Mazdaspeed Struts

I simply could not pass up a deal on 4 brand new Mazdaspeed struts for almost half the original cost. At approx. 43K miles on my car the original stock struts still felt fine to me, but the MS struts are simply sexy. Fairly simple install since we had already done the Tein S-Tech springs beforehand.

A Close Encounter

My wife and I took the RX-8 for a drive to walk Cape Cod canal. On the way there was an older Prelude cruising along and hanging with us. I pass him in the left lane. Just after that we come over the hill and I see no less than 50 yards ahead a large object in my lane. I'm passed the Lude but I need to get ahead further so I drop it in 3rd, make my way into the right lane.

At the same time I notice that in the right lane is a 3 foot long piece of bent exhaust piping or such and something smaller to the left of it.

In a split second I aimed straight for the bent metal and cut through the debris. No lie, this all happened within 4-5 seconds. Mary was like, "Holy shit!" I could not believe how well the car handled.

After I past the mess, I quickly looked into rear view, the Lude hit the pipe head on and it went under his car. He took an exit not long after that. Crazy!

Carbon fiber love

What is it about carbon fiber that so many people love? Is it the lightweight and strength of the bonded fibers? Or simply the appearance of the optical changing effects from it's weave pattern? For many it's both. Many real world applications of this material is applied for the latter, but for many of us that love it's style have the ability to add the eye catching material to our automobiles for little cost.

I took a sheet of carbon fiber and custom cut to fit on 2 of my engine bay plastic covers. One is the PCM cover and the other is a fuse box. More CF will be added later to other parts of the car.

LOMO photo style

The word LOMO is often used to refer to the Lomo LC-A and other LOMO branded consumer cameras; while the cameras have a large following around the world, the cameras themselves are a minor product for LOMO PLC.Here are some examples of applying many techniques that duplicate the effect of a Lomo camera.

Engine bay cleaning

Did some engine cleaning. I like a low gloss shine in my engine bay. Pardon the parts that have endured 43k miles in lovely salt ridden lands of the north east. Especially in my vicinity since I'm only a few miles from the ocean. Makes it more fun to clean out all the sand.

Also note the addition of the genuine Mazdaspeed aluminum billet oil cap and polished throttle body.

Sunrise photo

Took a drive to my local beach again. This time at 5:30AM and snapped a new photo.

Work wheels and Nitto tires

After having my new Nitto NT555 Extreme tires mounted on the wheels I brought them home and put them on my car. Time for another photoshoot.

Work wheels arrive

UPS is my friend. Delievered my Work Emotion XT-7 wheels. They are 18x8.5 +46 offset. The color is a metallic satin bronze. To compliment the JDM wheels and for added "bling" I ordered a set of red anodized RAYS performance lug nuts.

The Work Emotion range of wheels has an extremely good reputation and variations of the emotion range have participated in GT classes and Super Endurance classes of racing in Japan.

The Work Emotion XT7 wheel is a new and attractive 7 spoke design used widely by drift cars in Japan. Work is active in sponsorship of D1 cars in the Japanese series, notably the KunnyZ JZX100. The XT7 is made of one-piece low-pressure cast aluminum wheel which provides great strength at moderate weight.

WORK Co. Ltd. is Japans premiere manufacturer of high-end street performance and racing wheels. WORK wheels can be custom built for virtually any application including American, European, and Japanese vehicles. WORK is synonymous with uncompromising standards of engineering, innovation, and quality. They are wheels for the serious enthusiast who appreciates the results of engineering excellence, attention to technical detail, and sophisticated design. Used in Japan on street applications ranging from the McLaren F1 road car to motorsports applications used by top Japanese race teams like TODA Racing.