RX-Nut

You got the Divx codec on your machine, right?

OmegaBob

I had the same problem. I uninistalled the older ver of Divx and d/l & installed the newer ver 5.05 .

BryanH

I wonder if the RX8 in the Tsukuba Circuit battle was having the tertiary port sticking problem.

Aeterna

I don't understand... what happened to my '8 that was going to Kick A-- and Take Names...



I feel somewhat let down by watching the performance at the Tsukuba Battle...

I also thought the S2000 was 240hp, WRX: 227hp, etc.

I truly hope the driver was showing more for the camera than he was actually RACING the other cars... It's still one of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen and an amazing work of 'alternative engine-eering' but I still feel dismayed.

If the driver was truly 'pushing' the car, could the results be a question of the low-torque dilemma of the Renesis?

(I know, let's strap a DynaCam engine into that bad boy and see what happens... )

hikoboy

can someone else translate this time? it doesn't take that long but i'm kinda tired of all the translating...and also my video card is so screwed up it's not even funny. it takes out all the fun from translating cuz i can't really see the video! there're others who know japanese and english equally well arent there?

copperband

Thanks for the video's, I couldn't help thinking I'd like to see the race again with a change of drivers.The guy in the Skyline was absolutely hammering it with powerslides, etc. The guy driving the 8 looked like he was out foa a sunday afternoon drive.
I almost expected to see the Miata overtake the 8 on the line

hikoboy

ok i'll get you all started as a summary....in the last comments:

{RX-8 DRIVER} very high [ok, i'm still an amateur in this area,
is "high" the right word? "tall"? "long"?] gear ratios, doesn't feel like the final gear ratio is right. even in the back straight, almost didn't have to use the 4th gear. in the corners, going in at 2nd gear the rpm drops below 6000. even when i slammed on the throttle there was no explosive acceleration.

{INTEGRA R DRIVER} i took a lap just to investigate how the rx-8 was performing. the biggest problem i saw was the acceleration, where i could just follow very easily. the corner speed is frighteningly bad...and so combined with no acceleration, you can pass right by. [altho i kinda feel like i didn't hear something right...esp the corner speed part, someone confirm that part. maybe inte-R was just too fast.]

{IMPREZA DRIVER} in the straights the rx-8 just lost so badly, i felt bad for it's an NA rotary. i mean i have a turbo so in the straights it's uncomparable. in corners the impreza loses though.

{SKYLINE DRIVER} the skyline is very good. it can win against the rx-8 in the straights as well as the corners, and in acceleration obviously it has more power and so it's faster.

{MIATA DRIVER} miata is very consistent from beginning to end. the power is just very lacking however. [didn't really say much about 8]

{EVERYONE'S MIXED COMMENTS} rx-8's lap time is pretty consistent within one second, and perhaps that's attributed to its light weight. so to summarize, it's easy to drive and very fun. the biggest improvement it can make is acceleration. it's not a circuit car, but you can run it if you want. fun to drive.


gan-san just kinda monitored their comments, asking them what each of them saw of the 8 from inside their cars.
that's pretty much it for the last words by the drivers.
someone translate the rest! or fix my computer.

Etnies14ps

I too expected to see the S2000 pull way ahead of the X8 off the line. But, the X8 was in the second pole position and it smoked all the other cars for most of the first lap. It was a true disappointment to see my lovely RX-8 do so poorly! As I watched the battle take place, around the 3rd and 4th lap, I noticed that the X8 driver wasn't giving it much. :o

I wanted to just reach in the video and give the RX-8 a freaking TURBO! I mean cmon, most of the cars it battled against had either single or twin turbo. I bet if the X8 had a turbo on the engine stock, it would of been at least in the top 2. Although, all the other cars have been in development for many years and, the companies have been tweaking and adding polish each year to there new version of there cars. Take the WRX for example, What an improvement over the last years model! The X8 is a BRAND NEW, second generation rotary engine that eats its predecessor alive.. Wait until the x8's next model to see allot more polish and refinement. Hell, for the worlds second rotary engine available to the public in this cylinder engine powered world, you cant beet it!

I've loved the RX-7 since 95' and when I saw the X8 I was in love.
Even though this years model isn't All-That-And-A-Bag-Of-Chips, it still has a large place in my heart. Congrats to Mazda for sticking with the odd engine type that no other company wanted to pursue but, IMHO I think Mazda should of put forth more effort in optimizing the X8's rotor just to show all the other companies what they left in the scrap pile. In a world of cylinders, an engine so different coupled with a body style as slick as the X8, its in a class of its own.:p

So what if the X8 lost, If it'd had a turbo, it would of most certainly done much better. Long live the Mazda RX series!:D

Also, What about link #4? Why isn't that up? Will it be soon?

Thanks for your time.

rxeightr

Thanks bunches hikoboy for what you were able to give us.

Handling does not appear to be an issue - just acceleration.

AsianStyle

Hmm... No one understands the hp mix ups? and the rx-8 really didn't burn anyone at the beginning it was just because the placement of the cars so the rx-8 had a head start but eventually got taken by all the other cars. None of the cars in the video except the wrx had turbo.

s2k = inline 4, 240hp, 153ft-lbs / Video states 250ps
g35 = v6, 280hp, 270ft - lbs / Video states 280ps
rsx-r = inline 4, 220hp, about 150ft-lbs / Video states 220ps
rx-8 = 2 rotor, 250hp, 159ft-lbs / Video states 250ps
*wrx = turbo 4, 227hp, 217ft-lbs / Video states 250ps

as you can see the wrx is the only turbo car and many of the cars like the wrx,s2k, and the rsx have more hp then their US counter parts. I know the rsx-r is a much different car then the type s in the states but the other 2 cars the wrx and s2k should be completely the same. If the s2k does 250hp from its 2.0L inline 4 it's hp/l number would be 125 instead of the 120 number that everyone taked about during its release. I believe the rx-8 had problems like the stuck ports or the driver wasnt pushing it enough( I noticed he was kind of light on the gas pedal when they showed close ups). The gearing should not be tall because their were previous discussions on how the gearing was done well for the car and helps eliminate the lack of low end torque. Many things just dont seem to make sense.

OmegaBob

Thx hikoboy for that part of the translation. Much appreciated!!!

Gamera

Hikoboy: Thanks for the translations! Sorry to hear you're still having technical problems. Do MPEG-1 videos play properly on that machine?

--
Parts 05, 06, 09 are now up. Have a great weekend guys!

RX-Nut

yea, it's hard to say whether it was the driver or the car...
I mean look at the part where the RSX just plain overtook the 8 in the straight... doesnt take much driver to do that..

what's so different about the japan RSX vs the US one.. all I know is that the US version is very low powered.. would be a shame to get overtaken by one of them..

on another note.. I'm no race car driver but why is he spanning his foot over the brake and gas pedal at some points in the race?

brothervoodoo

Neither am I, but that is called "heel and toe". Do a search on this forum.

Basically, when you are going into a hard turn at the limits of the car, downshifting to a lower gear can de-stabilize it. So, the guy (in nuetral) was braking and pumping the gas to match revs so the downshift would be smoother. Hhehe.. better do I search I really don't know what I'm talking about.... :D

Here check out this rx-8 video for heel / toe action, it kicks ****...
Time attack: Divx
Movie length: 2.26 mins
File size: 17.2 MB
http://www.mymazdarotary.com/rx-8_vi...ime-attack.avi

Etnies14ps

Thanks for clearing that up AsianStyle. Also, I too agree that the X8 driver wasnt doing his best. Lets just hope there are more videos in the future showing the X8 racing.. Does anyone know what you can add on to the X8? Turbo, SuperCharger etc. And how much more HP and Speed it will gain?

PoLaK

iTrader: (1)

Correct me if im wrong but doesn't the JAP WRX have 20 more horses on the US version?

moogle

Driver was lame... If u c the s2000 driver he was driving like he was racing. The 8 driver looked like he was driving casual bsds the hell toe. The 8 would atleast get 2nd place if a better driver had performed it.

Digisan

Gamera,

I DLed part four again and it's working great.

Thanks,

D-san

Etnies14ps

The RX-8 sucks! No real power, all RPM and no real power. Cornering is OKAY and acceleration sucks! Final gear is for overdrive only and long straights are slow only to show off the only good thing about it, THE BODY. Gas pedals only press half way and if you'd like pedal-to-the-medal capabilities, you need to purchase the "Still not enough power" package for an additional $7,420.

I think thats what the driver tried to proclaim by the way he was racing the X-8. Hell, my grandma who doesn't know what a manual transmission is could pull a better position. I honestly think something was wrong. The X8 shouldn't of gotten passed by EVERY SINGLE CAR! Sorry, just had to blow some steam. :p

Hercules

Don't get so obsessed guys... it's only one video, regardless of how it was driven...

Independant reviews will always say and illustrate different things; that being said... wait till the car comes in and drive it. If it's not for you, then well.. it's not.

For me though, I'm hopeful that it is for me

hikoboy

i see a lot of people think that the driver was bad...that could be true...when they're actually racing, at 3 min 24 seconds, gan-san is right behind the 8 and says "why would you brake there?" maybe there were other places where the 8 driver was faulty in his driving.
but that's just one incident that i heard of any driver in the video that even slightly hinted at the driver's technique. i dunno...just telling it like it is. they should swap drivers for the next race which i'm sure they'll have.

Lensman

Hmmm, interesting. I suppose on the plus side the RX-8 was only a couple of seconds off the pace of the other cars and considering one was a Suburu Impreza that's not too poor. However I'm surprised that it didn't nail the S2000. My car will be slower still as it's a 231ps UK version.

sixspeed

Really?

I've never expected the RX-8 to outperform the Honda. It's got the same (or more) power, but in a lighter body, so why would the S2000 be quicker? :-/


-andy-

Lensman

More linear power delivery.

sixspeed

From the RX-8...?

The S2000 is quite peaky, but so long as it's kept in the rev-range that shouldn't be a problem...


-andy-