The Winters diff is strong and doesn’t break. Driveshaft Shop axles with 930 style CV joints are used.
The Sequential shifter for the HGT Precision transmission dominates the transmission tunnel with a Sikky drift brake lever.
This is the digital gear position indicator. With a sequential, it is a little hard to tell what gear the transmission is in.
This is the reverse. When shifting into reverse with a sequential, you need to pull this knob which unlocks reverse, without it, it would be super easy to accidentally select reverse.
Surprisingly the brake system uses the stock hydraulics and pedals instead of the typical race car dual master cylinder pedal box assembly that most drift cars use. The compact rotary allows it. A lot of the V8 swaps no longer have room in the engine compartment for a stock type master cylinder and booster.
Brake proportioning is controlled by this Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve.
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This car really needs a Power Distribution Module (Motec, Ecumaster, Racepak).
That organized mess of relays and fuses looks like a pain in the butt to troubleshoot
Wow, that thing must scream like a banshee at 10K rpms.
Going to dig into this more later, but any issues with premix on rotor housing lubrication with ethanol? I’ve seen some anecdotal evidence from people who had housing damage on E85 that worries me.
I am pretty sure that Kyle uses an alcohol specific premix oil, I think its made by redline. I had that discussion with him a couple of years ago and kinda forget the specific oil now.
I asked Kyle and he says he uses Motul Nitro RC car lube.
What kind of benefits are seen from the Wisefab kit, is it worth it for a weekend track car if the funds are there?
You can lower the car a lot without messing up the geometry although its not exactly a bolt in, you need to swap to a BMW steering rack and modify the cross member for it. It is also more for drifting with a lot of steering angle.
I do like the everything and the kitchen sink approach. Lag? Use anti-lag and NOS. Knock? Use ethanol and water injection.
If the throttle is closed, is there any chance of the intake air being blown into the exhaust flowing back upstream into the engine?
No, there is positive pressure there.
Amazing coverage Mike. You seem to be one of the few that actually explains the tech behind the work. Very, very enlightening.
Intense build. Looking at the amount of modification,definitely wow factor and dedicated workmanship,That’s a fully fabricated racecar with high levels of craftmanship, im from New Zealand,I follow mad mike with his quad rota mx5 chassis, so all credit to those driver’s that can put high amounts of Rotary horsepower down through a short chassis. Nothing short of insane,
OK, digging into this a bit more, finally.
I don’t expect confirmation but looking at the power per boost I suspect street ported of some description, which wouldn’t be totally surprising in a “keeping all the gasses moving in the right direction” sort of way. I find it interesting that the old Mazda dry sump cover is up to the task for a 20B, though I suppose there is a version with bigger gears for more flow. When NGK surface discharge plugs get brought up, are they the standard Mazda race plugs or something different? I tried chasing that once with Champion surface gap plugs and never got anywhere useful.
Looking at the turbo setup, the backpressure reducing wastegate is funny – does FD have noise restrictions? It just seems a weird way of dealing with that. I also wonder if a lot of the hardline going to turbo components is going to eventually have fatigue issues, as it looks like it’s connecting between the chassis and engine. It seems like there’s various capped off bungs and stuff… between that and the variety of stuff going on (antilag, nitrous, water injection) it seems like there’s some extent of trying to have multiple options going on to home in on what’s “best” perhaps; will be interesting to see if the RX-8 retains all of them.
This sounds kinda weird but I feel like the rest is kind of “cut and dried”, though I do wonder how much Megan Racing is in those custom valved Megan Racing shocks if you get my drift. I also kind of feel like someone should do a decent LSD for the Winters QC, though I suspect that everyone’s engineers have gotten used to setting up around the spools.
There are a few different LSDs. I use an Indy Competition Products plated unit and I think both ATS and OS Giken made some.
Pretty awesome car. Definitely cool to see engines other than LS and 2J. Its also really nice to see people finally using fresh air in something other than rally and (more recently) circuit racing.