Hello everyone,

Long time lurker and finally decided to join the forum; last winter, I picked up a very low mileage (29k miles) 2009 Touring. My first RWD performance vehicle...previously owned an Evo 8, MK7 Golf R and Eagle Talon. Here's the RX-8 arriving at her new home:



Immediately gave her a thorough bath and tried to bring out the shine with a new coat of wax. Unfortunately, the clear coat has a few dull spots that will need more than just a simple coat of wax:




Still, for a low mileage 12-13 year old car this was about the worst issue the car had. Some of the rubber coolant hoses look a bit aged but that's minor. Car had good compression and smooth shifting through all gears.

 

Even though the car was in initial great shape, I had to put in some work to make sure everything would continue to work well. Fist up, new tires. Swapped out the bald rubber that the previous owner had for General GMAX RS:




Transmission fluid drain and change:





Differential oil change:



All fluids and (not shown) new OEM spark plugs + BHR coils the car was ready for its first autocross action:



Really enjoying this car. Planning to split daily driver and autocross duty. I've got a different vehicle for a weekend warrior :

 

Congrats and welcome to the club!

 

Thanks! So far the forum has definitely been helpful in terms of the wealth of information available for maintenance, quirks and how to get the best out of this vehicle.

 

Welcome that’s a great Looking car.

 

I also just got a 2009 rx8 about a week ago! Mines the sport model though and not nearly as clean. Does yours have a sunroof?

 

It does! I'll take some interior pics once I finish replacing the rotors and pads.

 

I have a 10 then just last week I got a 07 to go with it.

 

Those are both gorgeous! No such thing as owning too many rotaries.

 

A lesson that vehicle age can sometimes cause problems too. Despite only 32k miles on the body, while changing the oil a piece of the front bump stop was nice enough fall on me:




I already have FCM bump stops and Koni yellow in my possession but I wanted more autocross seat time on the stock setup. The suspension isn't crashing or sagging, so I may still run the stock setup until winter (not that it matters here). Thoughts?

 

Congrats, your 8 looks great. This thread may be a great reference:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-whe...g-rates-33424/

Imo, Tein Z Coil over kit is a great choice, surely bilstein would be better but depends on the size of your pockets.

 

I would leave it stock rather than compromise on low end aftermarket stuff. This isn't a Civic, the stock suspension is already very good, and while you can easily make the ride firmer for cheap, firm isn't comfortable or necessarily more performant. For not that much more you can get into proven suspension setups like Bilstein B12.

 

Plus 1 for the B12 kit. Lowers it just enough, and handling character is enhanced but largely the same.

 

Thanks for the input fellas!

 

Congrats! Same as my first 8.