xeos

Hello everyone! I foud 2 new pictures of the Mazdaspeed RX-8 on a Japaneese site. It looks slightly different from the one at TAS.

Notice the front splitter. The wings on the side is gone, looks much better this way:

xeos

Here's a view from the back. The wheels is different on this car as well. Looks like 18" and maybe magnesium(?):

wakeech

uhhhh, no, i don't think you'd want rims made out of Ti... it's just a look (tri-chomate or something) on (probably) aluminum wheels...

xeos

Yeah, sorry. Meant magnesium!

Mazda man

Yeah I wondered if they would take those splitter wings off because it looked kind of ricey with them. I suppose that would also help considerably with ground clearance so you dont scrape it on speed bumps etc.

Sputnik

I don't think that you'd want Mag wheels either for a street car.

---jps

Quick_lude

I thought Magnesium wheels were an option for a "lightweight" version of a corvette once? Expensive though...

Hercules

They are what the McLaren F1 uses

ilovepotatos

This is the problem with this type of car. You want the performance options, but you need practicality as well. So really, what are you to do? Buy two cars. A Yugo, and a Hyundai Tiberon :o

SPDFRK

If I remember correctly you could get them on any model of vette in '99 and '00. And I think they were like a $3400 option.

ilovepotatos

Too much. Get wheel covers at K-mart for 24.50.

ShortBusRiot

I love the mazdaspeed RX-8 I love the huge vents in the front.

ilovepotatos

Yes you do.

ilovepotatos

K-mart tires are the cheapest, therefore the best for cars that are light to begin with.

Z's Nightmare

hmmm... this version doesn't have the red seats like we've seen in the other pics

Sputnik

It's still just a street car. And just because something offers the "best" performance on a race car doesn't mean that it will offer the "best" performance on the street. An example would be pure metal bushings and bearings in the car's suspensions.

---jps

ilovepotatos

He's right guys.

mellennium3

Im not to familiar with how the mazda speed thing works, but is it actually a car that your able to buy through a dealership or are you going to have to add it all on after you buy it. And is all this more of something not found in the U.S. but just in japan

Styjan

Here is a link to Mazda's Mazdaspeed info page.


You could always buy Mazdaspeed parts from the Mazdaspeed catalog, but the Mazdaspeed Protegé is the first badged car from Mazda under this new program. We expect to see more Mazdaspeed badged cars including the RX-8. I hope they do a Miata too.

P00Man

my old man used to have 5 piece magnesium wheels on his lex, crazy guy

MAZDASPEED 8 looks CRIMINAL!!!!!!!!! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
________
STEFANO DOMENICALI

ilovepotatos

Ugh...p00man...why'd you have to say that. You've lost some of my easily earned respect.

rx8you

some more pics http://www.3rotor.com/featurerx8widebody.htm

Rx4FUN

Did anyone else catch the quick blurb on page 22 of the April edition of Automobile regarding the Mazdaspeed RX-8 concept shown at the Tokyo Auto Salon?

MAXIMIUM MAZDA RX-8
"At January's Tokyo Auto Salon, effectively Japan's high-voltage answer to the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Mazda unveiled two special RX-8s: one sportified by Mazdaspeed, the other set for a starring role in the X-Men 2 film. Four months ahead of its on-sale date in Japan (U.S. sales begin in June), the RX-8 looked decidedly cool in Mazdaspeed trim (below), which brings a macho aero body kit plus stiffer suspension and trick brake and exhaust-system tuning. The cabin is also tweaked with carbon fiber composite parts. The RX-8's Renesis rotary engine gains a lightened flywheel for sharper response. Officially, this is just a concept; if the demand is there, however, Mazda will surely okay it for production, but not any time soon.
The X-Men 2 RX-8, also shown at January's Los Angeles auto show, gets new--and, dare we say, improved--front-end styling, a wild-looking rear wing, unique wheels, and a delicious deep-blue color scheme. The car shown above is the very one that stars in the movie. --Peter Nunn"

I wonder what "trick brake and exhaust-system tuning" they did?

I would have assumed the flywheel in the RX-8 was already pretty light, but apparently there's still some room for improvement.

~Robert

wakeech

a couple of things... notice how they used the word "tweak" when talking about using carbon fibre panels in the interior?? this, to me, screams "import" magazine, although yes, i know it's Automobile that doesn't mean that they wouldn't hire someone to write these kinds of articles to seem "cool" to the "younger generation" (ie. "me").

so, realistically, the exhaust "tuning" could have been the different muffler and tips (or same muffler and tips, i dunno) they fitted on the back of this car, and the only real changes made were to the suspension (not too hard to do anyways), the brakes (which again, could have been wholly cosmetic like the exhaust), and the lighter flywheel (it doesn't say how much though).

and just as a note: a lighter flywheel isn't universally better. all it does is reduce (in a small way) driveline mass, and (in a big way) reduce rotational mass (and thus inertia) in the engine allowing it to change its speed more quickly. at a point, that makes the car harder to drive, and makes it much harder to launch (in a zippy engine like the RENESIS) when you haven't as much inertia in the engine, making it easier to stall when engaging the clutch.
of course, most of the enthusiast guys (and gals too) on this site probably are more than capable of handeling a lighter flywheel, but i'm just saying, not universally better.