Hey All,

This seemed like the most appropriate place to drop my first post... if it isn't, um, well, sorry lol.
I am not yet an owner of an RX-8, but will be later this week when I pick up a 2005 6-Speed, Sport trim. Glad to find such a great forum; Hope to learn a lot and share as time goes on.

gom

 

hi, welcome.

 

Hi n00b. I mean newb.

You got it right.
Congratulations and welcome. What color? Post pics; everyone likes pics except the people who don't. Its an incredible car. Have fun with it.

 

welcome! You seem like an intelligent person so we're proud to have you. Just search before asking any questions as a lot of the common ones have already been answered.

What color 8? Into modding, racing, drifting, showing, etc? Future plans? Post some pics in the multimedia subforum.

Dave

 

Thanks for the greetings... Here is a pic of the car for those that are intersted:


I think I am keeping this one stock (as it currently is). Though I have a tendancy of always at least changing out sway bars, lol.

gom

 

welcome & congrats

 

Nice pic. I have only been here for a little while but I have found a ton of info.

Congrats.

 

Welcome. Nothing beats a little lowering job either.

 

that picture shows that you are indeed an intelligent person. good color choice!

 

Hey, welcome to the fun! Definitely read stickies like "the little things" and others. You'll learn tons, and I trust you know about the special nature of the rotary engine and its care and feeding requirements, which, when followed, will yield years of obedient service and tons of fun.

Nice car - and a man after my own heart - I'm all about "no mods" too.

 

Welcome!

The mod bug's going to get you...

 

welcome.

 

 

In case you didn't see this in another thread like yours, my twin top-10 lists of things to know ...

Things to Know:

1) Oil - it consumes oil by design - nothing wrong with that. Check your oil at every other fill up, or do like I do and spend an hour puttering around the garage every other weekend, and adjust the tire pressures, check the oil, give it a wash, etc. A little RX-8 love time.

2) While it says "premium recommended" you can safely burn '87 in most climates and areas. If you feel guilty, pop the extra cost.

3) Change the oil every 5000 miles at least, more frequently if you'd like to. Pay attention to the maintenance schedule in the book and do those items.

4) Beware, Mazda dealers charge through the nose for everything, and they will try to sell you extra crap during scheduled maintenance stops. Don't let them do it.

5) You can safely upsize the tires to 245/40-18s - they are fatter, fill the wheel wells more, and look **** hot.

6) The summer tires work like crap when the temp falls below 45F. All-season performance radials are an acceptable compromise. Snow tires are a must if you commute in snow.

7) Visit your redline often to keep you happy and keep the buzzer from getting lonely.

8) Keep your car shiny and sparkling clean for best crowd pleasing.

9) Watch out for idiots in Civics who will rev on you.

10) This car is NOT a straight-line speed car - don't get disappointed when you realize that LOTS of cars can beat you at the strip.

Enjoy - post pics when you can!

And search and read:

- The little things
and all the other stickies in all the other forums - DIY - Show & Shine, and more.


Here's a few other goodies - let's call them "unique features":

1) Drive by wire throttle with adaptive learning - the engine computer "reads" your driving habits and can flatten or steepen the throttle response curve to match. Drive hard for a few days and find "new" horsepower (it's always there, just visiting at different times). Baby it and it becomes a rental car ... weird.

2) You have a sport. so this won't mean anything to you, but the weird Bose adaptive radio will boost the volume automatically while you drive - you'l turn it down and minute later you say to yourself "I swear I just turned the radio down".

3) The Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS) will flash a warning on the dash when any tire is about 4 to 5 lbs down on pressure from the factory setpoint which is 32 PSI. If you get a TPMS warning, stop, do a walk around to make sure you don't have a tire going down, once you're sure, head to a gas station and fill the tire.

4) Never but NEVER use the fix-a-flat kit. It ruins the tire and clogs the TPMS.

5) Feel free to experiment with driving with the DSC off, but understand that there is a stern little Japanese guy hiding the in the works with his finger on the "I think not!" button when it's enabled, and it WILL save your ***! It saved mine once today when I hit a patch of oily pavement in the rain.

6) Don't bother trying to understand or explain the abject ergonomic failure represented by the sunvisors. Just accept that every hot supermodel has a knarly wart somewhere ...

7) Did I mention that the summer tires that come stock on it suck? Oh, yeah, I did. Well it bears mentioning again. If you stick with summers, at least upgrade to a better tire. If you live in a climate where the temp visits sub-40 ranges then consider all-season high performance radials - visit TireRack.com for good reccos, but can heartily reccommend the Pirelli PZero-Nero M+S.

8) You can buy used snows on eBay if you want to go that way. But if you don't use Mazda wheels with TPMS sensors, the light will be on all the time.

9) You can't make love in an RX8. I tried. Doesn't work. Either that or my wife and I both need to lose 7" in height and 75 lbs each (Ok, I could stand to lose 40 lbs ...).

10) Find twisty roads and drive them. Smile.

 

wooooo!

rx8 newbies unite!

 

Everything that Stew said, plus....everybody and their mom are gonna want to race you/pass you/rev at you/ gawk at you every single day .

 

My favorite thing? Little kids think its either:

1) A space ship
2) A race car
3) Something that belongs to a superhero.

And other guys my age (remember, I am the grumpy old man) all look at me with this dual look of both envy and wonderment. My wife (being the deviant hottie that she is, and was when I married her 21 years ago) when asked by the wives of "what were you thinking letting him buy that?" either replies with "well you should see what he gives me every night in exchange" or "sure beats him having a girlfriend!"

 

Wow! An informative newb post. Stew

 

That's because his OP met my criteria.

As opposed to the tool who put up the thread about all RX-8s being slow.

 

WoW.
Hey guys, I picked up the RX-8 today.
This car owns the RSX that it replaced.
After picking it up, literally just drove it for about an hour and a half before taking a break to show it to the family. Everyone loves this car.

Here comes my first user comment: The engine oil dipstick is kinda awkward/difficult to get to.

I also noticed that the manual states not to use synthetic engine oil... though many of you state that you do. Just an observation... I'll do the anti-newb thing and use the search on that one.

gom

 

The dip stick is annoying. Lots of people posted about it somewhere. I don't remember the threads. What a lot of people do (including myself) is keep a pair of worker gloves in the glove box. (Heh, heh) That'll keep you from getting any burns when you check the oil and your engine is still warm/hot.

I take of the plastic cover to get to it. Though some say you don't need too.

The oil thing is tough to comment on. I still use non-syn just cause. But some of the big wigs on the site swear by it.

EDIT: Oh and welcome!

 

Welcome to the addiction.

Rotary drivers are a lot like Mac users, we may or may not have the best car in the world... but we all sure as hell THINK we do.

Full Disclosure: I also have a Mac.

 

I used to be a Mac person... but I didn't run fast enough and I got assimilated. Must often miss Mac OS. Navigating and file movements take so much longer and generally require using the mouse.

On my Mac I almost never used the mouse while navigating / handling files.

 

HE HE, as soon as I left the corp world, I swore to never use windows again.

 

Look up "Houdini dipstick maneuver" in the DIY forum. That's what I do, and it works. Not only do you leave the cover on, but your hand goes through a safe path away from hot surfaces.

I still take the cover off every now and then just to enjoy the look of the engine compartment.

Ken