DreRX8

Wow--I really hope this PKSKull guy is a troll.

Pkskull77

I don't understand why you think I am having a mid life crisis? If its because I don't like my car that's foolish. I am pissed because I have been forced to drive crappy cars all my life. This is especially difficult becuase I am a car fanatic, I love driving, and love sports cars. So when I finally get up the cash to land something nice, I get something that I don't like.

As for shifting at 3000 RPM's, I don't stop there when I am trying to go fast. I stetch it out, but that is still not enough. The car is not fast, end of story! I don't drive in situations where I can take advantage of the cars handling, so all I see is the ugly side. I find that very frustrating.

dmp

Sell the car brother. If you can't drive fast with 200hp, 2000 won't help you. :D

BoxerGT2.5

Out of curiousity...did ya drive the car before ya bought it? You only have yourself to blame for always having crappy cars (which the 8 is not). You pick em!!!

Pkskull77

No, sadly I'm not!

DreRX8

Sell the S.O.B. and stop whining about it. You obviously made a very poor decision due to your lack of automotive accumen--get something else and move around. You haven't said anything substantive in all your talk. I myself have had no problems out of my 8--if you have had all of those issues you should be pissed to--but the other stuff you are talking is meaningless rhetoric. Get another car--there will be someone to take the 8 off your hands.

dmp

I'd send the buyer of his car $20 for them to get video of them racing an XL7.

:D

Pkskull77

They were the only cars I could afford, so I really did not have a choice in the matter. I did drive the 8, but like I said early it was hard for me to gage performance, because I really didn't have the manual experience. Due to this I had to rely heavily on criticial opinions.

I wish I could have learned stick better before test driving, but the only way to learn it well is to drive it on a daily basis. The only way that this was happening is when I bought a new car. Kinda like how do you get the experience without a job, how do you get the job without expereince.

BoxerGT2.5

Just an FYI....a WRX is cheaper than the 8. Granted you might not have liked the lag...but that can be fixed... :D

Pkskull77

One of my good friends has the STI, after driving in that car I could never go for the WRX, as I would crave the extra performance.

BoxerGT2.5

Cheaper car.....mod it as you go and I think you'll be happier.

Pkskull77

To be honest with you I have no desire to mod, I don't know what I am doing, and the cost can get out of hand.

dmp

By performance you mean "More Grunt by pressing the Go Pedal"?

Frankly, I've seen a well-driven MIATA take a VIPER to school on a race track. Stop spending money on HP - learn how to effectively use the HP you have. Seriously.

Aoshi Shinomori

No one forced you to drive this car or any other car. They were your decisions. Change things and stop complaining.

Pkskull77

Thanks for listining, I am just having a terrible day, and my car just happens to make it worse. I felt like ranting, and since no one else cares this was about my only place to vent. I don't like the 8, but I'm stuck with it for now.

To make matters worse Mazda just called and told me my recall has a recall, something I already knew from reading this forum. The good old M flash is causing the CEL. So now I have to drive around for a couple of months with the check engine light on. Thats an example of quality engineering right there.

When I was going to get my car I saw an omen that I should have headed. As I pass the Subaru dealership what do I see in their used car lot? A brand new Black RX-8 (Same color I have). Someone ended up in the same position as me, dissapointed with performance. They bit the bullet and got a WRX, maybe thats what I should do! I just don't think the old woman would appreciate that.

ranger4277

Where are you located Pskull? I'm sure there are some friendly 8 owners in your area that would be willing to go for a ride with you and help you find out why YOUR car is so slow, or perhaps help you feel better about your car and enjoy owning it. No sense hating owning what really is a great automobile. I would be willing to help you out if you lived nearby. If i took you for a ride in mine, slow would be the LAST word that would come to mind... and I'm not abusive to my car.

So is there anybody near poor Pkskull willing to help him out? It saddens me to see an 8 owner in such an unhappy way.

Aoshi Shinomori

I don't understand what the big deal is about getting rid of the car. Why can't you trade it in? Go for something with some nuts if that's what you want. Get yourself WRX, it's fast, got some decent styling and is easily modded to go very fast. Another great thing about this car is that it's cheaper than an RX8!!! I'm sure with your trade-in money you could get one pretty easily. If you don't want the WRX go for the SRT-4, or the GTO, a Camaro, Mustang GT. These cars all have great amounts of power. Everyone here has their own opinions about the car they drive and about other cars. Yours seems to conflict with most of the opinions in this thread and that's fine. But I beg you, if you hate the car so much, do something about it.

rx8wannahave

Pkskull77...

I think you are behing honest about how you "FEEL" about the car but I agree with what they are saying...the RX8 is a high rev engine and you have to push it to it's REV (like any car but it comes later on since most cars can't rev to 9000RPM) to get it to move at it's best. Yes it lacks torque but 14.5 in the 1/4 is not slow at ALL.

I hope you can trade it in or sell it so you can get that straight line car you are looking for.

bmcc49er

I really don't understand this whole speed issue. How many times does anyone street race? Me never. I wouldn't trade this car for any of those light to light cars that can beat me by a whole 1/2 second to a full second. BFD. This car looks ten times better, handles 45 mph curves at 80+ no problem and gets alot more compliments then a stupid srt neon, etc. every would. Maybe its because I am 37 but you can keep those ugly cars and get to the next stoplight a little before me. I will meet you there in a second and we will both be waiting until it turns green before we go anywhere jackass. Matter of fact we could go to the same location and i would pull in right behind you in a much better looking ride You had 3 kills last week and a $200 + ticket for wreckless driving this week. Congrats! you rock! My ride turns ladies heads. Yours can get you to the next RED light a second faster...


Another rant. Haven't pushed the limits but some have went 140+? Just how damn fast do you want to go on public highways if that isn't fast?

IcemanVKO

I remember when I first learned how to drive a stick. I thought my little 1.5 liter Honda Civic LX (Very pedestrian), was slow. I thought it had no power at all. I remember being freaked out about wearing out the clutch.

I also remember being very annoyed at constantly having to play with the shifter durring traffic, and never seeming to know which gear was the right gear to grab as you found yourself on a slight incline.

Some of these things wore off rather quickly. I got pretty familiar with the gears, in the first year, and I found that the Civic had enough power to get around town without much problem. I stopped worrying about the clutch, but I didn't really realize how much this shouldn't be a concern at all.

When I got my CIVIC it had 30k miles on it.

That was about 7 years ago. I still have the car today, I regularly shift it at 6000 rpm's and double clutch. The car has 190k miles on it, and the clutch feels like it did the day I bought it. Other than changing the plugs and the standard oil-change / timing belt, I haven't had to do anything to the car.

What I have learned over these last seven years, is that this car's power band is actually 3700-5300 rpms. The car wants to be driven in this range. This car loves to be driven like that. We americans baby our cars. Just go spend some time in europe and see how they drive, and you will realize that cars are much tougher than we think they are.

I really don' think that I could tear up my clutch if I tried. Well Actually I have been trying to tear up this car for about 90k miles, and it just won't die.

Now, I guarentee you that I will beat just about any SUV with my 90hp 1.5 liter econo-car because I know how to drive it. As a matter of fact I beat a Z28 driven by a friend of mine who had spent about 20 grand on intake and exhaust and gear upgrades, he had about 310 hp on me, but I still beat him. We started the race as a joke his monster vs my mouse. I felt bad beating him, because he had a reputation around town as the guy to beat, and he just got stomped by a piece of junk. (He later confided that he missed 2nd gear, but still he should have killed me even if he missed a gear)

All I can say is take some time, let your baby stretch her legs a little, and you might just find you have alot more power than you thought.

And as for the other negatives about manual transmission, I love driving them now. I would never own anything else. Even those silly manual shift 5 speed automatics are just too disconnected from the real power for me. I don't even notice shifting it happens automatically, and I never even notice the constant shifting in traffic, its just something that comes naturally once you are really comfortable with driving a stick.

And if that doesn't convince you that you aren't getting the most out of your car watch this video.

http://www.gofastvideo.com/gallery/i...mazda-rx8.html

Pkskull77

I've seen this video before, and the car looks impressive, but something strange is afoot. I'm convinced that Mazda greased his pockets. Although the 8 is easier for a beginer to drive fast, a true proffesional driving both cars could easily put up a better time in the 350z. Then they get really silly and rank it with the M3. I don't know how scientific the laps were, but the RX-8 can't hold a candle to the M3.

This is one of the articles that convinced me to go with the RX-8 over the Zed. If I was going to defend the 8, this is the video I would use. I just don't buy their results.

Pkskull77

I have never gone looking for a street race, but from the second I bought the 8, people been finding me. It's amazing the types of vehicles people attempt to race, for some reason folks get turned on when they see something sporty. For that reason I find it hard to believe someone has not tried to dust you off at least once. Sometimes you feel like fighting back, instead of sitting there and taking it. I quickly found out that it's often useless to resist. If the car is comparable to the 8 in price, it's probably going to win.

I agree with your logic about how silly it is, but sometimes it feels good to open up on someone. In certain traffic situations, for instance where 2 lanes turn into one, its actually useful.

As for the looks, I can safety say that very few women are actually impressed by the looks of your car. Women really don't care about that sort of thing. The fact that you’re impressed about that, is almost as silly as my obsession with the 8's acceleration.

Pkskull77

Thank you, I hope so too.

dmp

Then I don't see a problem. The 8 has some of the best acceleration in the world - I can't think of too many other cars which rank higher, than .91G.

bmcc49er

The thing about the women was a bit of a joke being that I am married and don't go looking anyway but I get positive comments daily without question from men and women. But to say women don't care about that is naive. Some do some don't. I prefer to stay away from those that do. I never have had a problem opening up on someone as you put it on the highway. Stoplight to stoplight, big deal as I said but this car is anything but slow. Unless you are truly wanting to race stoplight to stoplight your no acceleration is a crock. I certainly didn't buy this car to street race so they can dust me off all they want. It seems that is your biggest issue so you really need to go get a srt so you can smile for a block or so once in a while. Once you get into traffic you are stuck with a crappy car which I figure is at least 90% of the time. Enjoy...