I was looking at rx8's and wanted to know why one of the automatic rx8's only come with 197 hp and all the other models come with 237hp? Can somebody help me out?

 

Automatic has 4 intake ports, Manual has 6. This means the manual can breathe up to 9000rpm, while the auto cannot. The cars make relatively the same power up to the auto's redline (with the auto making slightly more due to intake tuning). The reason for the engine differences is that Mazda didn't put up the cash to develop an automatic transmission for the car. They used the parts bin. Resulting in a torque converter that cannot rotate at 9000rpm (well it would rotate but wouldn't transfer power very well and probably not for long ). So it got the lower reving engine.


Edit: to be fair, building a torque converter that had a reasonable stall speed and could reliably handle 9000rpm would be expensive, but I think people would have paid for it.

 

Supposedly for '06 the auto is rated at 212Hp seeing as its using the same engine as the 6speed.

 

^but still rev-limited to 7500rpm

SMG is the way to go to get the fully-unleashed 6-port automatic

 

SMG /= automatic

 

Smg ?

 

sequential manual gearbox, what the BMW M3's have as an option...

 

So is the auto still capable of getting power out of aftermarket parts as much as the mannual versions?

 

most of the aftermarket parts available bolt on to both auto and manual version RX-8's, so i guess yeah....

 

Does anybody here have the automatic version ?

 

yup, there are quiet a few of AT owners on the board (i'm not one of them).

there is a section devoted soley to AT peformance mods here.
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-specific-performance-mods-97/

 

I do. It's a compromise, but that's what the 8 is all about. It's slow off the line, but moves along just fine in the power band. It'll blast through the twisties with confidence, no compromise there. With the new 6spd auto it'll be even better, though still slow off the line.

 

It's actually Sequential M Gearbox, but everyone changes that M to mean Manual...

 

So what does the M mean?

 

uh,manual.I suppose........

 

The same thing it stands for on the M cars, Motorsport.

 

Nope, it does stand for "Manual", not M. Although it originated on the M3 and found its way to other M cars, SMG is also available now on many normal BMW's like the 3 and 5 series.

From BMW's website http://www.bmwusa.com/vehicles/M/M3Coupe

Power. Precision. Passion. Together they define the essence of the M3 Coupe. Its 3.2-liter, six-cylinder engine produces 333 horsepower, enough to launch from 0 to 60 mph in a staggering 4.8 seconds*. Its six-speed manual transmission or optional Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) and road-gripping M Variable Differential lock make any trip a soul-stirring experience.

 

oh boy

 

That's fine, but SMG is registered to BMW and it stands for Sequential M Gearbox. All your link shows is that BMW's sequential manual gearbox is called SMG.


Now lets get back on topic

 

You just got

 

Cos the sort of people who drive autos do not need the extra power, they are happy to pooter around in a lazy sort of way.

 

and ther are lots of Sequential Manual Gearboxes that have clutches. What peopel mean whent hey use the BMWterm SMG is a manual that operates the clutch itself instead of the driver

 

I am still disappointed that after all of this time, Mazda still couldn't put together (or find) an automatic transmission for the 2006 RX-8s that could match the 9000 RPM redline of the manual. They should have just trashed the automatic transmission and gone for SMG for 2006.

I mean even though the 2006 ATs are going to have the same engine as the MTs, they're still getting the short end of the stick since the transmission is preventing them from making the full power that the 6 port is capable of. It's great that the automatic will have more power next year, but it's still making less power than it should be.

Good thing I swapped to stick this year.

 

Too bad the SMG is only available from BMW. The manu-matic gearbox in the Auto RX-8 is a full-on automatic transmission that has the ability to trigger shifts manually - but it's no "sequential manual gearbox"

 

other companies do offer clutchless(meaning clutch operated by the tranny) manuals.