Whats the fastest?
 

In your experience whats been your fastest...top end? 0-60mph ect.
This car tends to make me wanna push the envelope :) I fear my perfect driving record could change?

Acceleration through the first three gears is very good. Fourth gear and up slows down a bit.
It could be the gearing though, gearing in 4th is not very short, my fouth hits about 123, as opposed to the 350z, who's fourth hits 112. Mind you, through our first three gears our speed is about even.
Our car pretty much top's out in 5th gear.

With a handful of mods and a nitrous system I have recorded a 13.322 @ 109 with my G-Tech. That was also a 5.1 sec. 0-60 and 2.2 60'. I'd like to get that 60-footer down to the 1.8 sec. range like the STi and Evo8.

Charles

Re
 

Best 0-60 time I could get using my G-tech was 7 seconds. A little dissapointing in my opinion.

but in what conditions? how good a driver are you? were you beating the hell out of the car to do it?

getting as low a time as tested in a magazine isn't an easy thing.

I realize that this car is all about the ride and handling NOT 0-60s . The 8 is still a very fast car and I have pushed it to 136mph before I chickened out worried bout jail time, political flack, death ect. LOL but as a note @ 136 it still had plenty to go no where near maxed... car and driver says 151 is top end... STOCK

I agree about the ride and handling. It is nice to have a car that is quick but to leave the evaluation at that element really sells the car short. Next year I will get involved in various course races with an Evo8-driving friend of mine. To deny myself the thrill of taking "S" turns would be a shame. I have had mine slightly above 140 mph and it felt very smooth.

Charles

speed
 

I have been 145 mph, early morning cool day, car felt stable to me, took a while to get there.

i did 126 too, it was still climbing like a champ, thats fast enough for me at least i know itll do faster if i ever get into one of those high speed chases..... hahaha

I really enjoy driving my 8 but wish I had some more torque. Does anyone know how much HP can be added with a new exhaust and intake system. What about retuning the electronics for better performance?

ive never recorded myself in an 8, because ive only driven other peoples cars (picking mine up in a few months). the fastest ive ever been personally was 0-60 in 5 sec in a carrera and 140 in a bmw 540i

In my new car (rx-8) 135 or so has been the fastest, haven't pushed it too much as I just hit 2000 miles. I was able to get my 951 to 160. Now i know that stock, the rx-8 won't do that, limited to around 150, but it feels pretty strong and smooth through the triple digits. A pity I had to follow the pace car at Road America. Which brings me to a question, anyone know of any clubs in the Wisconsin/Illinois area that would allow me to run the rx-8 on track??


any info would be appreciated, I would really like another try before i head for some racing/driving classes

Did 5-60MPH and I got 8.3 seconds with DSC on and 7.3 seconds with DSC off. Haven gone past 115mph -YET. Did try a 0-60 8K RPM clutch drop (DSC off) and the car moved so quickly from 1st to 2nd and then to 3rd that i didn't have time to stop the stop watch. By the way, the 8K RPM clutch drop seemed like the car was bouncing in the back like peeling rubber the choking a bit and the peeling etc.. all so fast and repeatedly ???!!!!?? Freind of mine says I have great traction and tht is good! It sure didn't feel good though as I thought the differential was going to drop. Any know why it does this hoping/bouncing when burning rubber?

i dont know why the bouncing happens, but both of the carrera my dad has had that ive driven (a 99 c2 cab and an 03 c4s coupe) had horrible rear axle hop

The wheelhop issue has been discussed in detail elsewhere on the forum. My solution was to install the Racing Beat rear swaybar. Even with the nitrous on the rear has no hop, squats nicely, and burns the tires through first and second gear. I eventually also installed the front bar and spring set. They all work together very nicely and all four tires break loose at the same time(very little/no understeer).

Charles

Do you compromise handling with the sway bay in the back? Will it make the car less effective in the snow? How much was the rear sway bar installed?

The handling actually improves with the RB rear bar, alone. I don't drive mine in the snow but I'll bet it doesn't change anything in that regard. The swaybar is very easy to install if you have wrenches, sockets, and allen wrenches. Go on Racing Beat's website to get the current price for the part.

Charles

Thanks Charles. This rear axle hop stuff is driving me nuts. It happens all the time on a strong launch.

You may be pleasantly surprised to find firmer rear control and NO wheelhop on aggressive launches. When I discovered the improvement with the rear upgrade, I made plans to install the front bar and spring set asap. The total package is pretty cool.

Charles

i can honestly say that they lied when they said 151 mph stock.....the short glances i took to see the top speed (cool day...empty straight road for miles...5 a.m) was 161 when i shut it down.... and it was 6th gear..not 5th. i don't wanna hear crap about it either.lol..i know it wasn't the smartest thing to do..but i also know about 90% of y'all do it too! lol ~OUT! ;)

How did you break all four tires loose on a launch? Have you installed AWD on your '8 when no one was looking? :D

Yeah, I have. That was the one surprise that was holding until Christmas for all of you. Just kidding. I meant that controlled, predictable, four-wheel slides around corners are possible with the Racing Beat suspension. I also meant to indicate that it is a much more confident set-up than the stock suspension. Sorry about the mis-statement.

The local police are on the hunt for traffic tickets. They have also posted those spee display devices to remind us that we are speeding. According to the two or three I have seen, my speedo indicates 2-3 mph higher than reality at 40. I wonder if that is linear or the same across the range.

Charles

Charles, I have a PDA GPS set up and I checked the speedometer several times at everything from 10 miles per hour to 90 miles an hour. Let me say that at least the speedo in my car is more accurate than my Passat and Santa Fe (both off by 7-8 miles per hour when going 75mph). The max I seen it go off was by 2-3 miles per hour @ 90mph. This GPS updates your speed, altitude, etc... every second so the sample rate proves to be very accurate and consistent over a 15 minute drtive.

I think you're OK unless you changed the size of your tires from stock. Maybe that's what the problem is. What kind of tires are on your car? Mine are the Bridgestone' s 225 45 18. So that is something to consider. Don't worry, I think your accurate and who knows, maybe the radar display they used was not tuned before they used it whereas a cop HAS TO tune his in his car before they use it otherwise the traffic violation could be thrown out of court (if you challenged the cop).

Quite intuitive of you to assume that I have received a ticket, myself. Actually, I do have a case against me in which it is more than likely that the radar reading wasn't even close to accurate. I just mentioned the speed/radar differential to lend what little proof I had to the telling of a story. I have retained an excellent attorney and I am sure that he will diminish my legal liability to the lowest extent possible by scrutinizing every claim made by the cop. I have the factory tires/wheels on my car but the rears are almost completely worn out. That's what nitrous testing will do to 'em!

Charles