Sputnik

Oh please no...

In one of the shots, I noticed that they included a shift light in the instrument panel. I hate those things.

Well, I guess audio upgrades won't be my first mod after all, I'll be disconnecting that shift light pretty soon...

---jps

Grimace

I had a car that had a shift light. Burned it out within a couple of weeks. :D
What photos have you seen the shift light in though? I haven't noticed it.

Hercules

i haven't seen it either... but I don't think I'd ever look at it. you need to feel the power peak and then shift

wakeech

exactly, don't worry about garbage like that... hope the buzzer is still there... :D

Sputnik

It's on the Mazda USA site, in the RX8 gallery, in the shot that shows the guages lit up (without the wheel in the way). In the middle of the left-hand pod, you'll see the green shift light.

---jps

Hercules

I see it now.. thanks.

Doesn't matter though.. I think they put it in because rotary has smoothness and quietness to it that piston engines don't. It's easier to hear a piston engine grunting from high RPM load than a rotary whirring around

ZoomZoom

I was wondering what that light was for; it’s a green up arrow with the word ‘shift’ under it. Thanks!!!

But what about the yellow light above it, is it a low fuel warning?

Hercules

Could be a DSC light or TCS light...

I think the fuel gauge light will be typical Mazda in that it's just a little circle next to the fuel gauge near the E

Buger

Perhaps it could be to tell you when the car is getting out of lean burn mode? The rx-8 is supposedly supposed to run lean (of stochiometric?) during much of its operation.

2 major advancements that allow the Rx-8 to do this are:

1. Much better combustion stability from no overlap in ports.
2. New catalyst technology that can work during low temperature lean-burn modes. The below link calls this "the holy grail" of catalyst technology.

http://link.sandiego.com/scripts/whe...e.idc?passin=1

Brian

cueball

If it has a shift light, do you think it has a redline buzzer?

zoom44

i believe it does. reread some of the recent articles from the press showing, i think one of the reports mentioned it.

Grimace

This isn't a shift light like drag racers/street races use. It doesn't light up at redline like those ones do. I imagine it lights up really low in the RPM's to indicate when to shift for max. fuel economy.

The buzzer on the other hand will buzzzzzzzzz when you hit redline.

Aesculapius

Maybe I don't get the whole "red line buzzer" thing.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have a buzzer sound 500 rpm before red line and then have a cutoff switch at red line? The first to warn you it's coming, the second to save the engine.


What am I missing?


As for the shift light.....I personally would fine that distracting. It'll be unplugged in my Rx8 the first day.

Buger

Hi Doc,

The redline is at 9000 rpm, the rev limit (cutoff) is at 10,000.

Brian

Sputnik

That's the thing. When your eyes are on the road, it's not that you notice that the shift light came on, you notice in your peripheral vision that an orange light located in the gauges with all of the other warning lights comes on. And sometimes, it only flashes on, and before you get a chance to focus on it to determine if it in actuality was the shfit light, or the oil light, or a temperature light, it goes out. So you can't be sure whether something major is starting to go on with the car, or if it's just the darn shift light.

It wasn't programed to come on at exactly XXXX rpm, it took throttle position, speed, gear selection (it never came on in fifth gear), and maybe other things into account. So, if you were running WOT up to the redline, it wouldn't come on, for example. But it would still come on when it wasn't necessary.

Now, I notice that this one is green instead of the orange on my '86, but any color light amongst the other idiot lights in the gauges will still be distracting and needlessly disconcerting.

---jps

zoom44

i dont think it will be that distracting. maybe at first but you'll learn where things are on your dash fairly quickly. and if it has an auditory element linked to it as well (buzzzer or bell ithink the one article said bell) than you will learn that particular light sooner than the rest.

1.3 liter

See there goes to show ya that everyone has different tastes. Frankley I like the shift light. My brother's '87 RX-7 GXL had one and I thought it was the coolest thing to see that up triangle light up with the word shift underneath. But then again I was 16. Anyway, if my RX-8 has the shift light, I wouldn't mind a bit.

snow_tires

i hate shift lights.

i find them very annoying.

khoney

You guys sound like the shift light is used as a safety mechanism... it's not - at least not in my 2nd gen TII. It is used as an indicator of when to shift to maximize fuel economy. Comes on WAY to early for proper exercise of a rotary engine. If that's how the 8's shift light will work, I have a feeling most of us will see it on most of the time

threeputtwash

I'm guessing that it's going to be like the shift light of the 350Z. Programmable to go off at whatever RPM you you set it to.

Hercules

Hehe, I'll program it for redline

threeputtwash

There's two parts to set on the 350Z, if I remember correctly.
You can set when it blinks, and set when it stays solid.

rxtreme

iTrader: (1)

Sure, everyone wants to talk about the shiftlight now. I mentioned it about a month ago when I noticed it and nobody replied (in the pictures forum)!!! Anyway, here's hoping it's programmable because I don't like the shift for max economy set up. My friends VW Sciracco (sp?) had it and it was annoying.

Sputnik

Dude, a month ago, we were off the air...

---jps

roachman

Maybe in a 5 speed escort or Civic, but not on a sports car. Only real drivers please !!

This is a insult to who they expect to drive the car. This is not a Miata, this is suppose to be a real four door sports car.

Man I hate that!

Roachman