japanese vs. us rx8
 

i was at one of the japanese rx8 website(http://www.rx-8.mazda.co.jp/driving01.html) and noticed the HP was rated at 250HP at 8500RPM (us version is rated at 238HP). does anyone know about this?

Please search the forum, there are alot of answers already posted to this.

I'm newer to the site as well. So hopefully I'm not being to redundant, but in Japan there is a gentlemen's agreement on 250 HP. That is, even if the vehicle has over that number, the manufacturer only states 250 HP. Last i heard on this, I beleive there was one Japan model that overstepped the bounds and stated a number above this. But, if that comment applies here, the HP could be even larger.

The agreement is 280ps (276bhp). Thats why you see the JDM NSX, GTR, STi, Evo, Supra etc etc all coming out with the same power.

Fab 8,

Yep my bad. They say memory is one of the first things to go. Should have taken the time to look it up. Sorry for the confusion.

my dealer said they have relaxed emissions that's why the HP is so high...

No elmalloc, Japan has always been on top of the emissions game, and never had this monsters like we do kicking out tons of crap.

Since you are new to the forum it might be helpful for you to do a search on horsepower. But to answer your question simply and to the best of my knowledge it appears that the US EPA standards were changed so that a catalytic converter are now supposed to last to 120k miles. The fuel mixture allowed the exhaust on the RX-8 to be at a higher temp. Mazda couldn't guarranty the cats to last with the higher temps so they reprogrammed the ECU for a richer mixture which in turn cools the exhaust therefor saving the cat. but lowering hp. Not the best way to go about it IMHO. Mazda would not admit to this I am sure so don't expect the dealer to know anything about it.

Japan has very high emissions standards and that is why they require you to put a new engine in your vehicle every 50k miles.

They REQUIRE you? Are you serious! :eek:

What do they do with the old engines?:D

After being stationed in Okinawa Japan for 4 years I don't recall ever hearing the engine gets replaced at 50k and I owned several cars while there, though they do have very stringent JCI inspections that go through everything in the car.

Yeah, i've heard similar stories, either do a big workup to get the emissions inline with the updated standards, usually cost some money.

This way they sell more cars and keep the air clean(er), help local economy - and what do they do with the old cars? they sell them to overseas dealer like australia, there was so many skyline R32, 33, not to mention supras and a load of FTOs. This was because our emissions standards are less stringent.

They were all used, didnt see any new cars of those there. And they were going reasonably cheap as well.