A bit of summary information first :

Distance covered : Approx 4500 km
Best Fuel economy : 10.5 l/100 km (BP Ultimate, between Wagga and Sydney)
Worst Fuel economy : ~ 18 l / 100lm (Coffs Harbour to Lismore via Dorrigo national park - but what a fun fun road to drive, especially now it is fully sealed all the way along the west side of the park. No one but us and motorbikes and windy roads and sweeping bends, and beautiful scenery)

RX8s seen on trip :
Yellow RX 8 on Sussex St (Syd CBD) about 5pm Wednesday 8th October.
Black RX8 parked just off the south side of William St (East Sydney? DarlingHurst? Palmer st maybe?) during the middle of the day on the 11th or 12th of October)
Black Rx8 in Byron Bay, Brisbane plates.
Nordic Green RX8, about 8:50 am, parked outside the Hay Rural Museum (of all places to see one!) on the 20th of October.

Other cars of note :

A red Honda S2000 and my Red RX8 were having fun overtaking each other on the Pacific Highway from just past the first Wiseman's Ferry turnoff to Newcastle. The S2000 had Canberra plates. The two red sportscars weaving through the traffic were drawing a lot of stares.

For some reason, a car dealership in Tenterfield was selling a brand new 350Z.

Some bastard in Byron Bay had a Porsche GT3 - and parked it next to me to teach me a lesson in humility.

Best Roads :

West Wyalong to Hay. 6am on a Sunday morning with no traffic, few kangaroos, and a couple of emus for company. After a calculated assessment of risk, 220 kph.

Coffs Harbour to Dorrigo, then through the newly sealed roads to Dorrigo North, and up to Lismore (not using the Armidale to Lismore highway sections).

Coming down from the Great Dividing Ranges towards Dubbo (from Tamworth) were quite nice too.

Fans :

- The lads at the bottom of the main strip in Wagga - all thirty of them cheering as we went past.
- The Aston Martin DB7 driver who followed us to a Petrol station to come and have a look and a chat. Maybe he was thinking of slumming it?
- the Lime green RX3 guys who decided to give me a go coming off the Pacific Highway into Byron. After showing what the car had, I pulled into the BP about 4 klicks out of town. They followed. After a long chat, the digital camera came out and the guys proceeed to take photos of the seats, the dash, the centre console and the brake handle. They want to turn the inside of their RX3 into something which looks like the interior of the RX8. They especially want to put the rotor into the seat headrests.
- The reason we went to Byron was that some friends of ours have dropped out of the IT industry to live a semi-communal lifestyle in the hills a few miles east of Nimbin (just north of Federal, next door to Tex Perkins' house). The car was a big hit with the hippies. Especially when they heard some of their Goa/Trance being placed in the 300W sound system as the car was driving through fog at 2am on dark windy roads in the middle of that beautiful part of Australia. It was very surreal).
- Countless people pointing, driving past and dropping back, or peering through windows when parked.
- The English Backpackers who wanted a lift from Byron to Adelaide, and thought we might like to give them a lift for the price of a bus fare. They thought we might get them there quicker for some reason.

The Car :

- Flawless handling on both the sweeping bends and the tight twisty roads. The tyres tended to make some sound when taking a long corner at high speed when loaded down with luggage.
- Exceptional high speed acceleration for overtaking.
- super smooth on the road at 200 kph. If you didn't look at the speed, you would think you were barely doing 100.
- Brakes remain unfazed no matter what.
- The oil light proved the only annoyance.
- Sydney traffic (as always) can be a pain. Riding the clutch to get onto the Bridge from the western side of the CBD can be a bit of a drag. I'd prefer stop/start to a constant 5kph up a hill.

 

Great post !

My recent Syd-Adel-Syd trip was just after I had the baffle problem fixed... and I didn't have any oil light problems.

So, don't know if you've been in with yours but if not, it should go away.. no problem.

 

Hey dbb, sounds like you had a great trip.

I, too, have experienced the 8 at high speed and it ranks as the best I have driven -- great handling, steering and ride.

Hope it continues to given you many enjoyable trips.

Timbo

 

Great readd db, thanks!

Did you alter tyre pressure for you load?

How did you find the handling with (I assume) a full boot when you cornered on pot holed and broken surfaces?

I've gotta plan a long drive :D

Kev.

 

231.

 

dbb

GREAT POST I FEEL AS IF I ACTUALLY COVERED THE 4500KM just from reading your article , and shared all those pleaseant experiences without adding to my mileage but best of all NO FUEL COSTS .


.AN experience in VIRTUAL REALITY RX8 ING.

thanks michael

 

Kev,

Regarding handling with a full load : I had the tyre pressure up around 42psi for the trip. I reckon I had maybe 60 kilos in the boot (2 x 10 ltr premium plastic fuel cans, 1 x 4 litre penzoil 5w-30, 1 x 1 litre amzoil 0w-40, plus luggage). Handling was still good. Good enough to lose a pesky BMW 330CI coupe that was trying to tail me through the Dorrigo area. Sudden dips in the road after coming down an incline were another matter ;-)

Low speed acceleration suffered a bit, but high speed acceleration was still beautiful.

 

Great review - what I wouldn't give to be back down there driving an RX8, instead of still waiting for mine to be delivered in the middle of the British winter.

Anyone recon you'll be able to hire 8's by next year? I certainly dont want to be stuck in some Toyota MPV on my next trip - someone else can drive that with the lugage!

Cheers
---Dave (very envious)

 

I wouldn't think you can hire RX8s, but you can get Toyota MR2s, Saab 9-3 Convertibles, Porche Boxters and the like reasonably easily. There are places that will hire you Ferraris and high end Porches, but you need to lay down the $20k deposit first.