Three words my friends, three words. "studded snow tires"

 

Last call for premix. . . got 3 cases coming. Gonna place the order today. roughly $75 per 12 quart case.

 

Flew there, no problems with that.

 

how much did you pay for those "three words"? Because i'd almost bet you could get a p.o.s. beater for the winter that cost as much as those "three words" which would let you store the 8: not subjecting it to snow, salt or retards on the road who dont know how to drive. I'd much rather own a $500 - $1000 dollar winter ride than put my 8 out in ohio winters.

 

I've done both sides of this. . .

I'll do my best to explain both sides because its Friday and I don't feel like working.

The case for a winter beater:
Keep miles, snow, salt away from your RX8.
Not worry about purchasing dedicated snow tires or all seasons (that are medicore tires at best in every season)
Being able to lower the 8.
In theory, being able to purchase a vehicle that does things the 8 cannot. Tow, 4x4, seat 5 people, etc.
Reduce insurance costs on the 8 by dropping coverage through the winter months.

The case for against a winter beater:
A reliable car in most cases costs over $1000.
A winter beater can, in most cases, be purchased every year. (in theory, 1k per winter)
Another car to insure, take care of (change oil) fill with gas (if less MPG than your 8)
Do you have space to store your 8 in the winter? if Not, add more $$ on top of that to store it with a local in massillon.
Your RX8 is depreciating, and in some cases, you're making a car payment on a car that you're not using. So, it still costs you money if though you're not using it.
Potentially, at the end of the day. . . do you really think its going to be salt that kills your 8 and forces you to get rid of it?
Do you really believe that not driving your 8 in winter will translate to the extra money upon resale which will balance the purchase of a winter beater?

I mean, financially, dedicated snow tires and wheels are cheaper than purchasing a winter beater... say 800 bucks for a set of new tires and used wheels... what beater that is reliable, and capable, can you get for 800 bucks? Then what do you do when your beater breaks. . . buy a new beater or fix it? Or are you stuck with a broken car that no one wants, you can't sell, AND have no place to store it. . .

I'm not going to argue one way or another, but there are a lot of hidden costs to storing your car and getting a beater. But that all changes when you wrap your 8 around a pole after slipping on ice. . .

On that note, I do like having my winter "beater". . . but its not a $1,000 vehicle either after I've fixed it into a reliable form of transportation.

 

I have a winter beater. Although does it count as a beater if it's track ready and makes more torque than it can put to the ground?

Also, storing a car with the local Massilononian is pretty nice. Warm hearted garage away from being stored in my driveway in the snow and yuck.. hah

 

Paid about 1k total, including TPMS. I commute 85 miles a day and a p.o.s. beater is not an option for that kind of commute, especially in the winter. Retards on the road is what insurance is for, right? My deductible is less than p.o.s. beater. So some idiot hits me, my car is totaled and I get a new one. Easy.
Have you ever been to Bratenahl? My neighbours drive AMG Mercedes, BMW 760s, A8s, Lexus 460Ls, and H2s as their winter cars. Summer is when the Ford GTs (not a Mustang GT – a Ford GT), Ferraris and convertible 911s come out to play. My 8 IS a beater in these parts. An $800 p.o.s. would get me pulled over every time I left the house.

 

And more likely than not when it breaks it'll be by the side of the road somewhere in 15 degree weather, in the dark, with a stiff wind . . . and not in your garage. No thanks. Been there, done that. I'll never own another beater as long as I live (at least not by choice - my kids may yet drive me into the poor house). Life's too damned short to leave your driveway worrying if you're going to make it to your destination.

My RX sits in the garage most of the winter, but I have LM25 Blizzaks on the 370 and with those tires that thing does better on ice and packed snow than my AWD CX-7 (wretched all season Turanzas suck more than you could possibly imagine). The only issue is ground clearance - the Z sits lower than a stock RX-8.

I don't think you would need studded. If you can find a left-over set of LM-25's you'll save some money over the new 60's and, from what I've read, the 25's are quite a bit better in the dry than the new Blizzak's.

 

i once bought a $300 pos beater and drove it to california, twice. great little car till motor finally blew.

stig- i love bratenahl! we going speeding through there on the bikes all the time. got some crazy curvy roads hidden back there

 

We love it and the Rozzers generally don't give tickets to residents either!

 

okay Jon, i think you may have been right about my car = / i went to start my car today at toledo to head back to cleveland and i had a problem. idk if you remember what happened when you came to fix my clutch, when it sputtered and ran like a lawn mower. but it did that again today, only much worse. my CEL was flashing, i let it run till it was normal temp and it kept doin in. so i decided to let it idle and see if givin it tiny bits of gas here and there would help but no. it eventually just died so its sittin in the lot now.

my question is, do you think its my plugs and coils just making my car misfire, orrr my engine just needs to be replaced. either way is sorta bad, man everytime i come on here its with some new problem i find

 

who has a red 8 in the south euclid area? saw one a couple days ago but they were about 3 or 4 cars ahead of me and i couldnt catch up to it

 

Yea I saw it last week too coming out of the Whole Foods parking lot.

 

Only Red 8's are Josh, Jon and Mark...oh yea...and that d00d from Avon who I can't remember the name of.

 

Tires Eligible for $50 Rebate at TireRack:

Direzza® DZ101
Direzza® Sport Z1 Star Spec

http://www.tirerack.com/specialoffer...p?promoID=D015

 

Stig - You didn't get lost and end up in my neck of the woods today did you?

 

TJ- You are turning into the new Steve with all these car problems
While its possible that it could be the plugs and/or coils, I've never heard an RX8 sound like that.
I'm sure the face that Steve and I was making at that time could have told you that.
I've had bad plugs and misfires and my car has never sounded like that upon starting, so either you have a few bad plugs/coils causing massive misfires, or possibly bad compression.

We can start with the basics and replace the spark plugs.
And I have 4 used coils we can throw on there if that doesn't help.
Then, we can try the compression tester to see where you're at.

 

I don't know...if you misfire late enough it would sound really really bad. Too bad the car is stuck in Toledo now. I would do it systematically like Jon said though and not assume anything.

 

yeahh i know, trust me i wish i didnt have all these problems, but we can start with coils and plugs. you have four coils i could buy off you? cuz last night i was shopping for plus and coils and the cheapest i could find was 17.50/per plug and 30.00/per coil. which seems alright compared to what the dealer was charging but im not sure if its a "good deal". now i just gotta figure out how to get my car back to cleveland..... again.

 

The problem with TJ's car is that it sounded horrible from the time he turned it on, let it sit idle for a few minutes to warm-up, and once it ran for a little bit it sounded better.
My thought was having it run for a little bit allowed it to inject enough oil to allow better compression.
Where is Steve now hinting his premix order

 

Could be if it were super cold and went away a weak coil or a bad plug wire if it were just super humid. Either way would be fixed by the engine getting warm.

 

Thing is John, TJ said its been doing this for awhile.
So I assume its been doing this even before winter.
But like I mentioned, we'll start with the basics and go from there.

 

Well that changes everything. TJ...haven't you learned by now...let us know early on of things being weird. Sheesh

 

what? i never said its been doing it for a while. i said its done it before when i let my car sit in an outside lot for a week, but once it warmed up it was fine. i took it to my dads friends shop and he concluded that ive just never owned a car that had to sit outside and that its normal.
- though he also admitted he doesnt know the first thing about a rotary engine when i suggested it could be plugs and coils. i still havent given up on my car, i think its the coils to be honest. since jon, we talked about when i changed out my 4 plugs and only 2 coils cuz thats all the daeler would cover. and so as far as i know those 2 coils COULD be originals. key word being could cuz the previous owner took my car in for every little thing.

 

Anyone want a Borla with a **** ton of miles pretty cheap?

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-parts-sale-wanted-44/fs-borla-exhaust-catback-catless-mid-pipe-190801/