Possibly purchasing a 04 RX-8..opinions?
 

hello everyone, my name is Jordan and i am frequent poster over at cobaltss.net and a current owner of a 07 Cobalt SS. ive done pretty much everything except forced induction (header/downpipe/ehxaust/intake/tune so forth) to my vehicle. i was pretty pissed off at the resaults so needless to say i am looking at something with better handeling and more potental.

how it sits right now, my car is on par for speed (straight line driving) as a rx-8, however when it comes to autocross the rx-8 would obviously be better.

my buddy got a rx-8 in to his dealership this weekend, its a 04 with 88,000 KM's, 6 speed, grey, two tone interior and some gay aftermarket rims.

the outside seems mint..inside no ware so its a all around good looking clean car.

they are selling it for 11,777 but brought it in for 9,000

there are a few questions i have, like warrenty..i have read that mazda extended their warranty..is this for any rx-8? or do they have to be purchased new? also what is it like to maintane these cars because i am a college student and wouldnt have enough money to rebuild a rotary lol

anyways, any input is good input..i know 04's are the first year so i am kind of scared...


heres some pics of my car.
http://cobaltss.net/gallery/files/1/...7/img_0093.jpg
http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k...9/IMG_0075.jpg

The warrenty is for all the 04's.

Test drive it.

RX 8 handles but is not too fast.

yeah, i have raced a few in my cobalt (track) and have managed to beat them due to better reaction times.

im not really looking for a car that will do well at the drag strip..ive done that for a few years now and its not as exciting..i want to venture into autocross and time trails.

Hey Jordan, welcome to our little corner of the world.

You'll find that the 8 is a fantastic handling car but much like the Cobalt it becomes quite difficult to increase hp in an cost effective manner.
intake / exhaust might get you 5-10 hp (max), There's only a few different headers out there and haven't seen too many dyno sheets for them.

Drive the car, see what you think of it and I'm pretty confident youi'll be impressed.

well its winter here..im from winnipeg manitoba...lots of snow haha so no extensive road test for me:(


how do these respond to forced induction? me and my good friend (who build a beastly miata/roadster (a Right hand drive miata)) were investing the topic of turbocharging it if i were to purchase it.

im fimilar to what it takes to make my current car power and how well the LE5 (my 2.4L engine) reacts to F/I...but how do these cars react?

and im also guessing extensive tuning and mapping needs to take place..do internals need to be upgraded?


---Edit--- i said lower comp pistions..ha..ha.

also how did this car do around the ring in germany?

tuning is definitely an option and fortunately Cobb Tuning has released an AccessPort that can reprogam the stock PCM with any given calibrations you seek.

Mazdamaniac is the preferred AP tuner around these parts. The AP also does much more; it lowers the temps at which the fans come on, increases oil metering pump (remember, the rotary needs to burn oil to lubricate the apex seals on the rotors), masks certain CEL lights, etc etc. Not to mention he can lean out the AFR's a bit to squeeze out some added HP.
The AP is a great buy because if you do go FI, you've already got the fuel management of things taken care of, just a case of getting an additional map from MM.

As for upgrading internals: not much to upgrade in the engine as she's a tough little engine already.

let me get a link for you taht EVERY potential owner should see....

be right back

found it! Top Gear reviews the RX-8

i think if you have a fairly new car that you've already modded you'd be a fool or an idiot to trade/sell it in this fiscal environment especially. you wont get the money you want from the cobalt.

there must be some suspension swaps you can do with the ss to get the handling sorted for allot less than you'd lose selling the car and the building an 8.

your asking about warranty while contemplating FI?

so let me get this right, you have a cobalt ss... (the ss is the supercharged version) and you have not just put a smaller pully on it? Im thinking your car isnt really the ss (supercharged) if your complaining about this. That car has potential to be alot quicker then a stock rx8 for very little money (buy the gm stage 2 kit, upped boost, retune, bigger injectors ect for like 800 bucks and you keep you warrenty)

^ I believe there is the SS (N/A) and the SS Supercharged

yeah like i said i have the 2.4L LE5, the supercharged cobalts have a 2.0L LSJ. trust me i know those engines like the back of my hand..i spend alot of time on cobaltss.net (over 13000 posts). its pretty much were i learned about cars.

the rx-8 is going to work out to be cheaper then my lease payment on my cobalt..even with the negative equity i will absorb. thats the main reason behind me doing this.


also...i was in a accident..my passenger side door got fucked up, the dealership will take my car as is and deal with insurence so i dont have to. that and i need a car asap.

do what you want.

but i'll tell you that the koni challenge cobalts are at the top and the rx8s are mid pack competitively.

but if you are doing this to save money, make sure you do your calculations correctly.

and why didnt your buddy just sell you the car directly?

because its his cousin that owns the dealership

and the cobalts that win the koni challenge are the SS Supercharged..mine is not supercharged..trust me i have tried everything except forced induction and my car has shown poor resaults.

for a rx-8 website you guys really dont promote your cars to well :lol:

we just don't want uniformed people buying an rx8 and THEN complaining about the car or asking questions.

it's a niche market.. you can leave everything else behind.

honestly i think these cars are sexy..im ready to "mature" in the vehcile world.

and the potental is much more then my cobalt.

and the price is good.

The potential for handling, not speed.

ive established this already...i dont want to race in a straight line anymore

congrats, just be ready for every mustang driver telling you your car is slow

haha i get that already.

best is when those new gen v6 ones talk shit, even my cobalt can rape them

This statement is very true.

However, every single 1/4 mile drag queen mustang/camaro/vette/trans am owner that I have taken for a ride in my car was scared shitless afterwards.

The RX8 is a great sports car in its habitat :)

nice.

speaking of corvettes, how hard is it to make a rx-8 "handel" better then one in a autocross? my father picked up a 01 C5 and i would just like to know what it takes to compete with them.


and since we are on the topic, what does the average F/I rx-8 run in the 1/4 mile..now obviously there are soo many options to F/I..so lets say the average greddy kit?

greddy kit is junk.

an RX-8 with a full track suspension: coilovers, swaybars, strut bars, and proper alignment should do VERY well against a vette as long as there's no big straight on the course. Othewise that Vette will make up time on you QUICKLY. :)

the average greddy kit on a rx8 running safe probably wouldnt get under the 13's..now if you wanted to retune and get a little riskier im sure you can get lower.

As for a corvette, I havent really got to run one yet but just judging on other cars comparisons, you shouldnt have any issue keeping up or beating an 01c5 in the turns.. now in the strait that is another story lol

cool, thats good to know.


that kit is the best to go with then? and instead of getting canned tunes is there a program much like Hptuners were somone can tune my car with a laptop...im not sold on can tunes.

Boosted 8 1/4 mile- mid 13's

Corvette C5 1/4 mile- mid 13's

That would be interesting.

look into the AccessPort for tuning. why am I getting a case of deja vu? ;)


Top Turbos out there:
- Esmeril is pretty nice, they just put out a dyno with 414 hp to the wheels. (incredibly high PSI though)
- Mazsport USED TO make good turbo systems, they're out of business now.
- Look at Mazdamaniac's turbo upgrade, that seems to have tons of potential. It's a pretty easy 300 whp with his tuning.
- Pettit also makes a supercharger which puts down some nice hp figures.

Look at Mazdamaniac's dyno comparison thread for figures on all those kits.

yeah sorry i got the impression that AP was a can tune.

the supercharger sounds like a cool idea...obviously not as efficent as a turbo...but..whine=sexy :lol:

thanks for the info

here's Phil8's Supercharged 4 port Automatic.


http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3...h_7a2dedb4.jpg


This video was taken over a year ago and he's done even more work to it since then. He just got his engine ported (was getting it rebuilt so timing worked out), so I'm sure we'll shoot some more video of it in the near future when it's all done and back in one piece.

how much power is phils 8 putting out now?

ya the reason y we dont' promote our cars so well is it is because we get alot of ppl who buy it and then come back and complain "it uses oil, there is no tq, gas mileage is bad, i can't beat a z06 at the track" etc etc....test drive it if you get a nice day up north and you will know just by the drive what u thik it can b capable of....

ill have to wait another 8 months for a nice day haha.

heres how i see it.

i would like a car that looks good (my cobalt does look good) but something that can handel well and is cheap.

the rx-8 is cheap(er), looks better, handels better and has more potental then my FWD N/A 2.4L.

now for terms of oil...i hear you need to top these rotorys up now and then...synthetic oil correct? also they run premium is i am not mistaken?

Cheaper than a cobalt :uhh:

im comparing my 07 to a 04 rx-8...so yeah its cheaper


11,000 to the 24,000 i paid.

rx-8 are not expensive cars guys :lol:

Do you want to get into that debate?

Lets compare an 07 RX8 to an 07 Cobalt.

My car was $32,000 new.

and a 07 cobalt ss supercharged was 29-30 new.

im not comparing new to old here..because obvioulsy a rx-8 new to a cobalt ss new, the rx-8 would be worth more.

im simply saying...a 04 rx-8 is cheaper per month then my 07 cobalt SS

we're hoping to have an answer to that question SOON. Phil's car is getting some more break-in miles put on it, Jeff is going to work his Magic Tuning skillz on it soon and then after that, maybe time to throw her on the dyno. We'll see, gotta run a few things past Phil and see what he says

dont worry about maintance, im in college as well and the only money i've really had to put in the car was for oil changes, gas, and mods.

Dark and Projekt thats enough of that

wait wait wait... people are supercharging the automatics??? any helpfull links to this please???? how are the trannys and stuff holding up??

The RX-8 is a great car, I just sold my GT which had 88k on it for $10,500, and yes the engine internals are under warranty up to 100k. Don't be fooled maintenance for the 8 is not cheap. Price the spark plugs , which should be changed every 35k miles, the brake pads are not cheap, the tires if you have the 18" rims are not cheap, I was getting about 15mpg city, and 18mpg hwy. I am not sure what the cobalt gets. Is the car a blast to drive? Absolutely, but just remember that buying the car is only half the battle the cost to maintain it is the other half.