24 Months Later…

So here we are at the end of March 2016. The RX-8 R3 has just had another annual service and is showing over 84,000 miles up and is still being driven like I stole it.

The trouble with it is that there’s no real replacement … just yet?

On the horizon we may, just may, have one in the shape of the Mazda RX-Vision.

How cool is that?

Sadly it’s only a two seater and not a 2+2 as the RX-8 is, but who knows? At this stage it’s a concept.

Or should we go for the Mazda MX-5 RF (Retractable Fastback)?

First Service

After a few changes of plan, I put another few miles on the clock midweek by riding over to GT’s on the GT on one of the hottest days of the year, having received a load of admiring looks and remarks from colleagues at work.

I’d taken the panniers off to be able to filter through rush-hour traffic and so it was.

Friday morning and it was lashing down with rain. Fortunately I’d left some waterproof over-trousers at GT’s for her to use when she was doing her own bike lessons and test, so I wore those, but my perforated leather jacket was – sadly – doing its job perfectly: I was soaked!

So I dropped the Sprint off at Metropolis, pointed out the small issues with the bike – a missing fairing bolt, stupid plasticene indicator screws fixed with superglue, a blown fuse and too much throttle slack – and then picked up the courtesy bike which was a brand new Tiger 800 and headed home to drip dry rather than going into the office as planned.

The Tiger 800 is a bit of a gem, by the way, but I’m not sure it’s worth £8,000 with ABS: only £500 less than the Sprint GT.

Riding home and the Sprint felt much better with the throttle response being soooooo improved. Pity that Metrop told me they need to drill out the indicator/mirror screws … No shit, Sherlock! That’s what i thought they were doing.

Ah well. I just need to check they’re replaced the fuse and signed the service booklet and wash all the filth off the bike after the wet ride.

MoT

Yes, my RX-8 R3 is coming up to three years old (in a couple of weeks), so last week I took it to Docklands Mazda for them to carry out an MoT test … which it passed with flying colours, even producing 0% carbon monoxide emissions on fast idle and 0.04% carbon monoxide emissions at the natural idle speed.

Mileage? 55,447 miles from new and still going like it should. Plus it still looks great.

So yes, I’m pleased as I tend to hang on to my cars for a few years and there’s frankly nothing I’d want to replace it with at present, especially as Mazda stopped producing them.

I’ve also renewed my tax and insurance for another year, plus I’ll probably extend the Mazda warranty for another year, just in case ;)

Tired and Emotional

The RX-8 was beginning to be a bit of a drift monster in the past few weeks in the wet up North despite no ‘advisories’ when I had it serviced.

With the mileage I’ve been doing – its up to 44,000 miles in two years now – I had been getting concerned I hadn’t replaced the tyres in a long while so after a quick visual inspection I rang around and decided on Kwik-Fit this weekend (the tyres had to be ordered in at over £250 a corner).

So I’ve now had a set of four Bridgestone Potenza RE050A 225/40R19 93Y tyres for the princely sum of £1020 including nitrogen filling.