I own a 04 rx8 6mt with almost 97000 on it and starting last week I noticed that my take off was slower than usual, My Rpms had to go up quite a bit before I started to take off properly, This happened about 2 weeks after I had ran over a possum on my drive to work, There are alot of woods around my house and these animals sometimes run out on the highway and get killed.
I don't grind gears, and I always shut my engine off hot.
I was about a 1qt low on oil, (Still showing on the dipstick but not at the full mark) and my car is lowered.
Is my clutch going out? or did I manage to knock something loose and it is what is causing the issue?

 

Could be any number of things. Probably ignition related. When was the last time you replaced your coils/wires/plugs?

Could possibly be a sign of low compression. Do you have hot start issues?

 

I had the coils, plugs and the ignition replaced about 2k miles ago, when the starter went out, and I generally have no issues starting the car hot at all.

 

Starting the Engine

Starter
Battery
Engine Compression
Grounding Wires
Ignition Coils
Spark Plugs
Spark Plug Wires
Fuel Pump
Fuel Injectors


Generating Power at Full Throttle

Ignition Coils
Spark Plugs
Spark Plug Wires
Engine Compression
E-Shaft Sensor (ESS)
Air Filter
Intake Valving
Throttle Body
Mass Air Flow Sensor (MAF)
Fuel Pump
Fuel Injectors
Catalytic Converter (Cat)


Keeping the Engine at a Cruise

Ignition Coils
Spark Plugs
Spark Plug Wires
Engine Compression
E-Shaft Sensor (ESS)
Intake Valving
Throttle Body
Mass Air Flow Sensor (MAF)
Fuel Pump
Fuel Injectors
Front O2 sensor
Catalytic Converter (Cat)


Keeping the Engine at an Idle

Ignition Coils
Spark Plugs
Spark Plug Wires
Engine Compression
E-Shaft Sensor (ESS)
Mass Air Flow Sensor (MAF)
Front O2 sensor
Catalytic Converter (Cat)
Intake Vaccum


Changing Gears

Clutch Pedal Assembly
Clutch Master Cylinder
Clutch Slave Cylinder
Clutch Fork
Release Bearing (Throwout Bearing, Release Collar)
Clutch Pressure Plate
Clutch Disc
Flywheel
Pilot Bearing
Transmission Shifter
Transmission Syncros

 

Could even be bad fuel.

Did the little critter break anything? Maybe in the belly pan area (in front of radiator) that could be messing with the air flow through the radiator? You could be running hot. This could also let hot air hang around the intake as well.

If it were my car, I would toss in a can of fuel treatment with a tank of fresh gas. I use Lucas, but there are other good ones.