Often overlooked, the Bay Area has always had a thriving car scene. As of late, there have been some crews coming out that are really bringing attention the cars being built in Northern California. One such crew is the @PO Crew (pronounced ‘at-po’). Starting out as a group of friends hanging out and getting into cars, the @PO Crew has now come to represent the embodiment of clean cars with proper stance and wheel offsets. And if you are wondering where the name comes from, @PO stands for ‘attract police’, which I’m sure they do when they get together.
The two RX-8s featured here belong to Carsun Luk and Jack Wong. Good friends since high school, they both got into modding cars around the same time. Carson was the first to pick up an RX-8. Wanting a four door car that could still handle well, the RX-8 seemed like the perfect choice. And once Jack took a ride in Carson’s car at a local track event, he went out and joined the rotary club with an RX-8 of his own.
While the two cars may look similar, they are at different stages on divergent evolutionary paths. Jack has kept it simple by working on the stance and handling of the car. Taking a set of Work VS-XX wheels and Endless Zeal coilovers, he has spent countless hours fine-tuning his height and wheel offsets to get as low as possible while maintaining a street-able car. And sitting behind those pretty wheels is an Endless mini 6 pot brake kit.
Looks wise, the RX-8 doesn’t need much aero to make it look good.
With clean lines and muscular fenders, all Jack needed was a ShineAuto front lip and side/rear skirts to finish off the outside.
While Jack kept it simple with just an intake and exhaust, Carson went over to the dark side and turbo’d his Renesis rotary engine. Built for high revs and peak power with a 10.0:1 compression ratio, putting a turbo on the Renesis is only for the brave. The Greddy kit puts out around 5 psi of boost and a claimed extra 60HP. While it didn’t feel as fast as an FD3S that I used to own, the turbo adds some much needed bottom end to an engine as high strung as the Renesis. And keeping everything running smoothly is a custom tuned ECU using the Cobb AccessPort.
Back pressure is like creeping death to turbo engines, so a new exhaust was needed. Carson went all out and imported a titanium exhaust built by the famed Japanese rotary tuner Knight Sports. Check out the rotor shaped exhaust tips!
Having gone through 5 or 6 different sets of wheels to get the offsets perfect, Carson has currently settled on a set of Volk GT-F wheels which have been custom painted blue. Rounding out the outside is a Veilside lip and rear skirts. And the car has been painted a white pearl to make it extra fancy.
As we all know, rotary engines are not famous for their reliability. Having owned a few myself, I’ve done a fair share of engine swaps. Especially if it has a turbo feeding it air. Luckily, the Renesis engine has come a long way to improve the reliability of the rotary engine. With less moving parts and better cooling capacity, the Renesis engine can be trusted to not leave you stranded – a far cry from the 13B-REW that was found in the FD3S. Both Jack and Carson have reported that their cars haven’t given them any real maintenance issues.
So what’s next for these two cars? For Carson, he said he is looking at getting a new set of wheels. And since he bought a Yamaha R6 to be his daily ride, the RX-8 can spend more time being a track car.
Jack is taking it a bit easier. He’s been helping his brother put together a Miata so the only plan for the car right now is a new stereo.
What I love about the RX-8 is that it is a functional sportscar. Not only does it have a solid chassis, a high revving engine, and precise steering, but it also has four doors! How many four door cars can you drive around town in with three of your friends during the week, and then drive down to the track and out-corner a lot of the other cars out there. Chances are, not many. Especially considering it doesn’t take much money to get a lot out of these cars.
I’d like to give a big thanks to Carson and Jack for doing this shoot and for driving me around San Francisco. At one point they were driving me home to my apartment in downtown SF and were stopping traffic because of how difficult it was to go up and down all the steep hills. Then a police officer drove by and waved at us like he wanted us to follow him. Thank goodness for one-way streets.
Look out for the @PO crew on the mean streets of the bay area. You’ll know it’s them by all the police they are attracting. As for me, I’m going to try and convince my wife that the RX-8 is a “family car.”
:: Mike Gniewosz
yes.
Great write up and sick looking RX-8’s! My favorite line was the last one!
“As for me, I’m going to try and convince my wife that the RX-8 is a “family car.”
Thats classic!
dope, love these cars
Awesome shots and awesome freaking cars.Been a big fan of @po for a couple years now.
Mike – What’s your email?
HOT
dope.but i really doubt that the one with the vs-xs’s will ever actually hit the track…imo
Thank you again Mike for shooting us. I also want to say thank you to Simons, Mach3, Faxon, Garage Inc and Shine for their help.
beto, click -> http://ccastro.smugmug.com/Automotive-Events/Thunder-Hill-Raceway-070710/DSC0368-1/928267435_TXkn6-M.jpg Good think Christian had a camera that day.
then your opinion is wrong because he was on the track on july 7th at thunderhill for a private track event
The renesis does not have any less moving parts internally than any other 13B variant, nor does it have any better cooling capacity. I love misinformation. Yes the 13B-REW in the FD was definitely plagued by cooling issues with such a full and poorly designed engine bay, but no other 13B/12A vehicle experienced such issues…change out the radiator, move the stock IC, and really, the FD is quite reliable. So really, the beautiful FD is what gave rotaries their “bad reputation”. Please do homework before spreading such played out and incorrect stereotypes.
Long live old school rotaries.
But beautiful cars no doubt. Love the 8’s.
Damn! They’re beautiful! Every time I see RX8s done up like this it makes me want one even more.
carson’s looks better, tell jack to ditch those side pods and get shine auto side skirts
Looks good… I could use a nice DD like that.
Pow, mano….
Esses carros são irados, e alucinantes….
Mano, pra falar a verdade só admirador… e sou louco pra possuir um carros desses….
Vou trabalhar muito pra ver se possuo um Carros desses… Pois sou Pobre de mais… hehe
yesssss……..so hawt. i want one now
clean lines? no rx-8 has clean lines.
Regardless… NICE.
Sayin these car’s ride height “streetable” in San Francisco is like sayin “I scrape everywhere in the city. Especially downtown” lol.
Gotta love those VS-XX’s!
i have few question about the wheels i am looking for a set of good looking wheels for my rx8 what is the wheel size and offset u guys have on those wheels? also what size tires? did u guys had to roll the fenders or any thing? please let me know thank you
I drive a white pearl rx8 which was imported from Japan with many extra specifications (yes it is right hand drive). The car is fantastic as well as it’s color. The only downside is that it’s an automatic with paddleshifts on the steering wheel…..and that’s because my wife chose it as her daily driver!!!!! yes I am telling you the truth, she is addicted to sports cars, especially JDM’s I am looking to buy an early Supra have it lowered with 10 x 18 deep dish wheels in red color….
does anyone know what kind of wheels are on the rx8 in the third picture
I’m trying to find out what spoiler it is that is on the rx8
Hey whats the wheel spec on the rx8’s in the pic?
whats the owners name? how can i contact him for questions>?
what size of rims/tire are they? and where to get the tail?
What size of wheels and how much lower it is?