its just all about tires on this car.

 

The RX-8 has more RWD torgue than we give it credit for, and in the rain you can fairly easily get the tail to break free. Of course the DSC will save you from yourself at a point. The RX-8 isn't any worse than any other RWD sportscar in the rain. Of course tires do have a lot to do with it. Goodyear F1's are excellent in the rain.

 

The warnings are warranted, but nothing to worry about unless you're interested in pushing the car quite a bit in the rain. Like Jeremy Clarkson said on Top Gear, it gets a bit twitchy in the rain. It's not that no other RWD car has ever had handling problems while it's wet outside, it's just that it can kind of spontaneously lose the back end if you're really loading up the tires.

The problem can be fixed rather easily, however. Simply get rid of the standard Bridgestones and never put that brand of tire on the car (or any car you ever own) again.

 

yup! Doesn't take an RX-8 or a muscle car to lose traction in cold / wet weather.

 

maybe not a 65-67 mustang but i use to own and drive a 58 Thunderbird and believe me its worse~ so i would know a little something about old skool and modern.~ eyy im just saying, rain compared tod ry is a verrrry big difference. sorry to come off so harsh man but its true.

 

Because we don't want to see any more broken crushed 8's in the landfills.

 

^so true. we need more evo's in there and maybe some Sti's though.. lol =]]

 

Not trying to offend you, but I thought this was funny.

 

I think he really meant rev-happy...

 

Sometimes the wider the tire increases your chances of hydroplaning...

 

thats a fact.

you cover more area which makes the percentage alot higher.

 

Indeed. Cold weather period is a bad thing for the OEM tires. I totalled my 2005 8 because of cold weather, wet roads, possibly some ice, and making a quick adjustment to my course due to large animal in the road on a corner. And I was only doing ~30MPH. I'm really paranoid now when it is evening, cold and wet out... which is a lot of the fall and winter in Seattle.

 

Yeah. That works.

 

This is quite a misinformed opinion. The characteristics of a tire have more to do with the model than the brand and while the RE040 has fairly twitchy wet weather characteristics, other tires of the Bridgestone line, such as the RE960AS, do not display that quality. Branding is a poor way to determine a tire's potential characteristics.

 

+1 FWD cars are for the suck!

 

40 degF, in the rain, on OEM Dunlop Summer tires yesterday. Obviously not ideal, but with the attention the environment demanded no big deal. This morning we're already over 55 degF. Only in NE!

 

I've never driven on a set of Bridgestones that I've liked - every set has had their own problems, mostly relating to wear and wet traction. First car: Nissan Sentra. Bridgestones, needed new tires in 10k miles, wet traction was shot by about 7k. Next car: IS300. Bridgestones again, fronts wore in 5k miles (to be fair, we think there was an alignment issue), wet traction was always lackluster, especially on the rears. Second set of tires were fine. Finally, the RX8 - wear was good enough, wet traction was decent, but when pushed, the tires would just come out from under you with little warning. Switched to Dunlops and those tires ran like champions until the day the 8 had to be returned.

These are just the cars I've driven personally, I'm not even getting into all the problems my parents have had with that brand. I'd say it's pretty safe for me to recommend people look elsewhere after all the problems we have experienced.

 

If a person doesn't have traction control on the car can spin like a top.

Been a while since I did that and yes it was on the stock Bridgestones, they got better when they were about half worn... but they also got louder.

Been much happier with the Dunlop Direzzas.
Didn't realize how loud the stock ones were till I mounted these on the car.

 

newer RX-8 comes with Dunlop SP-something as stock tires which from other accounts were better tyres.

 

I love driving my 8 in rain, so mutch fun =)

 

The '05 Shinka came with Dunlop SP 8090's. Very nice tire. Much more trustworthy in the rain than the earlier stock Bridgestones, not to mention better dry wx handling and quieter.

 

^ Actually some '05 Shinkas, like mine, came with Bridgestones.

 

I believe 06+ Mazda began installing Dunlops... when the Birdstones were used up.

 

Sorry to hear that New Yorker. (j/k a fellow BCM Shinka owner!)

 

I believe that Mazda has always had a mix of OEM Dunlops and Bridgestones. The latest spec deck for the 2009 indicates tire brand as Bridgestone so they might now all be Bridgestones, but even 2008 inventory had a mix of Bridgestone and Dunlop and that trend has been happening at least since 2005 and possibly has from the very beginning.