Trannie is ridiculously easy underneath!. Had it out and back in withing an hour. EASY!!! haha. Oh and I wedged the Reverse sensor cable between the block and the gearbox :L. Just cut the wire and made a couple of spade terminals!. Loosened the casing and swung the box up to get the sensor!. Happy days!.
But aye, in all fairness, it wasn't the guy working on the Gallardo that jumped in it to see why it wasn't changing gear. It was in for a box replacement and the other muppet disconnected the paddles for some stupid reason :s.
As to the RX-8, never dealt with one so that sounds fair, as to it flooding. Actually got a trannie in tomorrow for gear linkage cables. Snapped them both clean in 2!