Trying to figure out if you guys like RX8’s

Working here at GRM, I'm fortunate to be able to drive a lot of cool cars.  Although most newer cars are fast, most also tend to feel overly isolated.   Even after driving the latest-greatest sporty car, I'm usually very glad to get back behind the wheel of my trusty old E36 M3.

About ten years ago we had an RX-8 Anniversary model show up at our offices.  I spent a weekend with it, and drove about 500 miles.  When I got back in my BMW, it felt dated....I kinda missed the RX-8. 

My take is they are wonderful to drive--- but a little less wonderful to look at.  The steering, braking, and suspension are all spot-on for a sporty car.   My issue was the RX-8 was slower than my older M3, and it got much worse mpg--- and it drank premium!   Over the course of my weekend with the RX-8,  I averaged 15mpg, and this included a few highway slogs.   Keep in mind this was back in 08, when gas prices were going through the roof.   That's pretty hard to take......especially when news of the engines only lasting 80K miles or so started to come out.   Crappy mileage and unreliability?    Hmmm......

Great cars when they are running correctly.   But they swill fuel like a big block Chevy, without the power or torque.   I still like them......a lot, but I think I'd like them better with an LS swap.   

No matter how cool they look, as cheap as they are or as sporty as they are.....its hard to justify a car that gets worse mileage for a truck with an engine that only goes about 80k miles.

I mean hell.....ive never owned a car with less than 80k miles on it

The RX8 looks OK, but the engine issues would be a killer for me - though I've always liked the last gen RX7 turbo.

Good chassis, so although the OP wasn't inclined to engine swaps, I think a modest swap, say a 300 bhp Ecotec turbo, would transform the car and make it reliable.  No idea if the trans would take the ~345 Tq long term. 

Since I'm an idiot I bought a super cheap one this summer.  "Bad SSV valve" the seller said.  So we cleaned it up and it runs, sort of.  Every idiot light in the car is lit, the electric power steering doesn't work, it misfires and runs poorly, the clutch pedal feels wonky, and the body isn't in great shape.

But I paid a grand for it and my son has had fun wrenching on it so far.  I have some mechanic friends who are interested in forming a KOTH team this year so I'm gonna sell them shares in it for $250 each under the provision that they get it running better for crap can racing.  If it survives that abuse it'll get some slicks next year and race in XP or SM at autocross.  It's never gonna be a real car again.

Is it possible to get more car for 2-3k$? At this point, the RX8 is cheaper than most Miatas. I know they have their issues, but jeezus. 

I have nothing to ad in terms of real experience with them (never even driven one), but that chassis with four seats sounds amazing.

I loved them when they were new.  I spent a whole afternoon flogging one around an auto-x course.  Mazda used to have a big customer event called ZoomZoomLive.   I went two years in a row.  One year they launched the Mazdaspeed6 and I think the "New" Miata the other year (2005 or 2007ish).  If I hadn't spoken to a few RX8 owners while in line at the event, I probably would have gone home and bought one.  They were joking about the issues they'd had.

With that said, running cars are as cheap.  The only downside tothat is that rebuild parts are expensive so it'd be pretty easy to have more invested into an RX8 than it's worth. 

ebonyandivory said:

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 

you had me at hello

mazdeuce - Seth said:

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. 

This is a pretty close comparison that is usually drawn but the big difference between brz/frz is the lack of double wishbone all around which the rx8 has. They are about as fast in a straight line and the frs/brz holds its value better but that value gap can buy a lot of fuel. 

16-19 mpg around town is normal and nursing it on the highway I can hit 23mpg but in today's day and age for 200hp thats pretty... bad

I'm the 6th owner on my 2009 and I've just done the normal maintenance, coils/plugs/wires/brakes but I did also get it at 47k miles, now almost 3 years later I am at 73k miles and I've done plugs once since then. 100% stock but I should probably ditch the cat as I fear it may be clogging. I do a lot of short trips (7mi each way to work) so I'll report back when things go pop.

If you want my advice go with the 09-11 and save yourself the headaches as they have a lot of the annoying issues (and recalls) fixed by then as well as the better gearbox, literally everything you hate about the 04-08 (to an extent) is corrected in the 09-11 models. 

funny thing is a comparable s2000 in mileage and condition goes for about 16-20k whereas the rx8 is like 5k. again, thats a lot of gas you can spend.

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.  

Yeah in about every 13b I have built (N/A) I have a hard time cresting 130wheel tq, the renesis is pretty trick with science and technology/tuning because the car engine gained displacement since the early 80s and went from 105hp to 230hp. Thats pretty impressive.  However when I got the chance to drive a BRZ I was like "WOW this is waay torquier than my rx8!" but it has no top end just kind of goes woof and makes lackluster sounds.

Joe Gearin said:

Great cars when they are running correctly.   But they swill fuel like a big block Chevy, without the power or torque.   I still like them......a lot, but I think I'd like them better with an LS swap.   

I own a also own a big block chevy, the rx8 is the fuel efficient practical car I own... I really can't get worse than 16mpg in the rx8 but the 8.1... single digits is no problem. 

there just so cheap now I want to hoarde a few and turn it into the next race car due to parts availability and the size is a bit bigger so I fit more safely inside which is a bonus instead of being crammed against a rollbar in a tiny cabin.

I want an RX8 with a hopped up LR4 in it. If I'm going to have an 80k mile engine that spins fast, I want it to at least make power. 450hp 4.8 spinning at 7500 in a car with that good of a chassis? Hell. Yeah. 

fidelity101 said:

This is a pretty close comparison that is usually drawn but the big difference between brz/frz is the lack of double wishbone all around which the rx8 has.

Small correction - The RX-8 has a multi-link rear suspension. Multi-link setups vary greatly, apparently some can be slightly better than a double wishbone setup. That said, there are plenty of awesome handling cars running macpherson struts, so I don't think it matters. :)

So basically we can directly compare the RX8 to that girl we all used to know...

I bought a FC new in 1987 and used it as my daily driver for 18 years / 287,000 miles all on the original, un-rebuilt engine…even had decent, but not great compression when I sold it.

I bought an FE new in 2005 and blew the engine at 86,000 miles…Mazda installed a rebuilt engine at no cost and I blew that engine up at 242,000 miles total (156,000 miles on the rebuilt engine).

I had a Mazda Service Center run a diagnostic on it to confirm the engine was blown and the tech (nice and competent guy BTW) laughed as he agreed to check it out saying “156,000 on a new engine would be highly impressive, 156,000 on a rebuilt engine is probably a world record”.

It was going to be $6,000 (Tri-Point Engineering or Mazda) to rebuild the engine and the warrantee was almost nonexistent (something like 3 months / 3,600 miles). I didn’t want to drop 6K on a car that even if the rebuild was done well, would always be just one bad coil pack or fuel injector away from being worth scrap value so I traded it in for $1,500 and bought my wife a new car and moved “temporarily” into her old car while I figured out what I wanted.

The handling is world-class, the engine is fantastic when it’s working, the fit and finish is easily comparable to high end cars but they styling is goofy…I would throw up a little in my mouth as I walked up to it but once I got in and strapped it on, I wanted for nothing.