Well I just finished packing up the car for a bit of a drive. In less than 10 hours I start off on a 16 day road trip through the south west. Just the planned loop, without sight seeing, will take me 5200 miles. That is 800 more miles than I currently have on odometer. If you happen to see a CR with a club decal and Iowa plates tooling around your area be sure to wave. There are only two 8’s in my area and the other is even plainer than mine so it would be nice to see others. I’ll be down along route 66 then up the PCH (CA hyw 1) and back through the mountains along I-70. There are some side trips planned but those are the general areas I’ll be.

For those wondering how these cars do for extended trips, I’ll post how it does when I get back. I’ll also be checking in from time to time on the trip.

 

Sounds awesome. You should start a photo diary thread with pictures of your 8 in all the different places.

 

I bet you can't wait to get out of Iowa and see some real scenery. I drove to colorado recently through Iowa and Nebraska, and good god was that boring.

Have fun! Keep us updated.

 

I remember mountains and real seafood...I grew up in SoCal. Yes, I am very much looking forward to seeing something other than corn stalks 8^)

 

Oh man, I really dread long trips to relocate because of the extra weight. 400 pounds of luggage neutralizes the weight advantage. Even small amounts of weight here and there upset the delicate balance of the RX8. Yet, a weak 4-passenger sedan rental can hold 4 people without feeling any different.

Have you found out where the best place to put all the weight is? I think the trunk seems best, and back seats seem real bad as far as the "feel" goes.

This makes me feel a little better. 7000 miles in 2 years of normal driving, then add 1500 relocation miles, plus an upcoming 3000 miles of relocation coming up in the next 6 months.

 

Well I'm now sitting in southern Utah after several days following R66 and tooling around the grand canyon area. So far I have seen 4 other 8s. 1 green in St Louis across the street from Caleco's Bar and Grill (2 blocks from the arch) and 1 VR stuck in a 3 mile long line on a highway near Huston Missouri (forgot the hwy # but had a burned out semi blocking the east bound side). Then I didn’t see any until Arizona where I saw a very clean east bound Pearl White. The last, a lightning yellow I saw near Colorado city Utah a couple of hours ago. We sure seem to be rare. I actually had on person come up to me today and say “That sure is a nice racing machine you have there”. I found that quite humorous.

Anyway, Xandreal (the name of my 8) has been working great. Not a single issue so far and about 2K put on her since last Saturday. There are 2 of us in the car and enough junk to camp for 2 weeks in the trunk/back seats. I managed to get 27.45mpg doing some running to the south rim of the GC yesterday but attribute most of that to down hill areas. My current trip average has been about 22.5mpg with some surface level driving in larger cities (Tulsa, Amarillo, Albuquerque, etc). I have to say that I probably don’t drive near as hard as others here though. I’ve noticed going to the GC that if I’m not at least 15 over posted people are trying to run me over. I did have a good chuckle when a Chrysler 300 (model?) tried to keep tailgating me into a 40mph curve at around 65mph. Needless to say he stopped riding my rear for awhile. I do know though that I am not pushing this car at all, she’s pushing me (I have yet to see the DSC kick in <sigh>) but hey, I’m used to Iowa driving not real hills and curves. I’ll keep to my pace and just do enough to keep the others from trying to run me over.

Anyway, I’ll be here a couple of days then moving on towards the coast. The adventures up to now have been many and I’ll probably write them all out when I return home in little over a week. I tend to like writing up trip stories to help me relive them later. I’ll post a link to it for any who are interested when I do. The crazed trucker stalking me through Amarillo should be a fun write up (though it wasn’t fun at the time).

Well off I go again, time to go drink some beer and see if there is a Mazda dealer in the area. I have to get my 7500 mile check up done and don’t know where to take her. Anyone know a good Mazda service center in the St George area?