BlueEyes

I think it looks good on them. You don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything. If a story about an 8 being slower than a Z showed up here, well, history shows what would happen.

dmp

keep in mind, an 04 Mustang Cobra has beaten an RX8 on a road-course, as tested by C&D...the rx8 doesn't handle substantially better than those cars in it's class. That said, the RX8 still 'won' the comparison.

Just remember, handling is more 'driver' than straight-line power. I can improve the way the car handles by learning to break and steer better. I can't improve how fast-straight-line the car is by learning to push the go-pedal harder or better.

:D

Discman2

I didn't buy this car for straight line performance. I bought it because it drives like a dream.

MI_FamilyMan

I guess Ike's WRX has got some mods on it, so you have to keep that in mind. I find that unless you have had a chance to drive the 8 on a track or for extended periods where you get a chance to explore the upper rev range, you never really get the full effect of what the 8 can do. I will surely admit that when driving regularly this car is very pedestrian performance-wise, but the car really moves when you push it. It just takes a little more effort.

Ike

I've also said a bunch of times that the WRX isn't a very good testdrive car. The oem tires are awful and if you don't have a lot of experience with AWD turbo cars you just won't undersrtand what it's capable of until you have some time to get used to it.

pritch

what are you people talking about how fast do you really need to go plus half of them coulndnt handle going that fast anyhow .if we rx-8 owners would mod the engine we would be right there with there pocket rockets.this makes me laugh.stait line speeds are so funny can they really drive that good on track.i wonder?

BlueEyes

I can, and I would love it if the 8 was a little faster, 250 -300 rwhp would be about perfect for the 8 as a daily driver.

pritch

a couple mods and you could have all the power plus handling .theres a rotary tuner in the area and he could give what your looking for you should see the rx7 he's tuned just awesome believe me. but that takes some money

pritch

with that rotary screming at 9000 rpms it will distract the other driver and you will be faste he he

RenoIV

The 8 is an inexpensive exotic.

my $.02

An extremely well balanced car

Ike

Pritch, every time I read one of your posts I get more stupid. Therefore I'm going to have to put you on ignore, sorry.

beachdog

Fast and slow is relative. Was at Road Atlanta for the ALMS this weekend. They run 4 different classes of cars on the track at the same time. It's a 2.54 mile track with 16 turns and hills too. I timed some of the different classes. The Audis and Lolas in LMP1 are the fast class. They were running laps at 1'15" or 16". The Mazda Courage is in LMP2 class, a slower class and was running laps at 1'22" like clockwork. Professional drivers with professionally prepped cars and the difference between a fast car and a slow car was 6 seconds over 2.54 miles.

BlueEyes

That's what I try to tell people everytime they start argueing about the 8 being fast. It all depends on what you have experienced as it is relative to that experience. Someone who drove a race car at work everyday would probably think the 8 is slow, someone who has been driving a geo metro for the last 10 years would probably think its fast. But nooooo, I am a dumbass because relative to my experience its on the slow side.

Ike

6 or 7 second difference for one lap on a track is pretty huge.

PPen131

i agree. while it'd most definitely put it into the price range of a 350z, it'd be more than worth it

Ike

I don't think it's even feasible for the renesis to be produced with that much hp and pass emissions nor be reliable. If they could you'd be looking at quite a bit more than a Z most likely, just the gas guzzler tax would out it right up there with the Z.

Sigma

The RX-8s with turbos are already putting down those numbers and aren't getting appreciably different mileage figures than before. So I doubt the Gas Guzzler tax would come into play.

spork

I think the problem is that people say it's slow not "relatively slow" or "slower than its competitors". It is relatively slow when compared to its competition, but saying it's slow kind of implies that you're comparing it to all cars.

Fast and slow really is relative. But there's an extent where it just seems wrong to use the terms. Ie saying someone making $250,000 a year doesn't make much money since you make $1,000,000 a year. Sure he makes jack compared to you, but if he went around stating $250,000 a year isn't much money it sounds kinda silly.

BlueEyes

Who told you I make a million are year!!!

I always preface my comments with IMO, and still, I'm a dumbass. It's mind boggling. I agree with what you're saying though.

pritch

go to the wrx forum please :D

VikingDJ

I personally think the rx8 feels slow, so to someone who simply test drives one, and doesn't really get to use it and feel how car is, will naturally come to this conclusion. After a week with my STI, I hop in rx8 and go, WOW, this car is slow. It's not really slow, it's just slow compared to the STI. When you are lacking that instant torque to just take off, of course the car is just not gonna feel fast. The RX8 is a car you have to earn power with, and work to make it move. Before hitting high rpms, this car to me feels like it has 100hp. it does not kick you in the pants with it's overwhelming power, because it's just so smooth throughout the torque band, that you cannot be overwhelemed by it, as you can other cars. I had a Nissan Maxima as a loaner when by car was in for recalls, and I'll tell ya, that thing felt a crapload faster then the RX8. It was simply easy to go fast in this automatic torque beast, that it took no effort to fly. The RX8 is simply not like that. When I run it up to like 8500rpms, I then realize that it is certainly respectable, but of course nothing to brag about. In today's world, the RX8 is exposed to the criticism because the numbers it puts out are simply not in the same league as today's newer sports cars. As stated by someone else, it's all relative. If you can stop yourself from comparing it to other vehicles that have big displacement, and or turbo's, you'll realize that the car has plenty of power in the real world. It's just for most people, the ease of driving fast simply by stepping in pedal does not exist in the rx8, therefore, it just gets the rap for being slow.

Ike

It won;t take appreciably different mileage, in fact if the EPA were to test random production 8s now I bet it would get the tax... The EPA numbers on the car now are from before Mazda changed the ECU settings to make the car run richer to preserve the pre-cat.

spork

Well, I think it's definitely going to be a big let down hopping into the 8 from an STi unless you're talking comfort level. A coworker of mine has an STi and when he hopped into my 8 for a ride he remarked how the ride was pretty comfortable and how he could probably take a long trip with this car. And I've been in his STi and the brief non "pushed" experience with it already let me know the 8 can't compare to the power.

The 8 definitely does feel sluggish at start; it only starts to pick up around 4K rpm. It's really easy to tell because if you just start normally and everyone else near you starts normally, you'll find yourself falling behind until you start hitting the higher revs. Then you make up ground. 1st gear does run thru the tach pretty fast though.

Well, obviously you're going to have to fight with some fan boys here. It IS an RX-8 forum after all. For me, I love my car but I'm not going to claim it's as fast as a Z, M3, Evo, S2K, or STi. I will say that I think it can beat any of those cars provided the driver of the 8 is better (how much better depends on which car you're talking about). The difference in speed between some of those cars and the 8 is small enough that driver skill can make up for the difference. Also with a lot of twisties, the 8 can probably hold it's own.
So IMO, if the 8 is "slow" the Z and S2k would be "pretty slow" and the M3, Evo, STi would be "decent speed".

rx8wannahave

Here is my background:

NX2000 0-60 (7.8) 1/4 (15.8)
Probe GT 0-60 (7.5) 1/4 (15.7)

So, when I got my 8 I took off about 1.6-1.9 sec off my 0-60 & 1-1.3 sec off my 1/4 mile. The 8 is much faster than what I was use to and faster than the Z28 & Mustang 5.0 LX that were the kings when I was in HS.

With that said, since most of it's direct or indirect competitors are faster I too wish our 8 had another 40HP at least. It does everything so well...that if it was as fast or a little bit faster than it's main direct/indirect competition it would be the hands down better buy for most people out there.

We need to remember that this is a NA Rotary engine and being NA it does a heck of a job. The best part is...is that now we are seeing products that really are kicking up the HP (RB Intake, RP Mid-pipe, Greddy Turbo, etc) so those of us that want to make the 8 EVEN BETTER have more and more products to choose from.

I would never call the RX8 slow and quick seems not to do it justice either but fast might be too srong a word also. So...I say my 8 is fack....it sure is fack...lol

beachdog

It's 10mph over 2.54 miles and it took those cars 4-5 more liters of displacement and 400+ hp to achieve.