How is this not an RX8?

[ZILLA]

The RX8 gas mileage is as bad, if not worse than a vette.

[R8]

Originally Posted by ZILLA

The RX8 gas mileage is as bad, if not worse than a vette.

True. And yet many of us still value the joy of the experience over all it's supposed "flaws."

I bet a lot of you (BRZ/FR-S owners) would still have bought your car if it got 20-21 mpg or so... once you felt it in motion.

[tripjammer]

The RX8 was never a good looking car. You see a FR-S or BRZ in person and it is something special. The RX8 never wowed me.

Mazda pretty much wimped out and did not redesign the car to me it look and perform better. What we really want is a true RX7 successor.

Maybe one day....

[Gardus@Supersprint]

Originally Posted by R8

I bet a lot of you (BRZ/FR-S owners) would still have bought your car if it got 20-21 mpg or so... once you felt it in motion.

Obviously NOT!

[Motopythons]

If a pimple handles better and drive faster than a Lotus Exige, would you still want one?

Case closed.

[Gardus@Supersprint]

Handles better and drive faster than a Exige? What, the 86? Ahah!

[R8]

Originally Posted by tripjammer

Mazda pretty much wimped out and did not redesign the car to me it look and perform better.
What we really want is a true RX7 successor.

Mazda decided to make a car for people who once owned 2-seaters, but who since grew up and needed something more practical but still wanted that "feel." Not so much "wimping out" as maturing.

But I obviously understand how the RX-8 would be a dissappointment to those who wanted a two-seat, all-out performance car.

Maybe one day....

Probably only if countries lower their emissions standards, gasoline prices drop dramatically and the world economy recovers so people feel safe to splurge on semi-expensive fun cars again. In other words... not counting on it The "Soul of Mazda" is appparently going to be "Clean Diesel" now.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by R8

Probably only if countries lower their emissions standards, gasoline prices drop dramatically and the world economy recovers so people feel safe to splurge on semi-expensive fun cars again.

It's mostly the emissions, the rotary spits out way too many HCs due to crappy combustion chamber geometry. The fuel economy sucked balls not only because the rotary has a bit of an inherent efficiency disadvantage, but also because it has S2000 like gearing with even more displacement (it is not a 1.3, it's a 2.6 :P). Combine those 2 and it's no surprise it guzzles gas like a V8. With a tall cruise gear the FE penalty can be cut by a lot.

[R8]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

With a tall cruise gear the FE penalty can be cut by a lot.

I'm not sure what it is, but the 8's 6th gear feels pretty tall. I can still pass cars without downshifting on the interstate, but not very quickly

Still, mine does 24 mpg on 6th gear highway trips. Not great, but not quite OMG! either. And it only falls to 21 mpg during mixed, spirited commuting. Again not great, but I don't think it warrants the overreaction it gets. I think people see 1.3 liter and 18/24 mpg and think, "huh?" lol.

I've often wondered what mpg's the rotary would get if it was downsized to make "only" 200 hp and put in a 2,700ish lbs. car

[thill]

As someone who has owned multiple RX-7's this is sad news:
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...range-extender

As someone else said, Mazda is really focusing on things like Skyactiv and clean diesel now. Because that is what is selling...

[sdiver68]

For those quoting the MT article, until you get all of these cars on the same class of tire the track times are useless. To me, the Prius tire BRZ being only 2 seconds behind the Mustang on serious extreme performance rubber means the BRZ was actually faster.

[roguetadhg]

RX-8, for what it's worth was definitely an eye-catching car. Everyone remembers "That blue car".

I loved the feel of the car, I found excuses to get out and drive - anywhere.

I didn't like the gasoline and the oil consumption to me was not so bad. It was, for me, the ticket for excitement. I expected and wanted to be invovled in the car more than just traveling between two points.

However, traveling 13 hours with a load-full of stuff was not easy. I always had the tetris theme playing in my mind trying to find new and inventive ways to fit over-sized items in the 8. I still remember unboxing furniture, and leaving the box near the trash can at Wally world.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by R8

I'm not sure what it is, but the 8's 6th gear feels pretty tall. I can still pass cars without downshifting on the interstate, but not very quickly

Still, mine does 24 mpg on 6th gear highway trips. Not great, but not quite OMG! either. And it only falls to 21 mpg during mixed, spirited commuting. Again not great, but I don't think it warrants the overreaction it gets. I think people see 1.3 liter and 18/24 mpg and think, "huh?" lol.

I've often wondered what mpg's the rotary would get if it was downsized to make "only" 200 hp and put in a 2,700ish lbs. car

Well, it isn't :P It's very very short, because you actually have 2.6 liters displacement (when talking regular engine speak). When you consider that on the highway your rpms are in S2000 territory, but you have 0.6 liters more displacement, then it's no wonder that the gas mileage blows. The S2000's gas mileage already blows because of the very short cruising gears. Now you're decreasing load another 20% ish, and then losing another 10-20% in engine efficiency.

Part of the problem is that downsizing a rotary further increases the surface area to volume ratio, which is one of the big reasons why the efficiency of a rotary sucks.

This is a problem with all manual transmission cars actually. The manufacturer feels the need to keep a lot of reserve power since people are too lazy to downshift, even in an economy car. The FRS is actually pretty good here, 2600rpm at 60mph in a 2L engine is a low rpm compared to most 2L engines. The S2000 is one of the worst. The RX8 manages to beat it

[old greg]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Part of the problem is that downsizing a rotary further increases the surface area to volume ratio

Not if you just take off a rotor. A 16x based, single rotor wankel would be kind of neat. Actually, that's probably what we'll be seeing Mazda use in that rotary series hybrid thing they've been mentioning.