Ninja

You'll find all kinds of opinions here... With something as subjective as how to spend money, it's no wonder you're getting so much different advice.

In the end YOU are paying for it, you have to live with it, and hopefully you will like it. Do what you want with it, because you sure won't make EVERYONE here happy.

However, you WOULD do yourself a favor and all the other drivers that share your roads by taking a preformance driving course. You're going to want to play with this vehicle (step on it HARD every once in a while)... you might as well know how to wrap it around corners quickly and safely, and you might as well learn the limitations of your vehicle before you start playing too hard. It handles GREAT, but it cannot defy the laws of physics.

Good luck, and enjoy your well earned vehicle,
-Dennis

ironmedic

i am in the military and bought mine
it helps that my wife works in the military too. our car is an automatic cuz of the wife. i begged and pleaded with her to get the manual but she refuses to drive it. all we did was buy the typhoon and b&b exhaust for the car. i have a 96 Cobra that i mod and play with!

xxMax Powerxx

Who cares where the money came from. Engine mods don't really exist, yet. You could wait until they do and then buy a FI system. That's what I would do.

Sorry to say it, but you are going to bang that car up a bit. All kids do, everyone here did. It's natural and part of evolution. Stay away from spending much on body kits and paint.

It doesn't matter if you were right or wrong about transmission effecting insurance; you are stuck with the auto, not worth worrying about. Since it is a 4 spd auto with no torque... it is not worth trying to race. You will not win.

If you have a burning desire to spend your dough... do track schools, as someone else suggested. Save your money for the super/turbo charger that will be out in a year or two (if you must spend more money on the car).

Having recently done the college thing, my biggest advice is to save that money for school. If you have a pile of cash, you won't have to work and school is way more fun with a pile of cash and no employment obligations. Even if you are there on a full ride, you'll need plent of money for beer, books and supplies, women, computers, pizza, various equipment and activities. Besides, you're doomed to bang that car up anyway. If you don't, someone you park near at college will.

You can always upgrade your AV systems if money is still burning a hole in your pocket.

NomisR

Type of transmission should have no bearing on the insurance prices, the ones I've used don't even ask what type of transmission your car is. It's just an excuse for not knowing how to drive a standard just like how some people use bumper to bumper traffic.

Pete

Jezzz .... guys, cut the kid some slack. He asked a simple question becasue he needs some advice. Maybe he really did earn that money for mods

***

I went through what you're going to be going through when i had my first car. I spent close to $25,000 CDN dollars in mods on my first ride. I suggest getting what you want. Not what everyone thinks looks good. The car on it's own looks fine. If you think the car needs a bit more power then grab an exhust system and a cold air filter. That should push the HP up a bit.

Good luck

DreRX8

rx7~rx8 --'Shake them haters off' Must be from DALLAS! I feel that tho-- ALREADY! :D

NomisR

I'm with Gordon, a session in performance driving school is significantly more useful in making you go faster than any type of performance mod ever would and would help more once you modify your car as well. Also you have to keep in mind that any amount of money you toss into your car in modifying it, you will most likely not get back. What more is that most of those items may actually cause your car to depreciate more.

Liquid Rhino

No offense, being as though I was (and still am) actually happy for you to own such a cool ride and mentioned that there was nothing wrong with choosing the auto for various reasons...

My favorite thing is that a coupla threads back, homeboy was all like, "I'm a super safe, law-abiding, careful driver, my folks trust me, I'm mature for my age and I deserved this" and now it's all *magically* changed to, "I'mma trick this thing out dirty race-style and hunt down everything on the road..." Now that's comedy to me!

canaryrx8

iTrader: (3)

just be happy with what you got, a lot of folks your age are driving daddy's/mom's family truckster or a 10 year old car with mismatched wheels and tons of smoke pouring out the back. Just enjoy the car and give the aftermarket some time to come up with stuff, at your age you will have plenty of chances to trick stuff out so there shouldn't be any rush with this car.

magixpuma

Cut him slack u old foogey lol look at his sig it gives the price.

oxyg2n

i'm just trying to be nice, since some people are rude to him. i'm sure we all here wants to do mods to make our car look and perform better than stock. this car is a sports car, you expect people to race it, but at least race it legally. just trying to point him to the right direction.

Liquid Rhino

Check it, while I want to apologize for possibly coming on too strong about my last thread (i still think it's funny... even his handle says it all) I would like to be both honest as well as helpful in answering your question, VelociRedBeast... so here goes:

--- rant goes here ------
It's a great-looking car that's an auto. You're gonna (naturally as anyone else) want to further enhance and personalize it to your tastes. And that's as cool as it is normal. Just be sure you don't spend more than you should considering the lack or performance to be gained.

And don't worry about all this stick power-trip either (I drive my friend's 6MT all the time), as let's all be real here... this is NOT all that fast a car to begin with... there's many cheaper/better/etc. cars out there to be playing boy racer (which shouldn't be done in the streets anyway, as that could hurt or kill someone, due solely to that one wannabe racer's insecurity).

Take their advice, go to a driving school and enjoy yourself ON THE TRACK and keep the stop-light wars off the streets.
--- rant ends here ---

VelociRedBeast

Actually Liquid there is the Ocala Race Track a few miles from my house and that's where everyone goes to race legally. and anyways "Racer" was just a figure of speech to make a good thread name.

jerryf

I think you should go the performance route. Sure you'll probably spend more dollars per horsepower than the other guys, but I get the sense that really isn't an issue here. Be among the first to explore potential of the 4-port Renesis. A high-flow cat should be beneficial. And what about an E-manage. You may not get MazdaManiac results, but there should be gains to be had. Our engines don't spin as fast, but lightweight pulleys could free up a little HP. A lightweight wheel/tire combination can only help.

Lead, don't follow! Carefully document your results, so your efforts can be appreciated by others. A G-tech may be a good purchase to help with this. Who knows, perhaps you can wring enough power out of the 4-port motor to give an un-modded 6-port something to think about.

As I am an AT owner with somewhat limited funds, I say all of this somewhat selfishly. I'm sure however that there are a lot of other AT owners out there with the desire to mod, but are unsure of results, and unsupported by this forum. You have the opportunity to do something unique and cool, or you can be the 50th guy in FL with a Mazdaspeed bumper. Choose wisely. Best of Luck.

shawrf1

When I was your age... j/k.

If I were to do it all over again, I'd spend my money on invaluable track time, track time, and more track time. While you can also benefit from driving schools/clinics, the ones that benefitted me the most were the open track days (not race) that allowed me to drive and test my own car's limits, braking abilities, etc., regardless of driving ability. Unless you're real competitive, you can also look into autocrossing it with your A/T. Drive the hell out of it... safely!

Good luck and congrats on your achievements!

rx-7~rx-8

okay.

I say get some 20's and roll... roll... roll... roll.... :D

kn34

i just want to know how this turned into how good everyones grades are. he asking about a car. this is why some people dont come to the forum anymore. because some have to put there senseless points in about something that is not related to the original topc. so where better if we get good grades in school. is that what this thread turned out to be. ill make 40,000 as a law enforcement officer after my academy.with a highschool gpa of 2.7 am i a bad person. so anyway back to the topic. dont rice and dont race it at this point. like everyone said wait till turbos come out or anything that will imoprove performance thats worth the money save up. alot of the people in here know what there talking about so listen to them. also earch for different ins. .........there is no diff. in auto or man. there both four doors so its not considere a sports car to the ins. company. manual shoul be cheaper espec. with that gpa

guy321

If you want it to go quicker get a nitrous kit or, at the least you could purge nitrous everywhere you go to make people think you have it :D

Atacdad

I think the car is better as a road car than a race car. I'd skip the engine stuff for now and make it look like you want. The only exception to that might be a cat-back...if you want it to be a little louder

Aoshi Shinomori

Look man I'm not trying to start anything, but please don't go around correcting grammar, especially when your grammar is less than perfect. Besides, a lot of people on the internet use different forms of shorthand. So please get off of your high horse and run a grammar check on your own response before claiming this 4.2 grade point average. Ranked is the word you were looking for, am I correct?
Anyway I really hate it when people nag about spelling and grammar, because that's just not what this forum is about as far as I'm concerned.

kn34

i agree with aoshi if it was a grammar website we would sit here all day and correct. if you knew what the person was saying even though it was missing a letter then so be it.

rxsleeper

Age has nothing to do with intelligence........




As for the age and driving: I am 17, and I am lucky to get to drive my father's 8 when he is out of town. I have never gotten a ticket and never been in a wreck (well... I was in one, but it was one car and didn't affect the insurance.. I think it got my attention enough to keep me careful when I am driving.) YES, I don't have as much experience as a 35 year old driver, but that doesn't mean I don't take care of my car and pay attention when I am driving.

I hate watching others get flamed because they are young and drive a nice car. Some people are better off than others. Its human nature. If you don't like people buying their kids nice cars or spending their hard earned income how they want then feel free to visit a communist country sometime.


Sleeper

(om-nc's son... just so ya know)

shaolin

^^^ Well said! My only qualm with him is that he said he pays for everything himself, and in his own name, when he's only 17. Truthfully, I'm calling BS on that one. I have no doubt he pays for it, but a 17 year old can't obtain financing. At least not where I'm from.

Cheers.

kn34

back to the topic please..........remember racer or ricer...........not how smart or dumb people are

superrx8

The only reason AGE became a factor in this thread is BECAUSE the op brought up, if he simply asked for what's a good first engine mod for my auto, or what's a good mod to make my car go faster, etc w/out any further unnecessary circumstances or extra background info, he has much to learn i say :P, as for answering his questions, i have no idea, i don't even own an rx8 yet