RPM too high in 6th gear?
 

I got to do some long-distance highway driving and took a look at the RPM meter. I was shocked that at 60mph, it's at about 3000rpm. At 75mph, it's at about 3500rpm!

Isn't this too high, or are all rotaries like this? Or is just my car?

This is normal for a rotary, it has very little torgue in the lower RPM's. You must drive V8's.

forget rotaries, pretty much all manual cars run at those revs, my saturn runs at 3300 in 5th gear at 75, any lower gearing and you don't have any pulling power when in final gear. My aunt has a celica 5 spd (newest model) and it's running at around 4000 when doing 80, there is a 6 spd model though and I assume that runs a bit more relaxed.

having driven a 6-spd toyota truck, I almost found the 6 gears to be more of a pain in the ass than anything else because you can basically skip gears in nearly every situation. 1st-2nd-4th or 1st-3rd-4th was all I was doing... but that's another ballgame I guess.

Edit: forget what I said about pretty much all cars, just make that pretty much all 4-bangers.

No, that is normal. And don't forget, when the tach shows 3000 RPM, the rotors are only spinning at 1000 RPM, which isn't much.

Also, as a comparison, a Honda S2000 spins at 3250 RPM at 60 MPH, so the RX-8 is right in the ball park (in terms of crankshaft and eccentric shaft speeds).

1.3L

I'm no engineer, but I believe that is how the rotary makes up for the small displacement of the engine.
To get the necessary Energy you have to burn X amount of fuel, either slowly in large gulps with a large cylinder or quickly with small sips. I think that's why the acceleration is so smooth with a rotary vs. a piston.
This is no problem for your engine, I have heard it is better not to baby the rotary as it is designed to be run hard.
Hope you love the car!!
:ylsuper:

The 4.44 rear axle ratio along with 6th 0.843 ratio doesn't help.

in 6th gear, multiply your rpm times 2, then divide by 100, or just drop the last 2 zeros, and that is your approximate speed

when you have an engine that redlines at 9500, 3500 doesnt seem all that high to me.

In my 2002 Jetta going down the highway at 80mph it was turning at 4000rpm.

Wow, good to know it's normal. I was pretty scared when I saw that, I really thought I did something bad to my engine.

Hey 3rdRXlover, I've heard the same thing about this car, it sure makes this a great car. Can't wait to reach 1000! I have almost 500 miles on it now... I need to drive more. ;)

Kewl, that works pretty good.

its about the same on the FC's and FD's..

if you want some fun, try driving around town in 3rd gear and hold it at 6,000 rpm. Instant power on tap :)

Just to compare a Mustang GT has a 3.55 rear axle and a .068 overdrive gear. Even though it doesn't redline at 9,000 it's turning MUCH less revs @70 MPH.

yeah, and in 3rd gear, just drop the last 2 zeros off of the rpm and you will have your mph

A couple weeks ago I filled up just before jumping on the highway and setting the cruise control at 75 MPH for the 42 mile ride home. Except this time I was in 5th gear. Rather then turning in my nieghborhood I drove 2 more miles to the local Phillips 66 and filled up again. 2.1 gallons, or about 21.4 MPG. Normally I get between 21 and 22 of course using 6th gear.

Back in the days of "I can't drive 55" I had a 911S - it got better mileage on the highway at legal speeds in 4th then 5th. Volumetric efficiency.

yeah but that's a friggin V8, you have 3 times the torque so you don't need the revs to keep you going.

Haha, that is a crap load of fun. I like doing that but everytime I do it I feel really guilty ("how much gas am i wasting?") so I don't do it nearly often enough.

When I read the title of this thread, I thought "RPM too high in 6th gear? Your going WAY too fast."

from the guy that drove around in 5th the whole time and got the same milage?

Is this an indication that 6th gear is pretty useless? I mean unless I'm on a 50 mile highway trip... but I've always operated under the assumption if I want to save gas I need to get to 6th gear ASAP. SHould I just ignore 6th gear from now on unless I'm on a road trip.... since it doenst seem to save any gas?

My '99 Civic Si cruised at 70mph/4000 RPM 80mph/4500

When I had my ECU tuned for the supercharger, I could have made more power from 2500-5000 with an early VTEC engagement, but delayed the VTEC until 5000 for this very reason. VTEC = Thirsty.

My dealer wouldnt shut up about this, and used the term "Tach this baby!" more times than I care to remember. He even mentioned another one of his customers that races his 8 who came in to the dealer to try to remove the fuel cutoff so that he could take the renesis up to 12,000 rpm's, and he claimed it wouldnt hurt the engine too much (though my dealer was skeptical). But yeah, the harder you ride it the better it runs.

the engine is good to 18,000 rpm or higher.. it the other stuff that breaks like the clutch and pressure plate, input shaft on the transmission and water pump, alternator etc.... just not designed for the huge duty level change of 800 rpm to 10,000+ rpm

If by "the engine" you mean also the eccentric shaft, which obviously you do, then boy are you wrong :rollingla

The shaft in the Renesis (i.e. with two rotors revolving) has been balanced to around 12K RPMs. Anything above that, and you start getting oscillations that will inevitably lead to the fracture of the shaft (and the destruction of the entire engine).

Do NOT go above 10,5K-11K RPMs MAX....

Sure about that? Isn't rotor speed 1/2 of shaft speed?

1/3 !