I just got the new Motortrend and they have a 1st look at the RX-8. They talked about the car having body roll and a 0-60 time of 6.5 sec. Man I hope they are wrong.

 

None of the magazines are supposed to report on handling characteristics or any performance parameters of the RX-8 until they get to drive the production version of the car in January in California at the official release. There were two cars in Australia that the magazines (including Motor Trend, that terrible rag of a magazine) tested some weeks back, and one article mentioned that one of the cars had much more body roll than the other, and that it wasn't indicative of final suspension tuning. The other car cornered flat as a pancake and exhibited on-demand oversteer (good stuff). So I wouldn't worry about it. Just wait until late January when the real road tests come floating in.

 

*nod* we made this point a while back, Grimace was happy to notice it. I had posted an article about how the RX-8 had two different cars that were being tested.. some were exhibiting no roll and solid structure, and the other reviews were not.

It's in the two cars.

 

Stupid ba$tards giving the 8 a bad name before it even came out. Sorry about the profanity, but it pisses me off that they would say that.

 

I agree they should not state any charcteristics about the car untill it is completly finalized and they ahve a chance to test the final version it makes me angry to see this kind of testing done.

remeber the to articules that came out not long ago that british on that completly bashed it and then that other one that praised its just screwed up!

 

I never thought the day would come that I would read that in here.

 

dead on there zoomie. i am just happy people got to drive it and tell us about it. the more info the better. its better than having to wait 6 more months for info.

 

i finally read the motor trend article yesterday and the said the weight of the rx8 is 2933 lbs!

 

I too was dissappointed with the reported 0-60 as well as the 1/4 mile time. This is probably why the Mazda people didn't want the mags reporting on the test drives before final production models are available. Still, seems that the performance is so close to the Mazda6 with V-6 and manual tranny, which goes 0-60 in 6.8 and costs several thousand less. Mazda cannot lessen the performance of the Mazda6, and the RX-8's performance cannor be so close to it, therefore, the RX-8 will, out of necessity, have performance as originally expected, namely 0-60 in less than 6 seconds and a 1/4 mile at less than 14.5 secs.

 

That 6.8 for the 6 is one magazine, I don't think those are official Mazda figures.

Also, there is much more that is different between the 6 and the RX-8 than just acceleration. While the 6 is a family sport sedan, the RX-8 is a true sports car, with proper drive wheels, and handling that will be MUCH sharper than is found in the already sharp 6.

If 0-60 were the main criteria for determining a sports car, the 6 would be better than the Miata, and last time I checked the Miata was about the most pure sports car you can find today.

 

zoom44, where did you find that photo? I'd like to see a full size photo of your avatar.

 

with a 0 to 60 time comparable to that of th 6's, how many rx8s does mazda plan to sell?

lets face it guys, if mazda wants to sell - they need some numbers that compete... especially in north america where name branding and numbers determine how well a good sells

personally im disappointed by those numbers, hopefully they are wrong

 

I will cancel my deposit if the RX-8 does not obtain at least a 0-60 time of 6 flat. I wanted a sports car with some more room. To me the definition of a sports car is handling and acceleration. I might as well buy a 6. Which by the way won't happen... I really don't want to seriously look at the 350Z again.

 

actually GoodDuck found it and posted it here i haven't found a bigger pic yet

 

I'd wait until February before jumping the gun on saying that... Mazda is quoting 6.0 to 60, and that's from the company. Once C&D get their hands on it expect that number to go down a tad

 

I just read the article myself and it is pretty ugly.... However, i really have alot of faith in mazda and i am sure that they will pull through. I am kind of thinking that the top trim level rx8 will put its underlings to shame quite severly. Not dissimilar to the Type R.

 

since we now know that there were 2 red cars and apparently 2 silver cars available for drives i think we can see now why there are such varied reviews from these drives. one of the red cars seems to have had some body roll issues that the others did not. perhaps it was also the slower car and it was either an earlier version or one that was not tuned properly in its suspension and engine.