Alright, so there I was on a lateral street waiting for the traffic to enter a highway's service road. It was around 9pm, and there was unusual lots of traffic.

So I decided: what the heck!?, I can outrun everyone....ha!

I engaged 1st, looked to my left to see how fast the other car lights were moving...and I floored it. I did not drop the clutch, did nothing except good ol' fashioned gas.

What happened??...you are wondering?

Well, really nothing special....until I hit past 5500rpms in first. "Wow! that was something new...never been on this territory before" was my self rethoric. I was already on the leftmost lane of the service road and still in 1st gear (there is not a big distance) ready to take the highway ramp. But I made a big mistake, I lost track of the engine speed. When approaching the ramp, all of a sudden I felt a big hand grabbing the car from the rear and stopping it. As if I had hitted a wall. BTW, this all happened in very few seconds.

I was like, what the F%^$@# (pardon my French!), the gas wasn't responding, I was freaking out.....and then once again it came back to life...changed to 2nd gear and kept going on my way.

One piece of good advice, DON'T YOU EVER USE THE ENGINE SOUND TO DECIDE WHEN TO SHIFT! The buzzer is nothing else than a simple formality, when you are in that territory you can't hear a thing...at least I didn't (Hmm...maybe I didn't want to hear anything else than the engine screaming.)

So, I kepts driving, shaking like a banana...thinking: "Oh, Oh...I bet the CEL is coming right to bite me in my rear..." up to this moment, nothing happened. I checked the oil this morning to see how bad it was, or even if the color had changed: NOTHING, PERFECTLY CLEAN (Which surprises me..)

Now I am wondering how much have a shortened my apex seals life?....In case you didn't read to whole thing: I reached the rev. limiter and killed the poor thing for a couple seconds.

Anyways, thought it might be a relief (for me) to share this experience.

:D

No big deal -- that is why there is an fuel cut-off at around 9300rpm's. You obviously have a few miles on the car (this wasn't your trip home from the dealership). I have done the same thing (at 775 miles on mine) -- scares the **** out of you at first. Mine happened in second gear -- was having too much fun listening to the scream of the rotary magic :D . This car is build to rev and rev hard -- no damage done IMHO.

*grin* I hope it doesn't hurt the car, because I've done it too- all of a sudden, if you aren't watching the revs, you're suddenly above redline! Oops.

I finally heard my buzzer last night- I've got to find a way to make it louder. I thought it was part of the CD I had in at first.

The rev limiter is nothing new in sportcars. I have one in my 99 Miata and love bouncing off it every now and again. I call it "the Italian tuneup" :)

I don't get it - why the fear of the rev-limiter (at 9500rpm, as opposed to warning chime at 8500rpm)? After I hit 1000 miles I purposely hit the rev-limiter several times (in 1st and 2nd) to see how it felt and sounded (so I don't get 'surprised' one day). Now I am redlining a LOT (try to get the chime to come in time with music playing in the background). BTW my last tank was 18.3mpg.

The rotary could spin much higher than 9K, probably to 10 or 11, but all the accessory driven equipment i.e. AC, Alt, etc. wouldn't be able to handle that rpm.

It's not uncommon for race prepped 13b-rew's to spin 13K

Originally posted by pelucidor
I don't get it - why the fear of the rev-limiter (at 9500rpm, as opposed to warning chime at 8500rpm)? After I hit 1000 miles I purposely hit the rev-limiter several times (in 1st and 2nd) to see how it felt and sounded (so I don't get 'surprised' one day). Now I am redlining a LOT (try to get the chime to come in time with music playing in the background). BTW my last tank was 18.3mpg.

I have absolutely no fear to the buzzer....in fact, I never even notice it. The biggy is that I was caught with my pants down on the road (not literally, OK?) and the fuel cut-off.....scary situation in any road with 'some' traffic....

:p

nothing bad happens, you just stop accelerating around 10 large, swap cogs and keep it down (to the floor that is!)

actually, i hardly ever hammer it all the way down, though when your giving it a good amount of gass and top 5kish, you do feel a boost, at least i do

oh, that reminds me, i was flooring it around 7krpm, and felt somehting which i think was the shortened path to the ports opening or air changing into that path or somehting cause i felt a very slight slightly quick (and by that i dont mean that i felt a "kick in the pants" just a slight increase in power) "oomph" type thing, like the car accelerated slightly faster for a second

and now that im used to the buzzer, i hear it every time
________
Herbal Vaporizers (http://herbalvaporizers.info)

Years ago I rented a Corolla while my 91 Accord 2.2 was in the shop... First time I tried to overtake I hit that rev limiter and it was nasty!...

Thing was I figured out at that moment I'd been regularly taking the Honda to 7K when overtaking becasue you don't look at the counter, you just look at the gap you HAVE to fit in...

Anyway, the redline was 6250-6500... so I was well over...

The engine was still going strong at 200,000 miles and as far as I know it STILL is.... Don't fret!

Welcome to the world of rotaries! Don't worry everyone makes this mistake at some time. It's much worse when you swap straight away from a piston car to a rotary.

Mazda have traditionally always set the limiter well below where e-shaft flex comes into play, so your not wrecking anything, you're just not making much power!

-pete

I certainly wouldn't worry about it. I haven't done it yet since I just got it and only have 115 miles on it (in one day). As someone else in this thread said, I too have a Miata that Ive autox probably 12 times times and on one or more runs I was bouncing off the rev limiter all over the course. There has been no damage, problem, etc. to that car. Enjoy and don't worry!:D

Actually in turbo engines, hiting the rev limiter causes a temporary lean condition as the rev limiter is done by cutting fuel to the engine while the trotle and turbo are still pumping plenty of air into the engine. This lean condition leads to heat and is very detrimental to turbo engines at least. On NA engines the effect is not as pronounced but still the same. I believe the trotle in the Rx-8 is computer control so it is possible that it is also reducing air into the engine, but other car manufacturers that have fly by wire trotle rely only on fuel cut for the rev limiter

As far as I can determined, the RX-8 doesn't have a fuel cutoff. It's more like a "stop accelerating" limit. A fuel cutoff mean that there's no fuel going to the engine and so the car would immediately decelerate. Not so with the RX-8 or at least from my own experience with it. At the rev limit the 8 simply stop accelerating but it still maintains its speed. It probably not a smart idea to ride the rev limit for prolong period, but I have stays at the rev limit for a couple seconds. It's the only car I know that has this behavior. Most other cars have the more jolting fuel cutoff.