ivory8

...yeah and are your double tips the autobahn exhaust or is it a custom tip job. take more pics of it please!

staticlag

Sounds nothing like the REvi, I made a mistake, I meant to say REv8, the racing beat exhaust!, I can finally hear it again with my midpipe on!

eastcoastrotary

my rear setup is the kenstyle bumper with the abflug exhaust. i searched the threads and i don't think anyone else has one, but i could be wrong. i had to cut the pipes and re-weld so that it would fit properly (centered) in the enclosures of the bumper. when the bumper was painted, i had them match the stock winning blue for most of it and then two-tone with black for the diffuser section. i like the finished effect. there are more pics on my garage; let me know if you'd like any more.

staticlag

Esmeril Racing RX8 Turbo Kit

Sorry for not taking it above 6K more (aux ports open, immediate power boost like in first run), there was a lot of traffic out.

staticlag

Esmeril Racing RX8 Turbo startup

staticlag

Its looking pretty good, boost has settled to 10psi. I got the AFRs to be between 10.2 and 10.7 @ 10psi, still idles at -20inHg

Pulls hard all the way up to 9K.

SayNoToPistons

iTrader: (8)

More vids please?

importshowoff84

::scratch scratch scratch:: got any more vidssssss maaaaaaaan? ::scratch scratch::

Mines is in the shop right now, you are making me VERY impatient haha

kersh4w

iTrader: (3)

dyno?

staticlag

Now that I've got it tuned to a very safe 10.2-10.7 AFR I think a dyno sounds very good.

Chris has done such a good job on making a safe base tune that AFRs dont jump when 6K ports open and hold consistent all the way up the rev range.

Interceptor X + 1
Chris + 1

WoodsOfGreenRx8

Dan, are you going to wait till you get the ignition parts in? Just give me a call when you want to dyno.

staticlag

Do you guys have any time today?

HiTMaNN

And the Story unfolds for the best now :D

staticlag

So I did a track day today. I had to call it quits since my gauge pod came off and was flopping around, making it difficult to take corners whilst trying to hold the gauge pod I did get a good impression of the kit though.

Ambient = 60 degrees.
Session run time = max of 20 minutes.
AFRs = tuned to 10.2-11.0 @ 10psi
Tires = Azenis RT 615s, 30% thread left.
Max track straight = 1/4 mile

Well, there was a little smoking (small puff from under hood) as the heat shielding got further settled into high heat use. I did a nice warmup lap before I got her into boost before every session.

Cars I murdered on the straights (couldn't catch me, I just kept pulling away):

C5 z06 vette
another c5 z06 vette
04 GTO
Elise
R32 volkswagon
G35
s2000
05 M3

That alone pleases me Watching me pull and pull from a vette

In the corners: I had some pretty bad tires (well I would say maybe they were at allseason stickiness at this point), but I have enough expereince with them to know what would be if they had been new.

Well, the huge turbo stayed spooled up over the entire course, I learned that instead of being able to go from WOT to slightly off WOT like I would have been able to do N/A. I had to take my foot slightly more off the pedal to get the BOV to activate or else I would get some slight surge in the higher revs. Easy enough, you get used to that minor change after the first few laps.

The power! - Having a huge turbo spooled up over the entire track has its up points and down points. I no longer had to stay at the brink of 8-9K to achieve max power over the course, I took the entire course in 1 gear lower than I normally go, which I thought was a very nice change from constantly shifing to stay in the narrow upper powerband of the N/A engine. The bad: when approaching the corner, I would heel-toe, this would blow off the boost, then it seamlessly entered the next gear at around 0psi. But dont let this fool you! That boost gauge my say 0psi in the corner, but the turbo is still spinning super fast! Any slight false move will bring the turbo online and give a near instant 6-10psi. And I'm talking slight! At first it was a bit uncontrollable and I left the DSC on. As I became more used to how much pedal movement will activate the boost in the corner, I took the DSC off. I did some pretty nice powerslides I must say. It really was surprising how easy it is to control this car, even in its new high power state!

The sound:
People who know me from other track days remarked this about the sound:
Sounds super aggressive, the spool up sounds really aggressive, and I like the wastegate to atmosphere, really lets them know you are boosting. and that BOV is nice and mean, just a massive woosh

about the noise of wastegate to atmosphere:
Less than the catless midpipe that I had on last year

THE HEAT!

Well, first off, the heat shielding and the exhaust wrap held up nicely, even with the wrapped radiator pipes touching the downpipe I had zero problems with structural integrity. the zip ties everyone was talking about didn't even melt!

It did get super hot though, at 60 degree ambient, boosting pretty continuously at 10psi for 20 minutes, oil temps were about 220 Fahrenheit. Water was around the same also. As I kept hammering WOT every chance I got, I noticed the coils starting to overheat a bit also, I started getting some misfires. I was running the stock plugs 7s and 9s and had no problems with ping or detonation. Probably lucky on my part so I will switch to all 9's before the next event.

Sure, sounds good, but this is in 60 degree ambient! I'm positive that a vented hood, A/C removal, and radiator upgrade will be the gold standard for anyone that wants to seriously track a 300+hp RX8. A third oil cooler is looking like a very good option at this point.

The intercooler held up great! I could feel hot air on the inlet side and nice cold air on the exit side.

Wastegate held up great also! Steady 10psi every time I boosted, no surprises or weird noises.

Overall:
Esmeril Turbo on track = car feared and revered by everyone. I got a new respect from the BMW and vette guys as they see the rx8 as a serious challenger.

The heat = Needs several upgrades for track sessions, but looks just fine for street and autocross use.

Parts quality = Everything preformed exactly as it should, BOV blew off when it should, wastegate had no chatter and opened smoothly each time, turbo spooled more and more quickly the hotter it got, sounded great no smoking even after hammering it. Heat shielding worked great (even though I added some extra aluminum tape than what comes in the kit! Tapped oil pan worked great!

Two thumbs up!

mysql

That's awesome to hear.

No matter what the arguments are for or against different FI kits, in the end we need more people with FI, period. As the car depreciates, if people start thinking favorably of it for buying to mod up, our reputation for being slow and underpowered will quickly change.

staticlag

I'm really impressed with with wastegate to atmosphere option. It really gives you an advantage in exhaust flow. With wastegate to muffler, your car is dependant on how efficient your tubing and muffler is. With wastegate to atmosphere, your exhaust system requirement is reduced significantly since the muffler pipes running back can be used in parallel with the dump tube.

Example:

A 3 inch exhaust would function as a 3" exhaust if you had the wastegate hooked up normally.

A 3 inch exhaust would function as a 3.36" exhaust if you had a 1.5" wastegate to atmosphere pipe added.

HiTMaNN

Good write up and you are ONE lucky SOB

staticlag

He said they are working on tuning a g35 on the dyno right now and it probably won't be done till tuesday.

WoodsOfGreenRx8

Correct! Sorry about that Dan, but we got to get this G35 out!

importshowoff84

Great write up bro. Looks like the kit is great. I bet it was great to pull on a z06....I didnt think without the ignition upgrade and gettin more of the power we would be able to get those z06's....what year was it tho btw?

staticlag

Both were 04's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette_C5_Z06

importshowoff84

makes me wonder...why do you think it is that you were able to pull away from the vette? I mean it says 405 hp and a 1/4 mile of 12.4 I dont think this kit without the ignition upgrade is puttin us there.... Or was it on the twisties you would be pullin...cuz it seems the straight aways they should bepulling on you........You really need to get the dyno to see where you're at either way this is great to hear

staticlag

Nope it was in the straights, I'm sure if I had better tires I would have been at least equal to them in the twisties also. I'll have to admit that once we hit the twisties they hugged my *** and I let them pass.

Yeah seems kind of odd, it really makes me think that there is a serious problem when it comes to dynoing the Rx8.

But it was unmistakable, two different experienced drivers were hanging on for 3rd gear but once I hit fourth gear I started to slowly pull away.

staticlag

It was a nice experience though. I would see a few M3s about 50 feet behind me coming out of the twisities into the long strait, and saw them gun it thinking "oh here I'm going to pass the rx8 in the straight"

Nope, held them off in the lower gears then when I shifted to 4th usually I would start to pull.

Grouch

wow, that is truely an awesome freakish setup you got there!