http://newsmotoring.news.com.au/thecouriermail/story_page/0,8269,5472190%255E3065,00.html

A word of warning - we're still in the dubious "can I just drive it round your test track" stage so there's not much here. Also the writer of this article has a history of writing articles without any substance.

-pete

Brilliant find! The only reason I say this is because:

Seat choices are black leather, tan leather (with tan inserts), red leather (red inserts) and black fabric.

That helps us a lot :)

Oh and...
Dynamically the RX-8 is an exciting machine with top-of-the-class braking power.

The sports suspension model gains 323mm discs up front, compared with 303mm discs on the standard suspension.

Converted, it's around 13" discs :)

well, torque must be a done deal, (at the consitent 159 lb/ft @ 8500 peak number), but what's with the freaky hp??? 246.6 hp... now that's right inbetween the Hercules quoted American number, and the quoted Euro version... hmm.... just rounding error when converting units or something?? 'cause, Japan, Australia and Germany are all strictly metric, so why the disparity??

and fuel consumption data!!! 20/24 mpg for city/hwy... not too shabby for a rotary!!! and competant for a competitor in the sports sedan market... any comparos, you fuel economy afficionados??

Thats about the same city MPG and 3 MPG less highway as the WRX for comparison.

Hmmm... red leather in a black car... be just like the 93 Miata LE, one of my fav's.

I don't like the slightly under 1400kg if I used convert correctly that's 3086lbs. I am not liking that too well I thought that 2900lbs was bad jeez.

All in all its a favorable review.

Man id love to get titanium with red leather interior.

Two suspension settings are available, with the standard 154kW engine coming with the softer suspension as standard, while the 184kW version gains the sports pack.
Firm suspension option! Yay!

I wonder if the red seats will be totally red, or black and red like the ones in the Autobuild/Autoexpress pics. Titanium with black and red seats would be sooooo sweet...

Originally posted by fritts
I don't like the slightly under 1400kg if I used convert correctly that's 3086lbs. I am not liking that too well I thought that 2900lbs was bad jeez.
I thought some Mazda VP promised the weight would be under 3000 lbs during sevenstock. I hope that doesn't mean 2999lbs for a stripped down base model. :(

Originally posted by wakeech
and fuel consumption data!!! 20/24 mpg for city/hwy... not too shabby for a rotary!!! and competant for a competitor in the sports sedan market... any comparos, you fuel economy afficionados??


I used the site (http://www.pege.org/fuel/convert.htm) to convert the listed 12.3 ltr/100km city and 9.8 ltr/100km highway to 19mpg city/24mpg highway. Is that UK gallons or US?

The numbers do not really make sense at all since the 1991 rx-7 already had 25 mpg highway and the twin-turbo 3rd gens also had 25 mpg highway.

Brian

Originally posted by wakeech
well, torque must be a done deal, (at the consitent 159 lb/ft @ 8500 peak number), but what's with the freaky hp??? 246.6 hp... now that's right inbetween the Hercules quoted American number, and the quoted Euro version... hmm.... just rounding error when converting units or something?? 'cause, Japan, Australia and Germany are all strictly metric, so why the disparity??

and fuel consumption data!!! 20/24 mpg for city/hwy... not too shabby for a rotary!!! and competant for a competitor in the sports sedan market... any comparos, you fuel economy afficionados??


If the car is rated at 250 PS, then that's about 247 hp.

but those RX-7 ratings are EPA ratings, not this magazine's rating system... the cruising gear, so i hear, has a LOT to do with EPA ratings, so we'll yet see...

i used www.onlineconversion.com (http://www.onlineconversion.com/fuel_consumption.htm) for my conversions... i've got no freakin' idea about UK or US gallons... my guess'd be that this is a British site, 'cause they talk about the Troy pounds, and the Apothecary pounds, and the something something something stuff... i'm just a metric boy!! why the hell does the US still stick with these archaic units???? AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! me head is going to EXPLODE!!!!!! :p

I thought this was interesting:

"TRANSMISSION: Six-speed manual, Activematic auto with tiptronic and paddle-shift controls "

I didn't know that it would have the paddle-shifters for the auto...not that I care too much as I'll be getting a manual, but anyways.

Originally posted by wakeech
but those RX-7 ratings are EPA ratings, not this magazine's rating system... the cruising gear, so i hear, has a LOT to do with EPA ratings, so we'll yet see...

i used www.onlineconversion.com (http://www.onlineconversion.com/fuel_consumption.htm) for my conversions... i've got no freakin' idea about UK or US gallons... my guess'd be that this is a British site, 'cause they talk about the Troy pounds, and the Apothecary pounds, and the something something something stuff... i'm just a metric boy!! why the hell does the US still stick with these archaic units???? AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! me head is going to EXPLODE!!!!!! :p

To make things more complicated, Autocar (http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/forum-photos/autocar_uk_nov-2002/autocar_04.JPG) estimated 28-30mpg combined!!?!?!! (see attachment)

http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/forum-photos/autocar_uk_nov-2002/autocar_04.JPG

"According to Mazda the RX-8 is between 10-15 per cent more economical in the real world than its twin-turbo predecessor."

I think we've all seen the 40% less fuel at idle thing but the above quote is the first that I've seen from Mazda on the real world fuel economy benefits of the renesis.

Taken at face value, the numbers come out to:

18.7 to 19.55 mpg city/27.5 to 28.75 mpg highway

Does 19 mpg city / 28 mpg highway sound like a reasonable estimate?

Brian

Buger, you beat me to it...I was in the middle of typing a post that looks almost exactly like the one you just submitted!

Those numbers look good to me. Personally, I'm hoping that the efficiency increase is more to the high end of 15%. EPA numbers in the US are always rounded up to the nearest whole number, so 19.55 city/28.75 highway would actually be advertised as 20 city/29 highway.

Just as an fyi....the 3.0 liter Mazda6 with a 5-speed is rated 20/27, so 20/29 (or ever 19/28, for that matter) would be acceptable, in a marketing sense.

Originally posted by IWANTanRX8
Buger, you beat me to it...I was in the middle of typing a post that looks almost exactly like the one you just submitted!

:D

Originally posted by fritts
I don't like the slightly under 1400kg if I used convert correctly that's 3086lbs. I am not liking that too well I thought that 2900lbs was bad jeez.

http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/foru.../autocar_04.JPG

estimates 1300 kg or approx 2867 lbs. :)

Brian

Originally posted by Buger
http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/forum-photos/autocar_uk_nov-2002/autocar_04.JPG

"According to Mazda the RX-8 is between 10-15 per cent more economical in the real world than its twin-turbo predecessor."

I think we've all seen the 40% less fuel at idle thing but the above quote is the first that I've seen from Mazda on the real world fuel economy benefits of the renesis.

Taken at face value, the numbers come out to:

18.7 to 19.55 mpg city/27.5 to 28.75 mpg highway

Does 19 mpg city / 28 mpg highway sound like a reasonable estimate?

Brian
It's good for me. :)

Good stuff..... i just was sort of hoping for a black interior with blue inserts... i love the red interior the s2000 has with a silver exterior probally wat ill get for the rx-8 since i want inserts and blue would look cheesy with a red interior in my opinion.

at 20/28, and THAT kind of performance, uhhh... you'd really REALLY have a hard time making an arguement against this engine... hooooly crap...

"Of the eight colour choices, Mazda says that Velocity Red, which is the chosen launch colour, will be the hero colour, followed by Sunlight Silver and Titanium Gray."

COOL! I was hoping there would be a titanium grey! I can't wait to see one in the flesh in that colour!

"It is not a copy of a tight, finely tuned German chassis but a new creation, taking the sports car segment to another dimension."

"There is a touch too much understeer dialled into the rotary blaster and it appears to need a more neutral set-up."

This is the 2nd article that mentioned the understeer. I hope they fix that for the final version. Bigger rear sway bar perhaps?

"Steering feel seems sweet and quick off-centre and the ride quality is exceptional."

Another rave review of the steering feel.

Good review, but GREAT PICTURE. Love that front end.

Well, everything looked pretty good in that review except the $65,000 projected price!!!! :mad: I'm hoping that means that Australians are either twice as rich as Americans or that it's a really big typo :) . I'm just going to keep praying to the gods of mazda to keep the car around 26 grand. Otherwise this poor college student is going to be doomed to drive an escort for another 5 years. Crazy...I was Crazy once.

Originally posted by curtlo707
Well, everything looked pretty good in that review except the $65,000 projected price!!!! :mad: I'm hoping that means that Australians are either twice as rich as Americans or that it's a really big typo :) . I'm just going to keep praying to the gods of mazda to keep the car around 26 grand. Otherwise this poor college student is going to be doomed to drive an escort for another 5 years. Crazy...I was Crazy once.

Thursday, November 14, 2002
65,000 Australian Dollar = 36,387.7 US Dollar

"It is not a copy of a tight, finely tuned German chassis but a new creation, taking the sports car segment to another dimension."

What exactly is that supposed to mean? I thought German tuned suspensions ala BMW/Mercedes were supposed to be THE standard for others to emulate.

they said of the 8 colors they only mentioned 3 I'm wondering about the 5 other colors and colors for the inserts

Hehe, if you bought this car in Turkey it would be in the Billions :)

20 million Turkish bucks = 10 bucks US lol :)

Originally posted by rxtreme


What exactly is that supposed to mean? I thought German tuned suspensions ala BMW/Mercedes were supposed to be THE standard for others to emulate.

Drive a Miata and you'll understand. The BMW's feel "solid" and you can't do a wrong move. Glued to the road.
Mazda makes their cars more lively and willing to dance. They feel "lighter" in every aspect of driving.
Two different driving dynamic philosophies, both equally good.