Mazda RX-8 - opinions?

[HumblePie]

Oh well... when I read up on the new RX8's, everyone kept saying it was Renesis and not a wankle engine, just based off the same principles. Names are schmames and tom-a-toe, tom-ah-toe means the same thing. I'm talking specs and even the article says it's amazing the naturaly aspirated RX8 rensis "modified 13B" is almost as much horse power as a twinturbo charged 13B RX7 when it was last made in 1995.

Trust me, mods and tunes for the RX8 will come out soon as everyone's factory warranty starts to go. It will kick the crap out of the RX7's.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: scorpmatt

and try as you might, you wont own me in car threads. you just dont have enough experience in experimenting with things

LOL, who are you again?

/methinks 91TTZ could pwn you with his hands tied behind his back, blindfolded... while high. :laugh:

lol, thanks.

Although I probably wouldn't own anyone while high. I wouldn't know a piston ring from a delicious devil's food cake smothered with butter creme frosting.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: scorpmatt

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: scorpmatt

and try as you might, you wont own me in car threads. you just dont have enough experience in experimenting with things

What car do you have to experiment on? And what's your experience?

Ive experimented heavily on my 82 accord. weight vs power for the most part

Also have played with a 91 trans am and 87 camero. heavy cars, but the trans am had the beefy 350 w/ super chip.

also dabbed in the truck power area with a 92 dakota (2.5L 4 banger) and a 2000 F150 (v6). both 5 speeds.

readjusting the timing, running with and without cat., better oil cheaper oil, higher gas lesser gas. gas shocks, lowered springs, struts. lots of stuff

And in other news, I rebuilt my lawnmower last week.

 

[scorpmatt]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: scorpmatt

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: scorpmatt

and try as you might, you wont own me in car threads. you just dont have enough experience in experimenting with things

What car do you have to experiment on? And what's your experience?

Ive experimented heavily on my 82 accord. weight vs power for the most part

Also have played with a 91 trans am and 87 camero. heavy cars, but the trans am had the beefy 350 w/ super chip.

also dabbed in the truck power area with a 92 dakota (2.5L 4 banger) and a 2000 F150 (v6). both 5 speeds.

readjusting the timing, running with and without cat., better oil cheaper oil, higher gas lesser gas. gas shocks, lowered springs, struts. lots of stuff

And in other news, I rebuilt my lawnmower last week.

my lawnmower is dying, i need a new one

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: Kaido
238hp is underpowered?? My old car had 85!

Plus, I personally love the design.

238 bhp @ a sky-high 8500 rpm and only 159 lb-ft @ a WTF-won't-this-thing-start-moving 5500 rpm. If you drive it between 2k-3k rpm, you'll think you bought the slowest car on the planet.
All that with a whopping 18 mpg and a $28k sticker for a car with a backseat you really don't want to have to stuff your friends into.
It just doesn't add up compared to what else is on the market right now.

Oh, and Renesis is a Wankel rotary engine design. Someone bought the sales pitch a little too hard I think. But what's wrong with a Wankel? Nothing IMO. Different yes, but fun. Much better with a turbo though.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: scorpmatt


Ive experimented heavily on my 82 accord. weight vs power for the most part

Also have played with a 91 trans am and 87 camero. heavy cars, but the trans am had the beefy 350 w/ super chip.

also dabbed in the truck power area with a 92 dakota (2.5L 4 banger) and a 2000 F150 (v6). both 5 speeds.

readjusting the timing, running with and without cat., better oil cheaper oil, higher gas lesser gas. gas shocks, lowered springs, struts. lots of stuff

So in other words you own no enthusiast cars that you work on and you're listing your friend's cars, correct?

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: scorpmatt

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: scorpmatt

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: scorpmatt

and try as you might, you wont own me in car threads. you just dont have enough experience in experimenting with things

What car do you have to experiment on? And what's your experience?

Ive experimented heavily on my 82 accord. weight vs power for the most part

Also have played with a 91 trans am and 87 camero. heavy cars, but the trans am had the beefy 350 w/ super chip.

also dabbed in the truck power area with a 92 dakota (2.5L 4 banger) and a 2000 F150 (v6). both 5 speeds.

readjusting the timing, running with and without cat., better oil cheaper oil, higher gas lesser gas. gas shocks, lowered springs, struts. lots of stuff

And in other news, I rebuilt my lawnmower last week.

my lawnmower is dying, i need a new one

Rebuild it. Good practice.

lol

 

[HumblePie]

And for those wondering, turbo kits for RX8's are already out and will improve with time, around a 40% increase is "claimed" by afew kits on horsepower and torque. I can't vouce for the legitimacy of the claims until I see and try it. However, in a few years I have no doubt about the ability to stick a turbo or maybe a twin turbo. (duno about the twin without some major modding though)

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: HumblePie
Oh well... when I read up on the new RX8's, everyone kept saying it was Renesis and not a wankle engine, just based off the same principles. Names are schmames and tom-a-toe, tom-ah-toe means the same thing. I'm talking specs and even the article says it's amazing the naturaly aspirated RX8 rensis "modified 13B" is almost as much horse power as a twinturbo charged 13B RX7 when it was last made in 1995.

Trust me, mods and tunes for the RX8 will come out soon as everyone's factory warranty starts to go. It will kick the crap out of the RX7's.

I don't know if I would count on that. Modders don't wait for the warranty.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: HumblePie

Trust me, mods and tunes for the RX8 will come out soon as everyone's factory warranty starts to go. It will kick the crap out of the RX7's.

No it won't, and I'll tell you why.

The 2nd and 3rd gen RX-7 were available turbocharged (the 3rd gen was only available turbo'd) while the RX-8 is not.

It is very hard to get much more power from a low-displacement engine that's high revving to begin with. What else can you do to it other than to make it rev higher? The compression ratio is already going to be high so you're not going to be able to run much boost on it even if you give it forced induction. You can do work to make it compatible, but it's more $$$.

The RX-7's on the other hand came with forced induction, and forced induction = easy power increases. All you have to do is turn up the boost and give it more fuel. You will not see a 400 hp naturally aspirated Renesis engine, while you see a lot of 400 hp turbocharged 13b's. The homework was already done for them.

Plus, the real rotary enthusiasts will go for RX-7's, not RX-8's.

 

[HumblePie]

also, for those that say there isn't just googledand found at www.speedforceracing.com an RX8 with a turbo installed already and a video to watch

http://www.speedforceracing.com/videos/rx8turbo2.AVI

enjoy

They talk about it with an article from the main page.

There's quite a few more out there.

 

[IronWing]

I tried driving one. If you are over 6' this isn't the car for you. My head was pressing the ceiling.

The instruments are a hidious red.

The design is pretty nice.

I don't understand why folks buy the $2100 GPS. If you have a destination in mind but don't know where you are going you probably shouldn't be driving. The guy who let me try out the car is a geography grad who works with maps everyday bought the GPS. He thinks it's cooler than cool but he doesn't need it at all. Makes no sense to me.

 

[psteng19]

Originally posted by: HumblePie
UGH.. the mis-information is horrid in this thread.

First off, the RX8 does NOT have the same engine as the old RX7's did. It's a Renesis engine and NOT a Wankle which the RX7's did. Also the RX7's had Turbos and Supers built for them and different size version for different horsepower output. There is no comparison between the old design and the new one.

As for eating oil, THE 2003 MODELS ONLY had a problem with a computer circuit that cause the engine to eat oil. That problem was recalled and fixed in 2004 and 2005 models. The only difference between 2004 and 2005 models is an update to the factory installed sound system to allow satellite uplink.

As for gas mileage... YAH it can get horrible gas mileage and it can get damn decent, at around 25 MPG as well. Just depends on how you drive it. If you redline the engine the gas will disappear. If you drive it within 2000-3000 rpms you'll get good gas mileage. Then again, driving at lower RPMs does screw with the torque. The rotary engine design is a different animal then standard valve engines and the torque isn't quite as linear. At low RPMs you'll have very little torque compared to an engine with the same potential horsepower. Rev that bad boy up to 5000+ RPM and you WILL feel the torque and G's. It has plenty of torque at higher rpms just that means you eat gas screwing around.


As far as looks, that's subjective. Some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it.

I a side note, I JUST BOUGHT a fully loaded RX8 today after doing a month of car shopping and price/spec comparison to a ton of other cars.

ROFL, talk about giving misinformation :laugh:
The post-2003 models burn oil as well.

The engine makes no power except at high RPM's, so it's pretty pointless to buy a "sports" car if you're going to drive it around grandma-style.
The gas mileage is horrendous if driven even lightly-spirited.
At 15 mpg, I'd like something with a bit more torque.