Trouble driving the RX8 smoothly?
 

Tonight I celebrate my one-week anniversary with this wonderful automobile.

Interestingly, I've got about 200 miles so far on my first tank of gas, with about 1/4 tank left.

It's been a few years since I've owned a manual transmission car, and I still haven't quite mastered driving this car smoothly. If I let the clutch out too quick the car jerks. I'm even stalling when starting out in first, I did this twice in the last 24 hours. VERY embarassing. I have found that smoother operation occurs when I shift at higher RPMs, say above 5,000 or so.

Any tips?

Dump the clutch at more than 5,000revs, problem solved! :)


Or more seriously, just keep driving, it takes a while to (re-)acclimatise to driving a manual and specifically using the clutch smoothly, it should come with time. Just keep trying to glide the clutch in as gently as possible and be as smooth with the throttle as you can be while you bring the clutch in.

I've also noticed the car does not enjoy driving at parking lot speeds in second gear. I was driving up my driveway (slightly uphill) in second, waiting for the garage door to fully open and I stalled the car.

I'm still trying to master the transition from 1st to 2nd (when not going for full acceleration).

recently i drove a subaru station wagon. it was *much* easier to drive than the rx8.

this made me realize yet again what a great job mazda did with the rx8- they didnt dumb-down and cover up the connection to the machine. the driving feel is visceral and you can feel the machine of the car right next to you. very nice.

so yeah, its not easy to drive smooth, but it sure is rewarding once you get it. ive autocrossed it several times and this is really one amazing car, very communicative, edgy, exciting.

james

I had the same problem going from the Ferrari to the 8. The 8 shutters at low RPM

you can drive at parking lot speeds in 1st gear - remember you have 9000 rpms to play with, but not a whole lot of torque.

please step away from the car!!!!

You must be flying around a parking lot at some speed then to hit second gear!!!!!!

not smooth eh?

you obviously have not driven a Subaru Impreza 5spd :)

I have found take offs to be smooth at 2000 rpm's and shift into second around 4500.

I'm at one month now. I think the relatively light weight flywheel has a lot to do it with, especially the bucking at low RPMs in first. And when I heel-toe for a 3-2 downshift I found it hard to hit the perfect RPMs for second gear, also. Just a matter of getting used to the car, I think.

I find that if I shift into 2nd almost immediately(like at 9-10mph), I get less bucking and shuddering. However, I still get it to some degree. Glad to know it wasn't just me- I thought perhaps I had forgotten how to drive stick, even though I haven't had that happen since I learned to drive.

I think a rotary has less moving mass than a piston engine, aside from the flywheel. Just need to learn how much gas to give it pulling away.

Yeah, my RX8 reminds me of my old Honda Civic with its VTEC engine: shifting is smoother when you shift at higher rpm.

Like the other poster, I also had an adjustment period when switching between the Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche GT, McLaren F1, and Zonda. The issue was neatly resolved when I woke up from my dream.

Yeah, it's the lightened flywheel which makes the car hard to drive at idle and in stop and go traffic. Not fun. The jerking when shifting has to do with how you're shifting it. The clutch take up point is very precise, and what I do is let the clutch out until I get near that point and as I continue to let it out I actually push down from my ankle to slow the take up there and all goes smoothly. I had VW GLI years ago that used to do the same thing and from which I learnt this technique. I love the precision of this car. The tautness of it all. When I first got into the vehicle I could hardly keep it on the road from oversteering, overbraking and hard shifting. You'll get used to it. As for the stalling. Don't run it in 2nd uphill. It needs revs with the limited torque and limited engine rotating mass.

Light flywheel?

Anyone know what the weight on the stock unit is? I'm used to 10-11lb units so this stock RX8 flywheel does *not* feel light to me at all..

i think as long as you keep the clutch down as you drive around in a parking lot in 1st, you wont get the shuddering. The one thing I keep doing is i push too much gas, and the engine just revs loud. People look at me funny. Hehe, not my fault, I'm Just not used to driving stick yet:-D

I concour that it will take some time to get used to the take up in the clutch. Although I learned how to drive with a four-on-the-columm 67 Saab I have driven automatics fpr the past 10 years. My Acura RSX tyoe S was the first stick I had driven in a decade and it took me a whole three months to learn to drive that clutch smoothly.

Have patience and perssitence and you will over come this. It took me 2 weeks to overcome the problem and to this day when my teenage son drives the car [which better be rarely and only with my consetn] he still has this problem.

Got my license when i was 18 only car i could use was a stick and rarely drove my moms Rav4. 20 now and it only took me a couple days to learn to drive the 8 smoothly and boy was it different from the car i had been driving before, a lot more precise, very responsive, just not as much torque but higher redline which i can live with. :D

make sure you are seated in a correct position, it will help with your posture to ensure optimal driving