I was thinking over the past few days about a conversation i had with an RX8 owner at JAE meet in the UK. He mentioned that the only differences between the lo power & hi power RX8 is the ECU, intake & transmission. Are those the only differences between them or are there other differences?

If those are the only real differences. Then if i end up turboing the 8 in the future (with a stand alone ECU) the ECU and intake on the lo power version would not matter. And from what i have read from various members reviews on the 8 you dont really use all 6 gears on the high power version so a 5 speed transmission is no big deal. SO if i get the lo power RX8 and save myself around £3k or so... then spend the money on say a turbo n some other nice stuff I would have a more powerful car while only payin a lil more than if i bought the hi power RX8...

Well that is how it goes in my lil head... Is my plan flawed? Please point it out if it is. The above is just an idea i am bouncing around my head till i confirm the buy with my dealer later this year.

P.S. I havent really checked but i assume there is a hi & lo powered RX8 versions in the American market?

 

i don't know if that would work or not i'm sure one of the other members will though, but the problem that you'll run into is that if you do that you'll void your warrenty...so its either 4 years without a turbo or 4 years without a warrenty, and that kinda sucks on a new car

 

Intake difference-yes. But, it is not simply the external intake components. Rather, the hi power engine has an additional intake port for each rotor, so you would have to change the rotor housing and other associated intake hardware as well to bring the lo power up to hi power specs. (I suspect there would be many other items that would need to be changed as well.) You should be able to find a video on the web that will describe the basic differences.

 

I don't know about the European market but the high power and low power cars here in the U.S. use 2 totally different engines. The low power is a 4 port engine and the high power is a 6 port.

 

Dang... kinda thought that plan was a lil too easy to come good. Guess i'll just have to save up the old fashon way (work plenty of overtime) rather than a "get rich quick" ploy...