Last night I closed the deal on a 2005 Winning Blue RX-8, sport package, spare tire kit (that's getting out tonight ) and.... a whole load of awesomeness! I tried and failed last year... but this time, I prevailed!

This my first stick, so it's been a little rough, but I only stalled three times so far, every time while backing up.

I've been keeping the revs above 2K and below 4K (did go into 4.5-5K sometimes, but just like 5 times so far), primarily around 3K. Driving like this feels handicapped, but I'm following Racing Beat's break-in procedure. No full throttle either.

Here are some night pics of when I picked up my car last night, along with the last photo of my good old Protege. (*sniff* *shed a tear*)

6-MT rocks my socks! I'm loving it so far. Already got honked at (positively)

The car came with 58 miles, but I decided not to argue with the dealer that much about it... no spoiler, I may add that later.

So far the car has better visibility than I expected. I read all these people complaining about blind spots... from my testing on the highway, the left-side blind spot is actually smaller than on my Protege, primarily because I was able to adjust the side-view mirror wider. The side windows give a pretty huge view of the road. The A-pillars are thicker, but nothing too bad.

I love it!!!



"Mods" coming up:

1. oil cooler & condenser screens
2. clear bra
3. winter tires

Ordered the screens already from racingbeat.com, but I have to be on the lookout for the clear bra and the winter tire deals.

The HIDs are totally awesome! I can't believe how really great those headlights are. So wide, so clean and visible. Mmm!

*widest grin ever*

I'll post some day pics later.

 

Congratulations!

Welcome to the tribe! Winning Blue was my second choice color after Lightning Yellow.

Stew

 

Congratulations!!! Isn't the car FUN!! Zoom-Zoom

Just wait until its broken in and you can take the car to the red-line. It'll blow you away!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda...temZ7996031401

Has anyone looked at these yet? He also has seperate auctions for just the screens for the oil coolers.

 

Can't wait!

 

another Protege convert... [mr burns voice]eexxcellent...[/burns]

congrats :D

 

It's the Protege's fault, really. If the Protege wasn't so fun to drive and didn't have such a good online community and people (at least in the New Engalnd region), I don't think that I would've cared enough to get it. I would've just been treating cars as transportation--A to B.

 

me too, me too, damn this 'zoom-zoom' thing lol :D

 

Aye, it's amazing how many repeat customers Mazda has. I'm one of the many :D We must be dumb or something for buying such "slow" cars :p

Congrats on the new car, I can already tell you're going to have a blast with it!

 

Congrats, and welcome to the cult!

 

Great choice of color.

 

congrats.

happy motoring

 

It's the bestest ever!

 

Congrats! I really like 'em in blue (black is still faster though, being darker). Very nice!

Wanna sell it to me?

The spare tire kit, not the car, lol...

 

congrats astral; got my nordic 2005 6sp gt less than a month ago and i love it more w/each passing day; so imagine how much you will love yours by then!!;
as for the break in, dont listen to racingbeat and all the others on these boards; go easy for the first tank (keep it under 4-5k rpm's) and then do as you wish; period, end of story; if the car needed a 1k break in, then the dealers would tell you and mazda would tell you;

 

Cutting 40% of the vent area isn't a good idea IMO... not with this car anyway, seeing how hot the engine runs.

 

Thanks... as far as the spare tire kit, I think I'm going to want to hold on to it for a little while, at least until after winter. And then we'll see.

 

first tank of gas: 19.2mpg, mostly highway, but some city and keeping it above 2k almost all of the time. That's not bad at all!

I have to paint my E-ZPass black or something. Will the E-ZPass transponder still work if I locate it higher behind that dotted/shaded area above the rear view mirror?

See this pic, the E-ZPass transponder sticks out like a sore thumb:



edit: fixed the image

 

congrats

 

congrats dude!!!! the blue is cool!!! theres really not a bad color on that car!!!!

 

Re the color, man...I swear I go back and forth amongst all the colors which is my favorite.
When I bought the car, I had a really tough time deciding between the red and the titanium, which I think looks slick at night. I briefly favored blue but then it went into dead last. Sunlight silver was the only color that never got me excited. Eh..just looks like metal to me. I ended up buying red and love it. About 2 months later though, I started really liking the white...looks nice and elegant, esp. with dark tinted windows. Nice contrast of white and black. Now the blue is definitely creeping up on me!!
I guess moral is what rotoholic said - there's no bad color on that car!
Check out the "Exterior appearance" section to keep it lookin' brand new. I use ArmorAll wax and car soap cuz I live in an apt. and don't have a hose. If you want the best of the best, do a search for "Zaino".
Enjoy!

 

w00t! One year of happy ownership! 23,307 miles later!

Zoom-zoom!

 

welcome to the world of RX-8 ownership.
Zoom Zoom Zoom

 

Congratulations on your ANNIVERSARY Enjoy. BTW, I know you are in break-in, but you gotta beep her, man.

 

Uh, they kinda did. pg 4-7 in the OM. A "few precautions" for the first 1K miles.