I've not seen this in any threads but it has been talked about locally and I talked to Ken and he confirmed it
I was not sure (and did not ask) if that was something he wanted out or not.
But in our conversation he told me to check out his site about the recap of last season. At the bottom Ken mentions the RX8 so it is official news at this point.
You should really read this link from top to bottom as well because he expresses in detail what all went on behind the scenes and how in the end a 35 cent snap-ring may have cost him the title.

I look forward to seeing the new motor and I hope I get to pport this one for him

http://kenscheepers.com/main.html

 

Good to hear. Looking forward to seeing it and what it can do.

 

This last year, I had a chance to talk to Ken. All I can say is he's one heck of a nice guy. I hope he kicks some serious butt out there. CJ

 

Yep, Ken is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. That accent is cool I have only met a handful of people from South Africa.

 

I guess he sounds like Petah Farrell some then?

 

It will be interesting to see how much power they can make out of the new motor, and how hard it will be to extract that power.

 

I've never talked to Peter. Is that where he is from?

 

NZ, I assume?

 

Do you know wether he's going to keep it N/A or go turbo?

I wouldn't have thought the Renesis would be much whack for forced induction - unless of course he gave it an additional PP exhaust

 

NA PPort

 

ok so mazda giving them a rx-8. my only concern would weight i wonder how much they can shave, and why not put the renisis in his first gen? would this be within the rules. im sure ken has it all worked and hopefully can still hang with the honda's

 

A PPorted Renesis or a normal 13B?

 

I am not sure what the rules require.

 

He wanted to see what the higher compression rotors would do in one of his current motors but he will be running the Renesis unless unexpected glitches comes up.
I am sure that morbid curiousity drove him to it. He loves breaking down the motors and putting them together. Steve Kan is the fastest I have ever seen put one together but I think Ken thinks it's more fun

He tore motors down for inspection after he got home from just about every race if not every race. He is intense about it. He has a 4 point lift in his shop and an overhead tranny jack so he is setup to where he can easily work on it himself.
But expect to see a pported Renesis in the car.

 

You should see when someone challenged me on how long it takes to pull a completely stock engine out of a 3rd gen. I told him probably an hr and he lost. i got the engine completely out of the car in 50mins. Maybe I should make a video tape on how to pull an engine out in 50mins video and sell it to the public. LOL Disassemble the accessories and other stuff is another story.

 

When you do you may want to have Alex and Ihor watch it

 

That's what I thought also. Because if you could have it appart in 1hr I'll have to hire you!

 

I'm curious too see what's Ken going to do about the drivetrian in particular the rear suspension, diff etc.

 

I can strip to the core motor with another 25-30 mins.

 

Peripheral intake with side exhaust?

 

YEPPERS!!! I can hardly wait to see that!!!