New member in down-state IL...
 

Greetings!

Just picked up my new '05 RX-8 Sport from Naperville Mazda last Wednesday. So far, I love it, craptastic fuel economy and all!!!

I've never driven a car with such direct controls. Everything I do has immediate response; it's really a marvel.

I traded an '06 Scion tC for the 8 (trading in a perfectly 3-month-old car that I really liked is a heinously stupid financial and marital decision).
Prior to that, I drove (in reverse-chrono order)
* '99 VW Passat 1.8T (best car I rarely drove)
* '92 Saturn SL2 (ran well, even when totalled)
* '88 Ford Aeroscare (don't laugh, I could fit 15 college friends in that boat).

I'm looking forward to autocrossing this bad boy. I previously autocrossed the Passat in GS and did very well (IMHO) despite the M+S Falken ZE-512's I had on her. This should be a whole different experience that will take some getting used to.

Hey I went to school in Champoo-Banana!! I-L-L
Sending you a PM to join EVOLV-Chicago (cuz if you came up to my dealership to pick up yer baby, you just might drive up for a meet!!)

Downstate IL, so you live south of I 80 huh.
OK now for the general warning: The OEM tires SUCK in snow. They are not all-season tires. They aren't even general purpose tires. They are "Performance" tires. Not great, but OK. I burnt them up in 10K mi and got Falken ST615's for the summer. I run all-season for the colder months.

Welcome, NotAPreppie, my 2004 V-Red and I am in CU as well. I have only seen about 4 different 8's here so far, but I don't spend that much time driving around. Don't you just hate that all we have around here are straight roads? There really are no roads around here to enjoy the best the car has to offer. I can see why so many people like straight-line power if that's the only kind of driving there is to do in their area. My brother has been into Autocrossing and Rallys here for a long time and wants me to try mine out on the course sometime. If I ever do I may see you there.

I-N-I!!!

Sounds interesting. I don't get up to Chicago very much (I got my fill of the "big city" growing up in SoCal), but a meet-up might be fun.

Yeah, my purchase was prompted by a co-worker who picked up a V-Red 2004
RX-8. We had about 3 inches of snow last Tuesday and he works about 20 minutes outside of town and actually drove into work on the RE040's in the snow. :eek:
At that same time, I had just located my Sunlight Silver '8 and was planning on going up there that day. When he got to work and related to me how he drove for 15 miles on I-74 with 15-degrees of yaw the entire way, I decided to wait until the next day.

I'm planning on picking up some 17's with good all-season rubber on them in September or October.

Get 'em in Aug/Sept or the good ones get sold out quick :eek:

Yeah, Illinois is very much lacking in the twisties. I think it's an unfortunate side-effect of the last ice age.

My co-worker has a V-Red 2004 GT and I just got my Sunlight Silver '05 Sport. I'm working on getting him out to the first autocross of the season. It's 4/22 and 4/23 at the Rantucky Airport. You can get the local schedule at http://www.ccsportscarclub.org and http://www.cir-scca.org

Hope to see you there!

Champoo-Banana! I laughed so hard I snorted! Yeah, been there several times. As a matter of fact my first ever college bar experience was in Banana, when I was only 19 yo.

Welcome anti-preppie!! :)