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I know there must be a few members out there who have first or second hand knowledge of the 'fit and finish' on these particular tail lights.
How would you describe the kit? Functionality? If they have some years / miles on them, how are they holding up? Any notable weathering? Lastly, weight vs oem?
Anyone who has a new or used kit they'd be willing to part with, please feel free to contact me. I'll be holding out a couple weeks before placing another order.
My oem tail lights continue to leak despite my efforts to have that issue addressed. I figure replacing them is an easy solution that may offer an increase in appearance and reduce weight by a few grams. Yes I'm that serious about scavenging for reductions. For example, I had the shop switch out my 'homelink' mirror for a 'standard' one when replacing the roof/front windshield. It was nearly half the weight (in grams) and well worth the effort and cost to me in the end imo. I'll look for the box as I wrote down the weights for both on it.
And totally not my intent to impress 'fannies' (or anyone for that matter) with a car online. I'm hardly into pictures/vidoes and certainly would have bought a FD3S or R34 if that were my prerogative. I could have purchased a few jdm thoroughbreds for what I've invested into this build. This next 'stage' of parts/upgrades is already approaching $30k paid in full upfront (FD right there), let alone painting, fabrication and installation costs which I've budgeted another $10-15k for. But imo there's no point in owning multiple cars because I'm only one person. Imo I've always thought it's best to fully 'master' one thing than to 'dabble' in many. Then you're a master of none.
Anyways, thanks for the response and love to hear from anyone with relative experience
If you take a look at the tail lights on the new mazda vehicles they have basically copied this design to the extent of if there is nothing there to fill with water, then they wont fill up with water... at $1500+ the reamemiyas are a steep fix and the 2 screw oem mounting points would make them an easy theft target if you knew what you were looking at IMO. Alter that and id call it good
like any "carbon" finish they might not fair well in the sun and personally I think they would like fine on all the factory rx8 colors
The fit isn't great. Drivers side fits worse than passenger side. They overhang from the light bucket and my trunk scrapes on them. Instead of providing actual plugs for the lights they give you goofy push connectors. After you cut your factory harness, you wont be able to install the factory lights / or change the lights back in without making adapters, or doing something other than what's provided with the lights.
Honestly nothing about this kit is worth $1500. I've had issues with most RE / JDM products I've purchased.
That's an awesome pic of the rear end you have there imo but bummer to hear about all the fitment / function issues you mention. Yeah I noticed it was required to cut the oem harness and supplied parts seemed questionable at best, certainly for the price. I honestly wasn't too confident with the products longevity given the pics I've seen/general appearance; let alone how it would fair if subjected to any amount of exposure to outdoor elements.
since Team mentioned me earlier, figured I'd chime in.
I've had a set of these on the car for years and they're quite nice. To be honest, never bothered to weigh them since I did that with my Varis CF hood only to find the OEM one was virtually the same weight. *face-palm* Sorry Federighi, can't help you with that aspect of them.
As for fitment, they're not perfect, honestly no aftermarket part I've fitted on my car has been but it's pretty darn close on the OEM hood. I'm sure I have a bunch of pics, just need to find a few decent ones to post up for you later on. I'd say probably an 8 or 9 out of 10.
Install: yup, need to chop up wiring which I wasn't a fan of but it wasn't a deal breaker since I doubt I'll be putting the OEM ones back in. Now just need to source some spare connectors from a wrecked 8 and should make it easy enough to swap should I ever need to.
One thing I will give you a heads up on is these reminded me most of the Seibon hoods in that the CF does have a coating but it's cheap gel coat stuff that often gets used and the sun will weather that rather quickly and you'll probably see them turn yellow-ish eventually. If you're concerned with that or just want them to stay looking good nicer, I'd suggest getting them clear coated.
Hope that helps. I'll try to find pics later on to post for you if you still want.
03-17-2021, 04:06 PM
