LC05VRY - 2005 Strato Blue 231

[Pingping010101]

Welcome to my personal car thread!

I have posted a few of the images below in a couple of other threads but I think the time has come to create a thread especially for this car.

In late 2018 LC05VRY appeared on eBay, being sold by LC Rotary. It was their show car for sometime, with appearances at various shows promoting (I believe) TPS, KODE and LC Rotary. It appeared to have already had everything fitted that I would have wanted to add and seemed like a great option with a recent rebuild from a known (sometimes not so great) engine rebuilder that was sure to be a great buy. I sent a few messages to the seller (Reece, I believe) and he sent me a few photos and a very thorough walk around video with the car running. Unfortunately I was unable to go ahead with the purchase at that time and so didn't make an offer on the car but I still had an itch in the back of my mind to find another, equally well spec'ed RX8.

Fast forward to May 1st 2020. I was in a position to buy a new 2nd car and told my wife that I was going to begin searching for an RX8 S1 or R3 to park on the drive. On my very first eBay search the very same car - LC05VRY - appeared in the search results, for sale and £1500 cheaper than it had last appeared! I was working overseas at this time (and still am at the time of writing this post) and so I tried to contact the seller via eBay in order to find out a little more about why he was selling it.

The story he told me was that he had bought the car from LC Rotary (TPS? KODE? are these all the same company? There's certainly a link here somewhere...) and that he had had no end of trouble with it. He bought the car in January 2019 and moved it up to Edinburgh where he discovered a rusty sill under the sideskirts, a recently rebuilt engine that was consuming oil much more heavily than expected and was suffering from hot and cold start issues. The seller tells me that he tried to resolve these issues with Reece at LC Rotary but was unable to get through to him by telephone and none of his messages received a reply.

As the seller is a well-known Subaru tuner and an RX7 owner, an engine rebuild in his own commercial garage swiftly followed along with a replacement of the driver's side sill with a genuine Mazda item and a respray of half the car. He drove the car for around another 4000 miles before deciding that his own RX7 needed an engine rebuild and it was time for the RX8 to go to a new owner.

And that is where I came in... 10 hours after he posted it online a sale was made and the car passed in to my ownership, sight-unseen and with a promise to store the car for a month or two while I arranged a house move.

Here's the spec and some photos from the 2018 advert:

2005 Mazda RX8 231

Full genuine Mazdaspeed kit
Mazdaspeed rear diffuser
Mazdaspeed oil cooler ducts
Custom made carbon bonnet
Custom made carbon boot lid
R3 style e/rotary rear led lights
Adjustable rear strut brace
Corbeu fixed back drivers seat with Luke harnesses
321Ti 3" manifold back system
Tubular exhaust manifold
Rotary revs uprated coil packs with magnecor leads
Rotary revs 100mm maf tube
Lightened pulley set
Air pump delete
Lightened flywheel with Exedy stage 2 clutch
Racing beat enclosed induction kit ( cai )
Mapped to 256hp
Various engine covers hydro-dipped in carbon effect
Passenger seat, door cards etc retrimmed black leather with hydro-dipped carbon effect seat backing
New bose amps for door speakers
Kode seude steering wheel
Kode shifter and short shift
Rotary emblem volume knob
CMST 18x9 wheels
Pirelli PZero tyres
Blue stuff front pads
Dba discs front and rear
Ferrodo rear pads
Racing Beat front roll bar
Racing Beat rear roll bar
Racing Beat drop links all round
HSD monopro coilovers with custom springs
Engine covered 4219 miles since last rebuild, goopy apex seals, new side seals etc and full master seal kit fitted, housings refaced, new water pump, new oil metering pump etc, mild street port.
Windows tinted limo rear 50% front tint
Large sunstrip
Driver side sill fully replaced for new mazda sill and sealed / painted as well as bumpers etc to tidy up
Kode bonnet raisers
Kode coolant cap

71k miles on shell

[Pingping010101]

After purchasing the car and then seeing images of T200CAD I decided that I must have lambo door hinge and that the fitted Corbeau seat would be unsuitable as I wanted to get my kids in the back seats. I also decided that I wouldn't be keeping the steering wheel (due to lack of airbag) and the KODE gearknob because nothing else in the car will be pink.

ChrisHolmes was selling parts from T200CAD and I was lucky enough to reach a great deal with him to obtain a set of Lambo Door Hinges (the good type), a leather and alcantara interior from an Evolve model that were fitted to his RR54 and a standard steering wheel and gear knob. After a few chats Chris also very kindly agreed to fit the parts for me on his driveway once the T200CAD shell had been moved, as I am still overseas and stuck due to Covid restrictions in country.

A few days before the car was due to be collected the guys at SPOOL MOTORSPORT sent it for a valet and it came back looking very clean.

[350matt]

Looks cracking

although forgive me for saying so but 256bhp......
I somehow doubt it
how does it drive ? Or have you not yet had the chance ?

[Pingping010101]

Today is the day that the car has been collected and it is now on the trailer and on it's way to Chris!

[nightfire10]

Shinny

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk

[Pingping010101]

Looks cracking

although forgive me for saying so but 256bhp......
I somehow doubt it
how does it drive ? Or have you not yet had the chance ?

I haven't driven it yet - I am positive that it doesn't make anywhere close to 256bhp. That was copy and paste from the seller's advert. It will go on a dyno at some point but that won't be soon as I am yet to get a date for returning home.

I did a bit of photoshopping and I'm considering having the wheels refurbed in a bronze colour. Everyone I show them to seems to prefer the silver, however.

What do you think? (These are a bit too 'gold' - I would prefer a bronze more similar DrFrankenRex's recently sold R3 wheels.)

[Pingping010101]

Here's a few things I would like to do to the car moving forward:

• Replace interior with Evolve alcantara interior

• Fit lambo door hinges

• Replace steering wheel & gear knob

• Remove sunvisor strip

• Remove window tinting

• Remove the bonnet raisers

• Refurb the wheels in a bronze colour / change for an alternative

• Replace the tyres if they're out of date or unevenly worn

• Rotary Revs master reset service

• Replace rusty wheel bolts

• Consider an option for fitting a rear wing - I prefer the MazdaSpeed style

More will be added, I am sure. Along with a rescue fund if the engine destroys itself in the near future.

[Yorindesarin]

The wheels in that gold wouldn't go. You'd definitely want a more bronzed colour if you do go down that route!

[kopite72]

That car is straight up beautiful,you simply can not beat the MS kit on the S1 8,its gorgeous That colour is the best colour for the S1 IMO too,it just pops.Just my two bobs worth here but if you can manage to get a hold of the Recaro seats from the R3 I'd defo get that in to the car.I've owned an R3 and those seats are brilliant.

Regarding the wheels I'd leave them alone but that's your call obviously,I just think that the silver contrasts beautifully against that colour.Tyre wise I ran Vredestein Vorti's on my R3 with zero complaints,brillant tyre

Not much wrong with the 585 coils but I'd be leaning more toward Ryan Rotary performance these days.

Lambo doors are a no for me but if its what you want then go for it.I just think that they belong on well....Lambo's

I know they are as rare as be damned but if you can get a genuine MS wing do it,it would complete the MS look beautifully

[mi60o0]

Sorry to hijack you thread what wing you will be after I have 2x japspeed wings if interested

[Scotty PZ]

Beautiful car, I think I have seen it down at LC rotary at some point before they folded. I absolutely love this colour, it's contrasted beautifully by the carbon bonnet.
Bronze wheels would look lovely.
To clarify, LC rotary was run by Lee who employed a chap called Josh to do most of the engine builds. LC worked closely with TPS, as in next door to each other, they merged for a while with Ztps selling parts and LC doing the mechanical work,, a little while later they separated. When LC went bust TPS brought Josh over who now does engine builds for them.

[v-rex]

Really brought the colour out when it came out of the valet. Lurvely.

I agree the wheels are close but just need to be a slightly
different shade. Maybe bronze. Can't quite put my finger on it...

[Pingping010101]

I feel a heavy sense of responsibility with the car arriving at 8am Thursday morning. On with the car cover until I get the car port built which as you can see is in the early stages!

[Pingping010101]

Beautiful car, I think I have seen it down at LC rotary at some point before they folded. I absolutely love this colour, it's contrasted beautifully by the carbon bonnet.
Bronze wheels would look lovely.
To clarify, LC rotary was run by Lee who employed a chap called Josh to do most of the engine builds. LC worked closely with TPS, as in next door to each other, they merged for a while with Ztps selling parts and LC doing the mechanical work,, a little while later they separated. When LC went bust TPS brought Josh over who now does engine builds for them.

Thanks for clarifying this Scotty, I knew there was a link somehow but I wasn't sure of the exact details.

[Velocity_Dan93]

Lovely looking car! Nice to see another mazdaspeed
Pop up on here too, not enough of them about as complete kits these days

[Pingping010101]

Sorry to hijack you thread what wing you will be after I have 2x japspeed wings if interested

I'm thinking of waiting out for a MazdaSpeed one to turn up just to retain the full MazdaSpeed body kit idea. I'll think about it for a while longer before I decide.

[mi60o0]

Aliexpress 200 or 220 delivered unpainted

[ChrisHolmes]

It’s heerre!

[Pingping010101]

As Chris has shown - it has arrived with him! I really can't thank you enough for all the help you've given me, Chris.

Unfortunately there is some damage to the drivers side rear wheel that I hadn't noticed before but this looks like an easy repair (I hope!) and the tyre still holds air.



Chris's initial feedback is that the single exit exhaust is noisy and described the sound as raspy. I don't know if this is a good thing or not - I enjoy a loud car but I don't want it to sound bad. Perhaps a twin exit Toyo system should be found at some point.

Chris has also taken a look at the paperwork with the car and can see that it had a rebuild in Aug 2015 and another in 2018 by LC Rotary. It only covered 13295 miles in this time frame and was rebuilt again last year by the new owner. This doesn't say much for the work of the engine builders. I hope it doesn't turn out to be scrap from the off. I will plan for a rebuild at some point but I was hoping it wouldn't be straight away!

Hopefully Chris will have some more feedback when he has time to take a look and the weather improves!

[Pingping010101]

I found these wheels for sale on eBay and I really like the style and the colour.

[Pingping010101]

I like the look of those wheels and the colour.

[ChrisHolmes]

They look great and a good colour to go with the car. Do I sense a box arriving here in the future!

[warpc0il]

What offset are those wheels?

[Pingping010101]

They look great and a good colour to go with the car. Do I sense a box arriving here in the future!

I can wait for the car to return home before replacing the wheels - you are doing enough for me already!

The wheels can be found here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19-Zoll-MM02 ... 3005040777

[V8 Power]

What offset are those wheels?

They are 45mm offset and 8.5 wide

Dave will tell you how that affects overall offset