The RX-8 has been awarded another prize. Japanese car of the year...

Here is the Aussie press release in brief........


The revolutionary Mazda RX-8, four-door, four-seat, rotary sports car has been named '2004 RJC Car of The Year' in Japan and the RENESIS rotary engine that powers the RX-8 has been awarded ?2004 RJC Technology of The Year.?

The RJC award was judged by the 74 members of the Automotive Researchers' & Journalists' Conference of Japan, with the RX-8 securing the title ahead of 18 other contenders.

The award was the second year running that Mazda has won the top RJC Car Of The Year prize, with the Mazda-6 (Atenza in Japan) winning last year.

Powered by the RENESIS ? naturally-aspirated new generation rotary ? the RX-8 is an entirely new type of sports car that features distinctive sports car styling and excellent performance while providing ample interior space for four adults through technological innovation, including the compact, yet high powered RENESIS engine. Since its Japanese launch in April this year, sales have comfortably exceeded targets with 13,000 RX-8s sold so far on the Japanese market.

Commenting on the RJC awards, the President and CEO of Mazda, Hisakazu Imaki, said: "The Mazda RX-8 is the result of Mazda's spirit of challenge and carries Mazda's soul under its hood ? it embodies ?Zoom-Zoom? ? love of motion felt as a child ? to the fullest. Receiving these two great awards gives us incomparable confidence in our new direction of vehicle development and passionate approach. Aiming to respond to these expectations, the entire Mazda team continues to put a collective effort into creating fun-to-drive, Zoom-Zoom products.?

To date the RX-8 has been named 2003-2004 Japan Automotive Hall of Fame Production Car of the Year, and the 2003-2004 Japan Car of The Year Most Fun special award.

In addition, the RENESIS engine was named International Engine of the Year 2003.

Oooh European car of the year 2004 is the Fiat Panda! Woohooo!

(*if you dont know what a fiat panda is, its a shoebox with seats and pedals. engine and wheels optional. CAn have it in a veriaety of crayon'd colours).

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=7631

Can't say that this surprises me one little bit :) But is still pleases me a hell of a lot!

KEV

They must have more car awards in japan than geishas check this out .

www.autoweek.com/carnews/indexmv.

On this site they say the subaru liberty GT has won the japanese car of the year award>???

Anyhow its great to be the owner of a winning car .

KEV

There is a ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE being built for the 2005 model year costing around $220,00 australian dollars

VANTAGE ( not the vanquish )

KEV

TRY THIS

http://www.autoweek.com/carnews/index.mv

Revamped subaru liberty GT wins japanese car of the year .

michael

Originally posted by RobDickinson
Oooh European car of the year 2004 is the Fiat Panda! Woohooo!


Ummmm that's not a car :confused:

Originally posted by Lock & Load
KEV

TRY THIS

http://www.autoweek.com/carnews/index.mv

Revamped subaru liberty GT wins japanese car of the year .

michael

Ta!

You know the thing I hate the most about Subaru's is the fact that the cabin could be out of a tractor. I hme they've done something better inside with this one...

Kev.

Originally posted by Lock & Load
KEV

They must have more car awards in japan than geishas check this out .

www.autoweek.com/carnews/indexmv.

On this site they say the subaru liberty GT has won the japanese car of the year award>???


According to the Autoweek article:
"Japan has two rival car-of-the-year awards, nominated and named by differing bodies. The other, voted on by automotive reporters, will be announced within the coming month. "

... which I guess is the RJC awards, where the 8 won.

kev, timbo

SUBARU in my opinion will in the next couple of years be a real handfull for other car manufacturers , they have a great product let down by body styling or should i say lack off and by their interiors , they have recently aquired the services of a top body stylist from alfa romeo who is tryng to add some style to their cars , once this happens their products will improve.

Agreed L&L,

I've taken a few Subs for test drives, I just look back at them afterwards and think naaa - I'm ugly enough ... I need all the help I can get :)

kev

Its your glasses try contacts ,my uncle use too say i may be short fat bold and ugly, but when i stand on my wallet the ladies see me .

Havent you heard the song girls like guys with cars and money?

Well, the Sub GT was on my list for a while until I found out it would only be released here, at least initially, with a slush box :)

Timbo

The subaru was also on my short list but not interested in the slush box which heats up under duress at the track .
Subaru are going to bring the manual out in a years time , albeith too late for us , also i decided i could live with the cars looks .

''I know you dont look at the mantle piece while your stoking the fire'"

. But i like my women and cars with a nice face with all the extras. ha ha ha

michael

prior to driving the rx8, I was set to buy the subaru b4... sigh...

I'm still curious about what it would be like driving all wheel drive all the time.

++dez;

Originally posted by Dez
prior to driving the rx8, I was set to buy the subaru b4... sigh...

I'm still curious about what it would be like driving all wheel drive all the time.

++dez;

To me, constant 4wd seems a little unrefined in the steering.

There are very few cars that you can do side by side testing 2wd to 4wd and of those, some are Fwd or 4wd - so it's a hard ...

In terms of safety, 4wd is a good thing and gives better all round traction - the down side is that it makes a lot of clowns think they're instantly fantastic drivers!

AWD in the snow was prolly this biggest selling point for me, thats how discerning I was being, so next year's season in the RX8 - f*ck, where am I going to put 2m10cm of ski ? that's a problem!

ROOF RACK on the RX8, is it just me or is that just plain and simply "wrong" ?

next thing ya know there's going to be a f*cking ocean kyak on the rook! yea gods!

mind you [ getting really off track here ] car surfing on the roof of an RX8 would be some what of a "rush" eh wot?

++dez;

Roof racks are listed in the Mazda brochure as one of the accessories available for the RX-8, although I haven't seen photo's or a price yet.

Dez, I'm in a similar quandry with my surf boards.

Not to mention where to put the fresh cut christmas tree!!!!

If you use the passthrough from the boot... is this too long for your skis?

Originally posted by Dez
AWD in the snow was prolly this biggest selling point for me, thats how discerning I was being, so next year's season in the RX8 - f*ck, where am I going to put 2m10cm of ski ? that's a problem!

ROOF RACK on the RX8, is it just me or is that just plain and simply "wrong" ?

next thing ya know there's going to be a f*cking ocean kyak on the rook! yea gods!

mind you [ getting really off track here ] car surfing on the roof of an RX8 would be some what of a "rush" eh wot?

++dez;

I want to get a roof rack for the odd long trip when I like to take my mountain bikes along. Plus, give the limited space in the boot, a roof box may be in order. I asked Thule a couple of months ago about roof racks as I already have one of their systems and all I'd need is new feet for it -- but they said they had no plans to create one. I assume once the RX-8 takes off in Europe some more that this may change.

The 8's a bit of a dud for transporting bikes. The Mazda 6 we've got has little slots in the roof channels for racks, the TT I had also has roof rack mounts in the roof channels.

The 8's boot isn't viable for a serious bike rack either, due to the nature of the rear bumper.

Can you get a towbar for the 8? If so you can fit one of those bike racks that mount on the towball..

a towbar on an RX8 ..... wouldnt it spoil the balance ....... and dent the fragile male egos!!

The picture I saw was an arm with a ball (sound funny?) - no base/platform to mount a bike rack.

I wouldn't do it anyway.