Hi All,

Mike Rutherford in News of the World ( Sunday news paper) today said sources tell him that the RX-8 embarrasses just about every car in it's class for performance including the TT and the Alfa GTV and he predicts it could well be the car of the year 2003 .

All the Best Clive
e-mail: clive@mazdarotaryclub.com
web: www.mazdarotaryclub.com

I certainly hope he is right. If it comes within arm's reach of a 350z in terms of straightline speed, I'll be ecstatic. Hell, if it can do 0-60 under 6 seconds, which has been the goal, I'll be happy. It is shaping up to be a pretty cool car. One question, does anyone else think it should be lowered a bit? From the new photos on Mazda's site, the back looks like it's quite high off of the ground, and kind of detracts from it's aggresive styling. That is just me though. Opinions?

Originally posted by velociti
I certainly hope he is right. If it comes within arm's reach of a 350z in terms of straightline speed, I'll be ecstatic. Hell, if it can do 0-60 under 6 seconds, which has been the goal, I'll be happy. It is shaping up to be a pretty cool car. One question, does anyone else think it should be lowered a bit? From the new photos on Mazda's site, the back looks like it's quite high off of the ground, and kind of detracts from it's aggresive styling. That is just me though. Opinions? It's lower than the RX-7.. any lower and you won't go over speed bumps.

I'm going to laugh my ass off when people go and get the aftermarket springs to drop the car an inch or two and scrape the hell out of the car... it's just sad :(

Originally posted by velociti
I certainly hope he is right. If it comes within arm's reach of a 350z in terms of straightline speed, I'll be ecstatic. Hell, if it can do 0-60 under 6 seconds, which has been the goal, I'll be happy. It is shaping up to be a pretty cool car. One question, does anyone else think it should be lowered a bit? From the new photos on Mazda's site, the back looks like it's quite high off of the ground, and kind of detracts from it's aggresive styling. That is just me though. Opinions?

The last rx-7 had a ground clearance of 4.5" (114.3mm). According to the article:

(http://www.nationalpost.ca/driversedge/story.html?id={2275C784-9381-45B8-B05B-3CA2460BA5E4})

"...when compared with the RX-7, the RX-8's centre of gravity is 40 millimetres lower. Factor in the 50/50 front-to-rear weight distribution and you have the makings of a real go-kart."

If the center of gravity for the rx-8 is 40mm lower than the last rx-7, it can't be very high off the ground.

The Millenia had about 4.9" of ground clearance and I think that the Rx-8 will likely have something close to that.

Brian

Originally posted by Hercules
It's lower than the RX-7.. any lower and you won't go over speed bumps.

I'm going to laugh my ass off when people go and get the aftermarket springs to drop the car an inch or two and scrape the hell out of the car... it's just sad :(

Hi Herc,

Is it your opinion that the ground clearance will be lower than 4.5" or is there a source online that quotes this?

Brian

Herc, I think you're confusing centre of gravity with ground clearance...