Well I've talked them up to ~$6300 now, which is certainly still less than I would have accepted to sell the car prior to the accident but about $600 better than yesterday. Getting the feeling I'm probably not going to do a whole lot better than this, though. Gonna stew on it tonight and get back to Flo tomorrow.
I've also got to get the title basically converted to a salvage certificate before Flo pays out. I have some questions on that process, which I'll probably just ask in another thread.
in ohio i had to go to the title office, tell them it needed branded as salvage for the insurance company, and that was it. we just emailed them a picture of the title marked salvage.
so you're at $6300 minus 1100. do you get your $500 back later or is the 6300 taking that into account?
i'll zero you out on the t56 setup and you have free LS1 and the same amount of cash as if someone hit you for $700 less than your asking price. 
no i don't expect you to sell me the trans stuff for 1100.
on the rx8 vs Miata
from what I've read you can get a ls swapped NA Miata in at about 2400-2500 lbs and can fit 205 tires
The rx8 is about 3300 with the swap and can fit 275's.
How does the weight vs tire width trade off work here? I love how nimble the Miata is and I'm a big believer in simplify and add lightness.
In reply to patgizz:
Yea, I would get $500 of that $6300 back at a later time. So less the $1100 salvage value, that's $4700 in my pocket now, and $500 at a later date.Just realized I presented that differently in my post yesterday, which is kind of confusing.
PA is really stupid with title stuff. Like, aside from the one main PennDOT office in Harrisburg, there is no 'title office' to go to. There are drivers license centers all over the place, but they don't handle anything title related. That's all handled by independent notaries (i.e. privately held businesses with no association to the state govt), or car dealers, or AAA, who then mail your stuff in to PennDOT. It takes forever and sucks when you're trying to do anything remotely out of the ordinary (my motorcycle, with Vermont transferable registration in lieu of a title was fun.) I'm probably just gonna take a half day Monday and go to Harrisburg so I don't have to wait 6 weeks to get the salvage certificate by mail 
At this point, I'm almost certainly keeping the t56. If things change, you've got dibs.
In reply to icaneat50eggs: With just a little massaging you can fit a 225 on a 9" wheel under an NA Miata. That's about all you can hope for in a street tire on a 15" wheel.
With a LOT of massaging you can jam a 275 Hoosier under an NA Miata. Not great for street use though.....
I like the RX8 as an actual "car" much more than the Miata. I say go with that.
In reply to icaneat50eggs:
I feel like I've seen more like 3000-3100 for the RX8 but I could be wrong.
I haven't really looked into the Miata too much yet, as I was under the impression there is a LOT more ancillary work required to support the swap. Like, pretty much none of the driveline is up to the task, right? I might also just be making excuses to myself because I don't want to admit that the thought of a 300++ hp, 350++ lb-ft, 2400lb roadster scares the E36 M3 out of me 
The RX8 is really sounding great on paper, for all the reasons everyone has mentioned. I just am having a hard time getting past the likely wiring/can bus integration headache. For as much street driving as I would intend for this car to see, I think full functionality, or darn near at least, is a necessity for inspection. Seems that most of the instrument and idiot light functionality is preserved by using the Mazda ECU, temp/oil/ect sensors, and reluctor wheel, but the CEL is still an issue. OBD port can show just fine running off the GM ECU, but if the light is on its still an issue. At least that's my understanding of OBDII emissions in PA, anyone feel free to correct me if I wrong.
E46 seems to be a bit better sorted in terms of the canbus integration, but still pushing the limit of what I'm willing to tackle with electronics. I like the Z32 and actually checked one out prior to buying the Car it, but it's not really pushing my buttons right now. Neither is the Jag, strangely. I've liked the 944 for as long as I've liked cars, but we've been over that. Plus Porsche parts prices. I've also bought two American cars in a row now and I'm craving something foreign again.
E36 might be the goldilocks, but I'm not in any rush to buy yet until I get paid. Lots of research still to do and I may very well change my mind.
In reply to Furious_E:
Spitballing here: swap the entire Camaro harness (most of it, anyway)and gauges into the RX8.
Install rx8 gauges onto chevy engine, figure out how to feed gm rpm signal and speed signal to rx8 computer, dont mess with rx8 canbus stuff or computer. Wire gm SES signal to cluster harness? I'm not sure how they do obd2 swaps, because it's supposed to say it is an rx8 when they plug it in.
Treat the GM computer as stand alone. This is how i wired my impala. The stock computer is hiding under the air cleaner and keeps the dash happy. The 98 camaro computer keeps the engine and trans happy
So the Miata needs a rear end swap vs the rx8 canbus issues.
I'm more familiar and comfortable swapping mechanical bits then wrestling with wires and electrons.
Most of the builds I've read for rx8 swap the rear end to get useable gearingnor wish they had
Try talking to V8Roadsters and the other companies that make swap kits and they may have something worked out that's not very well publicized, or at least be close.
Vorshlag was working on CANBUS stuff for an LS swap into an FRS. I think they also said they thought it would work on RX8's....
Didnt Flyin Miata work on Canbus for the NC? Shouldnt that translate to Rx8?
I'm doing the 302 E36, and it's damn near done. If I was like you and had an LS drivetrain sitting around I probably would have done that motor instead, even though the transmission is heavy.
If I had done the LS route, I don't think I would've need to buy much from Vorshlag (I weld). I love that company and I buy their stuff like camber plates, and they offer a quality product. But buying the turnkey solution is not what I'm about.
For me, the 302 swap got easy once I sucked it up and relocated the ABS pump to the front left corner of the engine compartment. With that done I could just run a standard shorty header. I used two passenger side ones, with the one on the D/S dumped forward. I don't see why you could not do the same with the LS. Maybe you might need to cut & weld a section of tube a little, or hammer the header tubes a little to get some clearance, but that's no biggie. (And based on an Engine Masters video you can find on youtube, where they hammered the crud out of a header and it dyno-tested with MORE power, I no longer worry about header tweaks.)
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