Spark plug wires

Another simple maintence item is changing spark plugs. I took this opportunity to buy performance wires. Though there are no real noticable gains, I opted for a set of red Magnecor performance wires. The RX-8 rotary is equipped with 4 plugs, 2 for each rotor housing. Each housing has a leading plug and a trailing plug. More on that later.

To install plugs and/or wires you must first raise up the car from the front driver side. Then remove the wheel to gain easy access to the engine due to the low center placement of the rotary. The rest is simple. Pull out old wires and install new. Done.

After putting the car back down and made sure everything was in order I fired her up. Once the car was at operating temperature I reved it up a bit. Throttle response was indeed much quicker.

Cabin air filters

The RX-8 is equiped with 2 in cabin air purifying filters. Not knowing the history of when mine were changed, if ever, I opened up the box that holds them which is located behind the glove box. At approx. 37K miles and many years later you can see from the photo that the old photo pictured on the left was well do for a change.

Thinking new wheels

Since I was never satisfied with my previous aftermarket wheels (see new wheels post), I decided it was time for another upgrade to something I really loved. After many hours of research I found what I wanted. Work Emotion XT-7 in bronze. So I took this photo of my car and photoshopped the wheels in to see what it would look like. I was sold!

Winter time still upon us I decided to wait for spring time. Untill then...

Radar Detector

Update to the 8. I decided to finally install a radar detector. That's right, almost a full year of ownership and I never put the RD in it. This time I hard wired it though. I placed it in the left side of the dash at the bottom. Not the best location as it can not read rear signals now, but I like it because it's not just stuck on the windshield looking so obvious as it would.

RX-8 model

My dear friend Antoine from Japan brought over this lovely gift. It's a scale model of my RX-8. Instead of simply making it look stock, I found the inspiration to chop the top off and see what a convertible version would look like. In the process I also did some custom molding for behind the rear seats since that area is very open due to the large rear deck/window.