NPOCP: LSX-R RX8 R3

"GhostZ" (GhostZ)
10/06/2013 at 09:07 • Filed to: NPOCP, CPCPCP, RX-8, GTO

Did that combination of letters pique your interest?

Touge Factory is one of the best tuners for Japanese cars in the midwest, and they fabricate all sorts of crazy parts, but I haven't seen them try to sell an entire car before. Well, now they have. I don't know the whole story behind it (customer job gone wrong, shop ride, special project, who knows?), but here's the ad:

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Power output can be anywhere from 400 too 600HP, but probably nothing below those numbers. Chassis is brand new (and one of 260 R3 models) and so is the engine.

Price: $60,000

$60,000

In other words, more expensive than both an RX-8, a GTO, and the swap materials combined .

It's a one of a kind work of art, better than if GM and Mazda had built it themselves, but at that price, will it burn your tires, or spin a rod?

DISCUSSION (15)

Sparf > GhostZ
10/06/2013 at 09:09

So they ruined a rare R3 to build that (and are not even going to keep the car after all that work)? Asshats.

GhostZ > Sparf
10/06/2013 at 09:12

That was my thought. It would be one thing if it had already blown the motor (although it may have, for all I know) and was quickly becoming a $10,000 shell, but it seems really strange. It's also a whole different thing if they used some beat up regular RX-8 and not a (probably brand new when they started) R3.

Takuro Spirit > GhostZ
10/06/2013 at 09:21

Looks like a clean build. But, yeah, if you're gonna do that, keep it as a promotional tool.

And way to go ruining an R3, assheads.

Burrito de EJ25 > GhostZ
10/06/2013 at 15:45

This is sacrilege as fuck.

Fuck, are LS swaps the most dull, or what?

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > GhostZ
10/06/2013 at 18:03

Only on Oppo is replacing a horrifically unreliable motor (please don't try to tell me that 100k mile motors are acceptable) with something reliable and powerful a problem. I'm as bored with LSx swaps as anyone, but goddamnit, this makes way more sense than praying that your motor makes it 100k miles; that's fucking unacceptable and ridiculous.

And since you guys seem to have the biggest problem with the increased power, because an RX8 can only be fun if it's slow, I'm sure you could find an iron-headed 4.7 that would only put out 250ish HP, and it'd be cheap as shit. And it would have torque, which is a plus in a car that usually requires the clutch to be obliterated when pulling away from a stop.

CP as shit, though.

Skeen > Burrito de EJ25
10/06/2013 at 19:33

LS swaps are the least dull as far as the driving experience goes. The original engine is what I would call dull. The car is so handsome it deserves a great engine.

Burrito de EJ25 > Skeen
10/06/2013 at 20:55

LS swaps are for philistines.

GhostZ > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney
10/07/2013 at 11:24

Chill out. The swap is sweet, the cost is what makes it insane.

It's more that they took a rather rare (one of 262 or something) RX8 with a unique motor at absurdly low miles and then swapped it out. They could have easily taken a car with a blown motor or one that had already gotten its use out of it. What they did isn't wholly unacceptable, it's how they went about it.

I love the idea of taking a worn engine that is mechanically inferior and replacing it with a fire-breathing beast. I don't think most people appreciate taking the rarest version of the swansong for the rotary, unmolested and an otherwise great car, and replacing it with a very common swap, more power or not.

GhostZ > Burrito de EJ25
10/07/2013 at 11:28

Straight LS1 swaps are dull.

LS1 + LSX-R parts = opposite of dull.

GhostZ > Skeen
10/07/2013 at 11:30

I bet the driving experience is actually better too. The suspension was rebuilt to handle the power, and with that combination of parts, I bet this engine revs to around 7500-8500rpm, not bad at all.

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > GhostZ
10/07/2013 at 11:35

Fair points.

Skeen > Burrito de EJ25
10/07/2013 at 19:44

Didn't have any idea what "philistines" was so I looked it up. I sure disagree with that statement. "a person who is guided by materialism and is usually disdainful of intellectual or artistic values" Go to youtube and type in Brady Skeen I have a Turbo Foxbody Mustang that I'm going through an LS swap with. Its a hobby and when a certain platform can't give you the performance potential you want you move to something better. These LS swaps are almost an art form these days. Harder to switch over things than one may imagine.

Burrito de EJ25 > Skeen
10/07/2013 at 21:27

I'm being silly. I don't sincerely think that.

I do, however, find it played out and would much rather see that car running under a Wankel simply because they're such rarities. Sure, they're unreliable oil burners, but damn are they neat, and man do they sound fantastic.

Richard Fisher > GhostZ
06/23/2014 at 20:42

The Renesis driveline by the way is almost done in its new home ....a 1990 Miata with 28,000 miles. That car's engine is perfect too by the way; But the MGA Coupe that it'll eventually find it's way into will almost certainly have a 'worn engine'. Hope you boys get to do some projects of your own.

Richard Fisher > GhostZ
06/24/2014 at 15:09

What kind of math are you using for that comment? If an RX8 R-3 was $30,000 and all the materials for the swap were about $20,000 (they were) , what about the hundreds of hours of labor that this took? (about a seven month build.)