A lot of car companies comes out with bigger or retuned engines for their cars after 2-3 years to refresh a model... like when bmw when from the 323-328 to the 325-300s, and recently with nissan bumping the HP for to 300 now for the 350z... was wondering if mazda can do this or if this is the top of the range for them without a forced induction or something.... curious

 

They just bumped the hp for the automatics, and put in a 6 speed auto trans for 2006.

 

IMO, I think the Mazda engineers have just about squeezed every bit of power from the RX-8 that they can (not including the AT version) without hurting emissions or gas mileage and without adding some form of FI or totally redoing the engine design.

I'm sure there is some testing in the works for more power further down the road.

At least I hope so.

 

I REALLY HOPE SO TOO!!!!!!!!!!!

I just read the Car and Driver comparison of the MS6 against some other cars in it's class (Jetta, TSX, Accord, etc.) and they got 14.0s in the 1/4 with it. OK, now PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, but the best someone has done on this board stock is 14.3s. Stock tires, stock intake; STOCK. Yes the 8 will shake the crap out of the 6 on some curves, but a car company's sports (read: performance) car actually slower than their sports (read: family) sedan?

I know this has been said over and over (I guess reading that article really brought out the dead horse), but seriously Mazda has got to do SOMETHING. And I don't mean develop a whole new car (MS RX-8) cuz like most of us WE ARE STILL MAKING PAYMENTS ON THE RX-8. If they make MS8, that's cool, just give the current RX-8 owners some options or something without voiding warrenties.

 

I keep wondering if Mazda will someday depart from the 1.3 liter design and increase the displacement a little bit. I'm not saying muscle-car size, but maybe a boost to 1.5 or 1.6 liters or so. Seems like that would still keep the Renesis in the sports car class in terms of weight and bulk, but significantly increase the power and torque(?)

1.3L