RX8-79

No less than those of tasteless ricers such as yourself.

guy321

WOW, a forum where people are actually defending the RX8's performance over another car.. that's pretty bad for the eclipse

Ike

Sorry, less.

rx8spiritR

so how fast this thing can go? a lot faster than the 8???????

crossbow

Edmunds tested it as slower then the 8. C&D and R&T tested it as faster. In a straight line of course...if you even care about that.

It'll get slaughtered in the corners (by the 8) due to the amount of heft and inferior suspension setup.

rodrigo67

first comparing the eclipse in a straight line shot against the RX8 is like comparing the mitsu's strongest quality against the 8's weakest. It reminds me of those car commercials that tell you that thier car is faster 0-60 then an RX8, has more passenger space then a 350z, handles better then a mustang, and cost less then a g35. It makes it cound as if it's better then all these cars, when in fact, it's not better then any of them.

Everyone seems to be in love with the engine and the performance numbers, but I'm not so impressed. The mitsu makes 20 less hp then a 350z with an engine that's 10% bigger. This from a huge 3.8 litere, what's so impressive about that?

The eclipse is a fat pig that doesn't outrun anything in it's competition. The closet 0-60 and 1/4 it comes to, is the RX8, and we all know what a drag strip ripper the 8 is. The following all have better skidpad numbers: RX8, 350z, g35, mustang, rsx, celica, tiberon, and srt4 . I know numbers are numbers but with a soft suspension, body roll, and king kong weight, I doubt this thing is going to out handle anyone. So, what makes this a sports car? Is it only that it can do 0-60 in the 6 sec range , what else does it have? 0-60 does not make it a sports car or we have to start considering alot of 4 door sedans, lux cars, and some trucks sports cars also...

JanSolo

Too bad this car is so soft and is fwd. It is a pseudo performance car since it's 1/4 mile is somewhat respectable, but it's handling.. well as far as I know, the Eclipse has never been known as good handling car. The Evo is the real Mitsu performance vehicle, not the Eclipse.

I doubt we will see forced induction on the V6 anytime soon. There is no room in the engine bay. But the 4 banger.. that has room to spare, so I would expect to see a supercharger in it's future.

When I went to the Mitsubishi Owners Day meet, I saw an interesting badge on one of the new Eclipses. Yes, the picture below shows a VR4 badge on it. When I asked the Mitsu folks about it, they acted dumb and said they had no idea what it was about.



V6 Engine Bay





4 banger engine bay.

LNWLF

The Eclipse for the last time is NOT a sports car, which means it is not in the same class as the RX-8 or 350z. It is a SPORTY car with decent acceleration performance numbers (14.2-14.5 1/4 mile) that will allow it to hang with some sports cars in a straight line.

RX8-79

Big deal. At the end of the quarter, the heavier, traction-challenged Eclipse pulls the same trap as the 'almighty' z, so that says something about its power. Plus its engine is smoother than a newborn's ***, doesn't strain the closer it gets to redline, and doesn't sound like a drowning creature struggling for air, unlike the z.

What competition are you referring to? Obviously not the RSX, Cobalt SS, Celica GTS (if the ugly bug is still in production) or anything else starting in the low 20's like it. And if you want to throw in more expensive, RWD quasi-competitors, it's faster than the g35 coupe, and two-tenths slower to 60 than the so-called 300 hp z. Not bad for a FWD pig.

theCATALYST

"For a sports car that matches the base 350Z, beats the RSX, RX-8, and base Mustang, yet tops out at $27,000 MSRP, and has a better warranty than all of them - it's pretty goddamn impressive, no matter what you think of the previous generations"


THIS, IS FUNNY!

cas2themoe

Matches the 350Z and beats the RSX, RX8 and Base Mustang? I guess your talking about straight line. Cause if your talking about anything else performance wise than you must have had too much of the white stuff.

Steiner

Say what you will about the car, but in the end it would be a damn bad idea for an RX-8 owner to race an Eclipse owner for pink slips. :D

cLLcLe

Dude the eclipse is ugly and always will be. It looks like a longer audi TT with extremely-mis-styled headlights and tail lights.

And that spoiler.. .how could you say it looks better than the Evo or STI spoiler, at least their spoilers look functional. Whats the purpose of that little lip spoiler... and to make it worse they just had to chrome it. Nice.

It's hyundai-engineered? That's a big congrats to Hyundai, not mitsu.

Wow. How can the RX-8 lose against the Eclipse when is has the same track time as a BMW M3?

mkaresh

I'm very confused by people here who seem concerned about how the RX-8 measures up in straight line acceleration. As many here seem to be aware, that's just not what the car is about.

I've always liked C&D's "street start" 5-60 test as a measure of how a car performs when you drive it as if you want it to last for a while. On this test the RX-8 measures in at 7.5 seconds, not a good number by sports car standards. Anyone have the stat on the Eclipse (I don't have my issue yet)?

I'll give you the straight dope on the Eclipse as soon as I can drive one. I post reviews over at epinions.com using the same screen name as here (and encourage anyone interested in playing auto journalist to do the same). The dealer here had two cars last time I checked, a manual four and automatic six, but these could not be driven until the ninth. They claimed this was because that was the intro date, but I've since read that there's been a safety recall on the car. Putting two and two together...

Rotarian_SC

You're right. I mean, what RX8 owner in their right mind would want to have to deal with the hassle or horror of owning one of these Eclipses :D.

Anyways, I'd race a lap around Nordschleife for pink slips, and then try and sell the Eclipse. Hopefully I'd have more sucess than Mitsubishi will :p

RX8-79

Yup, if their function is making an already ridiculous looking car even worse.

cLLcLe

RX8-79 for liking RX-8's you sure do have funny tastes.

When it comes to spoilers, the general rule of thumb (but not always) is that the spoiler line should in the middle of the trunk and the roof line. That's where the air sweeps right across the roof and bounces right off the top of the spoiler.

Please, tell me how the eclipse's spoiler is so much better than that.

Ike

Big words considering Mazda is having a hard time selling 1k RX-8s per month is just its second year or production.

RX8-79

Thanks.

If it's 'not always' then it's not a 'general rule of thumb.'

Cause it looks better to me.

BlueFrenzy

The rear end is not bad but like others have said, the front end is un-inspired. The concept car looked alright but the production version is meh.

I seriously doubt they'll be able to reproduce the success of the 2nd gen.

rodrigo67

first of all, again you are talking straight line performance. My whole post was exactly about "what else besides straight line pulling does this car have", apparantly, nothing. If you want to compare straight line acceleration, we have to throw in the chrysler 300, bmw 700's, some caddy's, a few pickup trucks, the whole dodge "hemi" lineup, and a few Merc's, and let's not forget the Linc LS, because they all can put up pretty fast straight line numbers.

As far as low 20's and bang for the buck, you left off the SRT4, which totally kills this car in every catagory, and the mustang GT's start at 25K, so for that straight line throw the driver into the rear seats feeling...there are just better cars out there, that do it better...

RX8-79

First of all, YOU said, "The eclipse is a fat pig that doesn't outrun anything in it's competition" so I was talking straight line performance against the others to show you are wrong.

No, we don't have to, because it'd be stupid. Not many people, even on here, are dumb enough to compare this car with the ones you named.

And other than the SRT4, which is still and always will be just a neon, they all manage that because they're more powerful. I feel a 'duh' coming on.

Razz1

The fat pig will scream with Mods.

Have you ever seen a crazy man drive a front wheel drive on the track?

It will compete.

Steiner

My Mitsu dealer emailed me today and mentioned that the new Eclipse is selling extremely well. They've sold all the new arrivals already and the next truckload is 90% spoken for even though it hasn't arrived yet. He was carefull to point out that, athough other dealers are marking up their prices, they are selling their new Eclipses at MSRP. It might not be the knight in shining armor Mitsu has been waiting for, but it seems to be attracting the kind of attention that gets people into the dealership.

cleoent

Test drove an EVO the other day. As I was leaving we took a look at the new eclipse, i think it has to be the ugliest new car from mitsubishi ever! I dont care what kind of engine it has, i'm not driving anything that ugly!