cantanko

Hello all,

First, a quick 'thank you' to everyone who's taken the time and trouble to post on this and other forums as it's made learning about these cars a thoroughly fascinating experience.

I'm not an RX-8 owner yet, but intend on becoming one within the next couple of months as it struck me that my daily driver (a Celica GT-Four ST205) is now 20 years old and in need of the kind of TLC that will take more than a weekend to perform. The RX-8 seems like a suitably interesting replacement.

I'm used to driving slightly left-field, fuel-munching vehicles so the running costs of the RX-8 don't look at all off-putting, and the thought of a significantly lighter and better balanced vehicle appeals: The ST205 very nose-heavy given that it's transverse-engined and it has both the front and centre diffs on the transaxle, making for tail-happy driving and hence the ludicrous rear spoiler.

It's a while since I've owned a two-wheel-drive car, but I really like the Torsen diff on the GT-Four so I'm hoping the inclusion of one on the RX-8 will make it feel at least slightly familiar... I'll miss the four-wheel drive in the winter, but I guess that diff will help out a little anyway.

It'll also be one of the first cars I've had with a CAN bus fitted, so I bought an old RX-8 instrument panel to see how easy it would be to noodle around with it - turns out not too difficult at all: YouTube vid and a blog post http://www.cantanko.com/rx-8/reverse-engineering-the-rx-8s-instrument-cluster-part-one/ explaining what I did. I've yet to enumerate all of the appropriate data structures to get it to perform all of its functions, but that's just a matter of time I think. It'd also help to actually have a car to work with!

Either way, it looks nicely hackable should I want to play with it, and given the current price of them in the UK, it looks like a very good bang-for-buck platform to mess with. I've always wanted to build some form of EV, and it looks like one of these would be a good candidate.

Thanks again for such a great resource,
Harry

LiveWire

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to the club! If you do end up buying an rx8 congrats. They really are a blast. Neat stuff you got going on there.

I daily drive my rx8, even through the winter, and with some nice winter tires and some throttle control, you should be fine in most cases.

monchie

Hi!

cantanko

Hi,

So it's taken a few (three?) months since my first post, but I've finally got one - a late 2006 231 PZ with about 46,000 on the clock.



It has to be said I've never driven a car as well sorted as this one. I thought my GT-Four handled well enough, but I'm blown away by this thing. I think the biggest problem I now have is that a new yard-stick has been introduced, and every car I subsequently own will be measured against this one and will be found lacking. The four was very nose-heavy, and the better balance as well as the lower centre of gravity and moment of intertia have a striking impact.

Power is... weird. I don't think it's any slower than the GT-Four (mine was completely stock, hence around 250HP) but with four wheel drive and a bit more weight, I think they're quite closely matched. The difference is in the delivery. The four was nothing-nothing-nothing-TURBO-redline-upshift-repeat, whereas the RX-8 is just a steady increase over a very wide rev range. Also have to keep remembering that I have an extra gear to use now, too! Both the GT-Four and the RX-8 have torsen rear differentials and hence the handling around tight corners feels nothing if not familiar with the inner wheel wanting to spin.

I've only had this thing for a day and already love it, and I think I can understand exactly why people get so excited about this car. Comparing the GT-Four and the RX-8 is difficult as they're different horses for different courses; apples and oranges if you will. They each have their own appeal in their own ways, but the RX-8's near-telepathic handling is something that has to be experienced to be properly appreciated. I knew they were good, but exactly how good requires first-hand experience to really comprehend.

So, on to a weekend of changing spark plugs, leads, coil packs, filters, oil and brake pads. None of these actually need doing from what I can tell, but equally I understand that doing these things pre-emptively is generally a good plan with this car.

Oh, and a 'thank you' for all of the superb posts on this forum - it's allowed me to go shopping for (and find!) what I believe to be a decent car with my eyes open and without any unrealistic expectations.

Cheers,
--Harry.

Hobasocka

Quote of the century,"Power is... weird." I must say I agree. Mine still surprises me. So smooth and linear. You look down and are almost surprised at the speedo reading at times.