Smartbears Mazda rx8 evolve edition

S

Smartbear

Lifer
 a barn in Somerset
Hi, way back in 2006 when I was a young bear cub I bought a new Mazda rx8 in a wonderful copper red colour, with stone leather interior.
It went like the clappers (if you revved the conkers off it) & drank petrol like you wouldn't believe (18mpg anyone)
Anyway I've just found some old pics & been dusting off the scanner this afternoon :P
This is my first trip out in it



This was a couple of months later at the pro-drive skid pan in Warwickshire, they have a high speed handling course as well which was good fun, also went on accompanied drives out with ex police pursuit drivers (I think I frightened my one a bit)



Rob
 
Nice colour and terrific engine. Shame they were so juicy and have the 'tip wear' reputation.
 
Wow - lovely car in a great colour combination OP! :thumbsup:

I have often wondered about buying an RX8, but you seem to have confirmed my concerns about economy (or lack of it) :roll:

Shame they never put the MP3 engine into the RX8 shell!
 
Had my RX8 for over 2 years now and use it as my daily driver. Love it to bits but it is shocking for fuel and is £500 a year tax.
Loads of great looking car for little money. Will be sorry to sell it this spring.
 
I took one of these for a test drive back on 2006. The salesman gave me he keys and said come back in an hour. What a car, amazing handling although I didn't come back in an hour I came back in 45 mins because I'd used a quarter of a tank of fuel. Good job I didn't get one as I was doing 20k miles a year st the time, would have bankrupted me. Ended up getting a brand new r56 Cooper S
 
According to the DVLA website it is still around. Nice cars but it was not only petrol they went through. Oil consumption was also very high. Judging by the amount of cars for sale as spares or repair not very reliable
 
Reading this reminds me of the time I owned a NSU Ro80, lovely car when it worked, a nightmare in fuel and spark plug costs.
Ended up leaving it on the garage forecourt I bought it from with the keys and paperwork, cancelled the direct debit or HP in those days, and went to work in Mombassa for three years.
Great pity in a way but Dr Wankel did me no favours.
 
Such a cool car, had every thing bar economy. I like my Mazdas and an RX8 Daily has always been a temptation, but the economy/tax, has put even a gas guzzling oil hater like me off. So I drive the 2.3 not the 1.3 :lol:

Thanks for sharing a bit more of your family album Mr Bear. Always brings a smile. :thumbsup:
 
I had a drive in my brothers at around the time you had yours - great fun and very quick, he said it drank a lot of oil as well as petrol, a very thirsty Rotary Wankel engine
 
My parents have had one from new, took it out at Xmas and even 13 years on I still love the noise it makes! Zero thrust versus the M, obviously, but they're cool cars in my book that still look good today.

The oil usage is grossly exaggerated IMO.
 
ekimj10 said:
Reading this reminds me of the time I owned a NSU Ro80, lovely car when it worked, a nightmare in fuel and spark plug costs.
Ended up leaving it on the garage forecourt I bought it from with the keys and paperwork, cancelled the direct debit or HP in those days, and went to work in Mombassa for three years.
Great pity in a way but Dr Wankel did me no favours.
Click to expand...


Didn't a lot of these get ford v4 conversions iirc ?
 
I went to buy one as a race car six months ago (It was caged with lots of mods but had sat outside for years!), ended up buying the E30 instead. I wouldn't consider one as a daily driver but as a track car they seem to make a lot of sense. :)
 
ocrx8 said:
My parents have had one from new, took it out at Xmas and even 13 years on I still love the noise it makes! Zero thrust versus the M, obviously, but they're cool cars in my book that still look good today.

The oil usage is grossly exaggerated IMO.
Click to expand...

I agree about the oil usage, it's not a fault or worn engine but its designed to use oil to lubricate the rotor tips.
From memory mine used 6litres of oil in 12k miles. I enjoyed the sound it made as well :D
Rob
 
Didn't a lot of these get ford v4 conversions iirc ?
Click to expand...
I think they did, seem to remember the engine being relatively small and lots of space to put a bigger unit in.
The other weird thing was the semi-auto 3 speed gear box, with the gear lever knob activating the clutch.
Not sure what happened to NSU, remember bubble cars and not much else.
 
ekimj10 said:
Didn't a lot of these get ford v4 conversions iirc ?
Click to expand...
I think they did, seem to remember the engine being relatively small and lots of space to put a bigger unit in.
The other weird thing was the semi-auto 3 speed gear box, with the gear lever knob activating the clutch.
Not sure what happened to NSU, remember bubble cars and not much else.
Click to expand...
They did get the old v4 put into them , it was a short compact engine so ideal for the space , but god it was a horrible noisy rough old thing , normally found in transits unfortunately !
 
Paulwirral said:
ekimj10 said:
Didn't a lot of these get ford v4 conversions iirc ?
Click to expand...
I think they did, seem to remember the engine being relatively small and lots of space to put a bigger unit in.
The other weird thing was the semi-auto 3 speed gear box, with the gear lever knob activating the clutch.
Not sure what happened to NSU, remember bubble cars and not much else.
Click to expand...
They did get the old v4 put into them , it was a short compact engine so ideal for the space , but god it was a horrible noisy rough old thing , normally found in transits unfortunately !
Click to expand...

And ford corsairs I think :?
Rob
 
And capris and zephers I think , I remember the transit version used to knock the bottom end bearings out quite easily , but did seem to rattle on forever , still a horrible old thing though .
I can only imagine a customers face when they picked it up after conversion , nice smooth rotary to a shaking , knocking piece of iron , but at least the car still drove I suppose , we were all a little easier going back then and expectations weren't so high :lol:
 
And Saabs. I had a 99 Combi Coupe with a freewheeling device as well. Screw a knob below the dash in and you had NO engine braking at all. It was for economy, they said, but was damn dangerous. Approach a bend and let off and it seemed to speed up! It was discontinued for reasons like people crashing spectacularly failing going around corners.

The rotary engine had promise I thought. Smooth as silk and very powerful for its size, with a very small amount of moving parts compared to a standard engine, so it should have been reliable as well. But they never really sorted it, and if Mazda couldn't, I doubt anybody else could.
 
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