AC1D.S74R

this is a major learning experiance for me as to what i really want from this car.

My name is Matt, i Live in Oklahoma and i purchased a 2007 Mazda RX-8 GT two nights ago.

after a couple of days of driving I can see the reason why they discontinued this car, or at least my oppinion: fuel economy versus power.

don't get me wrong, i do understand that the engine by design put out a lot of power, but it doesn't really feel like it. I've never owned or even driven a sports car aside from my friends El Camino about 8 years ago in highschool though, so i don't have a lot to gauge that. but for the fuel economy this car gets, plus a premium-only fuel intake, it really feels like there could be something else, but i don't know what it is quite yet.


this is my car:

I love it. I ranted and raved that i wouldn't try and race it, but it ended up happening the first night i got it- my friend's friend fell in love with my car and wanted to test it against his LS-1 V8 Camaro. naturally i said yes, because i have this sporty car that screams in the high RPM range and it just feels good to drive it up in that range.

obviously his car destroyed mine, the thing was practically a corvette, running around 350 HP and it just took off way faster than mine.

after that, i of course decided to go back to my "no racing" rule of thumb. I guess i just have more things that i'm worried about, and those are the things i joined this forum for.

Maintainance, repair cost, learning about increasing fuel economy, and other advice.

the car is fun and pretty. i love the styling and it really feels like it was built for me. right down to the fact that its impossible to forget to lock the car doors, and the fact that i don't have to worry about locking the keys in the car.

other things i want out of this car is audio. I love the stock Bose system, however, i have an unparreleled sytem in my 89 Chrysler Lebaron that i took out prior to the purchase of thise car. a few things i'm worried about is putting my stereo head unit into the dash. with the way everything seems to be synonymous with eachother, I feel that if i take out the stock stereo, i'm going to break something. the air conditioner, the littler red display that is on top of the A/C ducts, etc etc.

I don't want to pay someone else to do something that i am usually good at doing myself, but since i don't know the construction of the dash, i don't want to touch it. what can i do to solve this problem? what do i need to buy and where can i buy it?


the last thing i want to know on this post is the oil thing. how often should i put oil in my RX-8, what kind, and how much?


As i said before, i've had a pretty nice Lebaron up until now, and this car is an entirely differant world from owning a lowrider. I've never tuned the lebaron the way i'm going to have to tune this car to my liking. I know what i want out of this car and i aim to learn how to turn it into what i expect out of it. i hope i can find all these answer on this forum, and pass those things along as well.

thanks for reading my wall of text! it'll be nice to meet all of you.

mrl84

from my exp with my 8 the mpg is bad if you got a heavy foot, i have gotten a very large range from 9 to just over 25. its all about how you drive it

if you want to race do a form that plays to the cars strength, drag racing isnt it lol see if you can find some local club that organizes auto-cross events its really fun this is my 2nd season and i think all 8 owners should give it a try.

for the head unit check out the metra kit, cork sport makes a dash kit too but the metra is by far more popular.

i check my oil level every other fill up and add what the dip stick says (the marks on the stick are 1/2 a quart) and i always make sure its full before a day racing, and i usually check it after racing when i fill up.

and just as an fyi because it looks like you might be looking in to it there really isnt much to do power wise, the car came pretty well tuned from the factory, the only only double digit power gains in real world will come from forced induction and nitrous. even combined bolt-ons dont add much, intakes and exhausts are more of a sound mod than a power one.

EDIT: I forgot to mention but if your cars got more than 30k on the clock you may want to change your spark plugs/wires/coils. when they start failing you will have a loss of power but no CEL till something more serious happens, and since you are new to the car you wont/dont notice the loss of power.

AC1D.S74R

I;d always heard (and correct me if i'm wrong) that putting an air intake with high flow helps MPG plus a couple horsepower or something.

auto cross sounds fun, i'd have to take driving lessons before i tried it, i think though, hehe.

right now, i want my old stereo back in my car though. I really miss my sound. its too bad the back seats don't fold down too :|

mrl84

an intake(~$300), catless mid pipe(~$200-500), cat back($200-800) and a tune(~$600) will net you ~10 rwhp with about 8-9 coming from the catless mid pipe and a tune. it will sound awesome though.

with out the cat you can run a leaner tune which give you better mpg and power

find a club thats more accepting of new people (they will probably have a new drivers classification) and jump in, thats what i did. most people will help you out if you tell them you are new.

they dont fold down but they come out really easily. the bottoms pull up on the front to pop the retainers and then kind just roll the rear edge forward. then the backs have some screws were the bottoms used to be then there's hooks at the top.

theres a cross member behind each back so doesnt help much with big stuff in the trunk but i assume you want it for sound reasons anyway.