So here's the story of my first few months with the car. Unfortunately I had some early teething troubles.
The road trip wasn't exactly a success. In fact I drove much of it without any power at all after my cat disintegrated. You can see my friends blog on 350Z UK of the trip
here. I was worried that I might have caused myself permanent engine damaged by driving for quite a distance under those conditions, especially after the coolant overheated going up a mountain pass, but all appears fine luckily.
After coming back, I handed the car over to Rotechniks, who replaced my CAT, provided some good compression test numbers and were quite complimentary about how well the motor was running. Coils had been done by the previous owner, and I had been in to have the leads and plugs changed shortly before the road trip.
I purchased an uprated starter motor off the forum (the start of a dangerous habit), and having no real mechanical experience, I let my friend Richard install it for me in exchange for a few beers.
I decided to upgrade from an Auxmod to an X-Carlink Bluetooth (although the Auxmod is still installed).
I'm 6"5 and my Rex has a sunroof. To avoid my head touching the roof, I was sitting in a very reclined position.
The seat lowering mod was therefore essential. It was really easy to do, so I had a few attempts at getting it as low as possible while still being able to slide the chair backwards and forwards without it catching. I was able to lower the back nearly 2 inches, although as the front remains in the same position, the benefit to me is less, but still enough to make a difference. I still have to sit in a slightly reclined position though, but it's perfectly comfortable.
Rotechniks had identified a collapsed engine mount, but I wasn't willing to pay them for OEM mounts plus labour immediately after a big CAT bill, so after a few low mileage months, I used a nearby(ish) work client visit to pop over to Steve at Project RX-8 to have him replace them instead. He also switched the Italian mountain spring water in my coolant tank to FL22. It's a shame I'm too far away to use him as my go to guy for servicing, because I would happily recommend him. Afterwards I got to enjoy a long vibration free drive home
Other issues that came with the car were poor tyres (Zeta's if anyone's ever heard of them) and a couple of vandal scratches. I also hadn't noticed a dent in the base of the passenger wing when viewing the car. Damn! I decided that with one scratch also on the wing, it might be better to swap it entirely and sourced one off eBay. This was installed using all the available daylight on a November Saturday. I had my dad assisting, but we got stuck for a couple of hours trying to get the screws out of the trim that runs along the underside. Eventually we got there. It's not perfect, as the paint colour doesn't match particularly well where the wing meets the passenger door. It'll do for the time being though.
That's 2013 done. In 2014 I properly got the bug...