Quote Originally Posted by Chip42 View Post
and THIS was basically our rational for splitting the lines - we don't know if the changes can be combined in an IT legal way to cause a better set of gains than anticipated. we still don't. the rest of the changes are just icing. any one of them is normal waterbridge stuff, all at once is harder to justify.
I am not an engine builder but from what I know this modification uses the exact same original housing that has been modified simply for more reliability. I think the thee are positioned in a triangle formation to better lubricate the apex seal. I know the original 04 & 05 models were blowing up seals at 50k or less creating poor compression and engine replacements. From what I understand they made changes to clearances on the seals and used a different spring rate to gain some reliability. Still not great but cars lasted to 80k. Still not great when trying to sell a car that may make it to 100k. This design in 09 was to try and fix that poor reliability concern. I say all this based on my own research and opportunity to talk to enthusiasts. I have zero inside knowledgable and I didn't pay a single bit attention to this car until 2010 when I got my first one. (Now we have had 6.... Just realized why my wife yells at me... Haha).

Anyway take it for what it is worth and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. You can PM me and I will try to find out answers. I want to try and be objective but you all know my personal investment into your final decision. (Just staying honest here)

Couple other things I forgot and didn't say before: I Think the reinforcements noted above are the Shinka cross braces and subframe that you can get starting in 05 and a new strut tower brace that connects to the firewall.

Lastly, I agree with you jjjanos. It is a hard thing to figure out. I just posted the 5 things that I would look at as a veteran to the class. Doesn't make them easy decisions just the things I think I would talk about. And your also right each line probably could be argued either way depending on how far left or right you are. Oh... 1 last thing, for me to make my car an 09 and run the 09 transmission i could swap the vin but also have to updating the entire car. Probably close to 10k to do that. I will still run in ITR but with my 04 transmission and a few less entries per year to get it rebuilt every few weekends.

Thanks, for all the replies... I think it is drawing attention not because it is an rx8 but because its a new look at how we move forward in IT, and nothing bad can come out of this.

Stephen