Reports from Mazda are pointing to the fact that the RX-8 will no longer be sold after the 2011 model year. Mazda has stopped sales of the car in Europe, mostly because it is unable to pass their strict emission standards.
Since the last refresh of the RX-8 in 2009 sales have slowed down considerably. This could be due in part to offerings from other Japanese and domestic automakers in the same market segment but it comes as no surprise Mazda is discontinuing the RX-8 when only 128 of them were sold in April.
We should remain hopeful though, because rumor has it that the RX-7 is likely to be revived in some way. If the rumors are true then the new RX will be using Mazda’s latest rotary engine, the 16X, which is rumored to produce 250hp. The price point for the new one is in the mid to upper 20’s.
All I know is that we can’t wait to get our hands on whatever Mazda’s next rotary rocket is.
Picking up where we left off last time, the chassis and drivetrain for the FC RX-7 has plenty of potential with minimal modifications. Chassis bracing is a good place to start.
CorkSport offers strut braces for the front and rear strut/shock towers. Some people have questioned the effectiveness of the tower braces in the FC. Speaking from first hand experience, they work very well, and they make a big difference. I have e seen the aftermath of a car hitting a guard rail at highway speeds sideways and what saved the car from crushing itself sideways was the front strut brace. The front is a simple bolt in, and while the rear requires some extra work and includes trimming some metal, it is well worth it.
For underneath the car CorkSport sells the AutoExe Member Brace Set. Think of this is an over the top strut tower brace set for the under side of your RX-7. The chassis brace set ties together multiple points of the suspension to make the chassis more rigid, including tying up the rear differential sub frame to the chassis.
AutoExe Member Brace Set
Next up is lowering the car. Lowering the car gives it a lower center of gravity and you should also stiffen the dampening of the suspension to go with the springs. Tokico Illumina shocks combined with Eibach springs are a good combination for street driven vehicles. With the installation of lowering springs you will need to address the camber for the rear suspension. The design of the RX-7 suspension requires a camber adjustment kit which CorkSport offers as well. The rear camber link kit adjusts the rear sub frame correcting the camber on both sides of the car.
Rear Camber Adjuster
If you are seeking maximum performance out of the suspension you can change out the suspension bushings with polyurethane parts. The good part about the bushings is the upgrade to urethane makes the suspension work without extra deflection. The trade off is extra vibration from the stiffer bushings into the chassis. CorkSport offers the Prothane bushing kit for the RX-7.
Drivetrain mounts will also need to be replaced. It is not really a choice anymore, the engine, transmission, and differential mounts will be worn out after ¼ century. CorkSport offers Mazdaspeed replacement mounts for all of the drivetrain. The stiffer rubber used in the engine and transmission mounts limit engine movement to help cope with the extra power and put the power out the drivetrain instead of moving the engine around. The rear differential mounts are needed to deal with the increased torque load of the drive train under hard acceleration. We have seen cars in the past come into the shop with a clunk noise from the rear end of the car only to find the front differential mount broken.
Mazdaspeed Engine Mounts
With the increased power made from the engine modifications in the first blog you will need to upgrade the clutch. For a street driven RX-7 the ACT street clutch kit is hard to beat. The reason for the street version of the clutch is that puck clutches tend to chatter when engaged from a stand still and make driving in stop and go traffic a pain. With the installation of the clutch a lightweight flywheel is a good idea as well. ACT also offers lightweight flywheels in two varieties, Streetlight and Prolight. The reason for a lighter flywheel is engine response. With a lighter flywheel the engine has less mass to spin and because of this engine revs build faster. The difference between the two is the weight. The street version weighs more which helps with keeping the inertia of the motor going. This is helpful with making smooth starts and stops while on hills. I would choose the pro light myself. Having a rev happy rotary engine just makes me smile. When purchasing a lightweight flywheel it is important to get a counterweight. The stock RX-7 flywheel has the counterweight built in but the aftermarket flywheels do not.
The last piece of the drive train puzzle is the shifter. It is something you are constantly using in the RX-7 and CorkSport offers a short throw shifter. The short throw shifter decreases the distance you have to move the handle to change gears resulting in quicker shifts. The CorkSport shifter includes all new bushings and seals which are a must since most RX-7s we have seen need to have all of the parts replaced. If you are wondering what I am talking about there check out the shifter in your RX-7. If you can move the shifter left to right while in gear, and it feels loose and vague when shifting, or it doesn’t return to the center while in neutral you need to replace the bushings and seals at a minimum.
CorkSport Short Shifter
Well, that is it for the chassis and drive train. In the next blog post I will cover the brakes and styling for your RX-7.
So you have an FC RX-7 and you want to upgrade the car both in engine performance and styling. We have a large range of CorkSport brand products to help you out, along with other products we carry. Today we’ll start with the engine performance modifications, and later on work our way to the exterior.
The example car I will use for the build is my 1987 RX-7 Turbo II, since I am very familiar with it. This build will be written as if the car is stock when we start the project.
The first thing you need to do is get rid of the stock exhaust since it is heavy and fairly restrictive. Since my car is a turbo model I chose the CorkSport 80mm Turbo Back Exhaust or TBE for short. There are several reasons to go with the turbo back system. First, the exhaust looks great and sounds even better. Second, the turbo back exhaust is straight-through and is as free-flowing as you can get (be careful, removing the catalytic converter can violate emissions laws, check your local laws before installing.) Third, the amount of power gained with the exhaust system can be close to 45 wheel horsepower.
With the installation of the exhaust you do need to defeat the over-boost safety device built into the stock computer. This can be done with an HKS Fuel Cut Defender (FCD). What it does is cap the voltage of the pressure sensor so the computer does not think it is boosting higher than stock. Without the FCD the factory computer will cut fuel to the rear engine rotor to try and control what it thinks is over boost. The fuel cut will cause the rear rotor to be lean and can result in detonation and engine damage.
CorkSport RX-7 Turbo Back Exhaust
With the increase in power and boost from the TBE we need to look at addressing the fuel system before we put anymore power out of the engine. Lets face it, the fuel pump has been in the tank for 24 years now and isn’t getting any younger. To keep supporting the power increases an upgraded fuel pump is going to be required. The two options CorkSport offers are the J-Spec Cosmo fuel pump and the Walbro 255lph pump and Screen kit. I personally would use the J-Spec Cosmo pump. It may be more expensive but it was designed to fuel the 20B 3 rotor engine which had six 550cc fuel injectors to feed, which is 1100cc more than the FC RX-7 Turbo has. The pump is a bolt in replacement for the stock fuel pump and it includes a new pickup screen. I also strongly recommend sending your fuel injectors out to be tested and cleaned when you upgrade the fuel pump. There is most likely 24 years of deposits built up in the injectors as well. There are several companies which offer the service, like Witchhunter Performance or Marren for example. Find a place to clean the injectors that is close to you to cut down on shipping time back and forth.
With the fuel injectors pulled out I am sure you noticed that the wiring harness is pretty crunchy and destroyed, especially on the turbocharger side of the engine. The options are to either fix the breaking connectors and splice in new plugs or replace the harness. I would opt for replacing the harness myself so there will be trouble free motoring in the future. The CorkSport Harness is a great setup with all of the short comings of the stock harness addressed and removed in this new part.
We improved the exhaust flow so now it’s time to go work on the intake side. The first part to remove is the stock rubber turbo inlet pipe, which undoubtedly needs attention. The heat from the turbo and time really play hell with the stock part, making it brittle and prone to cracking. The CorkSport Turbo Inlet Pipe or TIP for short gives you a good looking part which will last much longer and seal better than the stock rubber part. The CorkSport TIP also happens to be $60 less than the stock Mazda part, if you can even find one.
CorkSport Turbo Inlet Pipe
The second part to the intake side is adding the CorkSport Front Mount Intercooler Kit (FMIC). The stock intercooler is mounted on top of the engine and can get heat soaked easily. For more information on heat soak check out our technical article about upgraded intercoolers. The solution to this is to get the intercooler out of the engine bay and into the air flow of the cooler air coming into the engine bay. The intercooler really helps out with making power consistently, instead of worrying about performance variations because of intercooler temperatures. With a heat soaked stock intercooler you get almost none of the cooling effects and you are just pumping hot air into the engine.
Now that we’ve done a good job of upgrading the power potential of our car, we need to make sure it stays cool. The next item to upgrade then is the old stock radiator in the RX-7, and we have the perfect part or the job. The CorkSport Aluminum Radiator and Fan Shroud are bolt in replacements for the stock radiator and shroud. The reason the new shroud is required is that the thicker radiator places the shroud closer to the stock engine fan. The new fan shroud has extra clearance so the stock fan can still be utilized with the upgraded radiator. The original radiator uses an aluminum core with a plastic fiber end tank design. After heat cycling for 24 years the fiber end tanks get brittle and crack. When this happens it is game over for the stock radiator and your engine if you let the engine overheat. Remember if you hear that annoying buzzer go off, stop your car and check the coolant (let it cool off first). Mazda made it annoying on purpose; rotaries do not handle overheating well.
While we are on the topic of cooling, the stock oil cooler lines are something to look at. The stock parts are a rubber line with a braided cloth outer. The lines will get soft and start to develop leaks or possibly fail over time. This can be the end of your engine if this happens while you are driving and lose oil pressure, which can destroy your motor. The CorkSport Stainless Braided Oil Cooler Lines replace the stock line with completely new and upgraded parts. The lines are a stainless steel braided line which is more durable than the stock oil cooler lines. They are a little more difficult to install because of how tough they are, but the end results and peace of mind you get knowing they won’t fail are well worth it.
That’s all for this time, I will run through the drivetrain, chassis, and styling modifications in future blog posts.
On Friday the 29th I drove up to the Taco7 meeting in Federal Way, Washington to hang out with fellow rotary nuts for the evening. There was a good range of rotary power represented at the meeting despite the cold weather and rain. Unfortunately I was not able to bring any rotary power myself so I drove the CorkSport 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 instead, which worked out better for a customer who was getting his CorkSport header, racepipe, and cat back exhaust delivered. One of the cool things I saw at the event was a set of 1st gen RX-7 Re-Amemiya mirrors wit the built in air guide. It was the first time I had ever seen a set, and I’ve seen a lot of rare parts! There were several good looking RX-8s at the meet as well, including the one below which had the AutoExe brace sets installed. I love the way those braces look.
It was great getting to hang out with a bunch of rotary fans, if you own a rotary powered vehicle, you should come to the next Taco7 meet!
For years there have been rumors that the next RX-7 is being developed by Mazda, but thus far none of the rumors have panned out to a vehicle. Recent news reports from multiple sources indicate that the RX-7 will be built, and available as early as the 2012 model year. It will be powered by the 16X rotary engine which Mazda has had in development for the last several years but has been quiet about recently. I cannot say for sure if this time is any different than the last for the new RX-7 really going into production, so why not throw it out there? A little healthy speculation never hurt anyone.
The big question for me is what will the RX-7 look like? The picture at the top is the probably the most likely candidate. There have been lots of pictures circulating over the last few years, the most prevalent being like the few below which show multiple angles of the car.
If this is truly it, you can see some of the RX-8 styling carrying over into the new RX-7 and several of the new looks. The raised wheel arches in the front fenders are still there as is the rotor shaped bulge in the center of the hood. The bad news is that the RX-8 would most likely get cut from the lineup. With Mazda having the MX-5 available I don’t see them keeping 3 sports cars in their model range. I expect Mazda to show off a pre-production model later in 2010 when they get closer to officially announcing the car.
P.S. – There are also rumors flying around that the pictures of the black car are fakes, but the resolution it too low to get a real close up view in order to confirm or deny it.
2012 RX-7, The Beast is Back! January 6th, 2010CorkSport
