RX8Club.com - Rotary Dream, A Short car story.

Rotary Dream
A short car story

So I went outside a little bit ago to have a cigarette, and while sitting there on my front porch I just found myself sitting and staring at the RX-8. It mostly started off with me just thinking about how beautiful the car is, and that turned into thinking about how I want to put a body kit on it, repaint it, rebuild and turbo the engine, get after market brakes/rotors and so on. That's when it dawned on me that this is what it took to re-ignite my passion for modifying cars, and how lucky I am for having an amazing wife in which if it wasn't for her being in my life, I never would have had the chance to own this car.

It also got me to thinking about the Tiburon, the car I owned previously. When I first saw the car I really liked it and I always thought the 03'-06 Bodystyle looked pretty good. When I brought the car home, one of the first things my wife said to me was,"yes you can mod it if you want to". Just out of the blue. I laughed but deep down inside, keep in mind we had just brought the car home, I thought to myself, "I Don't know if I really want to." It had continued to cross my mind several times in the future but I never really felt the desire to do so, and the feeling would just pass. What it really came down to was, while I liked the Tiburon, I didn't love it.

Now the RX-8 is a completely different story for me. It really all started when I was about 12 years old living with my mom in Greenville. We lived in a pretty big apartment complex and just outside of our building sat a Black FC RX-7 Turbo II. The car was just beautiful, and I fell in love at first sight. It didn't help that I saw it every day. I was young, saw a shiny sports car, and just wanted nothing more than to take her for a spin. It wasn't until I was almost 15, which in the state of NC you could get your learners permit, that I discovered the amazing FD.

All I could really remember at that time was that what I wanted was a "Black Mazda". This is around the time we had first recieved high speed cable internet in Wilmington. I started searching around for this black mazda when I happened across the most beautiful car I had ever seen in my life. I opened the link and came to find that it was the 3rd Generation Mazda RX-7, luckily it was an article on the car. It was in this article where I leanred about the 3 Generations of RX-7's, thier year ranges, performance and handling, and most importantly, the Rotary Engine. When I saw how the engine worked I couldn't believe what I was seeing! This tiny little engine with NO PISTONS was producing so much power.

It was also around that time that my dreams were crushed just as fast as they were risen, when I later learned that they sold for $18k plus. As a poor 14 year old only working crap jobs, it was out of my reach. So I started looking at the FC's or 2nd Generation and they too were still pretty expensive at $5k plus. Regardless, family issues happened and I got moved around a lot and I didn't get my first car until I was 17. That first car was a 1994 Mazda MX-3 RS and I loved that little thing.

I owned the MX-3 for a little over 5 years and did some modifications to it. It was no RX but I felt like it brought me a step closer to it. I could've found a rough condition n/a RX-7 for around the same price, but circumstances were right and that's what allowed me to get it. I eventually sold the MX-3 with intentions to buy an FC, pickings were slim but I felt like I could find one for the money I got from the MX-3. Similar to the MX-3, circumstances were right and I ended up buying a 88' Supra Turbo. Yes, I had picked up the enemy and I paid for it. The car had a ton of problems and I ended up selling it as fast as I bought it. After that it was an Integra GSR w/H22 swap followed by the Tiburon GT.

I first spotted the RX-8 sitting in front of a local mechanic shop on my way to go visit my wife on her lunch break. I noticed that the car didn't have a license plate and immediately thought that the car had to belong to a local dealer and might be for sale. I called the shop and found it that it did infact belong to one. Naturally, I called the dealer and learned what trim it was and the price. The only problem here is that we were already planning on going to buy my wife a new car the next day and she doesn't know how to drive a manual. So we just assumed it was out of reach and that next year we would be in a position to get one for me.

We got my wife her new car, a 2008 Kia Sorrento EX, which is pretty nice I might add, and all was said and done. A few days later I saw the RX-8 again on the web and prompted me to call the dealer and see if they thought they could work out a specific payment. I later talked to my wife about if we could negotiate a certain payment, if we could get it and she said "hell yes". I went to the dealer, drove the car, worked out credit paperwork and then the waiting would begin. I was approved at a payment just slightly higher than we were looking for and my wife said that's perfect, get that car!

So that pretty much pauses the story here as we have reached the present. I finally own one of my dream cars and plan to keep her for the rest of my life. I may buy other cars for daily driving but I will always have this RX-8. It'll be almost as difficult to pry the keys from my hands as it would be to pry the wedding ring off my finger. The next phase is to modify her and take her to Laguna beach so I take go for a spin on the cork screw!

Written by,
Gemin Maniak Palumbo