another mazda joins the family

[ninjajim4]

picked this up a few weeks ago. it's an 05 with about 55k on it, fully loaded gt package. it's nice to have a newer car.. builtin nav, nice new leather, butt warmers, xenon headlights, abs and traction control. the whole works. also has a mazdaspeed front and spoiler, which were a big plus. intend on finishing off the sides and rear.

haven't gotten around to snapping pictures of my own, but here's ones from the ad.




and in the process of integrating my carPC out of my MX into the stock nav setup. everything is mostly buttoned up now, but here a few shots from earlier in the week.

touchscreen overlay for stock screen


oem nav unit


screen installed


carPC in the 'lab'



dash


rear seat

[ninjajim4]

[Ukrman]

congrats, awesome car..... i've always wanted one of those

[fowljesse]

I guess it's okay, if you like that sort of thing.

J/K!
That's great!
Looking forward to seing it done!

[JWMX3]

Love it !

this is a good video review on the rx8 check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeHt1caaDfU

[2RotorsNaDream]

Nice. More rotaries on the site. I love that color RX-8, sexy as hell.

[ninjajim4]

lol i thought for sure you wouldn't be a fan Illa. been wanting to get a rotary since forever, and i wanted an FD but just wanted to get something newer with all the extra goodies. sad thing is i don't think i could even buy a 7 for what i paid for the 8

[Custommx3]

Nice!

Are you going to use the car2PC adapter? What interface are you going with?

I just upgraded mine a week or so ago. If you dont have a SATAII SSD, GET ONE!

My new one boots to full interface in less than 6 seconds.

[ninjajim4]

using centrafuse for the front end. i did get a car2pc which is great for audio right through the stock deck, but the plugin for integrating the steering wheel controls is buggy. it doesn't like to work after resuming from hibernate. but then again the only thing extra it does from the wheel is switch to previous or next track. not that big a deal. i'd like to see that fixed obviously, and also have the interface start relaying track info back to the dash's lcd display.

man 6 seconds from cold boot is ridiculous. i think i'm somewhere around 20 when resuming from hibernate. hardware's kind of old (via mini itx, c7 processor, sata drives) i actually had this setup in my MX until someone smashed my glass and made off with the monitor a few months ago. in retrospect i don't mind since i wouldn't have a use for it now anyway and the audio quality was horrendous. sad thing is, the av switcher i got cost as much as a new monitor. i am using the stock one to keep the factory nav since it has such fast lock times. i was never happy with my carpc nav.

unfortunately i am now using composite out to hook up to the avswitcher which is pretty useless within windows but fine for dvds and centrafuse's big text. i forewent a vga connection in lieu of the avswitcher because it has an autoreverse camera, which i think i'll get a lot of value out of since that MS wing takes up so much of the tiny rear window view

[Nd4SpdSe]

Nice. I've been itching for an Rx-8 for a few months now. Just needing to wait for the job situation to get better, and it's about to get worse before it does :s

I love the CarPc! Gotta love the carpc's. I wanted to get a factory nav and use it for a pc as well. Where you hiding the computer itself?

SATAII SSD, eh? I take it the motherboard needs to have sata on it? The truck doesn't like to hibernate, I'm suspecting ram or hard drive so I have to do a full book everytime, but this is worth looking into

[Custommx3]

Moved carPC talk to a new thread...
http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=72575

[ninjajim4]

Nice. I've been itching for an Rx-8 for a few months now. Just needing to wait for the job situation to get better, and it's about to get worse before it does :s

I love the CarPc! Gotta love the carpc's. I wanted to get a factory nav and use it for a pc as well. Where you hiding the computer itself?

SATAII SSD, eh? I take it the motherboard needs to have sata on it? The truck doesn't like to hibernate, I'm suspecting ram or hard drive so I have to do a full book everytime, but this is worth looking into

best of luck with the job hunt... when you get to it, i think you'll find pricing is not bad at all. resale value is horrible on the 8. bad for original owners, great for buyers like me mileage is also ridiculously bad, which you might want to take into consideration. i'm currently on the hunt for an ignition upgrade kit to hopefully improve that and smooth out the idle.

my PC install's in the trunk. I think I actually have room to put it in under the seat, which I did in the MX, but I wanted the PC to be a little more accessible this time. it cuts down slightly on trunk space. I am just about finished, need to just cleanup the wiring a little. I'll post updated pics when that gets done. I have an OBDII interface and Andrea superbeam mic on the way for handsfree, which i had the foresight to prewire from front to back

[Nd4SpdSe]

Oh I know about the milleage, and it really isn't much difference than my truck, wich averages 16mpg on a good day and is *rated* for 18mpg highway. Sadly, the Rx-8 is better than my truck, but I'm also planing on supercharging it, so that'll change of course. I'm wanting an 06-07 so I can get Phantom Blue Mica. Indeed resale on those isn't the best, and technically I could buy one out-right if I picked up an 04, but I'm going to be picky to get exactly what I want. That's a rare color, and I don't want one that shows sign of being winter driven. The Rx-8 is definitely my favorite car I've ever driven. For job, the plan is actually to join the army as a tech. I should be hearing something sometime in the next several days, I hope. If all goes well, I'll be starting in the end of Jan, if not should be before the end of Feb, and since I'll be unemployed as of Tuesday, I'l have to survive on unemployment until then, which fortuantely I can since before I couldn't claim it being self-employed.

[ninjajim4]

lol.. i'ts NOT better than your truck..! i'm halfway through my 2nd tank right now and I think it's right around 16-17 mpg, which is honestly better than I thought. given that 2/3rds of it is highway (albeit doing 85mph), that's way way below it's rating. basically i'm getting roughly city mileage on the highway

as you can see from the pic, this one came from kentucky, so it's only been through one winter previously, which is nice. in truth, we are house hunting right now, so i didn't want to make the purchase, plus now it's sitting on the street instead of in a garage where it belongs (we only have one garage spot right now). but the price i was able to get, along with the option package and MS parts were just too tempting to pass on.

good luck on your future as a prospective jarhead lol. lakersfan actually went that route. i think now he must be on base somewhere out west, because i think fowljesse bought his MX from him. he never kept in touch, so i don't know how he liked it...

[Nd4SpdSe]

haha, I should of said "theoretically" but I've heard what my friends are getting and it's not what they say. No matter, it's a fun car, and if I can deal with the truck, I'll deal with the Rx-8 with it pretty much just being just a toy. My truck is a toy too, but it's a DD too. As much as I love it and that I'm working and got plenty of plans for that too, I badly miss having a car and I truly am missing a part of me not having one. Working as a part time valet driver, I can feel it when I sit in the right kind of car and I feel like me again. I'm definitely keeping the truck, it's functional and very capable and perfect to use year round, but not a thrill on-road (except with snow on the ground, yay RWD!). I miss going racing, I miss car shows and I just miss enoying the drive; looking for a reason to jump in a just go.