Hi guys!
I'm at it again, getting something new developed for the RX-8! I stopped at NRG Innovations in City of Industry and waited while the prototyped a hood shock kit for our cars. They use half-charge rams so they'll work with both the OEM hood and Carbon Fiber hoods. (in fact NRG Innovations has a few OEM replica CF hoods in stock right now, call them at 626-369-2668 if you're interested).

There will be two styles available... one uses a real CF wrap, as pictured on my car. The other is a polished aluminum set. I'm bugging them to do a strut tower brace w/brake master cylinder reinforcement a la the Mazdaspeed piece as their prices are significantly better. This will take a little more time though as they're going to do some engineering to save weight and improve strength at the same time.

If there's sufficient interest, I might be able to get them to do a new steering wheel for the car (Momo Monte Carlo rim etc) which retains all of the stock center plastics and electronics. This would let us have better "feeling" rim than what's currently offered from Mazda.

Anyway this was made possible by Chris at CKL Motorsports in Phoenix 602-358-3479 or chris@cklmotorsports.com if you want to order a set. Pricing is somewhere around the $150 range for the CF wrapped set, and $130 for the polished aluminum set, which is certainly reasonable. NRG Innovations does not sell direct so you will have to talk to one of their vendors to order. I'm not sure if any of the forum vendors are set up to carry NRG products.

Enjoy the pics and PM if you have any questions!

 

these look rather nice, and the install appears to be better than what ive seen already for the car.

i would be interested in the strut bar, lighter and stronger is always a plus! itd be nice to have easier access to the adjusters for my tein flex too. i was gonna save for the MS bar but perhaps ill wait on these

a new steering wheel of that type sounds awesome! would it be possible to make it a smaller diameter but still keep the plastics and electronics as you had mentioned?

 

Hmm, Looks very nice. I've been wanting to find a nice set, and I'm liking these

 

Can you post a side view pic with the hood closed so you can see if the struts raise the hood up and create a gap like the tein's do.

 

They mixed and matched some parts from their existing kits to get an very good fit, knowing it was going straight to a show this weekend. I'm embarrassed to say, that's the first under-hood modification I've done yet!! I need to get busy now. NRG assures me they have the parts in stock to supply this kit right now. I told them we RX-8 owners are mod-crazy out here, if the parts are built well and priced "right"!

Where the struts cross the under-hood seal at the back edge of the engine bay, I trimmed the support plastic under the seal's ends on each side, to allow it to flex downward. This maintains a nearly stock appearance, yet doesn't put too much pressure on the struts or hood when its closed. Mazda should have shipped the car with these! I'll post a few more photos in a little while. I'm noodling with stereo and amp details at the moment...

 

See the previous post... it raised the hood *just* slightly, so I "adjusted" the seal supports so that the seal could "relax" when the hood closes.

Part of the issue is that the hood is designed to flex slightly at the hinges too, or does so because the metal physically narrows at those two points. Remove pressure from underneath, and the hood relaxes back down.

 

Hood line photos, after the rear edge hood seal modification.

 

Photos of the rear edge seal modification...