New Daily Driver
 

For those keeping score as of late, I've sold my 911, sold my RX7, and have a sale pending on my S8. The mission is to simplify life, reduce time wrenching, and pay off my house (done!). Not wanting to daily drive an F150, I picked up this last weekend. It's a 2009 Mazda RX-8 R3 with 34k, overall a very nice clean car. The R3 is the ultimate performance model, following the R1 and R2 models of the FD RX-7. The R3 gets a stiffer suspension with Bilstein dampers, structural reinforcements, Recaro seats, BBS forged wheels, LSD, and some interior/exterior styling stuff. I previously had a 2005 RX-8 Sport and really liked it, so this was a no-brainer. These cars are getting dirt cheap and are a huge amount of fun for the money. You have to enjoy the rotary experience, but they have excellent steering, razor sharp handling, one of the best manual transmissions on the planet, and a super stiff chassis. The R3 placed highly in several magazine "best handling cars" articles, beating out expensive stuff like the GT-R and Viper. I'm really enjoying it!

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Very sharp and you’ll likely appreciate the extra room over the new Miata you were considering.

Curious how close the S8 came to the hammer price on BaT. I was watching the final few minutes when I realized it was yours!

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Matt got a new car, must be time to file my quarterly taxes! :) Nice grab Matt!

Nice pickup! My friends used to have NA and Turbo II FC's, they were a hoot to drive. They just wanted to oversteer all the time and it made for such fun drives in the canyons! I did like the FD, but my friend's keeps blowing up, so I decided against getting one. The RX8, I didn't really look into, as I wasn't too keen on the styling. The R3 looks great though, and I hear the chassis is fantastic! How does it compare to your older FD?

Looks like my old one!!

I sold it with 30K on the clock it was a 2009 as well.

Get a stiffer front sway and more aggressive alignment and it transforms the car. They handle fantastic straight out of the box, make those 2 changes and it will blow your mind.

I am sure you already know about Premixing, if not ask, I premixed all my Rotaries and it really helps them a lot.

I miss mine a lot only 555 made in 2009 once my wife heard me say that she was afraid to drive it anymore. Plus she hated the A pillar and B pillars on it.

I was indifferent, the lack of visibility could be forgiven due to the amazing handling.

Enjoy!!

Still bummed I could not get my hands on that FD.

If your friend keeps blowing engines he was doing something wrong.

I had a FC with a 13B-REW swapped in, it put 490 to the wheels. The engine went in around 2008 and the new owner of it (I regrettably sold it like an idiot) is still enjoying it running Autocrosses and Track Days with it.

To be honest I blew 2 engines. 1st due to a boost controller malfunction and poor install causing it to hit 3 bar at an AX event.

The second died due to overheating, the thermostat was stuck closed at a track day, I did not initially notice, once I did I just said eff it and drove it all weekend overheating. I drove it to the shop the following week to pull the motor, it would still turn sideways in 2nd gear, engine was toast everything was warped. Amazingly it still ran and ran strong. Freaking rotaries are freak engines.

Everyone with FC's had no issue, even after a full bridgeport and 600whp.... only my friend with the FD makes it go kablammy. Definitely a user error, haha. It looks beautiful but I felt a bit too cramped in the FD. I felt like I had way more space in the FC and Miatas.


Ahhh, the good ol' hooning days with the FC... :D
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Check out that sticker!

Honestly it's a better chassis. Much stiffer, better ride/handling tradeoff, more stable, feels like the limits are higher, possibly better steering in terms of response and weight. Better shifter, better interior, more practical. The FD had the edge on power for sure, it's about 200 lbs lighter and had a solid 40-50 HP advantage. Then of course the FD is drop dead gorgeous, while I like the look of the RX-8 it can't compare.

Hey Jim, it's actually an under 10k motor due to the first owner not driving it leading to carbon build up. PO premixed since new, broke it in per Pineapple Racing guidelines, everything you would look for in a rotary PO. BHR ignition, resonated midpipe, header, new coolant tank, poly engine and rear diff mounts, spacers, increased oiling rates and reduced fan turn on temps, etc. Pretty much checks all the boxes and sounds wicked at WOT.

Wish I could have sold you the FD, but it went to a good home. I was texting with the guy today, he's already put almost 5k on it.:)

Hey Matt, these are on my radar... only concerns.
I hear a lot of "on the second motor" comments in the ads, are these engines hand grenades?
I also hear rotaries get horrible gas mileage, is that true?
TIA

Glad it worked out. Was watching the BAT thing, if I wasn't moving in a month I would've sent you a pm.

LOL!! @ the Shenanigans.

My FC, I did a lot of Dragon runs in that thing. It was tuned pig rich. One time a friend was following me in his Noble when he called me on the 2 way radio and said he was afraid to light his cigar due to the fumes my car would put off. He was afraid everything would ignite while he was following me. :D BTW - Mine tipped the scales at 2650 lbs and made 490RWHP, that is pasta rocket destroyer numbers. I had fun messing with them at track days.

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Matts cousin RX8 up in NC when we were on a Dragon trip, my sons S50 swapped 318is in the background.

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That's awesome, thanks for the insight! I also remember hearing that wind noise was always pretty pesky with these RX8's... is it true? I'll have to drive a RX8 one of these days!

The problem with Rotaries is most do not know how to take care of them.


You cannot start one, move it 15 feet and shut it down, you need to warm it up even take it for a ride before shutting down.

I am also a firm believer in driving them as intended, never own an auto one, they need to rev up, I always tried to push close to redline at least once every time I drove mine.

I always premixed mine, like 6 ounces per tankful of 2 stroke oil. I am not going to write a book I am just going to say it has been proven to make happier engines.

Gas mileage is poor. My RX8 best mileage was 22 MPG on a road trip doing 80 MPH and AC on the entire trip.

I typically got 17-19 MPG because I drove it like I stole it a lot.

I sold mine to buy a E30 with a M50 swap. I hope to toss in a S54 this winter and make it a much more interesting car. While I regret selling the RX8 I LOVE this E30 and once the S54 is in it, I think I will be OK with my decision. :D

HAHA that sounds about right! Every modded FC my friends have owned have been pig rich. It's just a rotary thing, they love spitting flames!

Those are some pretty nasty numbers! I get lots of excitement driving these older cars with gobs of power! Sometimes I scare the daylights out of myself, but it's too fun to stop! What did you have done to you FC's motor, was it street ported or full on bridgeport?

I do recall a friend had a FB that always backfired a few minutes after you turn the car off for some reason. It was pretty hilarious parking in front of the grocery store with it!

That is kind of what lead to me selling mine.

I was driving it around one Saturday morning. I pulled into a pull off. I think I have video somewhere of this too. I pulled out with the video running, I have no idea why I even had it on. When I pulled out I did not take off very fast I was just cruising.

A bro-Dozer (Jacked up 4x4 truck) came flying up behind me and put his bumper inches off the back of me. I dropped two gears and floored it.

I pulled away from him fishtailing side to side in 2nd gear, grabbed 3rd, stayed in it, he was a dot in my mirror, I pulled a little of 4th then realized I needed to scrub speed for some turns coming up. I was probably hitting 110 at that point.

I scrubbed down to 80ish... made the first turn... then the next one was sharper, I was able to scrub some more and just made the turn at 60ish..... 40 MPH would have been quick. I was taking that turn entirely too fast for a public road.

I drove some more, subdued then headed home.

I was about 1 mile from home when I looked down and say my engine temp was 210 not kill the engine hot but more than I typically see. I pulled into a lot and discovered one of my E fan relays were melted..

I parked for a while and hot wired the second fan. Drove it home.

Repaired it.

Then put it on RX7 club for sale at a ludicrous price no one would pay for it.

I sold it 3 days later.

Big regrets to this day, I have a standing offer to buy back from new owner. I check in with him yearly.

I can relate, I've had to deal with a ton of those brodozers and just normal idiots on the streets of California.

I also have a kind of similar story...
6 years ago I did the first big overhaul on my Nissan 240sx... running 25psi on a stock block and headgasket wasn't the best decision I made, but it was freaking fast! A few months of running it and driving it like I stole it, cylinder 4 gave out. Opened it up to find the ringlands had completely grenaded, and cylinder was scratched up good... so on came the rebuild. Rebuilt it, got it running, but a few months later the motor grenaded. We figured out it was ECU related. At this point I was thinking of selling the car at a loss, then finding another one. People told me I'd regret selling it, and would never find one in the same original condition, so I listened and just decided to build it as a project. My friend gave me his spare block, and we did an overbore and built the bottom end, AEM series II, electronic boost controller, and a whole bunch of stuff to keep it super reliable and hold up to 650whp. Dumped way too much money into it and i'm still nowhere near that number today in the name of reliability and fun. After the build was done, I was cruising on the streets and a random dude driving next to me wanted to purchase my car offered way more money than I spent total on the car. Politely declined, but I still get a call from him every now and then asking if I'd be willing to sell. Can't sell it, keeping it for the long run!

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This was 6 years ago when we were playing around and figured out I couldn't fit a 285/40/18 on the rear without bodywork :D

As I was reading this thread, I recalled this RX8 for either sale or trade

https://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/bar/d/2007-mazda-rx8-needs-little/6626937373.html

Does it look like something to pursue..certainly seems like a good price, but I'm not familiar with rotary engines at all

An Auto rotary ? Run away.