This weekend a coupleof my friends and I all went outin one of their SUVs and parked outin the street. Whenwe came back to the car a few hours later wefound the back of the car hunched over to the left b/c the rear left tire had gone flat. First wethought some asshole slashed the tire but afterwe took off the tire and put on the spare we found a gigantic nail on one endof the tire.

This gotme thinking about my Rx8 and thefact that it has no spare tire in it. I have a box w/two 12" subwoofers in my trunk so I dont have that much trunk space left as it is but if I need to I can make room by tippingthe box over so that it doesnt stand as tall and slide it deeper intothe trunk.

The problem is what happens if I ever run into a problem with oneof my tires?? I wont have any spare tire to put onto my car and I wouldnt have any space inmy trunk to storethe damaged tire!

Dont get me wrong here guys. I love theway my car stereo sounds now and being able to pump out bass is great. However an emergency might come up where a tire goes bad and notonly do you need a spare butyou need to do something w/the damaged tire. Its not that likelybut you never know. Right now a lot of us are driving around without a spare tire in the car since Mazda chose not to include them w/the car. Someof us are even taking up the trunkspace that Mazdas spare tire kit would use w/a box holding our custom installed subs --like me.

This post I made http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11458&perpage=15&pagenumber=2 has some pictures of the box soyou can get a better idea of my current dilemma.

It looks like theres an obvious sollution here but keep in mind that I already spent money onmy sound system so it wouldreally piss me off to have to get rid of itall for a spare tire. I looked at pics in the multimedia forum of someones trunk w/ the spare tire kit you can buyfrom Mazda and it only leaves room right in front of the trunk whichwould be too small for thoseof us who also want a sound system. Plus ifyou ever needed to take out the spare youd have to somehow get around the box and the amp not to mention making space for the damaged tire!

Do any of you see any practical sollutions here that could satisfy both needs?

I think they make piezo subwoofers that bolt to the floorpan and use it for the resonator? Don't know if that would satisfy your needs.

That's a possibility but he already spent a grip of cash on his speakers and box. From his long post I can tell he already made up his mind, it's tunes over the spare tire.

Frankly, all you need is the compressor you already have thats pretty small and fits under a seat, and a tire plug fixit set. If it's anything larger than that you will need to use roadside assistance or AAA, but all flats I have ever gotten (or my fiance in the past 2 years) have been punctures easaly fixed in 10 minutes with a 3 dollar plug kit.

dude, you bought a 27000 dollar car....because it looks cool..It's obvious you didn't buy it for the handling or speed...@##$ you got a hundred pounds or better of weight in the very back... that looks like crap....and is way more bass then the rx8 will ever need....IMO...and now your worried about a spare tire...Ditch the 12 sell'em back, trade them in what ever. Get rid of that garbage..Grab up some thumpin 10's with a box that'll FIT IN THE TRUNK!!!! and then get a spare that'll fit in the well at the back of the car...I'm sure you'll find a donut at your dealer or a garage that'll fit the 8.....

Originally posted by JeRKy 8 Owner


This gotme thinking about my Rx8 and thefact that it has no spare tire in it. I have a box w/two 12" subwoofers in my trunk so I dont have that much trunk space left as it is but if I need to I can make room by tippingthe box over so that it doesnt stand as tall and slide it deeper intothe trunk.

The problem is what happens if I ever run into a problem with oneof my tires?? I wont have any spare tire to put onto my car and I wouldnt have any space inmy trunk to storethe damaged tire!

If you're not comfortable using the tire plug kit (which is what I am personally doing), buy 4 new runflat tires.

Originally posted by o_town_racer
If you're not comfortable using the tire plug kit (which is what I am personally doing), buy 4 new runflat tires. O_town, wouldn't runflats add significant weight.. oh wait never mind, he is hauling 100lbs. of speaker in the trunk, I guess it doesn't matter. As for the the full size tire and were to put it. I carry a spare hefty bag, should I ever have to toss the tire in the back seat.

Yes, runflats are heavier and don't perform as well, but it sounded like that wasn't his big concern. He was most concerned with getting a flat out in the middle of nowhere. In my book, the runflats would be the way to go. I believe Mazda originially was going to shoe the RX-8 with them, but cost and weight penalties were above what they were willing to bear. The only really good reason for tire pressure sensors is to monitor if you lose pressure in a runflat since otherwise you might now know about the flat at all.