Video: FuelTech And Compound Garrett Turbos Power This Mean RX-8

The team at FuelTech USA in Ball Ground, Georgia has been burning up its new in-house hub dynamometer in recent weeks, with a host of high-powered machinery going through their paces as technicians fine-tune the fuel injection and ignition combinations on turbocharged, supercharged, and even nitrous-aided setups. Among the recent visitors to the facility was Curacao native Leendert J van Rumpt and his speedy Mazda RX-8.

The Mazda, driven by Abel Burgos, took some rips on the hub dyno as FuelTech’s engineers tweaked on the smorgasbord of its products outfitted on the car. Of particular interest is the compound turbocharger setup, which FuelTech’s Anderson Dick goes into great detail to explain, noting how the compression of atmospheric pressure factors into the use of one turbocharger feeding boost into the other to achieve a desired boost range. 

The incoming air is pulled in first through a Garrett GTX5544R 106mm snail and fed to an 88mm GTX5533R, which is positioned closest to the Mazda 13B two-rotor mill. The car features an FT600 EFI/ECU, FTSpark ignition, a BoostController2 (for the second turbo), a Wideband Nano, and Peak and Hold 8A injector drivers, all from FuelTech. The injector drivers work in unison with eight Billet Atomizer 700pph injectors.

Garrett’s GEN II series of turbos like these 88mm and 106mm snails feature new aerodynamically efficient designs for increased horsepower, speed sensor ports, improved shroud designs for surge resistance, and a whole lot more.

The end result is an impressive 1,670 horsepower at 7,540 RPM. And whether this is your cup of tea or not, you gotta’ admit, that little rotary engine is one mean-sounding mother!

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Andrew Wolf

Andrew has been involved in motorsports from a very young age. Over the years, he has photographed several major auto racing events, sports, news journalism, portraiture, and everything in between. After working with the Power Automedia staff for some time on a freelance basis, Andrew joined the team in 2010.
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