I purchased a 04 silver GT 6 days ago and love it so far. I have been reading these forums all week and have found a TON of useful information.

However, I am wondering the least expensive way to get a little HP bump is. Obviously turbo or supercharger would be awesome, but way out of my price range. Seams like exhaust and cold air are the obvious inexpensive upgrades, but they probably won't add a noticeable amount of horsepower.

What should I save up for first?!

 

a pair of cutters, and cut the baffles out of the upper half of the intake box.

 

i have the same car - about a year now - and had the same questions - still havent figured it out - lol - mods for the rx8 arent cheap - it looks like the cobb access port has the most bang for the buck - still not cheap, i would look into that, or look into the k&n typhoon 2 intake, sounds cool, little hp gain.i found the best way to make the car faster, is driving it over 6000 rpm, stay high in the rpms and youll b good.enjoy your 8 - i went from a heavily modded mustang to a stock 8, and love it.

 

isn't a phillips screwdriver all you need?
The k&n typhoon 2 is a nice way to lose power and let your engine breathe hot air from the engine bay.
Anyway the real answer is... search a bit more!
You will discover that there are no real cheap hp mods but a midpipe or a sports catalyzer could help a tiny bit. Nothing night and day, your butt-dyno probably won't notice it either!

 

NA mods are ~$100/hp in terms of cost assuming it's actually a gain and not bogus. So Accessport from Mazdamaniac and BHR ignition are the best bang for the buck.

FI mods are ~$50/hp so ultimately a better bang for the buck but you spend a lot more overall. Nitrous would be the best bang for the buck overall IMHO.

If you ask me what you should spend your money on I always recommend going to a track day or local high performance driving class with a local car club first. You'll learn a ton about you car, how to drive it properly fast, and what you really want to improve. Once I did that I realized power was not what I wanted to improve first.

 

Thanks for all the quick responses. Like I said, LOVING the car so far. Super fun.

And yes, driving at high RPM's is obviously a notable way to make the car at least FEEL faster... but going from a car that going nearly 30mpg, I am still getting use to the low MPG... but that won't hold me back form enjoying the car.

Any links to nitrous kits? Seams like the least expensive way to get a good amount of horse power. Also looked into the Cobb kits. Talked to a guy with a stock 05 wrx and said he gained around 50hp.

Thanks again, and I will post some pics once I take a few good ones.

 

Oh and can someone explain this further? Is it actually a good thing to do? Or just a temporary fix till you get a cold air intake?

Thanks.

 

an accessPORT won't do much in a stock rx8 power wise. some other features are cool though. Even with a fully modded NA rx8 you won't probably see 1\5 of what that wrx gained.
One of the most aknowledged nitrous guys for the rx8 happens to be a vendor here. You may want to shoot him (Charles R. Hill) a pm

 

Check out the stickies in the major hp upgrade thread by Charles R. Hill. Also check out his www.blackhaloracing.com site for nitrous kits for the RX8.

 

Right. Not by itself out of the box. Any major gains with the AccessPort are going to be from a custom tune for your car either by MazdaManiac, Steve Kan, or a local tuning shop in your area that knows how to tune on the Cobb and knows rotaries. Which is a rare combination.

 

WTF... nobody said this. Midpide & AP...

It's sunday, so I'll forgive ya'll

 

midpipe (cat delete). 8-10 HP for around $250.

 

Also not emissions legal. But yes a good power gain bang for the buck.

 

You have to forgive me. I am a true newby and will be asking a lot of questions.

Does a midpipe come with a full exhaust upgrade? If not, will it work with a exhaust upgrade in the future if the midpipe is purchased alone?

Also, on blackhaloracing.com , what is the difference between a wet kit, and a purge kit?

 

correct, but OP didnt specify emissions legal mods only.

 

As far tuning goes, there use to be a local place called the "Idaho Speed Center" that did all of this kind of stuff. However they closed about a year ago and now I have no idea where I would go for tuning, let alone who in town specializes in Rotery's. I do have a friend who has been working on and rebuilding RX-7's for quite a while now... but I don't know how knowledgeable he is as far as 8's goes.

 

Do some reading up on the exhaust components here to get a handle on the different pieces. There's already a lot of good info posted. Check out www.racingbeat.com for some good pictures and explanation.

The mid pipe replaces the pipe that contains your cat. converter and most will bolt in to your stock system or can have an aftermarket "cat back" exhaust bolted on to it. You'll need to check for each midpipe though because everyone makes them differently so you'll need to make sure the specific midpipe you want will work with your current exhaust system.

Also there are a couple of different types, resonated, dual resonated, straight pipe. They all sound differently and will affect the sound of your exhaust so make sure it's going to sound the way you want it to before you buy it. You can search on youtube for many of the different exhaust combinations to hear what they sound like. A straight midpipe with no resonators tends to be very loud and droney and lots of folks get tired of them if they commute long distances on the highway.

as far as nitrous read up in the nitrous threads or on the BHR site. You have some reading to do in order to understand what a wet kit is and what a purge kit does.

 

Hamds down, the Best bang for your buck is Nitrous. $500-600.00 for 30+ HP.

 

youtube is great for seeing and hearing mods for the 8 - thats why i said typhoon intake, i know its gonna sukk in the hotter air, but the sound is what lots of peeps like about it, and i cant believe i forgot bout the midpipe,but some people dont like the sound or smell of them. i had a mustang with no cats and a magnaflow cat back, it was so damn loud.what the hell, tattoos add 10 hp also, plus stickers are a huge gain, and last but not least, stupid *** stick on crap from the nearest autozone, big hp gains - lol - fake hood scoop - ya know - the truth is horsepower isnt cheap.

 

Thanks guys. Tons of quality input.

So far... I have discovered that pretty much everything costs a ton of money for this thing. Which explains why the previous owner made all cosmetic upgrades and ZERO mechanical.

Seriously though. I appreciate it. Thanks.

 

Rumor has it that NOS is bad for your engine. True or false?

 

Think of it in terms of human alcohol consumption. If you are responsible and know what your limit is, you will live a long healthy life. If you drink a bottle of Jack a day, you will die young of liver failure.

N2O is the same way, if you shoot a 55 Shot and your car is well maintained then you won't have a problem but if you poorly maintain your car and jump up to a 100 shot and bang on it daily then you will likely break something.

 

That's what I thought. Thanks for clarifying.

Next questions... This could be a dumb one... If a Midpipe is not emissions legal, do you need to put your stock cat back on whenever it is time for you to get your emissions tested? If so, I am assuming switching between the two is pretty painless?

 

Depends where you live, In San Antonio there is no sniff test so it's not an issue for me but I think in other places it is.