mmundt

I just bought my RX-8 about 5 weeks ago, and I had read in Road and Track that the car beeps
at 8500 RPM in order to remind one to shift. This is also echoed in the owner's manual. However,
I have pushed the RPM into the 8500-9000 range several times but have heard NO beep at all.
I generally only keep the RPMs at this level for a few seconds. Can anyone tell me if I should be hearing something as soon as the needle crosses the 8500-RPM line, or does one have to drive there for an extended period of time?

Also, does anyone have any feeling for any negative effects on the car due to rare and brief excursions into the red-line zone (just slightly above 9000 RPM)? Is this generally only a problem when done for extended periods of time?

Thanks in advance.

thew

do a search on this.. its a very quiet chime.. not a beep at all

mmundt

Thanks for the hint. I obviously should have done this first. I found the thread that discusses exactly this issue and it seems I'm not alone in wondering about this. I still don't see any real agreement on the RPM at which this happens. Some people said 8500 RPM, others said they didn't hear it until 9300 RPM! since those threads were posted almost a year ago, has there been any resolution on this?

nosubstitutec4s

you need to close your windows, turn off the a/c and blower and turn off the radio, and you should be able to hear it.

in fact, the rx8 is in its prime around 8500-9450 rpm, and if i had the car i would try as hard as i could (not very difficult to do) to keep it in its prime zone.

BillK

Of course if you do that, you will have to work really hard to break 10 MPG or so...

Zoomy

First off, the chime/beep isn't to reward you for reaching red line, its to let you know you've passed the peak of the performance curve. Most cars don't perform at maximum at the redline, they usually (this is regarding stock engines) get their best at around 1,000 rpms below redline.