New R3 Owner in TX
 

Hi there, I forgot to make my new owner post back when I joined, but better late than never. I bought my 2011 RX-8 R3 back in April this year by selling my 2017 Mazda 3 Hatchback and I don’t regret it. I hunted this car down for months as it’s one of the only purely stock R3s I’ve ever been able to find. I’ve already driven it from Central Texas to Phoenix about 8 times and about 3 times to Orlando and back. I plan to do a lot of upgrades in the future after I get a secondary car (85-89 MR2) and can afford to have my R3 disassembled as I use it to drive all over Texas for work daily. I live about 30 minutes north of Austin and I have seen someone driving an S1 in my area a few times so I’d like to find and communicate with any other RX-8 owners in the Central Texas area as we seem to be fewer than other areas of texas. I can’t wait to share more about my adventures with my R3 in the future. Here are a few pictures of my baby:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...6a2df2233.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...7d01bd8ad.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...bac6fb8dc.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f1c742e05.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...f25e43211.jpeg

Very nice and welcome to the group!

beautiful car, congrats!

Sweet looking ride!

I'm in Austin myself and just picked up a semi project silver S1. Congrats on the clean looking R3!

Would you mind if I asked what you paid for it? There's a much less pretty R3 for sale near me with messed up paint and upholstery, "Black Ice" air freshener ("Smoker's Choice!™"), engine bay parts laying around in the cab on the upholstery, and he's super proud that HE rebuilt the engine HIMSELF, and he's passing the apparently extravagant cost on to you without even the whiff of a warranty. Not that I expect a warranty from a private seller, but if he's going to add $12K to the price for his backyard engine build, I think it's not unreasonable since I could buy nearly 3 Mazda remans for that...

Not a problem at all. I paid 10k for it back in April (12K after taxes and registration) with 100,000 miles on the odometer and the engine being rebuilt at 90,000 miles. The only damage my R3 had was a slight bumper scratch on the front left and 2 hail dents on the A pillar. other than that, it came in perfect stock condition. After months of searching for an R3 talking to dozens of different owners and dealerships, I would say I'm well versed in their pricing and id love to help you with looking into that car.

Congrats dude! There are not a lot of us in the area but I'm actively trying to get us all in a group of some kind. If you ever need help, I've got a good amount of tools and growing north of Austin as me and a few friends all have RX-8s, both S1s and S2s. I travel all over CTX so if you see me, give me a honk or wave.

My grandfather lived in Georgetown. He died last Xmas morning of covid.

I used to live in Dallas, and started what I've been told has become the largest single make car club in the state. We started out much like you seem to be doing with the RX8s there. Work days, friendly hellos to other owners, etc. Keep it up!