Potential new owner

[mr grumpy]

Good evening, and thank you for adding me to your group. As a motorcyclist with 45 years experience I have always regarded cars as at best a utility and at worst a hazard. However, as a 14 year old putative engineer I read Jan P Norbye's book on the Wankel engine and have retained a lifelong fascination. Now I either buy another bike or... a car! And it has to be a Wankel. May I call on your accumulated wisdom and experience to advise me what to look for and what to avoid when purchasing a Mazda RX-8? Practicality is not an issue; I have a BMW RT and an ugly van for that stuff, I just want to experience the idealism of pure rotary motion that appealed to me all those years ago in its most perfected manifestation.

[GreySilver Beast]

Hi & to the RX-8OC

Please check out the EVENTS SECTION's - Events Team

[Shagrington]

Hi and mr grumpy. Add your location in your profile, there may be a local meet or two we can point you towards if you want to come along for a chat in person and there may be specialists nearby we can recommend who may have a car or two for sale.

I am told by my biker mates and from reading stuff by bikers that the RX-8 is as close to riding a bike as you can get in a car or that it has very similar characteristics at least. First thing to do if you are thinking of getting an RX-8 is to read the Buyers Guide viewtopic.php?f=25&t=24047

[warpc0il]

There aren't too many Suzuki RE5s around these days, or Nortons, or DKW's, so an RX8 it is then...

[goodeggbob]

welcome mate,if you do get a decent rx8,you will have to change your title to Mr Ecstatic,good luck.

[Ainmhidh]

Welcome.
It kind of depends on your budget - A good condition, well looked after, fairly standard series 1 is probably in the £1k-£2k depending on mileage etc. A special edition maybe a bit more, a series 2 (R3) is probably more like £4k-£6k, due to newer age and restricted circulation (about 550 left on the road).
Anything registered after March(?) 2006 will be ~£550/year road tax, before that will be ~ £200 less.
Most of the good information (and probably most of what I've put here) is in the buyers guide already mentioned.
Look for rusty sills, bubbling around the 3rd brake light in the boot lid. Check whether the ignition system has ever had any updates, and has it got a recent (proper rotary) compression test? Are the numbers fairly even across the rotors and at a reasonable value (opinions vary, but generally 6 / 6.5+ is considered reasonable?)
If I've written anything particularly erroneous, I'm sure someone much more knowledgeable will be along to correct me momentarily!

[Nerdstrike]

I propose sticking to the 231 for the higher redline. It's not a lot faster than the 192, but especially as a biker you'll enjoy the wider power band and know how to work it.

Read the buyer's guide several times. Most cars on the market now are effectively lemons in need of a rebuild, so you can bargain hard and be choosey. A crunchy gearshift can be an easy fix with the engine mounts, but a borked synchro is always borked. A "rebuilt" engine is not a guarantee. Find out who did it and how much it cost, then ask here.

The car is tyre sensitive, and ditch-finders will spoil your sense of enjoyment.

Rev it out.

[Humane-Hobgoblin]

‘A redline a day keeps the Rotary doctor away’*



*Results may vary. Ensure engine is at operating temperature. We can’t help you if you get pulled over. More than one redline a day is optional.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk