My brother sells cars, I had a standing joke with him that if anyone ever trades in a $1000 RX-8, that he'd call me. One fateful day in this past November he called me and said some kid's grandfather was just talking to him, asking if anyone want a wrecked RX-8 for about a grand.

So I bought it.

It sat at the body shop with a $2000 deposit for two months before they even moved it into the garage. It took two more months after that for them to finish all the repairs. Yeah, it was entirely too long, and no one I talk to will ever take their car for repairs, but in the end I'm the owner of a car worth close to 10k, and I have less than 5 in it. And I absolutely love driving it. Honestly, I can't image a car I'd want more...well, maybe if there was a turbo model.

I had it a work, and everyone was saying how the girls will be all over me now. Moments after that conversation, a girl who had been bugging me for over 15 years to go out with her texted me once again asking if I wanted to go out. I said yes this time.

So she comes over to my house, and I offer to drive to the restaurant. I point back to my shiny, black RX-8, and she says, "nice ride." I agree. For the audio-topic part of this post, I'll say that the Bose stereo in the car is busted, and the only sound I hear when driving is the purr of the 9000 RPM rotary engine.

After dinner I invite her up to my place. She walks into the living room, aka, the home theater, and says, "what a bachelor pad." I begrudgingly agree. But that was the wrong comment. The girl of my dreams will, upon seeing my setup say, "nice setup, what do you have to watch?", walk over to my media rack and pick out "Fast and Furious."

I might give her another chance, though.

She asks you out...

likes your apartment....

the incredulous part......

Fast and Furious? Good grief, man. Don't you have any standards? (I don't. I would have watched Moulin Rouge)

Oops, it should have been "The Fast and the Furious", "Fast and Furious" is my least favorite of the five.

At least your wife has good taste in cameras.

I've always like the RXs, but have never had one. I still remember being in an RX-7 at the annual car show and everything about it felt like it fit like a glove.

Nice review of the RX-8 from BBC's Top Gear, right up until the very end. I'd have though that he'd simply recommend different rubber.

Oh, and you said something about a girl, too?

This is the fourth RX I've owned, three '7s before it.

I just put Bridgestone Potenza RE970AS Pole Position, ultra-high performance all-season tires under mine. Actually driving home from dinner with...oh the girl, it was pouring down rain. Huge areas of standing water on the road. I was so impressed with tires, it's the most sure footed I've ever felt in the rain.

Nah, Canon was just smart enough to make a red one.

Hey, I have a Canon 7D. I didn't get into it, because it feels like second-date material, but I'll have to ask if she prefers Nikon or Canon next time.

Congrats on the car and the date. Just how judgmental was the girl's voice when she commented on the bachelor pad? If she's a realist, she'll accept it, but if she's a "molder" (as in you're the clay), run the other way.

Pictures?

Was this the before?



OK, I know that it was just a random Google search result, but at least it is a picture (even if the picture is also just a fake computer modeled one).

That was the feeling that I got, that she thought it was funny how my living room is completely dominated by this system, but it'd not be something she'd ever allow in her house.

Like I said, I've known this girl for 15 years, and she's hit on me here-and-there over that time. In between she's gotten married and divorced. I've always just kept a friend distance, because she is so completely opposite of what I normally go for. I figured for once I'd give her a chance (as I wish girls would do for me), but I just don't see this going anywhere.

But I love my new car! It's getting new brakes today. I've never see a car cook the rear brakes off before the front; I have a feeling it's the traction control's fault.

It was a little less damage than that, but they got how much the suspension crumbles exactly right.

I'll find some pics here in a bit.

A buddy of mine bought an RX-8 last summer, or was it the one before... in "Cop Attractant Red".

Asked me if I wanted to drive it... I'm not really big on import sports cars, but sure, what the hell.

I didn't fit in it. At all. Best I could do is either recline into the back seat or cock my head over and stick it partially out the sunroof.

Bren R.

Driving sports cars is the one time I'm happy to be 5'7". Even the rear seats of the '8 are comfortable for me.

Alright here are two pics.

Before:


After:


I should probably resize those, but hey it's my thread I'm blowing up. OK, resized for people with tiny monitors.

Chris, since I've misplaced my grandmother's stereopticon, could you resize those. I couldn't understand why you were so enthralled with a black bumper. Also, typing out here in the ether is too disquieting.

Boy, you ARE in Maryland, aren't you? That place looks like a location scout's dream for a Pink Flamingos sequel.

How's your music making going?

P.S. I didn't know that you are shorter than I am. That changes everything, Bonaparte. I also did not know that you were a "Wankler."

Is that fender carbon fiber?

Yeah, it is. I have a carbon fiber addiction. Eventually many more of the body panels will be converted.

Not just Maryland, Western Maryland. It's grim out west, even more so than the Baltimore area where Pink Flamingos was shot.

I was just working on some tunes last night. I liked some of the drums that Trent Reznor did on a track for Dragon Tattoo, and I figured I could do better. That's where I usually get hung up on a track also, with the percussion. I have a lot of songs half finished because they have no drums. This new one is only drums so far.

Been a Wankler since 2000! Better than all those boingers out there.

Never had experience with rotary engines before. I understand you must have motor oil on hand to add periodically?

Very cool, Chris! I've always loved the way all the RX generations looked. I might very well have ended up with an RX-8, but it just didn't fit me quite right. Just couldn't get comfortable, and the sunroof was too small. Other than that, love the styling, the engineering - everything.

Hope it brings you lots of joy!

Well, that's what happens if you're the size of godzilla! :-P

About a quart every 1000 miles, depending on how hard you drive it (the oil metering pump injects oil to lubricate the apex seals, it is metered based on engine load). The dipstick has two marks full and add, they are a quart apart. Not rocket surgery, but you do have to pay a little attention to the car.

Chris, it's getting pretty dull reading everyone's gripes about how they can't fit into and RX-8. Let's just you and I rejoice that we were crippled with no such genetic disorder and move on.

Now, about the dates; you talkin' the ones with stoney pits, or the ones that can be the pits.

As I was just saying, the only fiber I regularly [pun?] purchase is the carbon kind, so the ones that can be the pits. Too bad there aren't more Romanian girls living in the US.

Photographic evidence from past events suggests that JP and Peter are the ones who are freakishly large. I'm just inconveniently large.

You forgot Ray, but c'mon, Tom, large is large. WhaddaIgottado, calculate your body sizes all by volume to prove a point?

If one can't be comfortable in an RX-8, then one has some sort of genetically or behaviorally induced malady, right, Chris?

I agree, the seats (front and rear) of the RX-8 are the most comfortable I've ever been in. Before I road in the car, I was thinking about getting some racing seats to better hold me in place (after sliding about in RX-7 seats for a decade). Not needed, the seats in the RX-8 are a perfect fit for a perfect body.

Did I go too far?

Neither. Ones with hairy pits, apparently.


Nice car dude! I like the look of the RX8 and it consistenly gets good reviews on performance.

That last one was a strange response to the quote....

I've discovered exactly where that is around here, so, no.
Besides, it'd be pretty difficult for the mutants around here to argue with "normal," let alone "perfect."

Mahky, ya ain't gots no signatchah. Wa' happint?

Huh. I dunno!? I remember removing that photo of me in a gas mask, 'cuz I figured everybody was irritated with it by that time.

But I hadn't noticed that I didn't have any at the moment!

I'm not ashamed to be seen driving an RX-8 or a Romanian.


Bob, could you direct me to examples of how far things can be pushed here, so I don't go too far?

Apprently, Chris, if a member posts a new avatar that another member finds to be hysterically funny (and gay) you are not supposed to say so. Well, OK, you're not supposed to say so the way I did.

See, you can say "F" or "effen" or "WTF," or, if you bury it deeply enough into a post, even the whole f-bomb. However, consensus revelead that one is not to use the letter "f" when it is immediately followed by a dash (-) and the word "buddy."

One cannot make any correlations between an Axiom member's former screen name, and that Axiom member's member.

Nor is one to threaten (even jokingly) that any Axiom member's avatar shall be uploaded (by another member) to a gay dating site. (OK, is wasn't a dating site. It was a "then where TF are you right now" kinda hook-up site.) Nor is one to make suggestions as to either the nature or the placement of pubic-area tatoos, especially if that same suggestion is intended to increase traffic to "their" personal ad not of their posting.

Finally, it doesn't matter if the subject of the humor is also amused by it and does not feel threatened.

That's all I can tell ya, otherwise I'd be going too far.

Here I was thinking that I read (well, skimmed) everything here, and I seem to have missed some stuff!

What year is it, anyway... or did I miss that?

Bren R.

You know it will be no until you start posting threads of classic sports cars you own (preferably convertibles).

Are your referring to my post? All I could think when Chris mentioned Romanain girls is that Europeans don't shave their pits.

Oh, wait, you mean the car part? Just trying to stay nominally on topic...

Eastern Europe got such a stigma of being hairy, that just about every girl (and many guys) there wax everything below the ears now.

I kinda miss the hair...

Um...I got my brake parts in the mail today, will be having them installed on Thursday. Back on topic, yeah!

I'm having trouble following this thread. Perhaps the title needs to be updated

I haven't had that big a laugh here for a long, long time. Thank you, Bluey.

All women are "molder's"
Some work quicker than others

Wow, the front rotors for the '8 are heavy. I like to keep my unsprung, rotating mass as low as possible, but I also like to stop.

If anyone is curious I went with Racing Brake's stock upgrade slotted rotors, with Hawk HPS pads, and Goodridge G-Stop stainless braided flex lines.

Oh, I found a neat bug in the 2004 design tonight. If your coolant is on the full side (probably overfilled because the radiator was replaced with the crash damage, and who knows how much coolant the stupid body shop added), and you make a hard right-hand corner with a hot engine the over-flow will dump right on the connector of the electric power steering pump.

Let's say that makes for an interesting second half of the corner.

The coolant overflow tanks were redesigned in 2005. I think I'll pick up the new one. Thankfully the power steering did come back after the car sat for a bit. I'll clean the contacts too.

Chris, back when I was shopping for cars in 2002-2003 I went to a Mazda dealership and they only had a show floor model of the new RX-8, which was a shame because I really wanted to test drive one. The salesman did show me a part of the casing to the rotary engine and let me pick it up. I was astounded by how lightweight it was.

I have a few of those laying around. I also have a 2.0L (the RX-7 and RX-8 are 1.3L), 3-rotor engine in storage. There are only about 1500 of them in the world.

I really love the rotary engine. It kept popping up in my life since about 1996. While my dad was driving me to the airport where I'd be flying to college, he was telling me about how Mazda had a unique engine that kept getting banned in motorsports. Then when I got to college I ended up dating a girl who owned an RX-7, even thought I didn't know it at the time. Once I was far enough in debt, I dropped out of the art school, and came back home to a community college. In my Calc class one chapter of the book had a photo of an RX-7 sitting on the Bonneville salt flats (where, I later learned, it had set a land speed record), that that chapter we learned to calculate the displacement of the engine by computing the area between two curves (and multiplying by the rotor's width). Once I started a full-time job, I had to buy one.

That's my tale.

Chris. Any idea why the rotary engine is not more popular?

It had, perhaps deserved, reliability problems when it initially launched. So the other manufacturers, like Mercedes, and Chevy (for the Corvette), scrapped their plans to use it. Ironically if there were more people using it, the advances needed to make it more reliable would have come quicker. But it was up to Mazda to go it alone.

There's also the fuel economy. People saw 1.3L and expected it to get 30 MPG, but it got closer to 15-20. The 70s wasn't a good time to launch such an engine, when everyone was changing mode from power to economy.

Aside: Sure the rotary engine displaces 1.3L total, but unlike a 4-stroke piston engine it displaces that full amount on every revolution, instead of between two combined revolutions. So a 5.0L V8 really should be a 2.5, since that's what it moves in one revolution. And then there's the redline, even the old rotaries were turning 8000 RPM. Take that 1.3L and fill it 8000 times in a minute vs. 4000 per 2.5L revolution of a V8, and you'll see why they burn the same amount of fuel. People knew the rotaries made a lot of power for their small size, but didn't equate that you need to burn fuel to make power.

Mazda was the only company to stick with it, and have had at least one rotary for sale almost continually since 1976. But since they are so rare people are afraid to go near them, and because people are afraid to go near them, no one puts them in cars.

I built a Revell model of one when I was a kid.... but only remember the basics of how it works.

Nice looking car Chris. Very few things are more satisfying that owning that special car you've always dreamed of.

Where did you get a 3 rotor? What's that out of? I've only ever heard of them using 2 rotors in production cars. And of course the big 4 rotor in the Le Mans winner.

Wish they'd race a rotary in Le Mans again. That would be awesome.

There was one production car in Japan, the Eunos (Mazda's luxury line in Japan, think Lexus) Cosmo (the Cosmo was the name of the first rotary to show up in the US). It normally came with a 2 rotor, twin turbo that was technologically between the design of the 2nd (1986-1991) and 3rd (1993-1995) generation RX-7s. But a few each year were produced with a "big block" 3-rotor.

A few years ago it was possible to hand over a pile of cash, and someone would import one from Japan for you. These days no matter the size of the pile, they're just about impossible to get. I could probably sell it for more than double what I paid.

Oh, those orientals and their crazy engine layouts...

GF's got a Boxer engine in her roller skate. Runs nice and smooth, and with a flat engine like that, the car could be designed to be even shorter... meaning I don't fit in that one, either.

Bren R.

Felix Wankel, the person who came up with the engine idea was German. He sold the design to NSU (German car maker), who in turn sold it to Mazda.

Oh, Karl Benz, who invented the first flat engine was also German.

Thanks for the history lesson Chris. It is always amazing to see how hard it is to displace an established technology. We're still typing on a keyboard designed to slow us down...

Put 4 of these engines together and whaddayaget?



I wonder if they have one of these at Skywalker ranch?

We spent all of about 13 seconds on the Wankel rotary engine in high school automotive. Instructor handed out paper on the history of it, showed us the miniature version you could hand crank behind his desk... we all looked puzzled and went back to traditional piston engines.

Bren R.

Bren, are you sure this was an engine?

Legend has it that my high school biology teacher found Harvey hand cranking behind his desk one day in class.

When it comes to Harvey, NOTHING surprises me.

This is a test.

Yeah, I was getting a page showing no posts.

You forgot this:

Fred,
sometimes I worry about you.

Hey, that's Paul Moller! I was 10 when I first became aware of his efforts to make a flying car. He's still at it, almost 40 years later. Where the hell has he gotten all the $$ for 4 decades of work without getting a product to the market?

Oh, I've been to Skywalker Ranch, and no.

Where does Moller get the money? From promising each new batch of investors that the project will be finished real soon now. It appears from the outside that he's running a scam. So the question is, does he actually still believe that he's going to be able to deliver a usable vehicle, or is he aware of the scam?

There's no way a flying car is ever going to become a standard form of transportation. People have enough trouble keeping their cars from colliding with things in 2D, they don't need an extra D to contend with.

I made an error, I wrote, "almost 40 years now..." I meant 50. That correction makes me feel very bad.

I had suspected the investor thing, but for almost 50 years and still nada??? They've either gotta be stoopit, or he's pretty amazing at something we don't know about (but their wives do).

Chris, if I ever have an at-fault accident again, I'm gonna request that my insurer only pay the cost of repairing the other car in 2-D, like with Photoshop. I can't prove it, 'cause I'm not a philosopher or a quantum mechanic, but I'm pretty sure that when I'm driving down the road, my vehicle and I are already 3-D. Like I said, I can't really prove it.

You only have to pay for the 3D repair if you ran into the other car when merging into their lane from below or above.

We'll get flying cars when the cars do all the driving for you.

I agree that's what it will take. But I enjoy driving too much, to let the car do it.

That's supposedly what Mr Moller is trying to do.

I can't commit to either 100%. It's like having a manual transmission vs automatic. 90% of the time I prefer that auto but every so often I'd REALLY LOVE to have a stick.

I drive a manual, could never go back to an auto. Also hate front wheel drive cars.

So I went out with the same girl again tonight.

But more importantly, I got the engine mounts in my RX-8 replaced (the old ones were cracked), and changed the transmission/differential gear oil over to Royal Purple synthetic. People say RP is the only oil that actually frees up horsepower. I don't have any measure of that, but it's sure is freakish how easily the car rolls along now when I push the clutch in. It actually feels like it's sliding on ice. Also shifts easier.

Tomorrow I'm going to spend hours detailing the thing. I've got the complete Zaino car care system lined up. I used to use Zymol on my RX-7s, figure I'll try something different this time.

If you're not shifting, you're not driving.

Front wheel drive works great. Just watch what the Civic Si's do to the BMW in road racing competition. Acura RSX's used to dominate when in production.

I have a RWD 2000 S-2000 with the F20c 9000 rpm 240 HP 4 cylinder and it's a hoot. FWD, RWD, both can be made to perform beautifully.

get back to the girl

I don't know what to say about her. She's pretty much the opposite of who I'd normally even consider dating, though she is really nice. I don't think I really feel anything for her, and am pretty sure if I started to spend real time with her, I'd end up really annoyed by her.

Congratulations, you're in love!

When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

Unless it's pop quiz day.

And you're dreaming, in which case you'll also be in your underwear and unprepared for the quiz.

Tell her the truth. Be nice.

Considering he's already written that she's not his type, he normally wouldn't ever consider her, and getting to know her better will only allow her to annoy him, I think "truth" and "nice" may be mutually exclusive here.

"Now that we've gone out twice, I'm pretty sure you are not my type and and will become more annoying as I get to know you. So, Dinner, still Wednesday, eight, OK?"

Probably the only line a haven't used, but hey, lemme know how it works.

Cars are more interesting than all but the worst bad dates, which can be pretty interesting.

Seldom is our "type" the right one for us.

I figure the next time we talk, I'll start the discussion about what we actually want. So far I'm being nice, because she's been after me for a while, and I finally agreed to go out.

Anyway, I just spent 10 hours detailing my car, and I'm still not finished, but my body is. So I'll have to pick up tomorrow.

So true, Richard. The "annoying" thing could still be a deal breaker. Luckily for me, however, a surprising # of people found "annoying" to have some sort of twisted appeal.

For the home theater portion of this thread.; I'm finally making progress in acquiring the house that I've wanted for years. It needs lots of remodeling work, but that's perfect to transforming it into my dream place.

Good luck with the house Chris. Nice car too BTW - I have always been interested in the rotary engines as well, but have never had the opportunity to drive one. I love the styling of the RX8.

So far this has been a very good year for me.