shelleys_man_06

The side vents are real, but I believe that grille makes it look otherwise faux. Perhaps making a shroud to guide the heat away from the engine bay may be in order?

Richard, have you decided yet how to mount the supercharger?

Japan8

Someone has posted recently that the plastic engine cover serves the purpose of redirecting airflow and heat down so that it passes through the vents...

shelleys_man_06

Thank you for clarifying that Japan8 .

Japan8

Eat what crow? This is what I have been saying for months. The 8 is a "new type" sports car... 4 door 4 seater. Does the 350Z have 4 doors or 4 seats? How about the s2000? Can you get leather interior in the Evo or STi? Does the 8 have AWD? While they are all japanese cars that is where the similarities end, and I don't believe that they make for true direct competition. G35c and 3 series are closer competition IMHO. Compared to them, the 8 looks just fine to me performance wise. Repeatedly Mazda keeps refering to the 8 in the same ways that I have. Combined with rumors of a 7... why FI the 8? Save it for the 7...

Magic8

Now all the BS is gone, we want pics of it installed in the 8 and results.


Thanks for all your hard work

IKnowNot'ing

Allied Signal's Garrett HydraCharger?? I read about it in Nov 98 and haven't heard anything yet since then!

Maybe it's Visteon's electric VTES (Visteon Torque Enhancer System).

tokenbrit

I don't think many of us would think "snapping" a supercharger in and out would be a good idea anyhow. I'm sure this has the potential to cause a whole heap of problems.
When I put my one in; it's for good. I don't really care where it goes. I would kinda like to retain the factory engine covers tho... :D

tokenbrit

And I think it would be really cool if we could make our side vents more functional...

WTF no turbo

If mazda made this car with 300 to the wheels you have any idea what it would cost?Ive said it before and ill say it again,its alot more to it then just slapping a fi piece on this thing.Emissions is the number one problem.They had trouble passing this thing as it sits.Following number one major hurble are cost and reliability issues.This electric assist thing mazda has got cooking up may work well,but im sure a nice price tag comes with it.Compare this car to actually "cars in its class"acure tsx and toyota solara to name a couple.This car will never be a 7 unless you spend alot of cash.Its a nicely trimmed spirited daily driving car for me now and i like it better then i ever did.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

Yes, if the factory went FI on the 8 they would do more than just bolt the kit on and retune the ECU. Just look at the MS MX-5. They have the engineering knowledge and capability to reinforce all the areas of the car that might otherwise flex and fail prematurely due to the added torque.

OTOH, as far as this car never being a 7 without buckets of cash, well, at some levels that is true. Let's face it - it will never be a 7 period, due to it's size & weight. But, the 8 does have a more rigid platform than the FD, and has (by all accounts) a newer, better rear suspension, and an incrementally improved front suspension, and brakes that are at least as good. So at some of the more fundamental levels, it has the potential to be a better high perfromance platform than the FD. It's just that if we do this ourselves we will probably find areas of the car that need replacing more often than the factory would find tolerable. Hopefully the Renesis won't be one of these areas.

Yes, the 8 is great is it is. It would also be great with 300 hp, crank or wheel. Throw in a set of coilovers and the car would have the reflexes of a cheetah. Sounds good to me.

Richard Paul

iTrader: (5)

Ajax, They are back. I had no idea that it worked that way.

THX

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Guys, Guys,
I guess I need to clarify what I was saying. I was addressing two differant things.
1- Mazda will increase the h/p somehow. The platform and capilbily of this car warrents it and the North American market will really like it. By how much I don't know.I know comparing the 8 to the z or to the sti is not fair. They are differant but performance is performance. Is it fair to compare a Mustang to a GTO? Or to a Corvette? No but it is done. Personnally I think the 8 is a much better car than any i have mentioned.
2- The after market guys would be satisfied(majority anyway) with 300 horses(even at crank) .FI is going to increase the heat under the hood and I bet those sidevents can be modified to help with that. I do know when the fan comes on(after turning the car off) I cant feel any heat coming out of those vents. It's all coming from under the car.
RP sorry for getting off the subject a little. I will now shut up!
olddragger

Japan8

RP, I think your project merrits lots of value... for the reasons of this mini-discussion. So please bear with me while I momentarily hijack this thread.

Look...
1. It doesn't matter if YOU and the high school kids down the street compare the 8 to a Ferrari. What matters is the information that Mazda gets from focus groups, surveys and to a lesser degree the media (car mags). Some people "compare" a Mustang to a Vette or a GTO, but everyone "knows" it isn't competition against them... at least the GT that is. The Cobra... well it was but wasn't, however according to May it will be in the future. The new Cobra Mustang will be aimed at the M3 market. Handling being a must, and Mustang power... we might have a winner here. But anyway as far as the NA market goes... um where was the 7 sold until 2002??? certainly not America.

2. FI may introduce more problems than just heat. But as far as that issue goes... JDM tuners all can change the temp that the fan kicks in at when they retune your ECU. Some offer a small "piggyback" that does that only. There is also gettting a better radiator...


So bringing this back to related to this thread. RP, people want more power. They always will. I see the aftermarket as the best bet for that with the 8, rather than waiting on Mazda. There is some potential here...so keep up the good work!

tokenbrit

The new pictures are back!!???... Where!?? :D

Omicron

Hey Richard, how about an update?

epitrochoid

wasnt the electric assist a hydrogen thing?

bobclevenger

It was used on the hydrogen-powered RX-8 project car, but that doesn't mean that it's limited only to hydrogen-fueled engines.

I still think that Richard's engine-driven axial-flow blower is a good way to go, especially on a street-driven car. I seem to recall that the boost curve for an axial-flow supercharger is relatively constant throughout the operating rpm range, whereas the curve of a constant-displacement supercharger is high at low rpms and drops off with increasing speed, and that of a centrifugal unit (engine driven) is low at low rpms and rises with increasing speed. Do I remember correctly Richard? Exhaust-driven superchargers would also tend to start low and rise exponentially (especially if they are centrifugal blowers as most are).

With the torque/HP curve of the NA rotary, it would seem that the constant boost of the axial-flow blower would be ideal. I can't wait to see one of these in action!

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Richard has posted before that the "boost curve" for his axial flow is near "linear", i.e. low boost at low RPM and high boost at high RPM with pretty much a stright line in between.

A engine driven centrifugal is apparently more exponential in the shape of the curve.

A PD, such as a twin-screw delivers constant boost over the entire RPM range, so if you set it up for 8PSI, you get 8 PSI at 2500 RPM and 8 PSI at 9000RPM. Then penalty is the amount of energy required to drive it, and the amount of heat generated. Some of these penalties apply to the axial flow as well, but I am led to believe that they are much less severe.

As the saying goes, you don't get something for nothing. The trick is working out the best fit for a certain purpose.

"Air is Free. Boost is your Friend." GTP

bobclevenger

Thanks for the clarification Hymee. Apparently I misremembered after nearly 40 years. Either that or Hot Rod Magazine (or was it Popular Hot Rodding?) got it wrong, but I figure my memory is most likely at fault.

Gomez

It's this characteristic that makes this style of S/C perfect for an automatic.... Kenne Bell market this type, the trade off for the nearly constant boost is the fuel consumption. Size will be an issue too, that's why I like Richard's solution.....it's very compact.

Gomez.

Richard Paul

iTrader: (5)

The shop is back together. We are going to set up some new equipment for the test bench this weekend. We will run the four stage tests.

We still need to do other work. So it takes more time then all of us would like. If the world would go away for awhile I could get more done, but that will not happen.

We now have digital temp and airflow readings.
so it's back to work.

Omicron

Excellent, thanks for the update Richard! But not to worry... as you can tell, if you're not here contributing daily, people will find other things to talk about...

japsonic

specs needed, the whp to price ratio will make the difference in the long run.........significant whp gains, reliability for street use, and decent price....youd have me sold

epitrochoid

well you know how it goes...

it's powerful, it's cheap, it's reliable - choose two

Gomez

Hahaha....good one Centurian, like it, like it...........true though!