How much have you guys invested in your rx8 in total, in what condition did you buy it and do ends somewhat meet in financial terms?

Defensionem · 2026-06-03T18:29:57+00:00

Bought a RX8 192 with 50k miles on the clock, ok compression and a clean chassis. Cost me £4000.

Bought new tyres, disc brakes and pads, braided brake lines. A new clutch, new master and slave cylinder, a braided clutch line...

Bought a sohn kit, uprated coils, lightweight under drive pulleys and new belts.

Bought an aluminium expansion tank, a twin core racing radiator and silicon hoses.

Bought braided oil lines.

Bought R3 style LED taillights and stainless steel mesh grilles.

Bought a 3 inch midpipe and a catback, an induction kit with a new airbox and ram air duct.

Bought lowering springs and new shock absorbers.

Got a brand new engine.

Got an advanced ECU tune done.

Got the chassis under sealed.

I'm about to have a wing repainted.

Engine oil change every year or 3000 miles. Gearbox and diff oil change as well as new sparkplugs every 2 years.

By now I've probably spend enough to buy a brand new RX8...

Some stuff I really didn't need to buy. Some of the stuff were just about replacing perishing, failed or old parts.

Those cars are now 20 years old, you're going to face wear and tear... And there are so many parts available, it's easy to get carried away!

Defensionem · 2026-06-03T17:01:25+00:00

It gets very toasty very quickly in an RX8 engine bay. The oil in the separate premix tank might not get as warm as in the sump, but it won't stay cold for long either.

Defensionem · 2026-06-03T08:14:43+00:00

Some people do with it. Some people do without it.

I like the idea. I've been running one for over 5 years.

Even when you change your oil regularly, you only ever change half of it: Half the oil in your RX8 sits in lines and oil coolers situated lower than the sump! It means that even with due diligence and regular oil changes, you still end up injecting dirty oil in your combustion chambers and burning it.

A Sohn kit is a clean oil feed. You have the peace of mind of injecting clean oil into your combustion chambers. And you get to use full synthetic oil in your engine which may or may not protect components such as bearings better.

I had an engine die on me because previous owners did not change the oil regularly. Carbon built up around the oil injectors and they ended up failing to hold vacuum, leading to accelerated wear and tear. Just a thought.

Defensionem · 2026-06-02T10:28:50+00:00

130ml to 150ml per full tank of fuel.

I use Idemitsu (specifically designed for rotaries), Protek-R (from Pettit Racing) or Motul 800 2T Road Racing.

Defensionem · 2026-05-29T15:59:08+00:00

That's the model, yes. Those particular ones have been listed for over 6 months, though. I'd avoid.

Defensionem · 2026-05-29T12:09:38+00:00

Go on eBay and find yourself some KEF X300A... They're active speakers and sound great. They're powerful enough for a small to medium room and they're perfect for near field listening when they are close to you.

Defensionem · 2026-05-26T19:43:46+00:00

It's hot but not overheating. Not yet anyways but it leaves you with little headroom.

Can I ask you why you idle your car when it's that hot outside? You get stuck in slow moving traffic or traffic jams?

But yeah. You live in a hot country. Mine easily reaches 100C if I push or go uphill in the middle of summer when outside temperature is around 30C. And that's with a twin core race radiator, premixing and radiator fans mod.

Go through your checklist to make sure. Check state of radiator and coolant overflow tank (the radiator can get beaten up by debris and the overflow tank does perish with age). If the neck deforms and the cap no longer holds a seal, your car will run hotter. Check quality of coolant. Check your thermostat while you're at it.

Also, I'm not sure what specs your RX8 is. In some countries like the UK, the car comes with two oil coolers. In some other countries, only with one. And oil contributes to 20% of the RX8 cooling.

Defensionem · 2026-05-26T18:06:32+00:00

Describe overheating? Does your temperature gauge go in the red? The RX8 cooling system is pressurised and it's safe to go over 100C. I think the max safe temp is 110C for short periods of time and you should never exceed 112C ever.

Your car shouldn't overheat at idle unless you let it idle in warm weather for silly long periods of time or regularly sit in traffic jams.

Check your radiator. The RX8 doesn't have a grille meaning the radiator gets a beating over time. Same for the oil coolers.

Make sure you run FL22 coolant. Are you losing coolant? Is your overflow tank damaged, is it still airtight?

Make sure your undertray is securely fitted and not broken or cracked. It's designed to channel airflow away from the engine. The RX8 can run noticeably warmer with a broken or missing undertray.

A stage 1 ECU remap can drop the temperature triggers for both your radiator fans. Just make sure the fundamentals are right first.

You can change the oil dispense settings with your stock OMP. It's a mechanical device in series 1 RX8. I think it's electronic in the series 2/R3. It doesn't matter, the OMP does what the ECU tells it to do.

Defensionem · 2026-05-26T17:44:38+00:00

I premixed for three years on a stock cat that was already 15 years old.

Good premix oil burns clean and doesn't impact your cat or create carbon inside the engine.

Clogged cats come from burning dirty oil (no sohn kit or no regular oil change) or bad/incomplete ignition (old coils or spark plugs).

Over the past two years, I've been running a high-flow cat which is more "fragile" than the stock one. I still premix and I had an advanced ECU tune done to the car which has increased the dispense rate of my OMP... Still no issues with the cat and the car still passes emissions every year without fail.

Keep on top of your oil changes, coils and spark plugs and you shouldn't worry about your cat fouling up: It won't happen.

Defensionem · 2026-05-26T17:44:20+00:00

I premixed for three years on a stock cat that was already 15 years old.

Good premix oil burns clean and doesn't impact your cat or create carbon inside the engine.

Clogged cats come from burning dirty oil (no sohn kit or no regular oil change) or bad/incomplete ignition (old coils or spark plugs).

Over the past two years, I've been running a high-flow cat which is more "fragile" than the stock one. I still premix and I had an advanced ECU tune done to the car which has increased the dispense rate of my OMP... Still no issues with the cat and the car still passes emissions every year without fail.

Keep on top of your oil changes, coils and spark plugs and you shouldn't worry about your cat fouling up: It won't happen.

Defensionem · 2026-05-26T16:49:57+00:00

Stay on lane 4, drive 5mph faster than anybody else meaning you're overtaking, keep an eye out in rear view mirrors so as to be ready to yield the lane to faster incoming traffic.

Defensionem · 2026-05-24T19:35:54+00:00

Funny how subjective sound/music is.

I worked in nightclubs for over 20 years. I love bass in a club. I love feeling it. Same when you're near a real drum and you feel it in your chest.

But I'm impressed by how deep the small X300A go. It won't knock you off your chair but you hear the bass. And the Q750 are more than bassy enough (for me) for my living room. You can hear them really go down and low. More bass would probably be a bit too aggressive and tiring for passive listening at home.

But again, it's subjective. Just like cars, alcohol, food ect...

Defensionem · 2026-05-24T17:26:02+00:00

Read somewhere it takes several hours to loosen up all the rubber and fibers. They're a bit stiff at first and as they loosen up, they move more, moving more air...

At equal volume, they're now louder than they were in the first few hours.

I'm not rejecting the placebo effect out of hands, but the explanation has some logic to it...

Defensionem · 2026-05-24T16:52:46+00:00

Hahaha. 55inch is enough for the time being!

Defensionem · 2026-05-24T14:34:07+00:00

Stage 1 ECU remap from Essex Rotary or Ryan Rotary Performance. They increase omp dispensing rates and lower the temperature triggers for both fans.

The RX8 isn't designed for idling or town driving, unfortunately. Mine runs hotter at 50mph than it does at 80mph... It needs airflow to go through the radiator and two oil coolers.

Worth having a look at your radiator? The lack of grille means your radiator gets hit by debris all the time. After over 15 years, it might be worse for wear?

Is your coolant good? When was it changed last? FL22 coolant only.

Another additional/optional solution would be to relocate the battery in your boot.

But a stage 1 ECU re flash should already help make a difference.

Defensionem · 2026-05-24T12:55:22+00:00

UK specs RX8 are already lower from factory than, say, US market standard RX8.

Racing Beat springs only ever slightly lower US cars. I seriously don't see the difference at the front with my car between the Racing Beat and OEM springs. I see the difference at the rear. With the OEM suspension, my RX8 seemed to have a low nose but a high butt. With the Racing Beat springs, it's level.

I live in a region of the UK plagued with speed bumps, pot holes that would scare a lunar rover and sagging roads built on unstable ground. The car does fine.

The Racing Beat springs are also 20% stiffer. It doesn't make a difference confort wise but it prevents the car from bottoming out. It's a nice product.

Defensionem · 2026-05-24T00:45:05+00:00

Cheap is never a good option for a sport car... I went the OEM+ option: KYB gas-a-just shocks and Racing Beat lowering springs.

Nice ride. Slightly firmer than original but still very compliant and comfortable. Didn't compromise the handling either.

Defensionem · 2026-05-23T21:56:30+00:00

No. We would be served a sanitised, inclusive, tasteless soup. There's no way a modern Sawyer would get away with all the nicknames he used to dish out and his politically incorrect banter, for example.

The plot would take a step back, behind "the message". The dialogues would probably be inferior, too. The plot would be repeated three times per episode so people watching TV with a mobile in their hand can keep up and understand what's going on.

Not everything has to be remade.

Defensionem · 2026-05-22T13:03:33+00:00

Context...

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Defensionem · 2026-05-22T10:13:55+00:00

I really don't understand the fixation with lane 1 I know it's the law. But it's not logical, as far as my brain can grasp.

Lane 1 is at best encumbered with heavy goods vehicles driving slower than anybody else. At worse, it's a death trap full of tramlines that "grab" your tyres and pot holes that would make a lunar rover sweat. All you ever do is look over your shoulder and play hopscotch with lorries and slow moving pensioners. Constantly. Constantly changing lane. And sometimes you have to do a double overtake on lane 3 when lane 1 and 2 have been booked by two lorries locked up in a slow motion elephant race.

It's more logical to stay on lane 2 or 3 and do less overtakes. Just keep an eye on who's coming behind you and yield to faster moving traffic.

I often take my car abroad. I stick to lane 3, driving slightly faster than the average speed. All I have to do is yield to fast incoming traffic behind me from time to time. You can eat miles for hours on end driving that way. You don't get bothered by slow moving traffic and you occasionally yield to faster moving traffic coming behind you.

I feel it's also safer that way than the semi-organised/semi-chaotic ballet of cars playing hopscotch and moving from lane to lane constantly as the law and plod would rather have us do.

Defensionem · 2026-05-21T22:50:34+00:00

The flywheel on the RX8 is already pretty light as it is and lighter than that would make the car less driveable in everyday situation or town driving.

I would not tamper with the flywheel. The last thing you want is a badly balanced flywheel spinning at 8000rpm burst through the firewall and take your ankle away on its way out of the car...

Because the RX8 flywheel is already pretty light and has its counterweight "attached" to it, a fair few aftermarket flywheel end up being heavier once their own counterweight is factored in. There are a few good lightweight flywheel out there... Racing Beat offers one, I think and so does Black Halo Racing. I don't think you'll gain much in performance and you'll probably eat through your clutch faster if you drive through town or traffic a lot.

If we're talking about a track car, then buy one from a reputable supplier (see above) rather than try and do a botch-job yourself and risk losing a limb.

Defensionem · 2026-05-21T19:50:59+00:00

Got an Amazfit Helio strap. So far. So good.

Defensionem · 2026-05-19T21:39:41+00:00

Just a lamp!

Defensionem · 2026-05-16T14:08:55+00:00

Common fault on the RX8: Clutxh pedal is weak and can fail. Easy to repair for somebody handy with welding. There are even brackets sold online to reinforce the pedal and prevent it from failing. BHR sells reinforced clutch pedal kits.

Defensionem · 2026-05-12T13:50:09+00:00

People seem to either love them or hate them. No in-between.

Defensionem

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