....just curious to know if the Automatic Transmission was designed specifically for the RX-8 or was it borrowed from the Mazda parts bin and modified.

 

The second one...

---jps

 

yah its prolly borrowed either from the miata, or the mpv/929/fd rx7

mike

 

That's what I thought. Otherwise they would have designed a 5 speed auto for it. Thanks for the info.

 

They are designing a 5 speed auto for it, as well as a SMG auto-manual box, both to be fitted to the hi-power engine. Both should be available by the 2006 model year. The current modified 4 speed auto was a stop-gap measure to be able to offer an auto trans for the RX-8 rollout.

Regards,
Gordon

 

Where did you guys find this information? I asked Mazda Of North America and dealers for this, and they have no idea.

 

...The Source (boowana). MNAO doesn't always let on as much as they know, and dealers always know nothing (they don't care to).

 

Actually, I got that tidbit from a different source, before Boowana heard about it! It was the same source who told me back in June that the next gen RX-7 concept would be shown at the Tokyo Motor Show this fall, powered by a 1.5 litre rotary of 300-320 hp (I posted that before anyone else broke that news ). The main reason that these new gearboxes aren't ready now is that Mazda's development budget wasn't big enough and they didn't have enough engineering staff to engineer the new transmissions at the same time as getting the Renesis ready for production at the same time as introducing the all-new RX-8 (not even considering their other product lines).

Mazda denies knowledge (actually says 'no comment') to a lot of questions about future products - see the interview on RotaryNews.com with a senior Mazda person for perfect examples. In this case, they wouldn't want people to put off purchasing an auto trans RX-8 now if they knew that a better version was coming in a year or two.

Regards,
Gordon

 

I just cant wait for RX7 to premiere at Tokyo Auto Show in october. Actually I wish it will be shown there. I know mazda will make perfect 4th. gen. rx7 and possibly with 6 speed SMG transmission? :D