Damn that was fast Ryan. Maybe I should have asked for the full $250. :P I will be there on Fri...just a little late...don't get out of work until 7PM.

 

Because your name isn't Mazdaguy?

 

I'll just buy you a beer or two when you get there so make you feel better about it...

Looks like possible T-Storms on Friday. Of course since every forecast >3 days seems to predict thunderstorms around here I'm not too worried about it.

 

I don't feel bad about it at all...it is going to a good home.

 

Not nice.... but funny.......LOL

Yes, I'm a Mazdagirl but whos to say I dont look like...(cant think of anyone ugly)...

I was told I was just lucky.....

 

I assume since it was TireRack it was all via phone calls so looks weren't required - just a female voice talking excitedly about spending a couple K for some wheels and racing tires. I'm sure that's all it takes for the type of person working at TireRack to bump you up on the list.

Slightly more seriously you probably were just lucky. They tend to take special care of buyers with a history of tire purchases on their site and it sounds like a few of them got passed up by you. I've got nothing but good things to say about them - except maybe that they need to do a better job stocking tires/wheels for the RX-8.

 

I'll be interested to hear what you think of the setup, Beth.

How do you plan to "get used to" the new tires. Just running Sunday, or are you doing some testing somewhere?

Did you get them heat treated?

 

I should get them today or tomorrow. They werent able to have them heat cycled at the place they shipped from so I need to get them on and take the 8 out for a spin on them.
I havent raced on slicks since I had my Miata 3 yrs ago... Should be interesting... Lakeland will be the first place I race them! Must get ready for Peru (I hope!) and Toledo Pro!!!!

 

No no. I usually take the smugg (96 Legacy) if I'm heading Downtown. Not comfortable driving standard transmission when I'm seeing triples Most 8s I see are usually red, white or silver so I like the fact that our green is a rare color on a fairly rare car.

As for the Boneyard, I will do my best to make an appearance if I can get out of my aunt's wedding rehearsal early enough. Let's hope it doesn't rain though! My 8 is allergic to rain.

 

Anyone here own the de-badged black RX parked (and ticketed ) on Chester behind the Huntington Building this morning? Just curious about the de-badging. The marks where they had been were pretty obvious.

 

Friday forecast has been updated. 90 degrees for a high and only a 20% chance of rain Friday night. w00t w00t

 

I unfortunately will have started working and will be unable to attend. However if any future events overlay with my days off I may come to support you guys. I won't probably get to run again until the end of the summer, because the few days I have off I will mostly spend sleeping in and when I do wake up I'll come to watch you guys race.

I will be there on Friday at the Boneyard though so that will be fun.

And talk about random running into Doc at the Turnpike rest stop. If you didn't have those wheels I probably wouldn't have even bothered to come looking for the owner of the car. But I recognized that chip in the paint on the front right one If it was just another Rx8 owner unless I had mine too (which I didn't ) I would have just assumed it would be awkward to try to explain to someone that I have one too and would have been on my way.

Glad to hear that your even went good though.

 

I don't own it but I think I saw it driving in. Around 9:30 going North down e9th through Prospect. There were a fair number of cars between me and the intersection but I couldn't see any badges on his rear so that was probably him.

 

Hello All! Akron Area here.

Brand new to the site and soon to be RX-8 owner. I am looking at both the 40th Anniversary as well as the 2009 R3 models. Not sure which to go with... guess it depends on what i find.

Fell in love with the RX8 the first time i saw it but didn't have the $$ to consider the car at the time. Bought a tiburon (03 V6 , 6-spd model) several years ago and have had a great time with the car. Fun to mod and a blast to drive (despite what the ignorant and / or misinformed may believe). I've got it over 230whp and over 220 torque -- N/A. It has a beautiful, deep rumblely growl to the exhaust note that roars when i give the car hell but is quiet when idle.

It's time to move on now and the 8 is calling my name. I don't know a whole lot about modding the 8 but one thing that does kinda bother me though is i've not heard (that i recall) any real distinctive exhaust sounds from an Rx8 and the last thing i want to have is some Riced out sounding, coffee can filled with pissed off bees for a muffler. Save that mess for the kids in escorts and civics thinking they are fast and furious. I know i can probably find clips all over Youtube but wanted your opinions on the car's sound. Should i bother with hoping for anything resembling a low note or should i simply focus more on making the car quieter. No i am not some street racer looking to make noise at stop lights. I just have fallen in love with the v6 sound i have now and wonder if i can hope for similar or just go completely the opposite direction?

What i have read on this forum, it sounds like Mazda delivers a car that is "out of the box" tweaked and modding isn't entirely necessary unless you want big big numbers. Great to hear!

One last thing i want to ask is (and i know i can search) what is the typical (or most common) complaint about the car: mechanically, asthetically, etc?

Thanks!

 

Welcome, Obsidian!

I'm no expert on the various after market exhausts out there, but from what I've read and come to understand you're not necessarily going to achieve the deep bass rumble that you'll get from a V8, but there are some awesome sounding options that are available. There are links elsewhere on this website that will let you hear some of these. I plan on keeping my car long enough that I may get a chance to explore them when it comes time to replace the stock exhaust. If you look back through this thread, some of the folks also talk about liking the sound they get by modding their intakes.


I think you're right about many of us (including me) being satisfied with our 8's as delivered. My understanding is that short of going the forced induction route mods are only going to get you modest performance gains in terms of horsepower/torque - which to my way of thinking is really the only area where the car lacks a bit (but only a bit!).

I wouldn't term them complaint's per se, but my only issues with the car would be the lack of a plug in for my mp3 or portable satellite radio (I think they've fixed that for '09), unavailability of XM (which is a Mazda thing), and I wish there were some hooks in the back for my dry cleaning. Pretty minor stuff. Having to warm the car up a bit before turning it off to avoid the small risk of flooding is a minor inconvenience at times. Some folks don't care for the orange corner lenses, but I have a PB and think they go pretty well.

Some of us are getting together this Friday @7:00 pm at the Boneyard on Rt. 82 (west off of 77) and if you wanted to cruise by I'm sure lots of the people there would love to talk mods with you.

 

I'll have a Borla exhaust on mine in the next few weeks so I'm sure I can arrange a hearing for you. Borla is generally considered a 'throatier' (real word?) or deeper exhaust that is pretty quiet at idle and gives you a little more sporty sound when you rev it. If the shop gets the exhaust in tomorrow or thursday I might even have it for our meet on Friday. I wouldn't bet on it though. People using this as a daily driver tend to go towards the Borla or the Mazdaspeed exhausts. Both give you just a little bit more noise at idle.

You'll love the sound of the rotary. Nothing like it. Closer to a turbine then a piston fired engine.

No common complaints about the asthetics. First appearance mod most people do are to purchase clear corners that replace the amber fixtures for your side/blinker lights. But that's the only 'common' complaint. Most people love the look of the 8. It's a love-it-or-hate-it thing but if you own one you obviously love it.

There are a few appearance differences between the '09 and the 1st gen ('09 is really just a facelift with minor tweeks so it's barely even a 2nd gen). 04-08 owners disagree on whether or not they like it with most of the complaints on the front lights. I'm not a big fan of the base model or the RS model but I do love the new Mazdaspeed kit for the 09. I'm still trying to find out if I can get that on my 04 instead of the current kit but that's not for another year.

In terms of performance if you're looking at the 8 then you shouldn't be looking at it for HP. It's a great looking car that drives with an amazingly balanced, smooth feel. It's built for twisties - not straightaways - and most people are a little dissappointed when they get in and only feel ~240 HP under them. If you ever get into FI you can get it up to 300-350 but the cost is generally prohibitive.

However once you get used to the fact that your car doesn't care about your RPMs until you get up to 9200 (beep beep beep!) you start to appreciate how much fun the unique drive is. And if you ever get it in a track your affection will go straight to love.

Like Machiavelli mentioned we're meeting up on Friday so you'll have a good opportunity to find out way more information then you will ever need.

PS. Best advice is to search this forum. Everything you ever wanted to know is on here and there are a lot of 'inquiring buyers' or 'new owner' threads in the General RX-8 forum.

 

Welcome to the club Obsidian!
If you're interested in sound, I would come to the Boneyard this Friday and hear out setups. I personally have a Racing Beat Revi intake and Agency Power catback exhaust (soon to have the MazSport dual resonator mid-pipe) and I love the sound. Not ricey at all and a low/deep tone at low-mid RPM, and then screams at higher RPMs.
Mazda engineers have done a tremendous job and sucking out every little HP they could from the RX8 (while complying to e-missions and Db levels). And (noticeable) performance mods without going FI would by the Cobb AccessPort (tuning), Mazsport Ignition System, and the Mazsport Dual Resonated mid-pipe. A short shifter and lighten flywheel are also a nice addition.
But this car was built for track racing, NOT drag racing... this is where FI is needed. If you decided to go that route, Mazsport makes popular turbo kits (stages 1-3), MazdaManiac (who is one of the most knowledgeable guys on this form) has a kit that uses a GReddy turbine (Greddy makes kits, but they've been known to blow motors... so you'll need to buy additional components). Pettit Racing also makes a supercharger in different stages.
Hope this was helpful and feel free to ask us for any advise... but do remember to use the search feature... this site has remarkable information on almost anything about the RX8.

 

Thanks for the welcome!

Yes i am excited about getting the car. Can't wait!

Not overly worried about no longer having the rumble and roar i have now. Completely understand that the two engines are different creatures altogether just dont want to hear a fart cannon.

I know very well about clear corners for a car, i did my own on my current car. A little different for a tibby than an RX8... have to put the lights in the oven! Here's my baby for now...

Front



Back


Niteshaded the tails and the spoiler brakelight as well. The way i see it, if you can't do it in style, don't do it at all.

huge horsepower numbers aren't a big deal to me. It's about how the car uses the power it does have. My car is just over 230 as it is and it's a pig by comparison for weight. Wanting at least as powerful yet agile. Revving to 9k is just insane... rofl.

Search is my friend and i know it. It's been used already and will be some more to be sure. I'm a novice to the 8 but not to working on cars in general. I've done everything to mine except the clutch and flywheel. (put a stage 3 in, with early aspirations of going S/C'd).

Thanks for the invite to the meet this Friday! Would love to join ya but i am heading to Cedar Point that afternoon until Sunday.

 

Do we have a rough head count for Friday's event yet?

 

Whereabouts do you live in the Akron area?
I live a few blocks south of Chapel Hill mall... maybe we'll see each other passing by.
I drive a VR (Velocity Red) RX8... you'll notice me with my 4" titanium exhaust tips that came with my catback

 

I'll be there (and maybe Tony if he hasn't fallen off his roof )

 

Well if you're planning on tuning this car you'll love it. And the Cobb AccessPort is definitely the best upgrade available if you're planning on tuning even if you're not going the FI route. I'll probably break down and pick one up in the fall.

Also based on your picture you are in luck in terms of dealerships. Lots of fans here of Cascade Mazda in the Falls if you go back in the thread. If you're buying from a dealer that's definitely your best bet.

 

+1... they are on State Rd off of Steels Corner Rd (right by the intersection).

 

I'm near the Portage Lakes... about 15 min from Chapel Hill. I am not in that area too often though. Usually around Montrose or Belden area.

As for dealerships, what are the thoughts on Park Mazda? I actually bought my Tibby from there and they treated me very well. They are also quite literally 5 miles from where i live. Don't mind driving a little bit though in order to be treated better... Dropping 30K+ deserves a little bit of lovin'.

 

Park Mazda is where I am taking my car for service next week. Met Marlon, the only Rotary Certified Tech in the state according to someone, at a Cleveland6 meet...nice guy. Everyone only had really great things to say about the place and after my last experience I could use a good dealership.