I was at Walgreens yesterday waiting for my brother to bring me jumper cables ( my 8 ate its 2nd battery in the past year and a half) and picked up a car magazine. I think it was Car and Driver. They pu some cars up against each other (miami mx-5,mustang gt500,audi R8,Zr1,CTS-V,jaguar XXR,bmw 135M..missing 3 more) Anyways the miata came in #3!!!!! at only 147hp. WOW. Pretty amazing but left me wondering why the RX8 wasnt used instead of the miami mx-5.

 

because people always look down Rx-8

 

Because everyone knows that the rotary sucks.

 

Its the 20th anniversary of the MX5, so it probably is getting more exposure than the rx8. I use to own a '08 mx5 gt. When I put lowering springs and tower brace in it, the handling was great. I could drive at 9/10s all the time without looking like I was racing.
It was a fun/basic sports car and having the top down in the evening was a pleasure. I miss it on those evenings.

 

RX-8 is a driver's car.

MX-5 is even more so.

 

rotaries are evil and strange and cant be put up against a piston

 

Don't forget slow.....
And a new engine every 10,000 miles....

It could be that Car and Driver just featured an RX-8 from a member of this very site and they gave props to the Mazda 3 in the same article so maybe they wanted to share the Mazda love.

 

I think this was already mentioned elsewhere. The MX-5 is almost as fast as the 8 anyways.

 

maybe because the 8 hasn't changed much in the last 8 years?

 

I missed out on the 2001 RX-8?

 

haha my bad, i was thinking that it was 2011 models that we're coming out...

sorry i guess it realiestically be that it hasn't changed in 6 years.

 

You guys are forgetting the RX8 has won numerous comparison tests. It won a Car & Driver shootout in 2007 with a Shelby GT Mustang, Audi TT, and Nissan 350Z. And it won a MotorTrend shootout in 2004 against a 350Z and Honda S2000. Just hasn't seen much press lately.

 

because it burns oil....and everyone knows that when cars burn oil they're junk

 

mx-5 almost as fast as an eight?? the thing makes 147hp unless it weighs a thousand pounds I doubt its "faster" than an 8. Either way props to Mazda I'm not hating.

 

My guess is theyre not a fan of the rotary.... the car is just too damn slow. No torque plain and simple.

 

A lot of people did. In fact, that's why C&D left the 8 out of that comparison test. They remembered the hard time they had finding an 8 back in '01, and didn't want to go through that again.

Ken

 

rx8 is about 700lbs more.

you also don't have to rev to 6k to launch it.

 

lol miatas are a great little car!!! props to it man. people need to stop comparing it to the 8 lol.

 

First, I'm a huge fan of the MX-5. I think it's the BEST car in its class, and probably for something like 12 years running now (maybe more).

In fact, I recently sat in a 2009, and the dash, seats, fit and finish and switchgear felt like they belonged in a roadster costing AT LEAST twice as much. I am amazed at the fit and finish, quality of the baseball glove type leather, and pure and crisp look of the gauges.

Having said that, the MX-5 is nowhere near as quick or fast as the 8, and being a purist type roadster, it has a ride that would be politely described as harsh if used as a daily driver.

It also has practically no trunk and no backseat, so practicality is nowhere to be found, but hey, that's what roadsters are about.

I love it, but it's not nearly as practical, and it's clearly not as fast, as the RX-8.

I don't make it a habit to street race, but when challenged by Mustang GTs, Nissan 350Zs, etc., they really don't create that much daylight between themselves and the 8 in a straight line despite gobs more torque, and on the freeway, the ability to rev and hang around 8-9rpm give a linear quality that keeps the 8 in the hunt.

I'm not saying the 8 is as fast as either, which I like both (I'm not crazy about the live rear axle of the Mustang GT, though, nor its dash, and I do not think the Z handles as well, and the wasn't impressed with the fit and finish on the admittedly not yet updated 08 I drove), but that 8 is not as slow as common populist hype seems to constantly indicate.

Besides, we always have the twisties, right?

 

so the conclusion of this thread is the rx-8 pwns mustangs and 350z in twisties...

 

In a straight line, sure, it's not. But who cares about the massive effort of holding the steering wheel straight while you hold your right foot to the floor. Maybe shift a time or two?

In auto-x it's faster than an 8, in KONI they are racing in the same class. dropping 600 to 900 pounds of weight (depending on trim choices and years between the two) does that.

 

I love my 8, but I drove it without having driven an MX-5 first. My little sister wanted to go car shopping and she loved the little '93 miata we found, and because she couldn't drive stick she made me drive it.

I smile all the time in my 8, but the miata is something special. It's just so ******* tiny, and with the top down you know where every corner of the car is implicitly - so much unlike a sports coupe with low-sing seats where the corners are always a sort of general 'zone' over that way. It really made driving it so obvious and direct... I just really wished that it would have had a rotary in it!

She didn't buy it, though... ended up in a 3 instead (and a manual at that!). Which has a nice high-revving four that is a lot more fun that the Corollas or Civics, so yeah, with any luck it'll have her liking fun cars for life.

 

how can you say the 8 is clearly faster then an MX5 and then turn around and say that a Mustang GT isn't all that faster then an 8 or its "negligible"?