Given Clarkson's comments in the times today about the RX-8 having problems in the wet, I guess we should be glad they haven't previewed the car yet.

 

..they did slag off the 95 though didn't they pillman - apart from that (actually pretty bloomin good) 50-70 pickup in 2nd...

I was straining my eyes to see if they have rated the coolness of the 8 on the board and not told us.... Couldnt see it.

 

Regarding handling in the wet problems, read the threads in the Discussion forum, and see what North Americans are saying about the efficacy of the DSC control. After reading them, I will NEVER switch mine off!

 

Yeah, but us Brits drive round corners all the time....

 

I prefer driving the car with DSC off. Far more natural feel.

 

Far more natural feel? 99.9% of the time it shouldnt be doing anything. That 0.1% mebee it should be doing something. Seems like it doesnt intervene unless things are looking bad.

As for traction control, I managed a decent amount of wheelspin on a start today, no gadgets steped in (was 1/2 second or so). Still running in so I'm not realy going for quick takeoffs yet.

 

There's a snipet in this months TG mag were Mr. Clarkson mentions the RX8 while talking about modern sports coupes in general 350Z-Crossfire-Celica-Hyundai Coupe-GTV:

Quote:


And let's not forget the Mazda RX-8. Now this is one of the best handling cars I have ever driven and I just love telling friends of my mother that is has a Wankel rotary engine. But the styling's chintzier than a pair of council house curtains.

It rather looks like they had a 'design' suggestion box at the factory and decided to adopt everyone's idea. So as a result it's a two-door four door, with the boot of a saloon, the front of a Humber, gills and some triangles. And this from the company that brought us one of the most heavenly creations of all time the last RX-7.

 

I love the DSC on this car, it lets you get the tail out a bit, even a little wheel spin off the line. But it wont allow you to swap ends, and it wont leave you in the middle of a junction spinning the wheels. Thats good enough for me on the public roads at this stage. Maybe I'll try the DSC off after I've been on the skid pan at the track day.

This is so different to other so called performance cars, the DSC mechanisms are very intrusive and far from natural to drive. This is especially for front wheel drive platforms with far too much power. The 3.0 V6 Alfa's are riduclous, the traction control is operating 100% of the time, you dont drive the car the computer does, or you wont be on the road. Even on the Golf R32 where they have had to bolt on expensive 4 wheel drive to try and handle the power, the traction control has to kick in at the slightest throttle use.

Cheers
---Dave

 

Just to remind everyone:

Top Gear RX8 Review Sun 8:00pm
Fifth Gear RX8 Review Mon 8:30pm

 

Hmmm isn't it filmed on a Thu and wasn't it quite wet on Thu?

Surely someone must have been there / know the time is scored?