Ding ding ding we have a winner! I've never heard one of my G35/350Z owning friends tell a story like this. But when a girl I meet gets into my car the first time...

RX-8 wins!

Oh and yeah, its more fun to drive ;)

Hey, i never heard about this news! Cool, I`ve never seen how they compete but I`m sure that I already saw SexyRx8 vs G35 on the road ( but in the game ;) ) Handling vs the speed ehh...I will still find out.

my gf is either going to get a g35 coupe bmw 325ci or the rx8. I think she is leaning towards the coupe which I have no problem with since I will be getting an 8 soon :)

your reaction time makes no difference on your 1/4mile time

if you are running 15's im sure you could get 1/2 to 1 second.. if you were running anything lower than 12's i'd say no way. You would have to play with shift points and rpms and slip/fry the clutch a lot and you could probably get more out of it.

In the latest R&T the G35 had to have the rotors replaced twice while the 8 only had to have them turned once.

But how are we going to compete with the new 298 HP version?

I have been looking for reviews,,, is the 298HP version actually any faster, or just tuned for HP at the expense of Torque?

in a situation like this where they make alterations to existing models in the midst of the standard 5yr run, I'd be inclined to say...... yeah... the HP increase is probably at the expense of TQ

but dont quote me on that

Not the coupe obviously, but, M/T recently tested a manual g sedan and it wasnt any faster than the last 260 hp 6 speed they tested:

260 hp: 5.78 sec 0-60, 14.28@100.3 in the 1/4.
298 hp: 5.8 sec., 14.1@99.7

Same story with the 300 hp z, it's no faster either.
5.4, 14.1@101 vs. 5.8, 14.3@101, both from C&D.

I read this article also.

I've actually ran against a G35. It's torque takes it off nicely, even from downshifts it's astonishing. But as the rpms went up so did the torque IMO from the way he was going beside me. But he had to shift and that's when my 8 pulled out on him. Not by much though. It seemed as though when he shifted and got back on it, he would start to catch up and then he would have to shift again (lower redline I guess).

Granted, this was all highway and starting from about 55mph. The G35 had 19" J8 Racing Harts with an ?exhaust? (his exhaust didn't sound stock). My 8 has a Borla catback with the Sports package.

The G35 is NO slouch. That thing can MOVE. Cause every time we would slow up and start again, that thing would SHOOT out. I was down shifting like crazy to get him (note: need new shift knob. starting to twist around too much). By the way, does the 8 redline at 9500-10000 rpms or something because my tach was pinning that needle and my car was still pulling.

Oh, yeah ... I forgot "I was on a spirited drive when a G35 pulled next to me and ...."

I noticed this too. It seems the rev limiter has some logic built in for spirited driving vs. shifting mistakes, a little more high rev bandwidth in your G35 scenario.

Well, Here goes...(please no flames)

I have a G35 daily driver. It is an 03 auto sedan with the sport package. I love it as a daily driver. The '05 g35 coupes have ~298 hp and the same ~260 torque as the previous models.

I have driven and like both the G35 sedan and coupe, however I like the RX8 for different reasons. I think the RX8 will make a nice weekend/track car in base or sport model. As a bonus I can take my kid to daycare and not break my neck getting her out of the child seat in back. It is amazing how slippery kids can be when they don't want to get out for "school".

I just sold my modded 03 EVO to a friend. I like EVO's too, and am having some withdrawal issues, but I hated the attention it drew everywhere I went.

My wife actually likes the RX8 more than I do. (Read the last sentence as "I will be getting one.")

My bottom line is do what makes you happy as long as it does not hurt someone else in the process.

Aaron / rAte