Motors What do you drive? - The Photo Gallery

I've been too lazy to take pictures on my own so here's one I found on the web



2009 Mazda RX8 GT

27 000 miles
fully equiped (minus sat nav). electric windows, electric seat, xenon headlights, climate control, bluetooth, keyless entry, automatic wipers and so on.

dune beige leather interior (there's no stupid fake carbon fiber in mine)




Nothing in this car is ordinary, whether it is for good or bad.

GOOD
-I think it looks very good
-It's very well equiped for a car of that year and price
-it's very fast (this is relative but it is compared to my accord anyway)
-it's very cheap for that kind of car
-it's EXTREMELY fun

BAD
-it burns A @$%?@$%&? TON OF FUEL. MORE THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE
-it's extremely unreliable
-expensive to maintain

The rotary engine in an RX-8 is both its greatest strenght and and its greatest weakness but, for me, the fun it provides outweighs the inevitable problems that will follow in a few years

 

My boss is onto his 2nd RX8, his first was always broken, but the times it wasn't he loved it. It even spat flames and it's cat all over the AA van that was there to help him.

 

Awesome as they are when they work, the engine is just a liability in the end. Makes for a great buy if you're prepared to put up with it though! Buy a broken engined-one, get a rebuilt lump for about £1500, make hay! Of course, fuel and oil consumption is pretty laughable.

 

I bought mine because the engine is still completely convered until 2017. I know everything I need to know about the RX8. I read the rx8club forum for about 3 months before I bought it. I'll be ready when it dies.

I will also drive it only 6months per year because I kept my Accord (the concrete survivor) which I will drive during winter.

RX7/8 are pretty much the Alfas and Lancias of Japan

 

I decided to give my TTS a bit of TLC today with a full clean & hand polish. I had to wait a few hours for the sun to disappear behind the house before I could get the polish out, but all in I've probably done eight hours to get to this point - I'm fairly pleased with the results so thought I'd share!













I really need a machine polisher, as I now have a massive left arm

 

Looking great Tim - I've got a cheap eBay rotary and it's great. For £60 I can't complain.

 

"Fairly" pleased? You should have a rightly deserved mile-wide smug grin on your face for that effort. It looks absolutely fantastic.

I have a pile of car-shiny-uppy paraphernaelia which I did plan on using today on my 1er, but I'm not entirely sure that the weather is going to hold. What products did you use?

How was that 8 hours broken down? I've got a Wash-debug-detar, claybar and polish on the cards. I'm not sure I'd trust myself with a rotary, scary stuff.

 

I wouldn't try a rotary either, much too inexperienced with them and far too much risk of me burning through the paint. Hence:

I plan on doing a lot of correction and protection detailing work on the Clio in the next couple of months, hopefully in our fairly empty and much bigger garage at our other house. I'll get to the Astra later in the summer once the Clio catastrophe is sorted. I was out washing, claying and waxing under the shade of a tree on our driveway yesterday, but it was still far too hot to be working at the paint. I hosed down each panel at least once every 15 minutes, moved the car multiple times to keep the section I was working at in shade and it was still too warm to achieve best results.

Eight hours is good going - I've easily spent three times that in the past fortnight working on a smaller (but considerably more neglected… for twelve months) car, and I still need to do all of the correction and finishing work. Protip: use what you love and use it often. I've cleaned more tar off that car in the past couple of weeks than there is on some roads in this country

I'll write a log for the detailing thread with 50/50 shots before & after polishing, detail shots of scratch removal etc later in the summer when I have it done.

 

Guys try this sonax brilliant some detailer the protection it gives for a quick detailer is unreal.
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=295795

 

Thanks all

The breakdown was:

Jetwash to loosen the dirt/bugs
Two bucket/grit guard wash with Meg's Ultimate Wash & Wax
Rinse with the jetwash
De-bug/tar with Auto Glym Intensive Tar Remover
Second two bucket/grit guard wash with Meg's Ultimate Wash & Wax
Rinse with the jetwash
Apply Virosol to wheels and agitate, leave for 10 mins
Rinse off wheels with jetwash
Drying off with microfibre towels

Time to this point: 1 1/2hrs

Wait for drying (not included in time)

Tyre dressing and wheel buff

Clay bar

Time: 1hr

Farecia G3 Paint Restoration Compound (it's slightly thicker than the Meg's Compound, so I use both)
Meg's Ultimate Compound pre-polish (with foam/microfibre application pads)
Remove compound and buff with two fresh microfibre towels - one to remove, one to polish

Time: 2 1/2hrs

Meg's Ultimate Polish (with fresh foam/microfibre application pads)
Remove compound and buff with two more fresh microfibre towels

Time: 2hrs

Farecla G3 Super Gloss Paste Wax applied with foam applicator, removed/buffed with two microfibre towels as above

Time: 1 1/2hrs

I've still got the exhaust pipe tips to Autosol today, but I'm enjoying the weather! The reason I'm only fairly pleased is that there are some random scratches that I need to machine polish out - I will get around to that eventually... there's also still a little bit of swirling.

Unicorn:

I was thinking about the Meg's Dual-action Polisher - it seems well regarded over on Detailing World. I need to get into the engine bay at some point too!

 

Wow. All I do is use a bucket of soapy water.

 

lol, all this manual labour! I wait for the rain!

 

As a lazy novice, I can assure you that the whole "rotaries are the devil" reputation is utterly mad. I'm incompetent enough, using a cheap eBay special, and have managed to find no issues with paint marring etc as long as common sense is used.

That said, I don't get too excited on the speed dial - it stays between min and 1 with nice clean pads.

 

I have all sorts of cars over the years, rear wheel drive of course, and I have driven in rallies, sprints, hill climbs and track days, and I would not want to DRIVE the car for eight hours let alone bloody spend that long WASHING it !

 

Well, I've had this about a week now, bloody love the thing. Makes a huge change over the Micra I had before..

 

I put holograms in Dad's beloved blue 106 Zest about 9 or 10 years ago with a 3M rotary and compound :/ Having said that, I was extremely inexperienced. A complete novice child actually >.< Anyway, the G220 should serve me well for the rest of my detailing days and hopefully let me get the paint and glass on both cars looking nice and shiny

To give you an idea of how bad the tar on the Clio was, this is quite high on the passenger side rear quarter/rear bumper at the arch. The ENTIRE lower section of the car was like this a couple of weeks ago. It's now clean and waxed but still swirly and scratched...

 

Bloody hell.

3 years of tar didn't get close to that on my beloved:

Rallye rear by HarvB, on Flickr


Rallye Front by HarvB, on Flickr

Desperately need to buy some good wheel cleaner this week, see if I can un-ruin my alloys (they're painted and utterly infested with ruination).

 

Krikkit... try and find some Virosol - it is absolutely amazing stuff and PH Neutral so won't eat away at the lacquer/aluminium.

http://www.cloverchem.co.uk/uk/products/eng_virosol_uk.htm

Drop them a note and they'll tell you your local stockist.

 

Oh, I drive it too and it does get dirty...

I do about 600 miles a month for work (and was away on business for four weeks) but I've driven almost 9k since getting it in early February. I reckon I've done around 1800-2000 miles of commuting, and the rest has been social. A few trips to Wales, Exmoor and regularly up into the Peak District. I'm planning a trip up to north Scotland (I've always wanted to drive to John O'Groats) later in the summer, which will be a good 1500-2000 miles.

 

Ok, maybe it's just me but that reflection is TERRIFYING!!