Silly car of the month choice

So, I was looking for a lexus, or a Jag. Something large and auto and lazy.

Then I did the logical thing and bought an RX8, because that meets no set out requirements I had at all.

We all hear horror stories as regards these so i wanted to document it, because if it can go wrong, it will as regards me.

Day 1 Review,

It's scary. When you are given a list of things you *Must do* to prevent engine annihilation, its enough to put people off and its very easy to see why so many Rx8's end up dead. Its on a par with coupe ownership as regards paranoia if not higher.

Its not a lot of money for a lot of car, It photos badly and is much nicer in person. You don't really see how big and wide the car is until you walk around and sit in one.

To drive, Well the seating position is just right for me, the steering is direct and has nice feedback, I have been used to driving abarths and fiats (same) which have horrid electric racks. For the larger chap the seats are exceptional and you still sit in them rather than on them?

The large tack taking center stage makes it kinda feel special. The binnacle and dash is really rather pretty imop. Everything that's important is right there in front of you.

The center dash is a design disaster, its like mazda chucked a box of buttons at the dash and there are to many simuler nobs badly placed.

example 1, to set the heating position you need to press a small round button at the bottom of the concel, around which are other smaller buttons. To know what this button is doing you need to look up on to a tiny LCD dash to see it cycle though. The tune station button may as well be on the drivers door for how far it is away. Lets just go with im like big round nobs (please, no jokes) and this is why I still love my panda) I dair say Ill get used to where everything is but its something that frustrates me about newer cars, the over complication if simple things one does really not want to take there eye of the road to piss about with.

Its lower than you expect, but higher than you think. You sit low but the car is reasonably high and doesnt catch speed bumps

To drive,

Love it, I thought id be upset about the lack of no turbo and the low torque of a wankel, but I absolutely LOVE the way you can just ride the revs like a wave and just how smooth it is, It makes country B road driving very enjoyable and this is where this car shines, because is sh*t in town (im going to get back to that) The two places this car is truly at home is the B road, and the motorway. B road its smoth as silk on a freshly buttered floor. It feels flat with little role but some how manages to absorb bumps that would make me hit the abarths roof lining and then cringe and you know your about to remove 0.5mm of the underside of the sump.

Motorway driving is calm, quiet, relaxed, there is little cab noise and the car seems to become very planted and less lively, almost heavy. The abarth was a bottle of pop that you just dropkicked across the floor in an effort to catch it, You knew you were going to be in for a bad time and you were probably going to have to stop soon and face the music of opening it and having to use the restroom to recover.

Around town, like visibility? nope, that's for wimps, like to know where the back end of the car is? nop, its larger than you think? Need to creep though town, best hit that gym because your leg will be trembling like its your first work review and you just slept with the bosses wife. To say the clutch is heavy would be an understatement, and to say that its easy to use with such little mass spinning.... Its something ill get used to but I do feel sorry for all of my car clutches until I can easily adapt driving style.

Due diligence, do your research and be prepared for a bill, just like I know you are as a coupe owner, Apex seals WILL DIE, but if you accept that, budget for it and understand this will be the price of owning a rotary car that people love to hate, you will find peace, you will find happiness, and you will find many, many petrol stations

I have always fancied the idea of one of these , i really like the 'prodrive' special edition ... and of course being able to chuck the word wankel into a conversation or two is a real bonus.

Sam's mates have been doing that for years Good luck with that though Sam they are nice looking cars IMO. And have enough quirks to keep you happy (and busy) (and poor )

Hilarious write-up, had me wtf-ing and oh-I-seeee

Pretty sure dlongstaff got one (in black as expected ) after his coop was written off, and he liked it

I had a blue one a few years ago and loved it.
The only reason I sold mine was that in winter I used to get around 15mpg!!
Part of that was my fault for spanking it everywhere and partly the cars fault for being really uneconomical.

They are great cars for the tiny money they cost at the mo but as you say Samsite,
you need to be prepared to get the seals done eventually. Mine was sold on the original engine/seals at 108k and was fine.

One thing you must do is let the engine temp reach the first mark on the gauge before shutting off the engine.
If you don't you will most likely flood the engine and it will be a bast*rd to start or maybe not start at all.
Plugs and coils are critical on these too.
If they haven't been done recently you will probably notice a decent bump in performance with new ones.

Thanks Daz,

I was aware the MPG was going to be bad, given the choices of cars I was looking at all were low numbers. I know from experience that the jag was going to hover around 19mpg as was the lexus at perhaps 22.
The good news is I don't commute and if I do just want to go to the shops I take one of the Panda's MPG really isn't an issue as its supposed to be driven for fun rather than reason.
I got one where the starter motor had been replaced with high output, battery is new, the coils were also done and I know there are no hot start issues so I like to think I got a good starting base.
I have a few track days I would like to do at the end of the year so looking fowards to using the car in anger.

Is this the one where you have to rev the nuts off it when stoping in order to have a decent restart?

Yes, no, well, depends. It needs to be buggered or flooded for that to happen.
Its not a car to start and move and turn off. That causes issues.

Track days should be a lot of fun in that.

I remember watching the rx8 racing on telly when they first came out. Lots of tail wagging went on.

Have you started an rx8 group yet? Joe has one, the guy who bought my Coupe has one, now yourself.

I think you've found a rwd performance car bargain there

Only needs to be revved to switch off if the engine is cold and ONLY to be done if you can't let it reach the first marker on the temp gauge.

I've been really tempted to get one as a daily driver, particularly in the winter when the single turbo RX7 is mostly tucked up in the garage.

The 8'd do handle really well, and it makes no difference to economy really if you leave them in 2nd in a 30 / 40 zone.

They are also much quicker in the real world than their stats suggest.

Biggest bit of advice (as well as the usual maintenance stuff) on a rotary is thrash the nuts off it as much as you can - cleans out the carbon, and they run noticeably better afterwards.

So the Japanese took the ‘Italian Tune up’ and made it their own

Well, its at Mazda today for a number of safety recalls, I like safety. The local mazda dealership have been polight, quick and so far easy to deal with.
Lets hope they put it all back together right!

Mazda did there work, no hassle, Im not even sure they did it to be honest!
At some point I may get time to actually drive the car again!

Good news, Another recall! So I have to get it booked in for a few days for Mazda to do the work.
On a side note however I had a full dash error light up, resolved by turning it off and on again, and other than that a really nice round the country loop to pick up a assortment of car parts!
amazing what you can get in a rx8