Got home last night from a holiday trip to Siesta Key in FLA in the 8. We left Cincinnati on the 26th and came home on the 3rd. All in all the trip was great, used about 1/3 quart of oil, fill ups, tons of luggage, gifts and food both up and back, and hopefully a lot of good pictures. Never had a single issue with the car even loaded to the point that my tires tucked a little (on s-techs). With all of the crap in packed in the trunk and the rear seats (should have taken pics of that), my wife and I had plenty of room, the Hi-Power didn't drone at all, and we still managed a little over 20mpg. With all of the hills in southern Ky, and Tenn, i was surprised by how easy the car cruised while managing around 20mpg at 80mph. We were comfy enough that my wife slept quite a bit while not driving which is a rare occurrence. I have tons of pics (not many of the car) , and still haven't gotten through them all, but i may post some once i'm done.

Anyone contemplating taking the 8 on a long road trip, i highly recommend it. I've taken it on much shorter trips and was surprised by how well it did and the comfort level, but i was really surprised by this trip. I've had it for almost 8 months now and have racked up over 10,000 miles not counting this trip and couldn't be happier.

 

Very good to hear, thanks for sharing!

My wife and I just returned from a week long "vacation" to Savannah, coming from Indy. Decided against the RX-8 and took the '09 Mazda6 instead - wow is that a great road trip car!

PICS PLEASE!

 

Just went on a 500 mile, 24 hour trip up to N. Alabama in the 8. Fun, but on second thought I wish we would have taken the CX-7 for comfort. Guess I'm just gettin' old.

 

How was the ride on the s-techs? Been debating on s or h-techs for my next mod. I daily drive 75 miles a day for work and am thinking the s-techs maybe too much.

 

mikekey: Ride comfort wise, the s-techs don't seem much worse than stock to be honest. Bigger hits feel a little worse, but your normal expansion joints and cracks in the road are fine. That's my impression on our crappy cracked and pot-hole ridden roads in Cincinnati. On those nice smooth roads in Florida, you'll probably never notice the difference. My wife didn't complain at all about the ride and never has. She actually thinks it feels better with the s-techs.

 

I usually do 10-15 800mile RI<->MD trips a year, and just did a 1,500 mile RI<->OH over the holidays, including pouring rain, black ice, and snow. Wonderful as always. There is no car I'd rather take on long trips. Hands down, bar none.

 

Yeah, in SOUTH Florida. I live in P'cola, roads are a totally different story! Think....surface of the moon. Anyways, thanks for the opinion about the s-techs, will be looking forward to those pics, throw in a couple of the car if you can.

 

One of the best things I enjoy in the 8 is passing others who have to slow down in a pouring rain. Had an MR-2 that drove great in rain, the RX-8 exceeds even the MR-2. Do y'all have some sort of specialized seat cushion or something? I couldn't imagine my rear doing 1500 on the open road!

 

No, just the seats of the 8. On the drive out there, when black ice showed up all over the place, I pulled into a rest stop and slept in the 8 for ~8 hours, waking up every 90-120 minutes to pump heat into the interior again. When I got back on the road in the morning, I was fully rested.

I've done several overnights in the 8 on trips, usually when something really delays me, or when I got sick that once, etc... There are times I think my 8 is more comfortable than my bed.

Could it be MORE comfortable for sitting in and laying in? Sure. But if it was, we would be sacrificing too much of the soul of the car, and it isn't painful to me at all as it is, so I'm perfectly content with the comfort level.

(6ft 1in, 145lbs, which may play a role in the comfort level)

 

Nope, not extra padding. Well, none other than my ever growing ***. I tend to adjust the lumbar and the hight of front of my seat every so often to shift my weight around in the seat though. I keep the rear of the seat as low as possible at all times. Another thing i've found is take my wallet and anything else out of my back pockets. This greatly increases comfort and keeps the pins and needles away.

 

Compared to something like the S2000, WRX, or 350Z, the 8 is a luxury cruiser for long distance trips.

 

Well ... if I can get 80 mpg just by doing 20 mph. hell Im all for it !

Who said Rotary sucks gas !

im surprised nobody saw that ... lol

just messin' with ya man

Great story

 

After getting new plugs and a tuneup, I got like 22MPG on a highway trip going 70-75.

 

When I did a 16 day 6500 mile trip in my 8 I was more than pleased. All the camping gear for two and the needed junk (note I don't think camping has anything to do with an RV) fit fine in the trunk. Also when you think of 6500/16 you get abouy 407 miles a day...however I had two long stops that were 3 days each so it's more of a 6500/10 or 650 miles average drive day. Then, to further crunch it, the last few days were almost non-stop as I left SF Cali at 5pm Iowa time Friday and got back home at 9 am Sunday for a 1500 (or so) mile trip in about 30 hours with 2 nap breaks along the way. I have never driven a better road trip vehicle and that tops the van I once had that actually had a queen bed in the back and a tent for the side.

Total trip mpg was about 22mpg.

 

Fixed that. I thought there was something funny in there when i wrote it, but i just couldn't quite put a finger on it. 80mpg would rock, but i don't think i could handle 20 mph.

 

Definitely with you on taking the wallet out. Except for some reason around the 14th and 30th of every month OR right after I take my wife out shopping OR after I buy spark plugs for the 8, the wallet doesn't bother me as much. Strange.

I got 10000 miles under my belt in the 8 and have never come close to 22mpg's. Always right around 20 no matter how hard or soft I drive it, with exception to long trips over 70 (18 mpg's). Replaced the plugs after 5000 miles of driving (30000 overall), noticed a definite increase in fun, but no change in mpg's. Oh well, good thing I work at a wholesale gas distributor. I'm gonna cry next year when the free 93 is no longer!

 

I've done Bufalo, Detroit, Columbus OH (twice), and Myrtle Beach (twice) from NJ. Anything closer than 200 miles (Gettysburg PA and Washington DC) doesn't even count as a trip anymore. Really, driving the 8 when the weather is nice enough to open up the windows is as delightful in hour 5 as it was in hour 1 - never had any complaints.

 

I did a Seattle to Oklahoma City to Detroit trip over 4th of July before I deployed to Iraq. I wish I had someone with me, as it got a little boring in the flat states. Im doing it again in Oct. when I get out of the Army...this time I'll have a co-pilot....a 2-3 month old German Shepherd.

 

wow thats interesting!
im planning a trip from Los angeles CA to Corpus Christi TX in December and was wondering if i can rely on my RX8 to take me there. one way its about 23 hour drive [ plan on doing this straight, no breaks, just gas and food stops][i did this once before 2 years ago in a BMW X5 but the seats make your but soar for that long] and its about 1,497 miles, so round trip that would be a total of 2,994 Miles.
what should i have checked and changed before the trip?

i plan on doing an oil change before and when i get there.

 

Change all the fluids. They are easy and cheap to do yourself. Coolant you might not need to do, but if you can. I did everything, but I did it because the car is sitting for a year.

 

Also, check your tires. Make sure they're wearing evenly and rotate them front to back if you can. If you haven't had an alignment lately, I'd recommend one. With the trunk loaded up, your rear will squat more than normal. A good alignment will help save your tires on a trip like this.