It's not often that you can say that your car is the best...or the fastest....Let alone a car in the 25-35k price range. I know that there are some Ferraris and Porsches that redline in the 8000-8500 RPM range, but is there anything out there that exceeds our skyrocketing 9100 rpm limit? It seems to me like we have bragging rights on this one.

 

Honda S2000 about the same I'm told.

 

You maybe right. Discounting the super exotics, which only a few (if any) have a higher red line, I can't think of a car that beats us in this area. Then again, we already have bragging rights as the best current production rotary car on the market bar none

 

Someone posted an RX-8 ad that said, "At 9,000 rpm, other cars would be making out their wills."

 

That's from a Mazda ad that' sbeen in Car & Driver and Road & Track

 

S2K redlines at or close to 9000 I think. It's a few hundred RPM less, but that much is peanuts as far as I'm concerned.

Why do you need bragging rights anyways?

 

Actually, the '04 S2K redlines at 8200, not sure about the '05 - I think it's the same.

 

i think some pure race produced engines can have 11000 or even 12000 rpm red line....
F1??

 

Yeap, check your F1 telecast this weekend... during the drivers view you can see the engine state superimposed, see the 16000 rpm tacho, its amazing

If thats considered a "car".

 

Not to nit pick, but for the record the change to 2.2L in the S2K was done for the '04 model year. So '04's and on redline at 8200, that's why I said I believe the '05's are the same.

 

Weren't the up to '03 S2K's floating valves, and that's one of the reasons why they increased displacement and dropped the redline, besides the 2.2's benefit of increased torque?

 

I thought the 8 was the ONLY rotary production vehicle right now? I know some companies have been experimenting with rotaries in motorcycles but I didn't think there were any other cars out there being produced with a rotary?

 

who the heck cares about 9100 rpm? the bottom line is, it only produces less than 240 hp and weak *** torque after all that gas consumption. And after all that screaming from the engine, you are still rolling next to a mom in her 3 series who's going to a grocery shopping.

for everyday driving, give me 5500 rpm with 300hp and lots of torque. I don't want to feel like i'm pushing the car everytime i want to get on to the highways.

go brag about it if it generates 300hp at 9100 rpm, until then, there is nothing to brag about. oh yeah, if you want high screaming engine with lots of speed, get a bike. they go 15,500 rpm AND give you hp and speed for any of us.

i don't want to offend people that have rx8 but i don't see it as a reason for the brag.

 

if i'm a track driver, it may be a different story, that screaming 9100 rpm may be lots of fun to play around in the turns. however i would rather buy an S2000 in that case.

 

I think it's just the fact that it's a non-piston engine and it spins at the speed it spins. People brag about whatever they like. Yeah, it dosen't have the highest power available but it's just the plain "coolness" of it that counts. I don't think Mazda intended the engine to be "muscle". It's the combination of all the aspects of the car. (Red-line, handling, ect, ect) that makes it cool. That high RPM is nice in the 8 especially while autocrossing or in the curves, to me, that's the bread and butter of a sports car, and why I like the high RPM's in mine. It's easy to drive something in a straight line.

You just can't compare a bike's power vs RPM output to a car. The power to wieght ratio is way off between the two. Sure you can have a bike that has an in-line 4, with a 2.5 inch throw, producing about 130 or 140 hps at 10k rpms, but you have to remember, the bike may only weigh about 350lbs. Those bikes you mentioned also aren't the greatest in torque so you can't really brag about that either.

People like what people like and yes, they are gonna brag about it.

I'm not offended BTW, I just think that there's something that you "can't" brag about in everything.

 

That was Me, took a picture from a magazine ad with my camera phone.

 

Thats not a bragging right? Most car's dont have a 9000RPM Redline nor a Rotary Engine. That it a bragging right! Wouldnt having a 5500rpm with 300HP and lots of Torque be a bragging right? You could brag about the BIG HP and BIG TORQUE but we cant brag about the HIGH RPM REDLINE? The 8 has plenty of power, you just have to work with the gears a little more.

 

For the record Formula1 cars routinely exceed 18 and 19000 rpms while barely producing a third of their hp number for torque figures. Don't get me wrong, they are awesome. It is neat however to be able to say your car enjoys being twisted to in excess of 9 grand as a stock production street car.

 

Have you driven an RX-8? I mean REALLY driven an RX-8?

I'm guessing not, because if you had, you'd know it NEVER feels like you're "pushing the car", and even at maximum RPM, the engine is a lot quieter than most cars at 5,000 RPM...it sure aint a "screamer"

 

sigh. it's people like you that cause threads to turn into pointless flame wars. the thread was about whether or not the rx-8 has the highest red line or not.

you turn it into "the rx-8 is slow." sheesh. i didn't see any one saying "the 9100 rpm redline makes the rx-8 go faster than other cars" or "the 9100 redline is better than a 5500 rpm redline".

good job.

 

When you wind the RX-8 up above 7500 RPM, the power is there. I have no complaints with this car's performance power wise. I have not felt it lacking in any situations since buying the car (with the obvious exceptions of being caught flatfooted in the wrong gear :-/ ).

 

The point of this thread was just to say that the 8 has the highest redline of any stock car available. I was just stating that one point and that not many cars can claim that they have the highest this or the best that. It's just cool to own such an amazing car in the 25-35k price range and know that you own a vehicle with the highest redline on the road. That's all.

 

Of course, it's only the driveshaft that's spinning that fast...the rotors are at 1/3 of that.

But it's still pretty cool.

 

as for the bikes not having enough torque, you don't need much torque. it gets up to HP range so fast that you don't have time to bitch for more torque.

yes i have driven the 8 couple times. i'm very interested in this car, probably know more about this car than half the owners out there, thanks to this forum. as much i like this car, however, i'm not impressed with what it does with it's rotary engine. people talk about how efficient this rotary is being less than 2L, it can keep up with most 3.5L cars. I seriously don't see that as efficient. it eats similar amount of gas as my SUV. is that really efficient? if you want to talk about efficiency, here is the break down: small engine, good mpg, and similar power as bigger engines.

If you talk about COOL, it aint' cool when it screams and goes no where. all that 9100rpm is all pose unless it gives you screaming hp numbers to go with. Formula 1 cars are COOL because they got HP to go with their RPM. but with this car, not so cool when you look at the figures that 9100rpm generages. like one of you said, it definetly will be fun on track since you got so much rpm to play with around turns.

i see this car as a mix up and confused. exotic engine for an everyday purpose car. that's why i haven' t bought this car yet and don't believe it ever happening. if they throw in a turbo i4 from MS6 in this 8, i'll be all over it.

as stated in other threads, many of you knew this and bought the car as what it is, and i congradulate you all for having fine looking cars with great handling.

 

I went to see if the Arial Atom or Lotus Elise had the same redlines, or higher. I was sure the Atom would. Nope. Lower. The Atom has a 7,500 RPM soft cut-off and the Elise (Toyota engine in the U.S.) is at 8,500. Ferarri Enzo is at 8,000. Checked a bunch of other supercars; nope.

Damn. Nothing else (current production cars) as high or higher?

P.S. Termigni: I see you're still hijacking this thread. Welcome to the forum and everything, but you're saying things that have been thrashed out hundreds of times already. Check out the Top Gear road test video and see what it can do. I've had mine out at Laguna Seca for an entire day and it's not a slow car. No indeed.