Harley wrote:
Afternoon, Paul..
BTW Harley how many miles do you have on the RX8? Any problems?<<
Just short of 8,000, now. Haven't been driving it much since the
snow started flying (had over 100 inches this year ... a bit more
than normal). Been running the RX7 around. Handles much better in
the salt, slush and snow with the smaller tires, and less torque.
So, I'm waiting 'till the roads get a little clearer to take it in
for it's checkup.
The dealer offered me a deal they had made with a local tire dealer
to equip the RX-8 with Blizzaks and winter wheels for a pretty good
price, but I thought I'd see how it handles first. Next year, I'm
definitely going with them. My son and my ex-wife run them on their
BMWs, and they seem to have no problems at all...this is Darren's
first year with Blizzaks, and he is upset that he can't do donuts in
the frozen parking lots with them on!
I have skidded off to the edge of the road a couple of times in what
I would consider normal driving conditions...very hard to control on
even a slight layer of snow/water, and once started skidding, not
much one can do to correct it...just ride it out in neutral and keep
trying to steer back into it gently. Even my old TR3s were better
in the winter than this one...!
The problem with the steering jumping off on it's own is magnified
in these conditions...sometimes without even touching the brake. I
know that at least one of those slips I got into was a result of an
uncommanded slight turn of the wheels during a bounce, then
recovering on slicker road, outside of the wheel track.
Small bumps in the road seem to set it off slightly, and I find I'm
spending more time trying to correct the steering in this car than I
was in the old RX-7...even without touching the brake now...it's not
much, but slight corrections all the time do tend to get tiring to
these old arms. <G>
Haven't heard anything from Mazda regarding this problem, and my
dealer says they haven't either. So, I don't know where it stands
with them. I'm still thinking of pulling the plug on that electric
assisted steering come nicer weather, and see what that does.
As an example, I was down at the hangar yesterday, and the road in
is shared by the local bus company (they have their maintenance
terminal and headquarters at the same location) and not plowed or
salted by the town of Canandaigua...it's private property. I keyed
in my password to allow access to the ramp area so I could drive
down to the hangar at the far end of the field ( the outside road to
the hangar was not plowed and had about 2 feet of snow on it), and
after the gate had slid open, I started through it, but the front
left tire hit one of the holes in the hard packed snow/ice, and the
car suddenly swerved to the right, almost hitting the fence pole at
the end of the gate. I was driving straight ahead at the time, and
the hole SHOULD have pulled it to the LEFT, being lower, and on the
left side...but the electric assist apparently over corrected to the
RIGHT.
This email is getting a bit too long...so, to end it, here's a
picture of the flight line just outside of my hangar taken a couple
of weeks ago during a warm, fairly nice day. The hangar in the back
is the one that I'm in ... I'm on the other side, though, middle
door:
Harley
