While coming home from work a few days ago I happened to pull behind a 98 corvette coming out of a gas station. It was about 5 AM and we had the roads to ourselves... as we were going through the end of town he floors is between a few stop lights... I did not play initially but as we we pulling off the surface streets on to the interstate I decided to see how bad this v8 would trounce the poor little 1.3 rotary....

removed street racing paragraph

Apparently unfamiliar with the car this 50+ year old man does not believe me that I have a 1.3 liter under the hood.... we spent about 30 minutes discussing my little black rice burner and the rotary crowd gets some kudos in the process....

I really love this car.... if for no other reason than its uniqueness....

btw his car was bone stock 98 convertible vette auto trans... mine also bone stock GT 6 speed manual.... the only thing he changed was the exhaust (sounded great but probably cost him a few ponies as he was running very very rich at WOT...)

Just thought I would share..... I assumed this would be a much more lop sided race....

 

I drove a C5 or whatever it's called, and it drove right up to 162 in 6th gear, and easily cruised at 3500 rpm.

It was very stable on bumpy straight narrow 2 lane, but as soon as I came to the slight curve it was hard to decide what it'd do it at: 100? 110?

The 8 gives a smoother experience with more finesse, so the bottom line is that most Vette's put you in the danger zone effortlessly, but our 8 allows you to learn to drive at the limit.

I wouldn't mind owning a Vette, but for half the money, I still have 100% fun when I drive or track my car, and my stock brakes or water never over heat.

I see lots of fast Vette's sitting out runs because of overheat, and I never am even at the track if the day is going to get over 90 deg f.

 

Great Story! Thanks for Sharing! I had a similar experience with a 07 Mustang GT, driving from Houston to Austin, TX. street racing sentence removed We just smiled at each other as his pony car snorted and huffed and puffed as my rotary, just purred and cruised effortlessly down the road at +/- 90 mph. I like Mustangs and Camaros, but I could tell my new baby earned some respect that day, and I am so happy that I bought my RX8 and never looked back

 

ibtl. Cool story, but I wonder if the guy didn't exactly know what he was doing (even though it was an auto) cause my dad's c5 woulda pulled more than 20 feet on me, his c6 even more so.

 

yeah easily a vette can pull hard on a rotary in all gears

 

I live that story all the time when my son pulls away slowly on me in his S2000. [:>)

 

One time, I was running in the same class with a Z06 on the track. I could stay right with him in the corner section (which was 3/4 of this track). When we got to the straight, he would pull 10 car lengths on me (1/2 mile straight). I would gain 1 to 2 lengths back under braking for turn 1.

 

I've noticed that the 8 has very close dimensions for the width, length, weight, and wheel location, but the Vette has raw torque. I ran the C5 easily up to 5k rpm (redline slightly higher), and when I shifted it had no trouble pulling.

So the Vette's main difference is 2+ times power.

both fun cars!

 

Sounds like every other weekend for me, only without the 10 car-lengths part.