RX8 - R.I.P.... or is she?

We raised the oil pressure in the rear regulator and shimmed the front regulator to run more pressure. That should solve any oil problems.
 
Vince said:
I actually think I might buy one next year to go alongside the 911, that way I will have 2 cars with engines made of cheese. From what I can gather pricing seems low across the board:

http://hextablerotaries.webs.com/

4k gets you into basically any car on that site including Evolve's and Kuro's, The R3 and the Anniversary editions seem to demand a bit of a premium. They are almost disposable cars at that price imo and it sounds like around 2k will get you a decent rebuild should you need one.
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wow, thats a honey trap. A mechanic could go ahead and get a bargain maybe
 
You can get mint non-starters from £1k... with mint body work... if you can do the work or have access to cheap parts... and know what you're doing... yep... you could have a fleet of them :-)
 
Scougar said:
Currently my car needs about $5k of transmission work.... perhaps I should look at an RX8 !!
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That seems a lot, 3.3k to fix a 2012 focus gearbox? Surely that is the cost of a new box and not the cost of a strip down and rebuild at a specialist.

I don't actually think the RX8 is all that much of a honey trap to be honest. If you go in eyes open they could be a lot of fun. I'm thinking of buying one after I get married in November next year as a bit of a project.

A few choice mods like side porting + supercharger could make it a very fun car indeed and all the work would still be less than a basic engine rebuild on the Porsche.
 
Vince said:
That seems a lot, 3.3k to fix a 2012 focus gearbox? Surely that is the cost of a new box and not the cost of a strip down and rebuild at a specialist.

I don't actually think the RX8 is all that much of a honey trap to be honest. If you go in eyes open they could be a lot of fun. I'm thinking of buying one after I get married in November next year as a bit of a project.

A few choice mods like side porting + supercharger could make it a very fun car indeed and all the work would still be less than a basic engine rebuild on the Porsche.
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Porting doesn't really work on RX8 engines tbh ( unless in race spec and thus not road legal) and you wouldn't really get much benefit due to the differences compared to RX7 engines... I wouldn't bother. As for Supercharger, yep, great BUT not cheap, you'll be looking at the thick end of £5k for a super charger and no one really does them to fit... Turbo kits same thing...

TBH, if you want more power, road legal, forget it with the 13B engine... you'd have to go RX7... and then you'd always just think why not buy an RX7 lol..

For me, I've accepted that this car is a 228bhp car, 6.2s to 60 and one of the best handling cars, if you want a considerably quicker car, buy and look elsewhere and this is coming from a massive rotary car fan. The reaosn I've spent on Roxy is simply because I think the RX8 exterior is stunning on mine... love the buldges everywhere etc...
 
However, if have £5k+ wishing to get that power through FI... you'll be hitting 300bhp on the right turbos and around 270bhp on chargers...
 
pugheaven said:
However, if have £5k+ wishing to get that power through FI... you'll be hitting 300bhp on the right turbos and around 270bhp on chargers...
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I will be buying it for no other reason than to play with. I have seen some rotary nuts hitting 280bhp (actual dyno figures) with these which seems like some fun, that is with a supercharger and porting of the engine, plus exhausts, manifold and all the jazz. To be honest I just have a soft spot for them and its far cheaper as a toy than the 911 but if I want power and torque I will drive that instead.

What I did find quite funny is the Mazda quoted 231hp. I have been reading around and most claim that there isn't a 231 out there that makes stock power, most tuners recon that they make no more than 190/200 at the wheels regardless of if your running the 192 or the 231. Don't suppose you have ever put yours on the dyno?

I have been reading a lot of threads like this one and even with power down and the chance of the engine nuking itself I am still not put off :)

http://www.rx8ownersclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=61938
 
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190rwhp would be about 230 crank. Don't even bother listening to dyno figures from abroad because they are not comparable to how we measure over here.

Gotta be honest 280hp sounds completely pathetic for a turbocharged rotary and definitely not worth the outlay?
 
Rebuild and continue to enjoy it?

They are good cars just misunderstood. Great handling and the noise when wound up isn't that bad.
 
Mine's been remapped, tweaked and tinkered and it's kicking out 212bhp/149lbs torque... 228bhp from Mazda was always balls... standard a 228bhp will run around 185bhp if lucky!!! Simple as that, Mazda lied!
 
What's an actual realistic MPG figure for one of these? In my experience, all cars I've driven on my commute (anything from a Leon Cupra to an E39 530i auto) end up pretty much dead on the manufacturer's figures. Going by this, could anyone ever expect to achieve ~24mpg with an RX-8?
 
danza said:
What's an actual realistic MPG figure for one of these? In my experience, all cars I've driven on my commute (anything from a Leon Cupra to an E39 530i auto) end up pretty much dead on the manufacturer's figures. Going by this, could anyone ever expect to achieve ~24mpg with an RX-8?
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I averaged around 17mpg IIRC over the 18 months I owned one back in 2004. That and 1/2 litre of oil every 1000 miles.
 
I know some RX8 owners despise the idea but i would love the same car but with something like a ford ecoboost in it, still keep the light weight but with a more day-to-day friendly engine. The rotary is brilliant in a fun car not so much anything else.
 
pugheaven said:
Mine's been remapped, tweaked and tinkered and it's kicking out 212bhp/149lbs torque... 228bhp from Mazda was always balls... standard a 228bhp will run around 185bhp if lucky!!! Simple as that, Mazda lied!
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Are your figures wheel horsepower or crank HP?
 
robj20 said:
I know some RX8 owners despise the idea but i would love the same car but with something like a ford ecoboost in it, still keep the light weight but with a more day-to-day friendly engine. The rotary is brilliant in a fun car not so much anything else.
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I think engine swaps in these are super hard, if I was to go for an engine swap then something like SR20 would make sense!
 
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