Hello all,

First, a quick 'thank you' to everyone who's taken the time and trouble to post on this and other forums as it's made learning about these cars a thoroughly fascinating experience.

I'm not an RX-8 owner yet, but intend on becoming one within the next couple of months as it struck me that my daily driver (a Celica GT-Four ST205) is now 20 years old and in need of the kind of TLC that will take more than a weekend to perform. The RX-8 seems like a suitably interesting replacement.

I'm used to driving slightly left-field, fuel-munching vehicles so the running costs of the RX-8 don't look at all off-putting, and the thought of a significantly lighter and better balanced vehicle appeals: The ST205 very nose-heavy given that it's transverse-engined and it has both the front and centre diffs on the transaxle, making for tail-happy driving and hence the ludicrous rear spoiler.

It's a while since I've owned a two-wheel-drive car, but I really like the Torsen diff on the GT-Four so I'm hoping the inclusion of one on the RX-8 will make it feel at least slightly familiar... I'll miss the four-wheel drive in the winter, but I guess that diff will help out a little anyway.

It'll also be one of the first cars I've had with a CAN bus fitted, so I bought an old RX-8 instrument panel to see how easy it would be to noodle around with it - turns out not too difficult at all: YouTube vid and a blog post http://www.cantanko.com/rx-8/reverse-engineering-the-rx-8s-instrument-cluster-part-one/ explaining what I did. I've yet to enumerate all of the appropriate data structures to get it to perform all of its functions, but that's just a matter of time I think. It'd also help to actually have a car to work with!

Either way, it looks nicely hackable should I want to play with it, and given the current price of them in the UK, it looks like a very good bang-for-buck platform to mess with. I've always wanted to build some form of EV, and it looks like one of these would be a good candidate.

Thanks again for such a great resource,
Harry

 

Welcome to the club! If you do end up buying an rx8 congrats. They really are a blast. Neat stuff you got going on there.

I daily drive my rx8, even through the winter, and with some nice winter tires and some throttle control, you should be fine in most cases.

 

Hi!

 

Hi,

So it's taken a few (three?) months since my first post, but I've finally got one - a late 2006 231 PZ with about 46,000 on the clock.



It has to be said I've never driven a car as well sorted as this one. I thought my GT-Four handled well enough, but I'm blown away by this thing. I think the biggest problem I now have is that a new yard-stick has been introduced, and every car I subsequently own will be measured against this one and will be found lacking. The four was very nose-heavy, and the better balance as well as the lower centre of gravity and moment of intertia have a striking impact.

Power is... weird. I don't think it's any slower than the GT-Four (mine was completely stock, hence around 250HP) but with four wheel drive and a bit more weight, I think they're quite closely matched. The difference is in the delivery. The four was nothing-nothing-nothing-TURBO-redline-upshift-repeat, whereas the RX-8 is just a steady increase over a very wide rev range. Also have to keep remembering that I have an extra gear to use now, too! Both the GT-Four and the RX-8 have torsen rear differentials and hence the handling around tight corners feels nothing if not familiar with the inner wheel wanting to spin.

I've only had this thing for a day and already love it, and I think I can understand exactly why people get so excited about this car. Comparing the GT-Four and the RX-8 is difficult as they're different horses for different courses; apples and oranges if you will. They each have their own appeal in their own ways, but the RX-8's near-telepathic handling is something that has to be experienced to be properly appreciated. I knew they were good, but exactly how good requires first-hand experience to really comprehend.

So, on to a weekend of changing spark plugs, leads, coil packs, filters, oil and brake pads. None of these actually need doing from what I can tell, but equally I understand that doing these things pre-emptively is generally a good plan with this car.

Oh, and a 'thank you' for all of the superb posts on this forum - it's allowed me to go shopping for (and find!) what I believe to be a decent car with my eyes open and without any unrealistic expectations.

Cheers,
--Harry.

 

Quote of the century,"Power is... weird." I must say I agree. Mine still surprises me. So smooth and linear. You look down and are almost surprised at the speedo reading at times.