Greetings all... I just bought a 2004 RX8, Touring Pkg, appearance Pkg, spoiler, silver, 6 speed (of course), 11k mi. I just had to say, this car is just so much fun to drive!

I'm a hard core car fanatic. I've owned 95 cars (yes, literally... it's a disease) in my 33 years of driving (yes, I'm probably "older" than most people here). I've restored, raced, and worked on many cars (only had one rotary car before, a 1974 RX4 in grad school, but I did have one of the rare 1976 Suzuki RE5 wankel engine motorcyles - that bike was a trip!). I've had many different kinds of cars... muscle cars, European sports cars (other current cars are a 2006 Porsche Boxster S, and my wife's 2004 Volvo S60). But the RX8 is one of the most fun cars I have ever had!

In many ways it is more fun to drive than my Boxster S (and at a fraction of the price!). The RX8 is just so tossable and flingable. The engine revs and zings like a motorcyle, it's just infectious. The car is so light, has such great balance and such a low polar moment of inertia, it feels like it pivots instinctively around turns. I bought the car originally as an extra "practical" car for bad weather when I didn't want to drive the Boxster, but I find myself looking for excuses to take longer drives in it. This car is the closest to a 4-wheeled motorcycle I have ever driven.

I knew all about the "downsides" (gas mileage, oil consumption), but, I don't care. To me they are small prices to pay for such sheer fun in a car. I can't remember the last time a car was just so much fun and so exhilarating to drive.

It's a blast, plain and simple!!

 

What are ya some kind of a car nut? GREAT! Finally someone else who owned an RX-4. I owned 3 of them. 2 '74s and a 76. Welcome to the madness! WOOOHOOOO.

 

Welcome!

 

bout time we have more positive and EXCITED people on the forums that post! welcome welcome!

AND he doesnt care about MPG and oil!!! WOOOOOT!! rev on brutha!

 

care to list all 95 cars you have owned/raced/restored etc?

 

Watch out for the Silver curse.......

Welcome

 

A pleasure to welcome another convert!

 

Welcome man.

 

Welcome and amen. I'm older than you (driving over 40 years) and have not owned nearly as many cars. (RX-8 is only my 8th) But you got it: pivots around turns, revs like crazy, four wheel motorcycle. It was time for me to do a second childhood, and Zoomie (I even named him!) was it. I wish my first childhood had been anywhere near as much fun.

Ken

 

lol.. thats freakin awesome.. in response to the zoomie... him? maybe it's just me but i always referred to my cars as my other ( than my wife) female counter part. just thought that was interesting.

 

Thanks everyone! Yes, I am a convert, born again. It's been a long time since my RX4 and RE5, and I had forgotten how much fun a rotary is.

"Silver curse"? What awaits me....?

And I DO care about gas mileage. I don't feel compelled to contribute (any more than I have to) to the Exxon-Mobil corporate executive's retirement fund. It's just that for the mileage I will put on the RX8 (5,000-8,000 a year), I don't mind the trade-off of paying a little more for gas in exchange for the orgasmic driving pleasure (besides, at about 15 city/23 highway, the RX8 is getting the same mileage I got with a 2004 G35 Coupe I recently sold).

 

I loved reading your post! Unlike most people, you totally "get" the car. The advantage of the light, compact, near mid-engine placed Renesis is all feel and handling—everything you talked about. Apparently people aren't smart enough to figure that out. Ever notice how people who complain about fuel economy and low torque are NEVER excited about how it feels to drive one? Read their threads—they don't talk about feel and handling—and if they do, they act like it's nothing special ("…yeah, it handles ok, but…).

So thanks for posting this—you nailed it!

 

Part of the second childhood. You don't let girls up in the tree house, do you?

Ken

 

I just love my car. It is my escape. No matter how bad a day I am having, I can get in my car and go for a drive and within minutes be in a good mood feeling so much better.

 

Wow, a few new people on the boards today and all with good stories. Nice to see some fresh faces (and people that get the car too).

michael

 

A voice of reason!!!

By the way- tell us everything about your Suzuki RE-5 rotary!!!

 

I'm younger than you, but I've been making up for lost time by test driving nearly everything, about 450 cars over the last seven years.

I was personally underwhelmed by the Porsche. Like many other German cars, it feels good when you can push it hard, but how often can you push such a car hard in regular driving? The Mazda feels much more lively in normal, around-town driving.

The Cayman was better than the Boxster, but still feels heavy compared to the RX-8. You totally nailed the difference.

The other surprising part of the equation is how smoothly and quietly the RX-8 rides compared to other sports cars. I have my father babysitting a 2005 until my oldest child of three is large enough for the front seat. His primary car is a Lexus GS 400. He bought a 350Z as a second car when they were new, rarely drove it in the year-and-a-half he owned it because it beat him up so badly.

After he got rid of the Z, I suggested he check out the RX-8. Found a great deal on a silver 2005. In the year since he bought it, the Lexus rarely gets driven except on trips.

As for the silver curse, my understanding is that silver cars are much more likely to be involved in bad accidents.

Enjoy the car. Glad to hear that someone else with seat time in a lot of cars thinks as highly of it as I do.

 

well here go's i'm 50 and loving every minute of it. i have had over 25 cars so far and this is by far the most fun,best sounding(ms exhaust&k&n drop in)car i have ever owned.don't get me wrong i had a 1967 dodge cornet that ws wisper quiet and ran like a bat outta hell and a 1969 road runner that launched the front wheels off the ground at any stop light.but on the safe side i love this car for being one of the best i have owned in years even with the bad sides there are more good times then bad.so all in all i am a happy ole fart untill something better comes to throw my brains cells for a loop or two!!!loving it!!!hope you do too

 

MP3Guy, in 1976-1977 Suzuki made the RE-5, a Wankel engined motorcycle. The engine was a single rotor, 500 cc displacement, water cooled (I don't remember the horsepower). Suzuki didn't make very many of them, they weren't very popular (this was before the original RX7 came out, rotaries back then were the RX4 and Cosmo, which didn't exactly set the world on fire with sales records). I bought my 1976 as a new leftover in 1978, I remember paying exactly $1,000 for it (God, I wish I still had it now, they have become something of a collector's item). The bike had futuristic styling, there were circles and spheres in many of its styling elements (tailights, instrument pod). It was fairly plain looking by today's standards of anime crotch rockets or chrome laden cruisers. But it was different, which is why I bought it.

Like any Wankel, it didn't have a lot of low end torque, but it was smooooth, and it would reevvvv (I think the redline was around 10,000-11,000). Just like our RX8's, keep the revs up and it would absolutely fly. The smoothness and sound really distinguished it from other bikes, it was very comfortable to ride long distances. But, as with any rotary, the gas mileage was rough - I averaged only about 25 mpg, which is not great for a 500 lb bike (but then again, the difference of using 50 gal vs 100 gal gas a year was a small price to pay for the fun). Interestingly, it didn't seem to consume much oil (unlike my old RX4).

I had it for a couple of years, and then ended up dropping it on a highway run after I hit a patch of gravel in the rain (nothing like plasma-planing your way across the road after hitting it at 65 mph). The bike was OK, I actually drove myself to the hospital on it (stopped at a gas station along the way and used a garden hose to wash out some of the gravel that was ground into my left arm and leg). I was a bit spooked because the accident happened on the same day as a much more serious accident I had a couple of years before. So, I fixed and sold it...

mkaresh, I agree that in some ways the Boxster may seem underwhelming compared to the RX8. I hate to say it, but the RX8 is more fun to drive. The Boxster is very solid, exudes a feeling of competence and "seriousness". Despite its being a true mid engine, it feels like the polar moment of inertia is actually lower with the RX8 - it is more tossable at street speeds.

IMHO, it seems like either one "gets" the RX8, or doesn't. It's not a straight-line muscle car for acceleration, which so many people really want (and then of course would be disappointed, that's what Mustang GT's are for). People talk about a sports car "fitting like a glove" and becoming an extension of the driver. To me, that's what the RX8 is all about. It's such a fun combination of a smooth, free-revving engine with a tossable, neutral chassis. With many performance cars you really need to push them at >8/10's or at supra-legal speeds to get the feel of their handling capabilities. In the RX8 I have a blast taking turns at legal speeds. The car changes direction so easily, so naturally, and the engine revs so willingly. The engine and chassis really fit well together, the RX8 wouldn't be the same car with a piston engine. I think the RX8 is a bargain for the fun drive it offers - the Lotus offers a similar tossability but at a much higher price.

I think Mazda found the right niche for the rotary engine in a sports car like the RX8 (they can call it a 4 passenger sedan or whatever other marketing lingo they might want to put on it, but it still feels like a sports car). They have a monopoly on the rotary market - I'm surprised they don't leverage it to their advantage and expand the line of rotary sports cars with a rotary Miata and a rotary RX8 convertible (as a big brother to the Miata). But then, Mazda is effectively owned by Ford, and they are having their own massive financial problems these days. Ford is in a downsizing ("right sizing") mindset, not one to make significant investments in niche sports cars.

 

Guys keep the comments coming on how the Rx-8 compares with other sports cars. The 8 is my first sports car since I primarly owned trucks in the past. I've never driven BMWs, Audis, or Porsches and I'm curious to know how the 8 compares amoung these cars.

 

[QUOTE=Razz1]Watch out for the Silver curse.......

...what is the 'silver curse'?

 

[QUOTE=enforcer]I think its been covered in earlier post in here........supposely silvers are known to get into more accidents than other colored RX-8s

But anyways, awesome post. Most people always tell me or ask me, must have a lot of ***** or must be really fast and i'm like nah.....its not that fast. But what i do tell them is to just drive one.....

I've had friends who were like RX-8 are slow 0-60 but when they went to the zoom zoom live event.......all of them came out smiling after driving and they finally understood why i was obessessed with the car. It's all about the feeling, the handling, not straightline speed and for a moment they finally understood and even respected what the RX-8 was meant to do.

The RX-8 is probably one of the most misunderstood cars and i'm fine with it, some people get it, some don't. But for those in the know, its a great driving experience to know that we have something that more expensive cars may or may not have.

 

+1. Nice to see another rider appreciating the resemblace of the 8 to a bike! I posted something similar, and was made to believe I was crazy.

See! I'm not the only one! *manical laughter: Bwahahaaha!* I'm not insane! I'm not! You hear that "mother!" I'm not the ONLY one!

Another member's sarcastic reply

I hate you! You made my life miserable! I'm telling "mother!" You'll be sorry! You'll ALL be sorry...muahahahahahaa. You haven't heard the last of me...the Phantom LIVES!

Oh ****! I'm sorry, I forgot myself for a moment. *Clears throat* Yes, the car is similar to a motorcycle in many ways. *Runs away*

 

Thank you for your comments. Reason I asked is that I never met anyone who owned one, and I have a book called "Car Styling" Volume 10, that features the development of the bike. Pity no one attempted to pick up where Suzuki left off. The book delves mostly into the design elements, but there are cutaway drawings of the engine. Most interesting. One of the first water cooled motorcycles, BTW.

By the way- the bike was designed by none other than Giorgetto Giugiaro of Ital Design. If you don't know who he is, well, friend, you don't know cars. The hand of the master.

 

I was thinking the same thing tonite when I went to pick up my daughter from a friends house. FORGET THE STATISTICS. As I punched the accelerator up a winding hill, I thought "this is how the first XK-E drivers must have felt." The feather light clutch, the "click-snick" shifter, the way the engine responds, all combine for a driving experience that does not exist anywhere else- for three times the price.

Screw the nay-sayers- they don't drive REAL sports cars. And if you can't understand the difference, you're poorer for it.