Mazda RX8

[Purple]

I am a little puzzled. I had thought the on-paper specs for RX8 was quite impressive.

But on 2 separate occasions, I managed to thrash the RX8 by quite a ridiculous margin up to 150kph. Both RX8 drivers were really trying as I could hear their rotaries "wheeeeeing" away, even from distance. Judging from past experience, I would say their straight-line performance was below a 1.6L VTEC Civic. It got really embarrassing for one of them when he tried to stay with me round a 270 slip-road. Suffice to say, RX8 can also cock its inner rear wheel - but not in a good way :-)

What gives? Anybody here driven an RX8 hard? Is their real world straight-line performance much worse than claimed specs?

[northy]

Never been next to a RX8 yet...but i know i get wasted by my mates RX7...lol

There are 2 versions mate. A 190bhp version and a 230bhp version.

If you easily beat it, i'd probably think it was the 190.

[Craig]

they also weigh 1350kg! even for the 230 version thats too heavy to be quick!

[Purple]

190bhp or 230bhp is decent poke, but 1350kg is far too heavy for a small sports car. I guess that's mystery solved. It's about as heavy as my old Legacy RS - and that's a family saloon, mind you. Plus, I think, the turbo lag and weak low-end torque wouldn't have helped. The last version RX7 was mighty quick but sadly the RX8 is just a pale shadow.

[KingStromba]

Plus the guy would clearly have been a hairdresser and as such, not able to drive for fear of breaking a nail.

[Mitchy]

Hey my car weighs 1370kg but still munches up the tarmac.

Scoobs/Evos/M3's all weigh in excess of 1350kg also.

[KingStromba]

I raced a Cupra R the other day actually and it was ok, fairly nippy. Suprised it hung on so long before disapearing in the rear view. Good effort.

[Mitchy]

hehe, you looking for me to dive in :wink:

[KingStromba]

Why what you driving these days? :wink:

[Purple]

Hey my car weighs 1370kg but still munches up the tarmac.
Scoobs/Evos/M3's all weigh in excess of 1350kg also.

Yes, my old '93 Legacy RS used to do really silly speeds as well. If memory serves me, it was re-plumbed to about 230 to 250bhp - weighing about 1.3 tons. A slug at low speed, but anything beyond 4k revs and it reels in the horizon quite rapidly. A demerit point killer though :-)

I had fully expected the RX8s to zoom by my Williams like the last model RX7 but nothing happened. It will be a great car if Mazda lightens the RX8 by 200kg or more and torque up the engine. Quite a few driven by marketing executive types here and quite rare to see them driven hard.

[KingStromba]

Is it just me or do RX8's look gay?