RX8Sick

:D :D :D :D Yeah, I'm mighty ok with my performance. No complaints. I thought that thread was closed, why you bringing it up again. :D

typej

The most fun can be had when you eat Mc D. with fries while you are driving. Yummy~

Well put in to manual mode, rev upshift, rev upshift, rev upshift... there you go.. that was fun.

torbee

I'm still in the looking stage and test drove both an AT and an MT, and I'm sorry to say but there is a HUGE difference.

The AT felt very sluggish to me, whereas the MT you could really get zipping.

I drive an MT Volkswagen Passat now and will definitely insist on the MT in my new RX8.

StewC625

Ah, the auto trans positive affirmations thread.

Repeat after me:

My auto trans RX-8 is good enough,
it's fast enough,
and doggone it, people like it!

StewC625

Apparently this was a thread killer ... oops.

truemagellen

it was kinda mean Stew :p

therm8

bah doesn't bother me at all. I like it when the AT bashers come out. It shows their insecurities. :p

ayap888

Personally, I don't like racing anyone who has the same horsepower as my car. I want to race cars that only has 30-50 horsepower more than my car.

So it would be lame for me to race another RX8 auto. I only want to race drivers with faster cars. Like I want to race RX8 Manuals, Nissan Zs, etc. .... any good driver will tell you that winning any street race is more about timing. Street racing means roads have twist and turns, so straight line speed is only one factor.

I must say that I own the AT and love every bit of it. I've raced BMW M3s, Infinitis on the street ... and I can say that the RX8 is very maneuverable that I always win even if these other cars are rated faster 0-60. The DRIVER makes one helluva difference :D

BRealistic

How well do those paddle shift things work? Those are just like the + - on manu-matic floor shifters, right?

Mazda would be wise to develop a manual tranny without a manual clutch- a sequential manual gearbox. That would allow people to have auto tranny RX-8s (and other rotary vehicles) with the best performance, and also allow them to control the clutch engagement for the best performance without abuse.


On a side note- Is the RX-8 auto tranny that weak? I can't help but wonder how it would respond to something like a medium power supercharger. Auto trannies sap torque, so the boosted mid range would seem to make a better real world difference on auto RX-8s over just going for maximum horsepower at redline (a-la turbo). Actually, a properly designed supercharger could give a much meatier torque curve without really adding a significant amount of peak horsepower. That would be nice. Hmmm.




Oh, and while I can understand the poser image that auto tranny RX-8 drivers must contend with, the real question is "How much power do you really need on the street to have fun?" My blue 04 MT RX-8 is the fastest thing I have ever owned, and honeslty it is too fast. On more than one occasion I have joyfully accelerated through the gears, only to look at the speedo and see that I am going double the posted speed limit. *gasp* The stability control saved my **** friday, as I approached a very sharp corner faster that I realized I was traveling. :-/ The stability program did a great job.

But the handling part is all good. You can enjoy throwing this car into corners regardless of the tranny configuration.

The bad thing is that this car looks so fast. Even the manual tranny RX-8 gets a bit out of breath at high speed for the looks of this car.

therm8

The tranny is from the same family that was in the FD and various other Mazda vehicles over the past 10+ years. With it and the FD's being the only rwd variants, I'd bet it could easily handle stock FD power levels. It's just that no one goes after the AT Rx-8 market, even though a significant portion of 8's sold have been AT/ 4port. They assume, erroneously, that AT owners don't want performance. We just don't want a manual :D . Hymee is the first to come out and say that he's working on a 4port version of his supercharger, and if he comes through, he'll clean up because of it. That is, if Pettit or Richard Paul don't get there first (but they're like everyone else in that they "might" do a 4port version some time later).

Ike

If only these other cars knew they were racing, you're delusional.

BRealistic

Well, maybe the other cars were auto tranny models?


And maybe he was doing the 'ricer fly by'- where you keep accelerating even after the other car that is way ahead backs off, so you can pass them like you 'won'. ;-)


Interesting enough, there are a lot of people with fast cars that really don't know how to drive them. I had a friend in high school that only drove manual tranny vehicles. I had to threaten him with violence just to get him to downshift his car for better acceleration when going uphill (he lugged it in 5th all the time). And he was the valedictorian of my graduating class. (shows he was book smart, just not car smart)

StewC625

How can Stuart Smalley be mean? :D

Ayap888: You sure the other guy knew he was racing? Because "beating" an M3 just won't happen unless the other guy didn't know he was in the race or is just screwing with you ...

Not that we are supposed to talk about street racing and "kills" in this forum.

DreRX8

As far as the stock A/T tranny--since it is basically the same found in the FD its stout enough for boosting--My old FD was an Auto and I had modded it--it was a high 13s car when I was through. I did downpipe-intake alone and it was getting to 60 in the low 5 second range--On cool nights. Stock those were 0-60 in 5.8-6.0s and 1/4 low to mid 14s. Downpipe and intake is worth about 30Hp easy on those cars.

Tayninh

I get the "its too slow on take off" feeling now and then from red lights, but I still like the car enough to keep it that way. Its a Red AT with all the packages but NAV. Just had it in for the tank recall and they PM'd it and I think it takes off a little faster now. I like the mountain casual drives and its great on the corners. This past Sunday, a few sporty types enjoyed themselves passing the RX and then around the bend I noticed they were pulled over getting their ticket while I passed so smoothly. I accept that the rotary is not an off-line car and so what. At times I would enjoy a take off like a GTO and power. I did not buy it for spin outs but rather for a car that can last 200,000 miles plus. I know I saw someone comment last year that they owned both types and saw little difference in take-off. However, I would need to test drive a M and see if it really does.

DreRX8

I've driven both and ended up going with the A/T because I got a deal on one with 6,000 miles on it.

StewC625

It's a shame they made you AT guys compromise on HP. Even though the difference isn't great, I'm sure that handful of extra ponies would make a difference. At least they didn't make you compromise on the handling portion (at least in the Sport and GT models).

There are plenty of days when I'm grinding along in traffic clutching in and out, that I wish for a manny tranny.

Then I hit the open freeway and I promptly forget about that.

But, that's why they make two flavors - not everyone likes the same. Glad we have the choice.

Hope you guys realize I wasn't being mean ...

nzarnow

How did you get Mazda to buy it back? Was this because they said it had more HP than it really did?

Fsunoles06

you can always trade it in, which would still give you around 75% of the price you paid for it.

DreRX8

me personally I'm gonna hold onto my A/T--depending on what they do with the rotary down the line I'll eventually get into another one--or go Porsche.

tuj

I know there are some AT owners with valid reasons for having an AT. But for everyone who bought an AT because they didn't know how to drive a MT; you're missing out.

If you don't know how to drive an MT, and you want to really appreciate a sports car, you owe it to yourself to learn. Its a much more rewarding, involving driving experience. And no, the manual mode on an automatic doesn't count. It makes me sad to hear people say that they can't drive a stick, or that they never learned. Funny bit of trivia: in Europe, the majority of cars are MT, even rentals! They take their driving more seriously over there.

There's a reason that most sports cars are MT.

DreRX8

I agree tuj. I got my A/T for $ reasons but next time around its M/T or possibly smg/dsg type unit in whatever I buy next.

JeRKy 8 Owner

This society is getting lazier and lazier as the years go by. With cars, people are expecting more luxury and convenience and all that crap. I bet in 8 - 10 years time manual transmissions will be rare as hell. Don't quote me on that though.

Vertigo-1

iTrader: (3)

I'm just curious...what exactly are the reasons you feel the manual is a more "involving" driving experience? I'll give you the extra HP, 2 gears, 1800 extra RPMs and being able to do high RPM launches and burnouts , but beyond that, I think there's very little the AT concedes once in the manual mode as far as "involving" is concerned.

tuj

left foot activity
clutch engagement point
the feel of lauching a car
heel-toe shifting
the motion of gear selection in a patter, particularly an H
the ability to skip gears
the ability/requirement to rev-match yourself
the drop of the hand to quickly move the shifter
the feel and the vibration and force of the shifter as it moves through the linkage

Driving a sports car should be a tactile, involving action. The notion of the 'driving experience' differs from that of ultimate performance; face it: most of us are not actively racing our cars competitively, just enjoying the experience of the sports car. Yes I understand that a clutch, particularly a heavy or long-travel one, can be a painful burden in heavy creeping traffic. Yes I understand that it will make it more difficult to learn to left-foot brake. But I still want a car that is engaging.

Note: I did not say that driving a manual is more efficient, in the sense of racing, although on most convention AT cars it is. There are plenty of sequential manual, clutchless transmissions that are very good for racing, as well as there having been a few sucessful AT cars.