Greetings all. New to the forum and I have been doing quite a bit of reading but as much as people tell you to use the search tool, there is so much that other people's questions and answers can do.

These are the impression that I got regarding RX8 turbos. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Greddy turbo kit seems the most popular, oldest, most proven, cheapest and reliable turbo kit out there. A popular upgrade to make it more powerful and reliable seems to be the MazdaManiac upgrade.

Other turbo kits such as SFR and Esmeril Racing seems more unreliable and unproven. Protech Performance seems a new player on the block (featured on Car and Driver) but again, havnt heard much about this kit.

I am considering purchasing a 2004 (or 2005 havnt quite decided yet) RX-8 GT 6 speed manual. The cars I've been looking at have between 60 and 90,000 km. Actually one has like 26,000 km but is a tad too expensive, considering I am expecting to pay about 5-6000 for the turbo upgrade and recommended components (BOV, oil pans, COBB AP etc).

I love everything about the RX-8 except the lack of power, but most importantly, the lack of torque. My goal is to get the car to under 5 seconds 0-60 time. Cars which weigh more (Subaru Sti, BMW 335i etc) are able to do this with 300 HP at crank. This means that a 3000 lb RX8 should be capable of an under 5 second 0-60 with the Greddy kit which advertises 260 WHP so likely 280 to 300 at crank.

My other objective is to make sure that the car is still reliable and will not break on me on a 2000 km road trip, even if I push hard at times. I understand that the more HP you try to squeeze out, the less reliable it gets with stock components, and I do not intend to change all the components. I want a simple bolt on which has few key reliable high quality components that will get me the extra HP to make the RX-8 have respectable acceleration.

So having said this, please let me know which turbo kit would be best for me based on what I described above. Oh and I keep referring to turbo kits, because I'm in love with turbos and will not consider a supercharger. I just love the sound of BOVs and spool up too much.

Thanks in advance for your replies,
Augustus

 

as far as I know, the MazdaManiac upgrade is no longer available. However, BHR is developing a new turbo (according to an email I got from BHR). Not sure of it's set-up. Stay tuned for updates!