Hey RX8club members, new owner here of a 2004 MT Grand Touring RX8. I got it at the start of February after deciding to trade in my 2002 Mazda Protege5 Hatchback which was about to turn 150k miles. I was considering an RX8, but when I saw this for sale I knew I couldn’t pass it up, plus the lightning yellow paint color matches my yellow 240Z project. It was a summer time track car for a family in Sarasota, FL in pristine condition besides a few small chips in the paint and 37,000 miles on it. I negotiated the dealership to $6,500 for it and drove it home that day. I’m excited to learn more about rotary engines and EFI because I come from a background of working on carburetors and piston engines.

Mods and Mistakes:
It did spring a fuel leak due to a loose nut on the fuel tank on the first fill up, and I fried the PCM and keyless entry module when removing the Interceptor-X piggyback module that came with it (I disconnected the battery before unplugging everything but the negative lead my have been resting against the body and I didn’t realize it). It’s got some stickers under the hood that say “Mazda Performance Part” and a letter/number code, and the dealership who helped me diagnose the PCM and AKE module said the engine likely has a streetport because it freely different to the mechanic who test drove it than the other RX8’s he drove (said it seemed to have improved torque). Has CEL for O2 sensor and the beautiful exhaust note leads me to believe that it is definitely cat-less and clearly has a tuned cat-back of unknown manufacturer. I have a few more weird electrical issues that persist from before damaging the PCM but I’ll ask about those in a different thread.

Additionally there is a 04 MT Grand Touring RX8 at the scrapyard next to work which is where I luckily got the replacement PCM and AKE module. I grabbed a few pieces, but as a newbie to RX8’s and a person who loves to keep spare parts around what are some pieces that should absolutely get of the donor car?

Im really looking forward to becoming a part of this community.