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Mazda RX-8 Road Trip Reports
flipper897
Member Posts: 10
I have been absent from this board in recent months due to surgery this past winter.
I'm fine now - and planning to take off all of July, get out of the Arizona desert heat & driving cross-country, visiting friends & family in the Midwest, and along the East Coast. My little red devil has only 1650 miles on it in 9 months but I sense it's raring to go - and so am I.
I'm not much for blogging, I tend to use a computer daily but I will be leaving it at home. I'm not much for blogging but I'll do the best I can to report anything of interest when I return at the end of July.
89 days till I leave - but it's not like I'm counting or anything.....:)))
Flip
I'm fine now - and planning to take off all of July, get out of the Arizona desert heat & driving cross-country, visiting friends & family in the Midwest, and along the East Coast. My little red devil has only 1650 miles on it in 9 months but I sense it's raring to go - and so am I.
I'm not much for blogging, I tend to use a computer daily but I will be leaving it at home. I'm not much for blogging but I'll do the best I can to report anything of interest when I return at the end of July.
89 days till I leave - but it's not like I'm counting or anything.....:)))
Flip
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I just took a little road trip myself. I bought my new 05 RX-8, 6speed last saturday. After putting 300 miles on the car i decided to take a little trip from New Jersey to Indiana. Mapquest shows it being an 11 hour trip but i did it in 9. Apparently the people on mapquest weren't driving on RX-8 when they came up with those times. LOL
Enjoy the long road trips gals and guys - the "8" can do it!!
I did a 2000 mile run from Boston the Ashville last Christmas. The timing was just before and just after the official holiday travel time so this fact coupled with the extra 911 related security details, had the HP through MA, CT, NY, PA, WV and NC at extremely low numbers. We averaged 84MPH.
It was nice! I basically drove eight hours/day, and got out of the car feel better than when I got in. No road buzzing, no foggy brain, and no stress fatigue. I have a sensitive back, that in every other car I've owned for the last thirty years, would ache after a few hours driving. MY BACK LOVES MY RX-8!
My favorite part of driving the RX-8 is the last few hours where I'm goaling for the end of the days travels, and there's that feeling of being in the zone as steering becomes laser tight and speed turns to slow motion at 95MPH.
I also own a Lexus ES, which obviously is very comfortable on long hauls, but I just had to take my little red rocket on its maiden voyage. You're right, the car is amazingly comfortable and quiet - 600 miles was a breeze, no fatigue at all. Trunk's surprisingly roomy too - hardly had to put anything in the back seat. I learned a lot about the Mazda on this trip - you need will power but if you can keep the speed down a bit (not easy!), I regularly averaged 23-24 mpg with the cruise set at 74 mph, and on a couple of tanks on slower 2-lane roads like the Blue Ridge Parkway, I was stunned to hit 26 mpg! I drove from Arizona to Rhode Island to Mississippi, got an oil change at a small dealership in Newport RI where the service manager had a lot of free time to talk. I was surprised that I never needed to add a quart of oil during the first 3000 miles. The dealer explained that the RX-8 will use very little oil during highway cruising and more during city driving. Always use Valvoline 5W-20 NON-synthetic oil or you'll need a new engine. (I was armed with 3 quarts in the trunk).
As quick as the car is, I found that it's even more fun on winding 2-lane roads. The car seems to take on a life of its own and enjoyed the curves as much as I did!
A few other observations...most states have very good roads now - the worst pavement I found was in Illinois & Pennsylvania. Worst drivers? I expected NY & New Jersey to be bad, and they were, but Connecticut takes the cake - they're borderline psychotic. Also, for people who are seeking out fun roads: the best are the Blue Ridge Parkway (VA & North Carolina), Natchez Trace Parkway (Tennessee, Alabama & Mississippi) and US Highway 160 in southern Missouri - a nice break from the boring Interstates. Only problem with US 160 was, I had to go through Branson - country gridlock! Oh well....
Homeward bound, I had just crossed the border from Missouri into Oklahoma on an empty 2-lane state road, I hadn't seen a
speed-limit sign - and I was stopped for 68 in a 55 zone. I was honest & polite and got off with a warning - whew!
One last thing - Mazda badly needs to advertise the RX-8 more! I lost count how many times I was asked what kind of car it was, and the praise for its looks was unaninimous. Made me feel like a kid again! I contacted Mazda headquarters when I got home & was told that the marketing department would be notified of my experience and comments.
I'd hate to see the RX-8 go away although I was told Mazda has no plans to drop the car. Again, I'd love to see some commercials, management needs to let the public know what a terrific car the RX-8 is!
The best thing we can do is take folks for a ride and let those twin triangles howl long and free on the twisty roads of the Blue Ridge. Then and only then will our passengers awaken to what they've never been allowed to experience in any other car but the most expensive exotics costing 10s of thousands more.
On my last 2000 mile trip, I got sleepy so my wife took over driving my RX-8 AT. She had never really driven the RX-8 on the highway. I went to sleep for two hours. I woke up and my wife was amazingly charged up from doing 90MPH to get around some jerk drivers. It was the fastest she'd ever driven in her life and she loved it and I slept through the whole event.
One other thing, my 8 year old son tells me regularly, "Dad you have a cool car." Kids are really the best judge of what's cool.
Be safe,
Nergal
question for you... how can I add an aux input for my radio (06 Shinka) to listen to an external MP3 player as a source.
Thanks,
Nergal
Nergal
I will hi-light the trip:
- 2nd day in Biloxi, the engine service light came on after a fill up. Drove another 200 miles and it went off....then on...then off...throughout the 10 days. Annoying, but I think it's the fuel filler cap thingy.
- an hour after Biloxi, the oil light came on. Pulled over, put in 1.5 quarts of 5w-20. Made it to Vegas and back without anymore oil issues.
- somewhere in West Texas, the car started to shift hard when trying to pass traffic. the car would down shift hard from 4th to 3rd - so much so that everything in the car would violently move around. Problem was, this wouldn't happen every time. Random. Will discuss with Mazda.
- My co-pilot and I wanted to see the mountains, so in Albuquerque we went up to Sandia Peak.....well, almost up. The car drove fine up until 10K feet. Then the engine would not rev past 1K rpms. I floored it - nothing. I am gonna guess some sort of oxygen sensor issue?....anybody else have a suggestion? we drove at 2 mph for another 300 yards or so, then decided not to risk anything else. Turned around and drove back down the mountain another mile and the car was back to normal.
- stopped by the French Quarter in New Orleans. Some really crappy roads, sorry to say. After an hour of driving around, the back right started to make a nice 'clanking' sound on every bump/pothole we hit. Horrible noise, but once we got back on the freeway, all was good again. I looked underneath but, not being a Madza Tech, I have no idea what to look for unless it's hanging down, scrapping on the ground! Again, will discuss with Mazda.
- could really use an 'easy' aftermarket way to hook up an MP3 player - I bought the 'FM Transmitter' type, but it was goofy to deal with.
- do NOT open up your 'ChilliPepper Wreath' in the car! I now have 1000's of pepper seeds all over the back seat!
- again, mountains are so much fun to drive in
- and Route 66 has some great roads in AZ
- outside of Florida and Vegas, I only saw 3 RX8's on the road. Not a popular car in rural Texas and New Mexico.
- in total, 5600 miles in 10 days. From sea level to 10K!..Whoohoo!!!
So, in summery, I would totally do the drive again. The car rocked, even with the above issues. I've had my problems with the car in the past 6 months, but this trip has again, restored my faith in my 8. Hopefully this post will not jinx anything!!