I think I just hit the car guy lottery!

Outberkinstanding!!

Damn. Two RX purchases in the span of a weekend. Nice!

In reply to JohnRW1621:

Correct.

The Rumpkin is on a Quest.

Sometimes you just have to resign to the dark side. When I see something orange, I just figure it must be mine.

...and when I see a beige luxury car with a Q on it, it figure it's yours.

dyintorace wrote: Damn. Two RX purchases in the span of a weekend. Nice!

Yeah, it is most definitely more than I can handle. Wait 'till my wife finds out.

You lucky son of a.....

And yeah check the clutch pedal bracket. If you push it to the floor and kinda push on it and hear a creak, it's broken

SVreX wrote:

Brett_Murphy wrote: That suspension is wretched, but for the price you can't beat it.

What are you seeing in that picture that tells you much about the suspension?

IIRC, Jeremy Clarkson thought very highly of it's handling and hoonability. So, yeah.

SVreX wrote:

Brett_Murphy wrote: That suspension is wretched, but for the price you can't beat it.

What are you seeing in that picture that tells you much about the suspension?

Rear is way too low. Those handle great out of the box (I managed to get within 1s of my best MR2 laptime around T-Hill West with mine on leaky rear shocks and with a bad alignment, and I wasn't even trying that hard) and most "mods" don't improve the handling.

Check that it starts OK hot, that should tell you a bit about the compression available. Also, budget for new coils and plugs unless the car came with a receipt showing that they were changed in the last 15k.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

Thanks.

I understand about the ride height (which I can certainly improve), but I don't think we know anything at all about the actual suspension from that pic. Could be stock, could be after market, could be crap, could be gold. My point was I think our knowledge falls quite a bit short of the ability to call the suspension "wretched".

$900 cars most definitely do not come with receipts.

hell, you're lucky if you get a receipt for the car at that price! Well bought!

That color is interesting and not original AFAIK.

GOLD JERRY!

The color is not original. It's a bad paint job- bronze over white (I think) with a heavy green/yellow layer of dirty pollen.

Wow, excellent luck, Paul!

Nice! Start it in first gear and drive it to a Mazda dealership to get the clutch bracket fixed for free

Nice find!

I've seen a few cheap locally but they are all rusted out or have rebuilt/salvage titles.

In reply to calteg:

Nearest Mazda dealer is about 150 miles away, so I don't think that will work.

SVreX wrote:

Brett_Murphy wrote: That suspension is wretched, but for the price you can't beat it.

What are you seeing in that picture that tells you much about the suspension?

Alright, then: Given the ride height (which as noted, is very low), I am betting that suspension setup is some cheap aftermarket coil-over, cut coils or some other setup that ruined the beautiful factory handling in the quest for hellaflush stance. I may very well be wrong, I have been often in the past. However, I'm also partial to suspension travel for public roads in general, so my opinion of that suspension is that it isn't something I'd choose for my car unless it was a dedicated track setup.

Also, as stated, for the price with a running engine, you can't beat it and the suspension shouldn't be hard at all to improve for not much money. I gave away the factory suspension for my RX-8 for free when I went to Racing Beat springs and Bilstein HDs. I loved the ride with that setup, too.

In reply to Brett_Murphy:

Ok. Educated guess. Fair enough. I can accept that.

I'm not seeing it. Could even be nothing more than a bad camera angle. But I will check, and keep you posted.

I gave away a set of rx8 factory springs a few months ago. You should have foreseen your future and told me to hold on to them for you.

In reply to Brett_Murphy:

Bravo! Brett Murphy wins 2 internet cookies- good eye!

The ride height is 12.5" on the rear, and 13.75" on the front. Should be about 14" all around, shouldnt it?

But it doesn't look like after market. Struts say Mazda on them- no adjustable perches or chrome plating. Did they come with progressive springs? Springs don't appear to be cut, though it's hard to see.

According to my friend that I gave the springs to the rx8 is known to sag the rear springs. Having never owned an rx8 I can't confirm. Take that for what it's worth.

I think the ground effect rear bumper makes it look lower than it is. FYI, MazdaSpeed performance springs will lower the back a bit less than a 1/2" lower than the front. Had a set on the RX8 I had. I think I still have the stock springs around someplace. Would have to check. Also have a set of stock 2004 RX8 wheels. No longer have the RX8. Miss it. It was a blast to drive. Was starting to need some $$ put in it and SWMBO said we need a truck so now I'm driving a new Tacoma. Still have the answer though.

In reply to wlkelley3:

Looking to part with those springs?

SVreX wrote:

Brett_Murphy wrote: That suspension is wretched, but for the price you can't beat it.

What are you seeing in that picture that tells you much about the suspension?

While one can't be sure, I'd agree. Looks like the rear is blown out shocks or over cut springs.

Damn, those go for $9k all day by me...after they've E36 M3 out their apex seals!

I'm having the Ohlins put on mine on Friday - SVreX, if you want the stock shocks + springs from mine for the cost of postage, PM me. They're going in the trash otherwise.