I just bought a 2004 Grand Touring RX-8 and after looking over the forums I see alot of people talking about keeping the RPMs high. The owners manual of course says to shift at very low rpms. What should the car be ran at for RPMs on average? Also does anyone know of a good trustworthy mechanic in Southern Oregon to take the car to? I want someone that can help get modifcations added to it as well as general work. Thanks all, I love the car and I am psyched to be driving a rotary finally.

 

Welcome! Here's my two cents... The manual is written to give you the best MPG as well as intstruction on how to drive safely. Can you imagine the field day lawyers would have if you wrecked your car and your lawyer had the manual as evidence and it instructed you to drive up to the redline, which would be considered reckless.

That being said, I have talked with a Mazda Tech and he said that driving the 8 like a granny is death to the engine. He said that carbon will build up on the apex seals and kill the compression. Heat supposedly burns the carbon away, so what I do is I redline at least once a day (after the car is at operating temps) and when I haven't been on the track in a while I will put the car in 2nd and go on the freeway and run it around 60 MPH for a bit to get the engine hot.

Who knows if any of this works? I know of several people who have had to replace their engine. What I do know, when I first got my car, I tried to get the best MPG I could get for about a month and my idle got really rough. It even would cut out at a redlight from time to time. After I started driving the car up to redline and having fun with the car, the idle smoothed out, and I only lost 1 to 2 MPG.

Good luck with your mods, and I'm up in Seattle so I can't help you there.


Edit: Also I would like to add... otherwise drive it like you would any other car and have a fun time doing it

 

Back when I had my 8, I would always redline 1st and 2nd after the car was warmed up at least once a day. On I-90 I would sometimes redline 3rd but that's very late at night. Ideally you would want to drive in the red every day, as it helps clean out your engine. However, that being said, your economy will suffer.

After I got the exhaust/mid-pipe installed, I wanted to redline it every chance I could because it sounded soooooooooo good!

 

everything mentioned above is good, I also notice that premixing helps as well each time you fill your gas tank put 4-6oz of something like Marvel mystery oil,idematsu,etc. http://www.idemitsu-usa.com/page_210.htm
I think this is also a good idea too on or off the track another thing is too add like a 1/4 quart of oil every 500-1000miles in between oil changes. I change mine every 3000-3500 miles and I use 4 qts and 1 quart lucas oil stabilizer. 82,500miles 05 rx8.runs great.
Also make sure you search thoroughly for information as people love to "FLAME" (be ********) you.

 

^ good point in checking the oil, driving harder will use more oil. On a track day I will burn up to a quart every 100 miles.

 

Welcome,

I subscribe to the redline a day theory. There are two links in my signature that are good for new owners, especially if you have on 04. Biggest thing I learned about driving one is that there are basically 2 engines in the car. One is below 4,000 RPM, the other is from 4,000 to 9,000. Make sure you use the second one occasionally, if only to put a smile on your face.

Mike

 

Awesome advice, thank you everyone.