the case of the missing 22kW
 

MOTOR magazine here in OZ carried a small para saying that ALL pre-production rx-8's were down 22kW (nearly 40HP) and that we should disregard any straightline performance measures from laguna seca.

How do you not notice a car is missing 22kW?

-pete

got a link or a scan?

thats what sport compact car said

Re: the case of the missing 22kW
 

Unless you have a point of reference, it's impossible to tell. Without a "good" RX-8 to compare against, nobody can tell by the seat of their pants. It wasn't until SCC put one on a dyno that they discovered the shortfall.

No link sorry :(

I was thinking more of the engineers who were there. If I was involved in the rx-8 project, I would have a pretty good idea of what a "healthy" rx-8 feels like.

-pete

This is actually good news for those of you folks who might have been hoping for more power.

For those of us who are happy either way.. well... we're happy either way :)

The lack of Horse Power was attributed to the tertiary port being stuck shut. The big question mark is still there....how does a regular driver of RX8 know if the port is stuck ??? Is Mazda doing something about it like some kind of light/engine light/indicator on the instrument panel? Not all owners will have the luxury of doing the dyno every now and then to check the port!

I think you'll know because most reports (and this is indicative of the problem being true across the board) have mentioned the lack of high-end power... and that's odd because the RX-8 has all its power available top end.

So it's playing out well for those that would want more power. I wouldn't mind it of course, but I'm not dissapointed either.

Yes, if there is indeed a port problem, it would be a pleasant surprise to see 0-60 times well into the mid-high 5's.

I think the sticking port wouldn't have happened until after the big media event. Mazda would have easily noticed if some or all cars were lacking horsepower.

Drive the thing for a while, and you'll soon develop a feel for its normal accelleration. Once you have tuned your "butt dyno" to the normal baseline, you'll know if you suddenly lose 40hp.

would it be possible to have the ports checked at the regular service intervals? Is it something that can be checked easily by the service people???

wakeech !!!!!!!! Look what you've done !?
now Maximus is calling them tertiary port too !!!

:D right on.

Not so sure they were always stuck
 

Rememer when I said I couldn't feel the transition above 6000rpm? I could once. The reason I never brought it up before is this:

We were coming back from the lunch on highway 1, when we were testing the 8 on the road. We stopped by a field (image below) to take some pics. The road that went by the field was long and streight. So after we were done, we headed back to Laguna, and I made it a point to see if I could feel the transition. There was only one occasion where I though I could feel a surge, at above 6000 rpm. But I could not duplicate it again.

So, without the reproducability, I marked it down as a fluke, maybe a change in the road, or maybe I didn't have the throttle at the same spot.

http://images.rotarynews.com/images/...3/mvc02019.jpg

(I don't know why I included this pic.... maybe because I'm sick of looking at the same old ones over and over again.)

Hey! :-)

Am I missing something ??

Well the good news then is that the performance times will drop. The bad news is that if they electronically activated we're all going to see VTEC controllers for the rx8 ;)

Personally, I still dont see how this happened. The ECU should have been hard coded to open the ports at a certain RPM. Why would it choose not to :confused:

rotarynews.com -> wouldnt it have felt pretty choked by redline then?

-pete

They may be electronically activated, but they're still mechanically operated. It's not a question of whether the ECU chose not to open them, it's that the mechanicals were unable to comply, due to being stuck or broken.

Well, before your last post, only Wakeech insisted on calling that 3rd Intake port "tertiary port". Everyone else including Mazda called the 3rd Intake port "auxiliary port".

I guess wakeech got a supporter now !

bad machining?

well "auxiliary" is a stupid name: it denotes that the port is of little importance, which it obviously isn't... this nomenclature also limits Mazda to using ONLY 3 ports, as you can't really have a "secondary auxilary" port without sounding like a total idiot... i want to see the days of 8 or even 10 port engines, and thus it is the "tertiary" (think like "thirdiary" :p) leaving them room to continue development in this area :p

could just be down to bad lubing or poor assembly... could be any number of things, but still nothing to worry about: that's what quick and cheap recalls are for ;)

hehe...I am with you now.
I agree with Wakeech's philosophy of the possibility of having more ports in future :-)

Is there a possiblity of Mazda doing a grand conspiracy of having the ports stuck deliberately on all the pre-prod cars? If yes, please Mazda, stop messing with our feelings:-)

Oh just admit it wakeech....you just like using the "Borg" lingo.... LOL

Seven of Nine of Tertiary Adjucnt of Unimatirx.....etc., etc.,


;)