Mat Krenisky

Little back ground:

I've always loved the rx8 but I haven't had the chance to own one. I've owned many of cars in my years. I did own a 1990 rx7 gtu it was a fun car but I ended up trading it for a b20b del sol. After my years toying with Hondas I went with toyota. I love my 5th and 6th gen celicas. I drove over 1k miles to buy my 1995 celica gt after upgrading everything possible (window tint, viper alarm, hids, professionally blacked out tail lights, short shift, brass shift bushings, weighed shift ****, konig lighting 16x7, injen short ram intake, obx header, trd springs, kyb mounts, kyb struts, tons of audio lol, greddy clutch, jdm rear strut bar. I know im missing some stuff, any who i always planned on swapping the engine with a 1mz or 3sgte 4th gen but...ended up selling it due to having a baby and my celica was my only car and the bucket seats and car seats don't go to well together.

Fast forward a little bit and now I have a nissan versa hatchback as a family car and I'm looking for a weekend toy! I'm a huge miata fan and I planned on buying a miata originally I've done so much homework on miata.net it's not even funny I can honestly tell you anything you'd like to know about the na/nb and nc. I originally was going to go nb and k swap it. K miata came out with a kit to use Hondas k series engines into miatas and it's basically plug and play. Sure you got to switch out sub frames and a few things but it's damn near plug and play... than I was thinking about the nc miata and the 2.5 swap with cams can produce 200whp with a tune... add Supercharger and or a turbo and you can hit 300-350 all day and you'll be fine with a 6 speed transmission. 2.5 engines are cheap almost free and the swaps basically plug and play besides taking a few things off the 2.0 and use them on the 2.5.

Now the problem!

I love the rx8 always have and always will... I have 2 kids and buying a 2 seater car even know i have a family car isn't the best idea.. seeing as a 2013 miata isn't cheap it'd still spend 13k on the car and another 7k into upgrades with ease such as 2.5 swap with cams, flying miata 2.5 suspension package and flying miata clutch kit and a tune from tuning done right. I'm a huge toyota fan but scion frs/brz are junk I hate boxer engines and I'm not looking to spend 15k on a car and another 20k to put a better engine into it.

Now I need your help:
The rx8 is a sweet car but let's face it... the rotary is a love or hate relationship. It gets horrible mpg but whenever it's running right it's great and whenever it fails well it's toast.

K miata "might" be coming out with a k series swap kit for the nc miata... guess what that could mean... well the rx8 isn't to much different than the nc miata so I emailed David and asked him if he did make a swap kit for the nc miata would he make one for the rx8. It's basically same platform besides electronics and engine and sub frame but he'd be making it all from scratch and the nc sub frame plugs into rx8 so he'd only need to make 1 sub frame ect ect you see where I'm going with this. So if we get lucky there will be a swap kit for a k series rx8! Talk about sweet!

Another option is i contracted a shop who specializes in many of cars but the Miata is one of there main things they work on. I asked them if they knew anywhere that would do the mzr swap from miata or 2.5 into the rx8. They said they are actually working on this currently and they will be selling about 20 kits once it's finished. They said it'll work for the 2.5 into the rx8 it uses the rx8 sub frame and does require some fire wall mods but it's not nearly as bad as the LS swap I asked them. Kit isn't to much either it also changes the ppf. So the 2.5 is good for 300-350 whp without opening engine up with a supercharger or turbo, with forged internals it's good up to 700whp but good luck with a transmission to hold its power lol.

So I need your help! Should I get an rx8 and hope the k swap comes to the rx8 and or hope the mzr swap does get completed and do the swap?! Or do you think it'll ruin the rx8 and I should just stick to miatas? I can either buy a nb 2001-2005 for around 5k and k swap it for about 8k. Grand total 13k with 230whp and 190 torque from a tuned k24 without a turbo ect but you can always add one but the nb 6 speed transmissions are only good to 300-350whp. Not looking for a rocket ship so I'd probably keep it na. 2nd option is the nc miata 13k ish for the one I'd want. The nc3 (nc miata went thru 3 different front ends I favor the last) and do the 2.5 swap with cams and net 200whp stock for 15k I can always upgrade to turbo or supercharger later on and I most likely would the nc is more heavy than nb miata.
Option 3... the rx8! I can probably find one running and rust free good condition for 5k the mzr swap kit will run around 1.5k and the labor I'm not to sure it's not released yet and who knows anything could happen and it might never be released. Or hope the k swap comes.to rx8 the k swap for na/nb runs almost 6k with everything you need besides wiring harness, starter, alt, ecu and engine. Assuming it's same for rx8 a complete swap will cost 8-10k plus price of car for 230whp rx8 but add a turbo or Supercharger and sky's the limit but I wouldn't want to go over 325.

So after reading for 10 mins what do you guys think!? I just don't know what to do!

NotAPreppie

Get an '8 with a bad motor for $1k.
Pickup an LM4 and mod for 400 HP $1.2k.
Use one of the kits (not Hinson) and a whole crap ton of research to mate the two $10k.

Another insane idea: go insane and use an LR4 instead for something a little more frenetic and rev-happy.

Go kind of boring and drop that NC miata subframe in and then run a custom turbo'd L5-VE (which has same forged crank as the 2.3 DISI). I don't know if it will fit the engine bay but the 2.3 DISI exhaust manifold will bolt up to the L5-VE. I'm also pretty sure you can bolt a NC Miata gearbox to that engine (possibly all MZR engines).