No, but the car came with the kit as a dealer installed option. I would have reather sepnt my money on more performance mods, but this was the only white 03 for hundreds of miles. I wanted white and wanted the bugeyes, plus I didn't mind the bodykit.

 

The car looks a little different now with clear side markers, and when I bought the car (as pictured) the kit wasn't a great match so I had them repaint it and add rear door caps that they forgot to put on. It's also a little lower now.

 

Not a bad looking ride Ike.

The dealer that I bought my RX-8 at was also a Subaru dealer and had lots of WRX's, but they all had these HUGE-MONGOUS wings on the back, your spoiler is ten times nicer looking than the '04 box wing thing that they all had.


As far as limp mode on the dyno, yes, sure, it exists under several circumstances. DSC/TCS can kick in, but is easily disabled. ABS also can cut throttle (and/or possibly modify a/f?), but it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference. Search for Canzoomer's dyno tests where he redirected the output from the rear wheel sensors to the front wheel sensors to get the front-back wheel spin factor negated and he didn't manage to come up with any noticeable difference at the end of the run.

Of course, he's adding 30 at the wheel (or so) by changing the fuel map - that's always promising.

Regardless of whether we're really losing that much horsepower from the drive train or the new numbers Mazda gave after release aren't exactly correct, I think we all just need to live with what appears to be our current baseline hp and work from there. This car doesn't seem entirely adverse to taking many mods (only seen a few successful FI's though), maybe Mazdaspeed will start looking at some more performance oriented mods rather than appearance oriented - if not, it's aftermarket time in a few years as the warranty clock starts ticking down.

 

No, not bad looking at all.

More like hideous, but that's just me.

 

You know you'd probably have the exact same response about the RX-8 if you went to almost any other forum. Many others think the RX-8 looks hideous. I personally like it but then again look what forum I'm on right now. The 3rd gen RX-7 will always be a much more beautiful car though. Another opinion.

 

Coming from you I'll take that as a compliment.

 

Wow!! Ike...man that's a nice WRx...I love the wheels. Not a fan of bodykits though....but your's looks good.

 

Absolutely right. I drive daily, cornering like a maniac, and it is a blast!! IMHO, there are many more hard cornering opportunities than hard pulling opportunities. That said, I would like to do both and do plan on modding my car. Right now, I believe, we have between 192 and 200 at the wheels. It appears that about 45 hp can be gained with tuning and cat removal or cat change to a high flow high temp cat. With nox and/or charger (turbo or super), it might be able to get up to between 300 and 320. That will be sweet.

 

Thanks man, I go back and forth on the bodykit, but I'm still very happy I stuck with getting the white so I can't complain.

 

I like the new WRX STi design better. It looks more refined. But I would prefer Ike's wing than the STi's.

 

It's pretty split on what people like better, even in the Subaru community. The unique look of the bugeyes appeals to me, but the new frontend is growing on me. At first I didn't care for it at all which is why I went out of my way to get an 03 even though 04s were coming soon.

 

I had always wished that the previous generation WRX would get brought to the U.S. but they didn't. Just the plain Impreza. I loved the way they looked. The newer ones have really grown on me though. I pondered buying one for a while but I will always be a rotary person at heart.

 

Ike, I always thought you had the Sti. I'm disappointed.

 

Hahah! If Ike had an STi, he'd be 3 times more offensive to RX-8 owners here. I was on my way to getting an STi and even thought of getting the WRX wing for it too. But it was too much money for what I would use it for.

But I have to admit though, out of all compact cars out there, the WRX takes the prize for the best sounding exhaust (aftermarket, non-fart). There are several of them in my school.

Back to topic: Has there been an RX-8 dynoed on an AWD dyno? I wonder if the results are more accurate.

 

You would.

Dumb ***

 

I can see drug use is legal in the forum. While I love the RX-8 there are a multitude of cars that out perform it. RX-8 is not a 0-60 car. If you're driving from point a to point b on the street the RX-8 is great. Sorry, the RX-8 is a fun sports car that excels in the curves, with passable power.

 

Thanks for proving my point.

 

Wouldnt make a difference.
AWD dynos do not spin the rollers themselvs!