last night I was on the highway and met with a WRX. All i knew was that i got into 4th and it was at about 7000rpm when we both took off. I could clearly see that he pulled on me just a tad bit, and it wasn't during the shift. In 5th I think he got up to about 1 1/2 car length on me before we both slowed down and gave each other the good ol' thumbs up. Is a stock WRX supposed to do that? I do appreciate the better looks, the luxury, and the class our 8's have over those other cars, including the Z (the 8 just looks a lot more exotic) but regarding power and speed, I shouldn't be in denial about it anymore since the 8 is, after all, a "sports car". What do you guys think?

 

the 8 looks much nicer but the wrx are all fast. they have stock turbo

 

I doubt a fully stock WRX would pull on you like that unless you didn't drive well, he probably had engine management or a boost controller. So for $15 spent at home depot he is supposed to do that to you, but but fully stock nope. :p

 

This is just to clarify what I meant. On stop distance, it a one time thing. Where on the track, track just because its legal, you will brake hard many time before the race if over. I didn't mean the brakes were horable, because their not. I find it dumbfounding why the STi experenced brake fade too, although it wasn't no were near as bad as the regular WRX. The STi faded but not to the point were the car became uncontrollable. Maybe it was because of the ABS? I don't know. I think AWD has something to do with it. Just my thoughts. To bad I have been traveling alot lately, I would really like to do somethings with the cars. The only reason why I prefer the RX-8 over other cars, I think it fits my style of driving. Altough I would love to have a STi, or even WRX, since they are all great cars.

 

are you so sure about that? My friends stock 01 wrx pulls on me no matter in what gear. Its usually around on 4th gear at 8K+ rpm is where i start pulling, track wise it might be a different story.

 

Well... there is no such thing as an 01 WRX unless it's JDM so I'm guessing you mean 02. Stock for stock the WRX and RX-8 are about even from a roll, if you're talking from a dig it's a totally different story. Maybe from a slow roll the WRX has the advantage <shrugs>, but at highway speeds it should be pretty damn close.

 

These are just road tests, and do not take driver ability into account, but you can get somewhat of a rough idea as to how these cars match up. If these road tests have any validity, you can see the RX8 does catch up to the WRX and pull away from it at high speeds. Give or take a few tenths in 1/4 mile, and I believe this is somewhat accurate. It would make sense that higher speeds the rx8 would pull away. The WRX, or even STI for that matter are not the best top end cars, due to their gearing and AWD. I ran this same comparison on STi vs SRT-4, and the numbers show the srt reeling in the sti, and ultimately passing it by the time they reach max speed. Not that anyone should race to top speed, but if they did, this would give you an idea of who has more highway power.

WRX RX8
0-30 mph 1.50 s 2.12 s
0-40 mph 3.08 s 3.46 s
0-50 mph 4.26 s 4.69 s
0-60 mph 5.59 s 5.96 s
0-70 mph 8.05 s 8.14 s
0-80 mph 10.04 s 10.02 s
0-90 mph 12.59 s 12.89 s
0-100 mph 16.66 s 15.91 s
0-110 mph 20.53 s 19.32 s
0-120 mph 25.61 s 23.45 s
0-130 mph 36.17 s 30.32 s
0-140 mph 52.70 s 38.77 s

14.37 s @ 93.87 mph 14.62 s @ 96.54 mph

 

That's probably about right but keep in mind that's on the fast side for an RX-8, I have yet to see anyone trap better than 94mph in a production, stock RX-8, plus some stock WRXs have trapped 95mph. But I'd say once the WRX is in the ridiculously tall 4th gear the RX-8 pulls no matter what. Maybe with all these new maps the RX-8 will trap a little higher, we'll probably see once it starts warming up.

 

sure is pretty damn close. I wish I had some highway footage :D