FoMoCo

When I first became aware of the RX8 I have to admit I was not really interested.

However since the day it dawned me that this is quite possibly the first car of the 21st century that is truelly inovative, it has captivated my attention. It blurs the distinction between sport and practicality with little compromise.

My current needs for a car (or truck) is that it has to hold at least four people with comfort and accesability. I have never been a fan of two seat "sports cars", leaning more towards 2+2 Pony cars (4 past Mustang GT's) or sport sedans (2 past 5 series BMW's), and trucks (various Fords).

What really intrigues me about the RX8 is not how fast it is (although a turbine like engine has appeal), or how it corners (the mph C&D pulled in the high speed lane change is most impressive), it is the packaging that gets my adreniline flowing:

-Under 3000 lbs. (refreshing in this day and age of burgeoning girth)
-Low center of gravity
-4 doors (well two full size and two um uh mini suicide doors...)
-Very nice functional, yet classy interior
-Trim exterior dimesions
-And the terrific MSRP

It all strikes me as brilliant in a new age Citreon DS from the fifites "future is now" sort of way. Very modern that will do everything that I need except bring home major home improvement materials and tow my AutoX Farimont (we will have to look into upgrading my wife's CRV...). Is there a car that can do all of that? This is what makes trucks so popular-they can do it all-but they use fuel, and are not ideal for discreet enthusiatic driving finesse.

The RX8 succeds where the Honda S2000 fails; everyday usefulness, yet it has that purity of design that Honda captures so well.

I love it - we will just see how I feel when my lease is up on my current ride in April '04 as I also like the new F-150 grrrrrrrr.

bwayout

Hey, Welcome to the forum! (Not that it's any of my business, but any deep meaning in choosing "FoMoCo" as your name?)



As you read and explore all of other posts, I'm sure that you'll find that everyone here is just as excited!

I'm one of those who was waiting since I saw the Mazda RX-Evolve show car on their web site back in 1999 and heard that they were going to bring it out as a possible production model (In case you're not aware of those early prototypes - feel free to do a search on this site or try a google image search)

Oh, I'm still waiting for the day that I find something that comes close or surpasses my old 1990 Probe as my benchmark to compare for my next car ...



I'm hoping that the RX-8 will do it

:D

rx8daniel

having once been partial owner of a 90ish Probe, I can only say that if the RX-8 doesn't do it... not sure what it will take! (I've been waiting for the RX-8 since the RX-01)

bwayout

Partial owner? sorry to hear that.

Anyway, what I truly miss is the tilt dash with intermittent wipper/washer and headlight contols + real gages (not warning lights) and that huge trunk hatch space and the pop-up headlights and the visibality (it had no blind-spots) ... and the fact that it was a fastback/hatchback and the rear light design ... and the way it felt behind the wheel as I drove and ...

Yeah, I hope that the RX-8 does it for me and I can move on ...

73JPS

Cool! Thanks FoMoCo, I'd forgotten all about Milestone cars!

For those of you unaware, a Milestone car is one judged by the Milestone Car Society (founded in 1972) as superior to its contemporaries in at least two of five categories. It is a widely accepted (though by no means only) indicator of post-WWII car collectibility, both historically and monetarily.

The five categories of consideration are:

(1) Styling (both good and bad)

(2) Engineering (as for (1), and also preferably interesting)

(3) Performance (including roadability as well as top speed, etc)

(4) Innovation (in concept or engineering feature)

(5) Craftsmanship

Some cars on the list include the aforementioned Citroen DS, and cars such as the AC (Shelby) Cobra, NSU Wankel Spyder, and Pontiac GTO.

I'll leave it to the forum to further discuss whether or not the RX8 might (or should) some day in the future qualify as a Milestone car by virtue of being superior to its contemporaries in at least TWO of the above five categories.

C'mon, folks! It beats the heck out of arguing about torque!! :D

P00Man

wow, thatd be great.

i think it might qualify, as the renesis engine is, or almost is, an engineering marvel in a number of ways.

and the packaging, those suicide doors, they may take the cake aswell.
________
Zoloft lawsuites

shkeller55

FoMoCo, I don't mean this to sound like an insult, but I'm curious, so... did I read that right - do you autocross a Ford Fairmont sedan? What did you have to do to it to make it competitive? Or did Ford make a sporty version of it?

BillK

And of course the truly neat things about those early Ford Probes was that they used the RX-7 switchgear like the movng dash and the turn signal lever seemingly strangely mounted to the dash that was in fact in exactly the right place when you went to use it.

Closest you could get to driving a Gen II RX-7 without actually doing so...

Puppy1

By your I know you are joking, but I have been lucky to have only previously purchased Honda products. Thay are truly excellent cars. Even though my current Vigor GS is an excellent car that has given me no problems whatsoever, my CRXsi is my current benchmark for my best car ever.

I too am excited that the RX-8 may very well take its place. It will give me the quick nimble feel of the CRX with the practicality of the 4 door Vigor.

FoMoCo

shkeller55,
Yes I do AutoX and run my Fairmont in open track events. Although there was a short lived turbo Fairmont in 1980-81 which had some mild suspension tuning and a carburated 2.3 turbo, mine is a completely redone plain jane 2-door.

The Fairmont is kin to the Mustang '79 to '93, as are the various T-Birds throught the eighties and all are considered Fox bodies. The '94-'03 Mustang is also a variation of this platform (I use '01 springs), and so with the Fairmont I simply adapted many suspension components and drivetrain parts from T-Bird Turbo Coupes and Mustangs. Really pretty simple when you know what to look for, inexpensinve, and effective, as the car with iron head (ported) 5.0 HO wieghs 2958 lbs.

Very entertaining and handles pretty well, and forgiving in contolled road race settings. Gives a surprise to those who don't get the connection between it and a (common) HiPo Mustang.

Donny Boy

Now that you've mentioned it, the RX-8 must be at least a Milestone car for 2004. I have seen the competition, and we're a definite fersure winner.

bwayout

... Yeah you are so right, it felt so "right" when I'd go and use them (even looking at the G35 coupe's dash, comes close- but just isn't the same).

Would you believe ... I was only partially kidding ... I know it was no 911 or RX-7 or even RX-8, but being "Mazda built" it turned out to be pretty reliable Detroit car. Remember, I'm originally from Detroit and had my share or Detroit built cars, that at the most lasted me 3- 5 years and it wasn't until I bought my 1980 Toyota Corolla sport coupe fastback/hatchback that lasted me 10 years (that might wave been more reliable in it's first 9 years, but it's last year it fell apart.

My 1990 Probe lasted me 13 years with over 220,000 miles on it (until the accident that totaled it) and the engine was still going strong (It did get minor oil leaks at least once a year in it's last 3 years of life, that I'd always repair). Still ... I was hoping it would last at least me another year ...

This was a car that when I was dating my wife before we got married, that when we'd take road trips - I'd take more pictures of the car then her!

:p :D

But I truly miss the little attention to details that the car had! Like the automated shoulder belt retracter, the dashboard and all the true engine performance gages ...

It was a great car to drive (a little heavy) but still it felt fun! Every time I meet someone who use to own a Probe in their past -feels the same way - it was a special car to us!

One of my best friends was always alittle envious of my old Probe that he ended up just getting a 1994 model for himself.



I only hope that when he comes to visit me ... or I drive out to see him in Colorado, I have my RX-8!

:D

FoMoCo

I had two Probes myself, a '90 LX with Taurus "Vulcan" ohv 3.0 V6 5spd, and a '93 GT with Mazda 2.5 24v V6 5spd.

Although the '93 was faster and handled better, I am deffinatley more fond of the first gen Probe. It was way better built had more room with a terrific interior and the 3.0 six was very quiet and smooth with a real gutsy feel up to 5600 rpm. Where as the 2.5 needed to be driven like you stole it to get real excitement...but at 6000 rpm that little six sounded like Italians designed it, Manifico!

bwayout

I'm jealous!



Did your 90 LX have a digital speedometer with oil, water presure, voltage and fuel meters? If so what did you think about it? At the time I passed, heard some negative coments about geting use to it - I always wondered if I would have been happy?

Sorry, I'm geting side tracked away from the RX-8 disscusions, so I'll bring it back to the digital speedometer on the RX-8 - from what I've read most reviews get use to it pretty quickly.

Without driving it myself, yet, I'm still of the sidelines ... wishing that there was some kind of digital analog combo - or maybe a digital lighted ring around the tach that would sync up with the digital speedometer number readout (acting like a traditional needle sweep?