this just in from Mazda USA:

"Dear Charlie,

Thank you for contacting Mazda North American Operations. I appreciate
the opportunity to respond to you.

The RX-8 for the U.S. market will not come with run flat tires or a
spare tire. However, it will come with the Instant Mobility System
(IMS) Emergency Flat Tire Repair Kit and 4 years or 50,000 miles of
Roadside Assistance coverage.

Again, thank you for contacting Mazda. It has been my pleasure to
assist you. If for any reason this response has not completely
satisfied you, please feel free to reply to this message. You may also
contact our Customer Assistance Center toll-free at 1-800-222-5500."

i guess that settles it Pelucidor! but it might still be RE040's according to C&D

 

i thought everyone hated the runflats! doesn't anyone have a comment?

 

Yeahhhhh....death to runflats!!!!!!!! :D

Seriously though, I'm glad there are no runflats and especially no spare...saves weight and better tires. Now I just hope they don't use the RE040's. Unfortunately, I bet they will.

 

Sorry for the late reply - I have to occasionally pretend to do work between posting here. Anyway, great news. Now we just have to persuade Mazda the Bridgestone Potenza S-03 is a better and cheaper tire (at least to the public) than the Bridgestone Potenza RE040.

Taken from TireRack comparison - the S03 is better in every single category (note the S03's YR rating means good for 186mph and the RE040's WR rating means 168mph):

 

I hope so too! if the S-03's are better in the wet than i need them. it's wet roads about half the year around here! i need to get some work done too-my productivity has gone straight down the tubes since the detroit show.:o :D

 

Runflats are for me to poop on!!

Seriously, doesn't one of the upgrade packages also give tire inflation sensors or is that only for contries that are getting run-flats?

Anyway, I am glad to hear we aren't getting run-flats in the states. Now lets get a better tire on the car.

Everybody:

S-03's!!! S-03's!!! S-03's!!! ...

-Mr. Wigggles

 

I've voiced my vote for the Potenza S-03 to rx8orders.

 

oh yeah! i sent a reply asking them to say exactly what tires we were getting and put in my vote for the s-03's also. i'll let you know their answer

 

The S-03's definitely have my vote too! Considering there is no price difference or even the S-03's being slightly cheaper, the least Mazda can do is give a car that handles, the best rubber it can to do just that!

Mazda, we want S-03's PLEASE!

 

The S03's are not only the best max performancetire on the market, they are also the cheapest!!!!

I have heard enough bad things about the RE040's from Audi owners (they used to be standard on the S4's) to last a lifetime!!

WE WANT THE S03's !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I don't know about that...

I'd rather have Falken Azenis. They won something like 95% of the Solo II National events in the street tire classes. Unfortunately, they're not available in 18 inch sizes.

 

I'm on board with the same sentiments... havent spoken to my dealer yet ...has anyone out there got some positive response ...ie ...the dealer will swap them at n/c or do the swap for a marginal charge. If enough people say something, hopefully something will happen. Why did Mazda choose more expensive tires that dont perform as well as the S-03's??

 

I think it is way too late for Mazda to change tire specs. Haven't they already begun production?

 

Bridgestone must cut manufacturers some great deal on the 040's - I bet they're cheaper to mazda than s-03's. They're oem on tons of performance cars (S4, TT, IS300 just that I've had direct experience with) and they're lame. The only halfway mixed blessing is they seem to get flats easier than other tires, giving you a good excuse to swap them.

 

They haven't started production for US models, only Japanese (which probably have different tires anyway).

And yes I bet Mazda (and other manufacturers) get these tires a lot cheaper than the S-03s, but I would be really happy if they let people pay a small amount (say $200-$250 total) to upgrade to the better Bridgestones when first buying the car.

Let's e-mail Mazda and phone the dealerships to get this underway. We should start with an e-mail to ask what tires will be on the vehicle and strongly suggest the S-03s. If the response keeps coming back as the RE040s then perhaps at that point we should ask about a dealer upgrade to the S-03s. The jpg from TireRack I attached above might help Mazda understand why we want this and perhaps we should include it with the e-mail.

 

This is an interesting new color scheme and look. Kinda like it even in bright light.
As far my own tires, if we end up with RE040s I'll likely consider selling them (Ebay likely) after purchasing S-03s; or just drive the heck out of them [AFTER a proper mild break-in] and plan to replace them early on.

 

here is a reply that i received this morning it seems tire selection is not yet set in stone. read on:

"Hello Charlie,

Thank you for contacting Mazda North American Operations.

Mazda may use couple of different type of tires for the RX-8. Thus, at this point, I can't determine which ones we'll be using. However, I will forward your comments to our Product Planning Department in an effort to provide only the highest quality products and services to our customers.

Thank you again....."

the folks at mazda have been quite nice in listening to us in the past, so please if you are going to write to them be civil!

 

I got this just after noon today :
"Got the official word from Mazda early this afternoon:
"Hi Daniel,

I have just received an official announcement from our Product Planning department regarding the RX-8 tires. The tire will be a Bridgestone Potenza RE040 at production start. I hope this helps!"

 

Booo... down with the RE040's..

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Laguna Seca 1:50 lap done with the RE040's? If so, the handling of this car is gonna be absolutely SICK with some decent tires...

 

I am glad to hear they are not going with run flats. I have a 2000 Corvette that had a set on it and they ride like crap. The side walls are stiff enough to support the vehicle so you can imagine how rough the ride is. They are eagle F1s and I just replaced them witrh the non-runflat version of the same eagle F1 tire. Wow what a difference. The car rides MUCH better and still handles just as good as before. It is like a different car without the run flats on it.

 

here is a reply i received about an hour ago:

"Earlier today, we did get the confirmation that RX-8 will have the
Bridgestone Potenza RE040. "

 

I heard that runflats are coming standard in Canada with the RE 040's ....and get this ...I heard that in the US Market, they will be offering the S03's as an available "option"... can anyone verify this?