Here is the link info for those interested in the power steering pump I plan to use if you can't find it. I tried to post just the picture from their site, but I couldn't get it to work. It may be the solution for FBs FCs and FDs that want to get rid of their engine driven pump without replacing their rack/column. I had to mess with it a bit to keep it from posting a link just add http:// at the front. (you're not supposed to post links to other sites, hopefully this is OK).
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epasperformance
.com/products/epas-performance-hydroelectric-pump-race-system

 

https://epasperformance.com/products...mp-race-system

 

Moved the fuel door behind the license plate.
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Nice!

 

Neat! If you’re going to have a fold down license plate, you could hide the keyed hatch release there as well!

 

Double post - sorry!

 

That's the plan, I have several of them. The body kit covers the old fuel door, so an alternate plan is required. Seeing as I am replacing the tank anyway (and the fuel filler opening is in the back by where I am putting the fuel door) it seemed like a good spot.
Are you going to make it to the DFW 7s day event at Eldorado Mazda in McKinney on the 6th?

 

Yeah, I plan to be there. No running 7 to take, but I want to see everyone else's!

 

Say Hi to AJ from Gunny for me. He will probably have the FrankenB there. Multicolor 1st gen with the FrankenB license plate in the windshield like a proper redneck. It was Renesis swapped a while back. You'll get a kick out of it. He still owes me a ride though.

Hopefully Frank (the FC guru) and his son Kevin with the kinda white RX8 show up as well. It seems I know quite a few folks from the DFW area. Small world.

 

Will do. The RX-8 swapped FB to s now white. AJ wrapped it a while back to make it look a little nicer. I wonder if he’ll bring that or the supercharged FB? Maybe both!

 

The supercharged FB is a myth. Don't believe the propaganda!

Can't even tell it is there.
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I received my wheels back from Forgeline today. I had the front wheels left at the original 11" width but moved back half an inch. The rears were narrowed to 12.5" and pushed back a full inch. This will make them fit my body kit better. They just about fit as they were but just a bit too close to the outside lip for comfort. I had the centers refinished in race gold to mimic the wheels that were commonly run on these cars back in the day. Even having my old wheels redone was not cheap but at about a third the cost of new they were worth it.

 

Those look *sharp* !

 

Thanks. I did get the two front tires ordered yesterday. After cycling the wheels through their suspension travel and measuring against the fenders, along with my once again modified front suspension/wheel wells, I am pretty sure that I can fit 315/30ZR18s under there. (12.6" section width, 12" tread width, 25.4" tall). I was sure enough to order two Vitour Tempesta V1 tires in that size from Tire Rack. We will see if I was a fool once again. I will have to use 345/30ZR18s in the rear as it is the closest size this brand has to my Pirellis. It shouldn't present any problems as they are only 2 tenths of an inch taller and wider than the 335s.

 

Those are gonna look great on there

 

Those wheels look amazing! And wow those are gonna be some meaty tires, can't wait to see them on the car!!

 

OK, the 315/30ZR18 Vitour P1s are mounted and bolted up to the car on my modified front wheels.
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Here's the pictures and low down on my latest thrashfest with the front suspension. Firstly, warnings about clearance problems trying to make wheels this large fit a first gen. It is very difficult to provide sufficient upward wheel travel while keeping the car sitting low in the front. An RX7 donk car would look pretty silly. There just is not a lot of room at the front wheels on these cars. Every little bit of extra travel you can get is hard won. I had already welded in a lot of extra structure for my shock tower mounts and I am going to need to do some more reinforcement as well. I opened the rails up all the way to the top and will need to add some heavy gauge flat plate to tie the front and back of the side rails together better. Eventually I was planning to close up the bottom side of the strut mounts with more plate to provide a rigid structure which should alleviate any shock tower strength concerns. This allowed for 3.25" of upward wheel travel with a 25.4" tire while maintaining 5" of ground clearance at the front crossmember. (it is actually slightly lower than stock). I have plenty of clearance all around on the inner structure. Fully cycled the suspension taking into account full wheel lock in both directions and suspension travel top and bottom. I now have more room for travel than the RX8 suspension allows for. The limited suspension travel is probably about the weakest part of the RX8 suspension in my opinion but likely is a plus in this application.
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The next problem is still the wheel openings on my GTO body kit. To reiterate, these problems are not the fault of the body kit. I am trying to make it fit in ways that it was never designed for. I moved the rear of the openings back 1.5" which is pretty darned close to sufficient clearance with the 12.6" wide tires. Only a slight interference problem at the bottom inside edge at the back. The front of the openings will also need to be opened up a touch more for turning clearance, maybe an inch or less. When you have tires this wide on the front, they need a lot of sweeping room as the face of the tire turns. I will definitely need the flares on the fenders for the extra clearance at the top. Even though I moved the tires in 1/2", and it looks like I have plenty of room, it disappears when you turn the wheel. Bringing suspension compression into the equation while turning the wheel adds even more complexity requiring even more room. I will likely be messing with front fender modifications for a while trying to get everything to work correctly.
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Love your build! Those wheels are killer. They would look great on my BRG NB Miata.

 

I bet they would look great with just about anything painted British racing green, Hmmm. Nope not going there. Forgeline has a lot of the old school designs that are just way cool. Unfortunately, like all custom forged wheels they aren't cheap. Which is why I had my old wheels refurbished instead. I really loved their gold mesh wheels though.

 

Rear tires are here and mounted. Tire rack said they had a section width of 13.7" on a 12" wheel. I mounted them on a 13" wide wheel. I asked for a 12.5" wheel from Forgeline, but it is what it is and should be better for traction as the stated tread width is 13.2". The actual section width on this wheel width is 14.5", .8" wider than stated with the 12" wheel. It's a good thing I had the backspace reduced by a full inch. Had I not pulled the wheel in that much it would be hanging out of the fenders once again, but I have a few clearance issues that will have to be resolved because of it.
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PS: It turns out the clearance issues are with the diameter and the existing structure, not the back of the wheel. The front tires were quoted at 12.6" section width on an 11" wheel but the actual section width on my 11" wheel is about 12.3" (for the tire geeks amongst us). I am lowering the chassis one inch from stock which explains the extreme emphasis on wheel travel. It becomes a challenge when your wheels are already 2.5" to 3" larger in diameter than the stock 13" wheels.
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Man those look good. Almost twice the tire as it had from the factory... I love it!

 

You might be going a little overboard when the wheel you are trying to fit is wider than the original rim was tall.

A few pictures of trial fit. It doesn't look like much has changed but there was a lot of work that went into reworking the suspension front and rear. I didn't like the way it was sitting and I wanted it to sit lower. Creating enough upward wheel travel to accommodate this desire took a bit of doing.
Top picture, suspension finalized, refinished wheels, new tires, and wheel openings reshaped. The car is actually sitting about an inch lower than stock. If it needs to come up making spacers for the strut mounts is relatively easy. I need to rework my wheel wells from scratch again.
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Front view (air dam and nose piece removed)
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I had to space the struts 12mm further out with two 6mm thick washers to create a comfortable amount of space between the tire and spring. This required a longer bolt and I need to make a spacer to help support the load at the lower shock mount. I have a little less than an inch of clearance with 8 inches of backspace. If you are using the RX8 suspension in stock configuration I would recommend no more than 7 1/2" of backspace. 7" would be better. In my case the 8" of backspace was necessary for fender clearance.

 

That's looking mean, I like it!

 

Latest update. As usual, modifications were necessary as things came together. I had to cut out my rear wheel wells (they weren't high enough) and modify the rear strut mounts a bit to accommodate the extra wheel travel. I fully finished and reinforced the passenger side strut mount in its final iteration, finally. I will be welding in new wheel wells once I have the mounts on both sides finished. The mount is gusseted to the frame and the rear down leg of the cage to prevent both upward and downward movement. I also triangulated the mount to the main hoop of the cage with a bar where the other bars come together preventing any front to back flex. I did so as I was concerned about the structural strength of the frame where I had to cut it for the rear subframe to fit. A Mazda engineer I am not, so I have to go a bit overboard with my reinforcements to ensure safety. If I were to do this again, I would install the cage first before cutting anything. It would have been far safer and less likely to warp or move. I certainly wouldn't recommend this level of cutting without a cage, but others might be able to come up with a better solution than mine, nonsensebureau's install was much more elegant than mine. The rear strut mounts should be rock solid in this configuration, especially once the wheel wells are welded back in. These two points will be carrying all the suspension loading at the rear and while cornering, so they have to be very stout. Having one give way while chasing those crazy men Nick and Carlos up the Dragon could be considered a bad thing.

For those that are wondering, the strut and spring for the RX8 sits approximately 4 inches further back than the position of the original SA/FB spring. I reused most of the perches that I had fabricated before. I welded the reinforcement bar to the middle subframe mount through the spot where the original spring was at, the strut mount was fabricated behind that, tying it all into the cage and frame.

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Both sides are in and in primer. I only really needed the cross bar at the shock towers, but I added one at the back so I can mount a space spare tire that is secured to the cage. (re: a street driven car, not a race car). A link to the company I plan to purchase a spare from. https://modernspare.com/product/2024...e-kit-options/ They don't have an RX8 specific spare, but this should work.

I can't use a stock spare for the size brakes that I plan to run eventually. Luckily there are aftermarket solutions. I would imagine a few others have run into this problem. I need to tackle the wheel wells next.
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