Uh oh, you just set yourself up for a smartass remark by Ike.

 

Does Ike have any other type of response?

 

What do you mean?


So anyways, I once got smoked by an RX-8, I got him off the line but then he reeled me in pretty quickly and put several car lengths on me by the end of the 1/4 mile.

 

^
What the...damn, my computer must be glitching. I know I didn't just read that from Ike...

 

Yep! I'll bet he did for sure.

EDIT: Guess I should have read further down the page. LOL

 

Definition of slow: A 1985 escort with 1.5 liter / 1-barrel carb / slushbox.

That was my winter car in NoDak. Good snow car, all that mass meant if you got a good head of steam, you could plow through a good-sized snowdrift.

But it was slow. Painfully slow. I'd get beaten by old ladies in walkers at a stoplight.

Interestingly, my MGB was also slow, but it felt like a bike, and it felt like you were doing 120 (when in reality you were doing 65 with an alarming rattle coming from the waterpump..)

The 8 isn't slow. She's as fast in a straight line as a Ferreri 308/328, or a very early C4 Corvette. I can pass normal traffic in top gear with a tap of the gas. For "bend-light" passing, I just ditch 2 or 3 cogs and mash it. The trick is, you gotta know how to drive a lo-torque motor. That means, USE THAT GORGEOUS LIGHT-EFFORT, PRECISE GEARBOX! And use it lots. That's part of the fun, man! It's like driving a crotch-rocket with a 12,000 rpm 4-banger twincam! Always on the shifter, but what a rrrrush.

I guess people expect the 8 to behave like a muscle car. Natch, it behaves more like a small-bore V12. Drive it as such.

 

"DAMN THAT WAS SLOW..." That was the funniest thing I read today

There will always be somebody faster--my modded FD was an auto and it was faster than the S2000, 350Z (stick and auto), G35, and RX8 M/T that I all test drove. I ended up with an a/t RX8 because of the deal I got and while its slow off of the line--even I never had friends jump out saying "Damn dre--this sh*t is slow" because the RX8 auto and M/T really shine in the corners--when you take a 60degree turn at 60+mph and hear nary a squeel from the tires... the last thing you'll have a rider say is DAMN that was slow.

 

I honestly don't care what people think, nor am I too hung up on having a "fast" car (hell, I used to drive around in a four-banger Mitsubishi pick up truck and then had a very un-peppy Saturn SC2).

I just wanted clarification on what people mean by "slow" relative to other cars. I just thought it was weird, that driving the MT (which is what I ordered) it sure felt faster than my turbo VW - but perhaps that is only the perception the car gives due to its balance and handling.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I'm feeling much better about my purchase now.

I mean, I thought I remembered my test drive accurately, but it's been three months and all the reading I've done on here is messing with my mind, making me think I'm getting a fancier version of the '84 Escort 4-banger I used to drive in high school!

 

Don't forget it has been Car and Driver's pick for the sports car segment of their Ten Best for three years in a row!

I have had a WRX and an SRT-4 and the RX-8's handling blows them away!

 

Ill have to comment on the mustang.....someone in a supercharged mustang wouldnt say that...lol...my stang puts down 577rwhp .... no mistaking that my stang is faster then my 8...but my 8 is way funner to driver through the twisites...

 

I agree. When I was younger, I used to practically DIGEST 1/4 mile times- that was all there was when it came to judging a car. For the street, the RX-8 is plenty quick, and unless a car has some more endearing traits than going 1/2 second faster in the quarter, I'm not interested in the conversation. If it FEELS fast enough to satisfy you, leave it at that- no one from Car & Driver will be timing you.

 

one of the reasons the 8 may feel slow is the smoothness of power delivery. Most other cars have a noticeable jump in acceleration, either at low end (large engine) or on high end (VTEC). This jump gives the driver the sensation of the "rush" either when mashing the pedal after a shift (low end), or while you are waiting for the shift and the acceleration is building (high end). Without this sensation the actual feeling of acceleration can become uncalibrated over time, and many people mistake the smooth delivery for slowness. at least as far as everyday driving goes. Hope this makes sense.

 

Fact: Torque moves cars. Our Rx8's only have 187 foot pounds???( I could be wrong but it's in that neighborhood )

My old (2003) Mustang Cobra: 350 foot pounds. Now the cobra was about 600-700 lbs heavier than our rx-8's but you could still feel the PULL of the mustang.

I don't own a Mustang because i feel the new ones are a piece of SH*T, but it was MUCH faster in a straight line. The brakes were better too, but it didn't handle quite as well.....

Anyway, yes, the RX-8 is slow for a $35,000 dollar car (sticker for mine). 0-60 in 6.6 or something...

And the quarter mile in 15.3, i think my mom's buick does it in 16 sec.

But as you can tell Mazda didn't want to build a drag racer with this car, they wanted a well rounded car. Hence the rx8.

I do belive a Greedey Turbo would be a great addition to any rx8 but i can't afford one....

My 2 cents...

 

whao, i hope you got your flame suit on buddy. despite th fact that 6.6 is like a realistic real world number for 0-60 that a good driver will get. people might get offended by that number and want to correct you that the fastest mag time is 5.8 seconds which requires rediculous skills and a 6k rpm clutch drop that cant be good for the tranny and clutch, and it requires all the planets aligned.
its a perfectly human notion though, and its not just limited to rx8 owners. for example the fastest 1/4 mile time for a stock g35 coupe is 13.7s, and a lot of G35 owners loves to walk around bragging about that. while realistically they are doing mostly mid to low 14s if they are lucky. hehe.

 

AS has been stated before, slow is a relative term. I actually find that if the 8 is kept in the middle of the power band, it is plenty quick for street use. It really comes down to the sensation created by torque, that jolt that pushes you back into the seat, which is absent in the RX8, thus causing most people to think it is slow. Remember 0-60 in 6 seconds is actually a very good time, it is just that there are so many vehicles now that are under 6 seconds and even 5 seconds, but are they really applicable to the street and traffic encountered everyday?

 

Yes, slow is relative. Ask anyone with a sportbike and they'll say ALL cars are "slow" - anyone can walk into any dealership and buy any one of at least a dozen street legal motorcycles for about 11G's that can do a quarter in under 10 seconds with 150MPH traps...well beyond Ferrari Enzo territory.

Maybe I'm getting old, but the delivery of speed has become more important than just speed to me. I had a Miata that wasn't fast by any means, but it was a real pleasure to row through the gears and flick around. A different kind of pleasure than holding on to a bike for dear life, but just as much fun. And the best part? Usually I wasn't travelling at obscene speeds once caught in the crosshairs of a cops radar gun.

Cars or bikes, the greatest pleasure to me is the feeling of going fast in the corners. Often it takes some maturing to finally realize that a perfectly balanced and predictable chassis, light weight for that tossable feel, rear wheel drive, etc. is the way to go.

 

I completely agree... my old Miata was the most fun car I've owned (including the RX-8), with it's whopping 133hp and sub-100 ft/lbs of torque. And I never had a Mustang owner come up to me after whipping him at autocross and tell me my Miata was slow

 

Same here! But outside of autoX the Miata got no respect. People I knew, especially my biker buddies, would tease my about it (it was a 97 too). I never cared, but had to get rid of it once child #2 came along. Still my favorite of the dozen or so cars that I've owned, though the 8 ties it.

 

Oh Please People! In Its Class The Rx8 Is Slow! Don't Fool Yourselves Into Thinking It's Not. By You Guys Defenition All Cars Are Fast. Sure You Can Compare The 8 To A Yugo And It Will Be Fast Bu The Yugo Is Not In Its Class. Every Other Car In Its Class Is Faster. I Guess Handling Is Subjective Too?

 

Sorry dude, the 8 is in class by itself.

 

 

What IS the RX-8's class?

Exactly, that's where the RX-8 excels.

 

Talan, what class? The 4 door sportscar class? Have you taken it to a track event or even an autoX? If you define speed by a dragstrip, then you bought the wrong car. Otherwise, it not slow when measured by all criteria.

But you are entitled to your opinion, you are one of the few 8 owners that has gone on about it being "slow", soft suspension, poor build quality, etc. Sorry to hear its not working out for you.

 

The 8 is the slowest sports car I know on paper. In street use though, tenths of a second doesn't mean much to me (racing yes) coz most people around my area don't know how to drive fast. I still had not met anyone that can do a proper rev-match or heel toe (or even know about these techniques). Thus I'm able to smoke almost every idiot out there that tried to race me in their faster cars, I know its stupid to let them provoke me into a street race and I don't condone it but once in a while these idiots need to learn a lesson or two. I'm not a superb driver like I sound, just that most that I encountered knows only how to accelerate on the straight.