New guy, New car
 

Hello, I just bought a 2009 RX-8 R3. I hope to get to know this forum in the next few months, I've been lurking for a few weeks. I know you can't start one of these threads without pictures. Here's a crappy pic from my cell phone.

Congrats on the car and welcome to the club.

Thanks, I'm loving the car. Trying to keep it under 4000rpm for the first 600 miles per Mazda, drive gently when cold, and rev to 3000rpm before shutting down. What else do I need to know? I haven't had the chance to really read the manual. But I'm no stranger to Mazdas (this is my sixth) and I've owned a couple of RX-7's.

I traded my Lotus Elise for the R3...needed a back seat.

It i remember at all, do not drive at full throttle or at high rps for a long period of time. Also dont maintain a constant speed and avoid hard stops or full-throttle stops. Allow for proper period for warm up.

Thanks again.

I'm sure you appreciate being able to get in and out of the car a lot easier! Lotus' are too small for their own good =/

The Lotus was great at one thing and pretty crappy at everything else.

beautiful car, welcome to the club

nice car, welcome

Congrats on the purchase, I traded in my RX8 to get rid of the backseat, but there are days that I miss it. I like the improved look of the car. Keep the rubber side down.

lol, Klone did it ass backwards :lol:

Nice, another 09 owner :p:

good choice in color. Have fun with the car.

Yeah, make sure you break it in correctly. Keep it under 3.5k or so until engine is warm (to half way mark) and never shut it off after just getting on it.

What's your location?

you should really be driving it balls to the wall all out for the first 3000 miles and get frequent oil changes.

welcome.

drive gently for the first 500 miles, don't redline, vary the engine speed on the highway. After that, change the oil and drive it like you stole it.

I dont agree with that, its a brand new car!!!

^ so break it in the way you are going to drive it..

warranty retention is all you're going for when you do that.

Are you on elisetalk.com?

I'm in Chicago. Which leads to my next question; what kind of winter wheels and tires should I get? Those 19 inch grey wheels pushed me over the edge ( I've always been a fan of the 8 ).

Yeah, I am on elisetalk, don't post a lot, there are many much more knowledgeable people on the forum. It is interesting that many of the Elise owners had RX8s or now have RX8s. Enjoy the car, I miss the interior of the RX8 the most, that and the angry vacuum sound of the engine.

welcome to the addiction!!!!! WOW from a lotus to an r3!!! how do they compare??

They are both unique cars that require a little extra attention. The Lotus is a '10' on the track and a '3' in daily driving. An example; it doesn't have 5mph bumpers, if someone taps your car, you may have to replace the entire front/rear clam, I've heard that can run anywhere from $5-8k. The posted 0-60 times in magazines are achieved by practically destroying your drivetrain--too many of those and Lotus will check your black box and void your waranty. Great car for the money ( I bought mine for 32k ). but then after a year I came to the conclusion that I can afford a $32k car, but I can't afford a $32k toy.

I've been a fan of the 8 since before it came out, it's so well balanced as an all around car. If you look at numbers only, there's better cars out there, but there's really nothing that compares to this car. I hope to have a long relationship with this RX-8. I also look forward to learning a lot on this forum.

Steve

^ curious about this 'black box'

is it a computer that records ALL your driving activity?

yes. they call it an ECU dump. they know everything about your driving habits.

Very nice. Congrats.