Looking at John Rhee's 2004 Mazda RX-8, it's easy to imagine it's a bright-orange butterfly emerging from its dark, fiber-woven cocoon; freshly morphed from one stage of life to another. And the idea of Rhee's car undergoing a caterpillar-like metamorphosis is a fitting one too. Not simply because the carbon-fiber panels have the organic look of a cocoon, but because Rhee has undergone a transformation himself.
Until recently, Rhee was just another victim of the vehicular arms race. Driving the biggest, baddest rig he could find, (outfitted with the largest street-legal tires available) Rhee knew he was the king of the road. Cruising up and down the freeways, perched precariously atop his lumbering and perpetually thirsty steed, this urban cowboy blazed his own trails across the congested Los Angeles freeways, hitting up all the Truckin' hotspots. Complete with a set of gnarly, Civic-crushing 44-inch Super Swamper tires, Rhee was tickled pink with his ride. This diehard truck guy had no interest in the import-tuning scene. But being an urban cowboy doesn't come cheap; and even the manliest of men have a practical side.
Tired of coughing up the dough required to drive his testosterone-swilling machine, Rhee decided that he needed to find a grocery-getter that wouldn't require breaking out the ladder every time he felt the urge to grab a burger. This decision was what landed him in the seat of an RX-8. Little did he know just how much the little Mazda would change his life. The time had come for him to crawl into his own cocoon (the RX-8 in this case) and emerge a new man.
To get to the bottom of this tale of metamorphosis, we need to trace the RX-8 back to its roots. The heart of the RX-8 is undoubtedly its unconventional engine configuration, and it was the trailblazing folks at Mazda who first decided to give the quirky yet promising rotary engine a home in their lineup. Way back in 1967, they put their first rotary into a production car, the Cosmo Sport. With 110 hp, the 10A engine made spectacular power considering its diminutive size.
The idea for the rotary engine as we know today, came to its creator literally in his sleep. In a dream back in 1919, Felix Wankel concocted a new type of internal-combustion engine, and the then 17-year-old started something that would help define Mazda and many of its endeavors into the motorsports arena.
If Felix Wankel gave birth to the rotary engine, it was at Mazda's nipple that it suckled-growing and morphing into subsequent incarnations. Under Mazda's watchful eyes, the engine evolved into what sits between the fenders of Rhee's ride: a pinnacle of modern internal-combustion technology. However, Rhee's 1.3L Renesis is no run-of-the-mill RX-8 powerplant. This wild ride is force-fed with a GReddy T618Z turbocharger and further motivated with a shot of nitrous. Who says you can't go fast and look good at the same time?