Has anyone seen the wikipedia article on the RX-8?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_RX-8

It seems to be fairly accurate and deals with Mazda overstating the horsepower. Per the article: "However in other markets such as Japan & Australia, the peak power figure for the manual version remains at 184 kW (247 hp), due to the availability of higher octane fuel and less inquisitive owners." (emphasis mine).

There's also a good timeline of the history of Mazda's rotary engined cars and trucks. Also, it links to articles about the RX-7 which are also good.


For those of you unfamiliar with wikipedia, it is an open, community written encyclopedia. You can edit the articles if you find errors or want to add content. So have at it. What should we add/change to the article so the public at large gets a true and correct view of our cars?

 

seems to be a pretty good article.

 

i like how in the timeline the RX-8 is listed as 'SE', as it should be

 

Interesting to read what they think about the RX8s' hp still bein g overated by as much as 25 hp and also how they came to that conclusion. Mazda lied, that's all to it. They saw cars like the Z and G35, S2000 etc. and overated their power to try and fool everyone. The only reason the RX8 is as fast as it is is because it's light, 200-400 lbs lighter than some others. I remember reading about the RX8 when it first came out something in regards to the carbon fiber drivetrain being more efficient and losing less power than normal. How can Mazda or others even claim that it's losing more than normal now.

 

at 238 it's still overrated by at least 25hp? That sucks.

 

on dyno's most 8 members getting in the 170 to 180's to the wheeels. That just a little more then the RSX's dyno at and they are rated at 210 hp at the flywheeel, and about the same as a wrx which has 220 hp at the fly...

 

They have the Canadian (European?) RX-8 in the picture.

 

beating the hp rating dead horse makes baby jesus cry

 

ya i can see the headlight washers on that pic

"The engine redlines at 9000 rpm for the United States export version, and is at 9500 rpm for the local domestic Japanese model."

is that true? I'm sure the canadian 8's redline at 9500 to? well it starts at 9000 - 9500.. or is this stating japan version starts the redline at 9500 - 10000??

 

^ For us, fuel cutoff is at 9500, but redline is at 9000. Perhaps the japan version does indeed redline at 9500 and cutoff fuel at 10,000? That'd be pretty sweet.

 

A rear-wheel drive car is going to have a slightly greater % of driveline loss than a front wheel drive car, so that would knock out your theory of the RSX-S, but an all-wheel drive should be even greater than rear-wheel so not sure what is up there, I have a feeling that WRX's are underrated.

 

Note that this is a community encyclopedia - a few of the statements in that article are OPINION not FACT. If someone wanted to they could edit that article and add whatever they want to it. They just check to make sure nothing too over the top gets posted.

Without independent testing of the motor by itself separate from the drivetrain, in climate controlled conditions, I'd have to doubt that single statement.

 

FYI, the European RX-8 is tuned to 228bhp

methinks that's probably the *true* HP output of the NA RX-8s

but tell all your non-RX-8-owner friends your car makes 238hp anyway, "because that's what the paper says" :o

 

its also not true- they have to be within 5% by law and they are quite certain they are within 5%. 5% off would be 226hp which is only 12 off

 

nice how my post coincides with zoomzoomH's:D

 

alright. someone should get to work on changing that

 

5% off of the original stated hp of 250 comes out to 238. Coincidence?

Maybe Mazda can't tell us that it's really making the 228, just like the european ones because that would put them outside of the 5% range and open for a law suit. This way, someone, somewhere has to prove by law that it's not making what it's not making...

 

actually there never was a 250 rating. the original listed rating was 247. 247 was not within 5% of the actual avg bhp of the hi-power US cars so they re-rated to a number that is.

 

ahhh hahahahaha you stole my line.

 

European is 231 hp.
That is 228 hp in US.

1 US hp= 0,745watt
1 EU hp= 0,735watt

 

yeah our horse are bigger

 

That article is still pretty off... octane levels are the same... just calculated differently.

The horsepower rating of 250ps (247hp) is overstated in Japan as well. All the mags and tuners have dynoed the car and gotten similar numbers to the US. This fact has been gone over quite some time ago... there is no "250hp JDM flash."

Redline and fuel cutoff are the same. It's just that any tuner like RMagic, FEED, Re Amemiya, etc. can reflash your ECU... remove the 180km/h speed limiter and raise the fuel cut off inaddition to AFR/Timing tuning.

 

Since Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia, I think that article should be taken up as a pet project of this forum. With all the experts on this forum it should be easy to make sure its accurate.

 

what RazOrama said..................

 

The purpose of posting this was not to start Yet Another Horsepower Discussion (YAHD). There's nothing left of that horse to whip.

It was intended to stimulate what okstatepike said. Who better to provide accurate information on the RX-8 than the rotary gurus on this site. I was hoping that some forum members would adopt this article so it is an accurate and complete description of our cars. Maybe even add a link to the forum's FAQ when it is ready.