2009 Mazda RX-8 R3 - HKS Intercooler

To make matters even worse, we had to package a whompin' Mishimoto radiator, a big whompin' HKS intercooler and that TiAL turbo into the front of the car. All of these components wanted fresh cool air to go through them. It took me two days to mock-shoehorn all these items into the front of the mouth of the RX-8 front bumper. It's like having three kids yelling at you that they all want fresh air. Cooling is key in drifting because the cars are traveling sideways at full throttle and not much air is travelling to the front of the car. We had to correlate all the components together in a box to help channel what air was available. Luckily everything worked out and looks dope. To assist further in cooling we also implemented a water sprayer system to cool temperatures even further. We used a Honda Civic windshield tank and pump combo mated to a spray mister I jacked from my backyard misters. The combination works great and cools temperatures an additional 10 degrees. In addition, we had to channel air out of the intercooler out of the hood. Considering everything was custom (this makes it a pain in the ass.), we had to get a custom hood as well. We used the factory lightweight aluminum hood and started hacking away. We didn't want to simply just cut a square out of the hood. If we did it that way it would look really stupid so we decided to implement the factory rotary indentation on the hood with the design. The overall fabrication creates what was once a two-dimensional rotor on the hood to a three-dimensional rotor on the hood. In fact, the apex of the rotor overlaps right over the intercooler. The split in the middle of the hood looks aesthetically pleasing as well. At first glance, it looks like a thin sheet of aluminum that splits the opening of the intercooler. We simply put a small diameter aluminum tube underneath it that is hard to see to strengthen it up. The results look really cool and helps promote the theme of the rotary. Really cool!

Engineering underneath the hood was just the start. To add more anarchy to the buildup, a custom front suspension had to be engineered. The RX-8 comes stock with a great double wishbone set-up. The handling of the stock double wishbone is second to none and the typical design is even being used in Formula 1. Unfortunately, a double wishbone setup is not very good for drifting. A lot of drift cars that have the most angle run a MacPherson setup. There is one less wishbone for the suspension to hit when turning. We wanted to give Justin a very large window for turning to avoid the chances of spinning out. The hubs are stock RX-8 units but all upper and lower wishbone arms are custom engineered by Gary Steen. It was a tall order but Gary pulled it off. Before we started, we agreed to attempt to produce a glorified forklift, so to speak. The wishbones are extremely adjustable for a wide-range of settings. They are very strong and were built very similar to trophy truck standards. The results produce mad angle and performance. People in the drifting community can't believe we are able to get that much angle from a double wishbone setup. KW dual canister shocks handle suspension duties on all four corners and are completely adjustable.