nology Hot Wires

They also support the Miata racing team and have a lot of knowledge about mazdas in general. They have the ACT Xtreme clutch kit on their cars but say it's way too harsh so the street was the way to go I think....

Anyway. I'll make a write up when I get it back. I may not be able to shift hard but I can give you general impressions.

Thankx!

cortc

I put a Mazdaspeed flywheel on a scale today, the flywheel is 10.5 lbs the counter weight is 3.5 pounds and the bolts and washers that hold it together came out to almost 1/2 lb... Total was right at 14.5 lbs...

The stock flywheel came in at 21.5 lbs... Now the major difference is where the weight is located; the stock has the counter weight built into it and it is all the way on the edge of the wheel right before the starter teeth. I will post pictures later on this other thread:


https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=28292

cortc

The 0-60 times are improved as is throttle response and engine braking... The car really feels like a different animal with a light flywheel, very sporty; really the way it should have been from the factory... The Mazdaspeed makes very little difference when you take of from a start; you almost don't notice it (took the better part of two minutes too get used to the difference...), it’s on acceleration that it comes alive...

davefzr

Dang man.. you already got yours in. that was fast....

I wish I was more mechanically enclined.. but thats cool...

I pick mine up today.

BaronVonBigmeat

I was just wondering, everyone seems to be putting in a new clutch when they do the flywheel, is that mandatory? Or just a good way to save time (or money)?