I can’t seem to gather enough information here whether or not “we” like them. And I’m more interested in the Rotary part, not the swap in an LS part
I can’t seem to gather enough information here whether or not “we” like them. And I’m more interested in the Rotary part, not the swap in an LS part
I think in general we do like them. The problem being the renesis which can be rather finicky and needy. What the renesis boils down to is that it's sensitive and needs a good supply of fresh spark plugs, ignition coils need to be upgraded or replaced regularly, and the engine doesn't like short trips and should be wrung out to redline at least once (hopefully several times) every time it is driven.
Honestly the rest of the car is troubled free. The main thing is the damn spinning triangles in the renesis. I fell in love with the RX-8 within the first mile I drove it in 2004.
I think most would say it’s a great car, that doesn’t get great mileage and has an 80,000 mile engine.
Its probability one of the best implementations of a comfortable 4 seater without a 4 door look.
Nope.
The whole RX8 thing was a swing and a miss.
Pete
Absolutely.
Its an NC that looks hawt, with space in the back for the kiddos.
...and the price tag is now so low that it justifies buying one and paying a shop to drop in a fresh rebuilt renesis (although I have no love for the renesis)
The prices are indeed very low. It’s tempting for sure but I personally would need a better forecast for longevity for a daily I could trust
I liked my 09 Rx8 R3. Had the updated engine which was supposed to last longer. I sold it with around 50k trouble free (engine wise) miles. I tracked it and commuted in it. It felt like a bigger Miata with a bit more GT quality.
That said the maintenance sucked. I did plugs and coils at least 3 times, oil (expensive idemitsu stuff) every 3k, and fuel additive. I did decat it for tracking. But due to a growing commute, horrible fuel mileage (18mpg average) not driving it in winter, and high maintenance costs I sold it and got a Golf TDI and Miata track car.
I don't really miss it but I didn't hate it either. With anti-roll bars and an open exhaust it handled awesome and sounded great! If you can put up with over maintaining it go for it.
I was all hot and heavy on getting one but then came to the realization that they’re not hatchbacks. For some reason I thought they were - for like a decade I thought that. I guess the rx7 being hatchback and the sloping rear glass and short trunk lid made me assume it. Without the hatch my want level dropped a lot.
I don't. They're like a worse version of the FRS/BRZ. Great chassis hampered by the motor choice. And I'm not talking about power in either car, but character and longevity. In both cases the question seems to have been "what if we use something other than a regular 2-2.5 inline 4?" And the answer seems to be "then it won't be as good as it could have been".
But I'm a grumpy old bastard, so take that with a grain of salt.
I like mine, it's a great track car and I've had absolutely no trouble with it. I don't hate the fuel economy, I just figure that it balances out with the seriously depreciated prices compared to its contemporaries.
PMRacing said:That said the maintenance sucked. I did plugs and coils at least 3 times, oil (expensive idemitsu stuff) every 3k, and fuel additive. I did decat it for tracking. But due to a growing commute, horrible fuel mileage (18mpg average) not driving it in winter, and high maintenance costs I sold it and got a Golf TDI and Miata track car.
Were the plugs and coils necessary? Based on all the tales of woe I've read, I changed my coils and plugs @ 60k on my 07. There was no change in feel or anything, but the plugs were due. I use Rotella or Mobil 1 oil every 3k. What fuel additive did you ad?
I love my Rx-8. I've owned it since new, and I've done a few track days (5?) and a lot of autocrossing. No real problems. It's not tuned or anything, and all I have is a cat back, shocks/springs/sways. It's nice to have the back seats, I like the looks (which admittedly are very polarizing). I had the compression tested at the Mazda dealer right before my 8 year warranty ran out, and it was still fine (65k I think?). Just remember that it's a 10+ year old car now a days, so normal 10 year old car stuff will be failing, like I think I'm losing an engine mount for example and there's a heat shield rattling occasionally. I do add a bit of two stroke oil to the gas if I'm going on track as a bit of additional insurance.
Handling is amazing on them, they're a more fun miata under high speed conditions. Be careful about unintentional speeding, they'll do 120 mph with no drama at all, it's easy to creep up to 100 on the highway. Engine is boring unless you're willing to drive it like a sport-bike, all of the fun happens above 5k, then it's quite fun.
They seem to be driven by people I wish didn't have licenses...
My wife had an RX8 and we loved it, but we got rid of it because it was a pain in the neck to own. Now that I can find them for cheap all over the place I've thought about buying another one but I'm just not sure I want to deal with it. I think it's a car that is cheap enough that someone interested should try one but go into it knowing that there are some things about them that require a bit more love than most modern cars.
They're like a worse version of the FRS/BRZ
I've only driven each of those cars less than 10 miles but I agree that that's the closest comparison. An FRS/BRZ is more expensive but also more reliable and more practical for everything besides having actual people in the back seat. The RX8 gets you slightly more performance out of the box but with the caveat of being needy and potentially having major failures. I acknowledged the reality of the engine problem when my friend who was a rotary expert coming off a low-13 second naturally aspirated (!) RX7 had his super low mile Rx8 engine fail even after proper use and maintenance. But, the prices for early cars are now so low that I think their issues are reflected fairly in the price.
They're an awesome car.
Since the comparison has been made of the RX-8 to the 86/FRS/BRZ - The RX-8's engine revs fluidly to redline and makes fun noises. On the FRS the torque dip and drop off after 7k means the engine only works for about 1500rpm. When you're trying to have some fun on the street and the FRS falls into the torque dip, it kind of ruins the fun of a given corner. It feels unnatural to me to keep my foot in it when the engine is losing steam. The FRS engine sounds terrible too. The FRS does have a little better steering and nice front seat comfort. Handling/nimbleness, etc. of both is similar, although I have a slight preference for the RX-8. Brakes are better on the RX-8. Storage wise there are some scenarios where the FRS' hatch/back seat setup would be more accommodating, but for for the most part the RX-8 trunk/back seat would hold more. I think the RX-8's interior is nicer too.
"Let's build a practical sports car...An enthusiasts perfect daily driver."
"No, let's build a wildly impractical racecar."
"I know, let's build the practical sports car chassis with a wildly impractical racecar engine!"
Don't take this as an RX8 hater comment because i don't hate them, but i'd be surprised if the (correctable) torque dip on a FRSBRZ dips all the way down to whatever the rx8's torque is at 4000rpm. And the torque level of the Rx8 is pretty much impossible to improve aside from forced induction. I feel like the FRSBRZ designers might have tried a little too hard to make the torque level pleasant at 3000rpm for normal driving, because if the torque level at 3000 was less than it was at 4000 nobody would have come up with this torque dip whipping boy and while the car might feel slower everyone says it feels slow anyway, and nobody complains about the torque at 4000 rpm on an Rx8 because it's still more than it was at 3000! Oh well, rant over.
I liked mine, a lot, but then again I've owned a bunch of rotaries and am well versed in the care and feeding of them.
Would I buy another one? Probably not, but that's only because if I bought another rotary, I'd either get an FD or an RX3.
I love it. I almost bought a series II but the compression test came back bad. And there's the rub. It could be a major headache and even when healthy, they are sorta needy. The whole package isn't quite good enough (IMO) to warrant all that. I had a 79 RX7 and loved it - but the RX8 isn't quite as charming.
It's a shame - I liked the RX8 more than the BRZ I ended up buying. The Renesis is a sweetheart and actually feels pretty torquey. The FA20 is great on paper but hard to love in the metal. Tuning and such wake it up, but it's still not a loveable motor. The RX8 felt faster than the BRZ for sure and encouraged you to rev it out every.single.time. I also thought the RX8 steering was even better than the twins, though many disagree.
I would love to have a late RX8 someday - but right now I can't deal with a potential rebuild (even thought a 13B rebuild is cheap) so I got the BRZ.
I always thought the bumps over the front wheels were an awkward design.
I fell in love with mine every time I drove it. If you're a fan, there really is nothing like winding a rotary out and keeping it screaming, and having that available in a modern chassis that was very easy to drive near the limit was a real hoot.
I couldn't be guaranteed that it would work every time I wanted to drive it, though.
I drove an NC Miata. It had most of the things I liked about the RX-8, minus the wonderful rotary experience, fixed roof and back seats. The PRHT version solves one of those problems.
Vigo said:Don't take this as an RX8 hater comment because i don't hate them, but i'd be surprised if the (correctable) torque dip on a FRSBRZ dips all the way down to whatever the rx8's torque is at 4000rpm. And the torque level of the Rx8 is pretty much impossible to improve aside from forced induction. I feel like the FRSBRZ designers might have tried a little too hard to make the torque level pleasant at 3000rpm for normal driving, because if the torque level at 3000 was less than it was at 4000 nobody would have come up with this torque dip whipping boy and while the car might feel slower everyone says it feels slow anyway, and nobody complains about the torque at 4000 rpm on an Rx8 because it's still more than it was at 3000! Oh well, rant over.
Prior to driving a FRS, I honestly thought the torque dip was probably slightly sub-optimal, but not the end of the world and over-hyped. You make a fair point about the torque dip at 4k being similar to RX-8 torque, but it's the character of the FRS' engine that I dislike. I prefer the character of the 1.6L in my wife's Hyundai accent to the FRS' engine. I don't like the character of the 2.3L Ecoboost in the Mustang either, but it's very effective at providing thrust. The RX-8's bottom end power isn't great, but it's so fun to rev you forget about it. You can drop gears to get around it and find some fun revs. It's harder to find fun revs in the FRS.
I kinda miss my RX8. Never really had the reliability issues that everyone complains about. Blast to drive. Handles like a larger Miata and winding out the rotary is a blast. Got rid of it at 180k and all the known issues hit at once. Coolant level sensor that is built-in to the overflow tank, clutch pedal bracket and temp control circuit card plus getting close to 100k on the replacement motor.
I had a 2005. They are in a lot of ways amazing cars. The chassis and handling out of the box are excellent. The motor is really fun to wind out and the car is comfortable and actually can seat four people.
That said, as a practical car it is lacking because of the care and feeding it requires. Also, the early cars are just awful to drive in any stop and go traffic. The lack of torque down low and the gearing just make it terrible for that situation. The Series II improves on this with different gearing. The gas mileage is really pretty bad. 18mpg on the high end is what I would see even if I tried driving like a grandma.
That said, for a community like this the RX-8 should be a winner, because most of us know how to deal with finicky cars and the prices now are so ridiculously cheap for working ones that it's absurd. Some friends of mine picked up a low option no sunroof car for $2k that they drove the snot out of for a while before they did their own rebuild on it. Now it serves as a trophy winning nationals autocross DSP car. That car seemed like a deal even with the minor body damage it had and the overall lack of care until they recently found a CL ad for a non-working 2005 Shinka (pretty much the same car I had) for $500. They went down there, bought the car, push started it on the way home and it started up and ran. One new starter motor later and it is now one of their daily fleet. Car has basically no real flaws.
If you know what the problems are with the cars then you can find some amazing deals if you keep an eye out. The average person has no idea how to take care of the issues with these cars, but there are only a few things that stop them.
Granted these issues combined with not giving it proper oil changes and being aware that it burns oil as part of the combustion cycle can lead to engine failure, but in many cases the car is still very usable even with a failing motor. A rebuild of a rotary is not complex, but the part cost is fairly high, but it can be worthwhile.
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