Just read my Jan 08 issue of C&D with the 'best Sports Sedan?' story comparing the BMW 328i, Infinity G35, Cadillac CTS DI, and MB C300. They say the 328i is "simply the best sports sedan currently available for the price" with $38,000 being 'the price'.

That got me thinking ... they just did a "Four of a Kind" story in Jun07 w/the RX-8, Shelby GT, Nissan 350Z, and Audi TT 2.0T. Here 'the price' was $35,000 and, of course, the RX-8 ultimately won on 'fun factor' if not the numbers.

But how do the winners of each 'Shoot Out' compare I wondered? Here's a good match up comparing sport sedans to sport coups in similar price ranges.

I've been critical of late with so little substance happening on the rotary front, but I'll have to admit, when our 5 yr old performance is put up against BMW's 3 series winner here, we have little to be ashamed of, and a lot to be happy with.

Thanks to C&D for giving enough useable performance stats to allow such an indepth understanding of these two exceptional sports cars.

 

not too shabby. Do they have a part where they score each car? Is there a points system, that would be need to see side by side.

 

But Thats Not Fair They Did The Rx8 In Las Vegas, Where Here People Would Run 1/4 Mile Times 1/2 Sec Slower. Than Sea Level.

 

still not a bad 0-60 time for the 8. The 8 just needs to be launched at a high rpm to get better numbers.
I believe the fastest time I've ever seen was 5.9 and I believe that was a 6-7K clutch bomb

 

wow the 328i has REALLY bad fuel economy...I thought it would be much better than that...

 

That's reality...power=gas. And $8500 buys alot of gas for the 1mg dif to the 8!

 

hardly a comparison. A 328i is not a sports sedan despite its marketing spin from bavaria. The numbers do not really give you a good impression on each car's prowess and how much a sporting car the rx-8 over the 4dr sedan is. Try taking the 328i on a off-cambered decreasing radius turn and see how quickly the bimmer gets all unsorted. I don't see these two cars to be in the same class despite the rx-8 having rear seats and rear doors.
Similarly, the 8 does not have the cruising legs of the bimmer especially rear seat comfort too.

 

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First off, You are comparing a Luxury sport sedan vs A sports car! and the luxury car is better!!! If you look at the specs, the BMW is ALOT more quiet then the RX-8. 66db vs 74db!! That is a HUGE difference! RX-8 is slower, less comfrontable, has more road noise/louder, and the handling is almost the same.

BMW wins.

 

interesting as I own both a 07 328i coupe and a 06 RX-8, and the 8 feels much faster and much better handling than the 328.

so with that data, I would suspect that the RX-8 numbers are not done under the same conditions as the 328i numbers.

Of course it is also interesting that the weight they list for the 328 sedan is 150 lbs lighter than the 328i coupe??? which would make me question all the data.

 

First off, You are comparing a Luxury sport sedan vs A sports car! and the luxury car is better!!! If you look at the specs, the BMW is ALOT more quiet then the RX-8. 66db vs 74db!! That is a HUGE difference! RX-8 is slower, less comfrontable, has more road noise/louder, and the handling is almost the same.

BMW wins.[/QUOTE]

LIKE I SAID THE RX8 WAS TESTED HERE IN VEGAS WHERE EVERYTHING IS SLOWER.

 

For 1, I'm not comparing anything, these numbers I just copied from C&D, 2 all I said was the above (just delete the 'good' in your mind, if you don't think so!). C&D thought highly of both cars, both have good and bad points. They just won over some other cars, read the stories for details.

What we are talking two sporty cars, one costs 1/3 more than the 8, but the comparos price limit was close. Both of them won their comparo, that says they're both at least decent.

There's no BMW vs RX-8 winner going on here, there is simply a comparison of cars performance numbers I put together. I didn't say anything about a winner. But for arguement's sake, I'd hope $8500 got you something better in the BMW.

Shheeze, chill.... Or perhaps you forgot your meds tonite?

 

well i think something is wrong with the chart. the pounds to hp ratio is wrong. how does the 8 only have a ratio of 13.2 with 232 hp and the curb weight is 3060, but the 328i has a higher ratio with a higher weight, but lower hp

 

simple math, dig out your calculator ??? You know like more weight is more LBs per HP if the HP is the same???

 

The other thing it may show is ah hem... BMW horses are bigger than Mazda horses... ah hem.... but we already knew that.

 

ha, yea, bmw has horses, and we have ponies

 

Those numbers for the rx8 make no sense, 0-60 in 6.5 wtf? didn't car and driver give the time as 6.0 and motortrend as a 5.8 and 14.49 @ 95.47

 

dif places, dif weather, dif cars, dif drivers... why not try your own test & see what you get, JFTFOI

 

i though our weight distro was 50/50 .. at least the brochure says that

not that i trust this magazine but based on those numbers the 8 doesnt look too good .. except for lane change .. but as i've always said for the price no other car comes close .. and im sure we can find a few ppl here that paid half of what their friends paid for 328s

 

that's the one thing I'm really wondering... cause I know they say it's 50/50 but even if it was a little off I wouldnt have thought much but it does seem like quite a bit off...

 

That's not true...there are some cars out there that have pretty good power that are still good on gas.

WRX, S2000, 350Z they all make more power than the BMW and the RX8 but get better gas mileage. Hell even the Porsche GT3 and 911 Turbo makes much more power than any of the listed above cars and gets similar gas mileage (with the Turbo being rated with better mpg)

 

Part of the problem for the rotary is the driver. If you are not used to them and just jump into an RX-8 from a piston, than you may not get good performance numbers.

The RX-8 takes a bit to get used to the feel, to start to get good numbers.

The other part of the problem is Mazda and Mazdaspeed. Actually Mazdaspeed gets a big "F" for not taking on the RX-8.

However, with $8,500 dollars in your pocket you can FI the RX-8 and get another 100HP.

 

The 8 was green, not broken in. This is a far bigger issue with the rotary than a piston engine.

C&D tested an 8 long term before, and if I remember corectly they got a 6.8 new and a 5.9 0-60 at 40000 miles, same with the 1/4 than went to a 14.5 from a 15 sec.

By the way, I read that test and was surprised that they found the Infinity's NVH that harsh, particularly from the upgraded Nissan engine.

 

for the price difference that is pretty nice

 

LMAO that 62.9 mph vs 68.9 mph in the lane change category is considered "close". In real-world testing terms, that's what we'd call "an ***-whooping"! 6 MPH on the 235/45-18 tires that the RX-8 comes with is a huge difference in handling.

 

Something that seems to be universally overlooked in this follow on discussion... is that all cars are more than the sum of some performance numbers. In this case, each of these cars (RX-8, BMW) went up against some pretty significant but similar performing cars (sports coups and sports sedans respectively) and came out the most satisfing to the testers.... Not just the best spec in some test.

Of course they're different, and personally I like my sports car LOUDER Mikeluvs8, so in this case more dbs are better, esp considering how nice a rotary sounds.

No car is perfect, some come close. In these two, the BMW excels in acceleration, the 8 in handling. What's more interesting is their similarities and by that I mean how well the cars responded to the drivers while driving hard, and vice versa. And yah, 6 sec is HUGE!

You really have to read the comparos to find the subjective side and how it played out to produce these results.