Ok, so I decided to get the racing beat race flash for my 2004 Mazda RX8.

On 2/16/2007, a friday, I sent my ECU via USPS to Racing Beat in Anaheim California.

Will post results when my ECU comes back. And will dyno when the weather here clears up.

The following are some questions I sent to Racing Beat reguarding the flash:


The biggest thing that I am hoping for when I get my car back is:

-210 rwhp on 87 octane gas, with improved cooling.


My biggest fears are:
-the necessity to start using premium gas again
-dynoing lower than my already 203 rwhp
-cat failure within 5000 miles.

I should be recieving my ECU back in two weeks. Should arrive at RB on tuesday of next week, from there 1-2 days then 3 days to UPS it back to me. We shall see.

 

Do you mean 2/16/2007? I will be looking forward to your results.

 

Or, if you want an immediate review you can p.m. "imrtommy" who not only has the re-flash and likes it, but says it enhances the nitrous oxide kit he has on his car. And Racing Beat tells people it won't work with nitrous........Tommy's glad he asked me to look into it for him.

 

Why 2 weeks ? Usually they turn things around in a few days. But I am interested in hearing your results as I think I might be going to this next.

 

I have the flash on my 06 and have no problems at all with it. I just gotta watch my tech a bit better cause hitting 10k rpm's isn't very hard.
I wouldn't run 87, just because the difference between that and 93 is very small in price.

The car does seem to pull nice after the 5500 area. I'm not saying its from added power (cause i dont know if it added power) but its from consistent power to the redline.

Hmmm maybe ill go make a video of it today and post it up. So you can watch the RPM's

 

keep a close eye on this . I found detonation with a heat soaked motor once I leaned out the AFRs .

 

you're dreaming if you think you'll get 210 RWHP on 87 octane fuel

 

You're using 87 octane? Dang.

oh well, can't wait to see the results.

-Cody

 

The power you feel above 5,500 is from the re-flash. That's where RB focused their attention.

 

I got the flash for my 05 friday too. And damn... it's fun to drive the car again. It holds the power to about 9700k. Worth every penny if you are staying NA

 

Just curious to know what other mods do you have? I'm thinking about the flash also. I currently have a custom CAI and Greddy exhaust. I want to add the flash and AEM pulleys next.

 

I would like to get the flash, but this is my only vehicle, and I would be without transportation, if I pulled the ECU. How long does shipping and the reflash take? Also, can it be done to a stock vehicle?

 

So is there a race flash or not? I just emailed Jim to ask, my new HF cat can handle near continous 2,000* temps, so I can handle what ever this flash can do.

 

yes

 

I am very interested in this as well please post dyno results (pre and post)

 

I have so far the Revi w/ duct, RB exhuast, RB spark plugs wires and the flash.

The flash really adjust the fuel curve so it leans out in the uppers RPM's. Any NA mods you do with the flash will only make it feel faster. The main difference I felt was after 6K it just keeps pulling instead of leveling off like it did stock. When I got it I was driving around topping off 2nd and 3rd gear like crazy!

 

I hope you get good results, I am really curious to see them

 

So what happens if I get this RACE flash and keep a CAT. Will it kill the CAt or any other Negative effects to the car ?

 

The rx8 already runs very hot stock and can destroy a cat pretty easy. Lean out the fuel (racing flash) and the EGT's will just get higher and higher.

If your gonna waste money on that you might as well get a catless pipe to pick up the extra 5-8 hp (maybe up to 10) it can free up.

 

If thats the case then I might as well get a catless pipe with RB flash. but I need one with resonator or else my gf going to kill me. (cant let her know I have a Catless 8 .....)

 

my wife didn't notice the sound difference when i got my resonated b&b midpipe ... but all she does now is complain about how bad it smells!!!

 

The rx-8 stock doesn't produce enough heat stock to kill the cat. Mazda made it rich for a safety measure. Read RB's R&D, they leaned it out to a safe level.

 

Here is Jim's reply to my email

Your question was forwarded to Jim Mederer, Racing Beat's co-founder and chief engineer, for review. The following is his reply to your inquiry:


The street flash was developed on a completely stock engine. We tested all rpm ranges and found that only the upper ranges could be improved. We have also built race engines and we found that, with no muffler and a few other mods, the mid range needed a bit more fuel and the high rpm requirements were slightly different, so we made a map for that. For a muffled street engine, we recommend only the street flash. Each flash was the best we could do for that circumstance.

Jim Mederer

 

imrtommy, at my suggestion, informed RB that he was using a cat-less midpipe and he was under the impression that they took that into consideration on which flash to use. A 3" exhaust with no cat doesn't pose much of a restriction, if any, so I would order the race flash if/when I decide to do it. One strange thing that has happened each time I wrote RB is that they don't seem to fully read that which is written (kinda like many of us on this forum) and their answers rarely addressed the specific question I was asking. I wrote to inquire about the re-flash with nitrous and they kept assuming I was talking about a "dry" system. This went back and forth three times before I just decided to figure it out for myself after reading their website.

 

Hearing that makes me hope even more for the best with my system. Hopefully my current mods will not have any ill effects on what the race flash is programmed to do.

Such is the chance anyone takes when getting a "canned" tune, as opposed to a custom one.

I will post the exact numbers of my last dyno, all i have to do it type them into an excel sheet.